From Circumscription to Compromise: A Socio-Cognitive Review of Career Aspirations among Tribal Youth in Northeast India

Career aspirations among tribal youth cannot be understood solely as individual preferences or personal ambitions. They are shaped by the social, cultural, educational, institutional and economic conditions through which young people imagine, evaluate, narrow and revise future possibilities. This paper presents a concept-led integrative review of literature on career aspirations among tribal youth in Northeast India through the combined lens of Gottfredson's theory of circumscription and compromise and Social Cognitive Career Theory. Drawing on theoretical, empirical, review-based and policy-oriented literature, the review examines how family and community contexts, gender norms, educational access, career guidance, labour-market exposure, self-efficacy, outcome expectations and perceived barriers influence aspiration formation and career decision-making. The paper argues that aspirations are socially situated and socio-cognitively mediated processes shaped by both agency and constraint. It advances two analytical ideas. First, bounded career imagination explains how limited exposure, weak guidance, restricted role models, uneven institutional access and uncertain labour-market information may narrow the careers students perceive as visible, legitimate and attainable. Second, the paper distinguishes adaptive compromise, where students revise goals through informed planning, from constrained compromise, where aspirations are lowered, delayed or redirected because of structural or institutional barriers. The review suggests that expanding career horizons may require culturally responsive counselling, stronger school-to-work information systems, credible vocational and higher-education pathways, improved labour-market awareness and regionally grounded policy interventions that connect aspiration with locally accessible educational routes and support systems in practice and policy.

Career aspirations, Tribal youth, Northeast India, Bounded career imagination, Social Cognitive Career Theory

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