Using Visual Methods in Careers Education and Guidance

This article describes how visual methods, particularly photography, can be used in the context of careers education and guidance. It begins by acknowledging that this context is undergoing rapid change given the policy agendas of lifelong learning and social inclusion. However, although these policy agendas continue to emphasize the importance of self-knowledge in managing career development, this represents an area of continuing difficulty in terms of curriculum design and delivery. In recognizing this dilemma the article suggests that visual methods can provide careers educators, guidance practitioners, and their clients with the means to engage 'self' in the processes of career learning and planning.     

The narrative approach in research and its use for policy advice

ABSTRACT

Recent developments in Europe show that policymakers acknowledge the role of qualitative research in evidence building. A number of qualitative research studies, including narrative inquiry, have been contracted out to gather information into selected policy issues. The management of career transitions and lifelong learning has become a focus of research and policy interest in many countries. Based on the findings of two Cedefop studies, which included the collection of narrative interviews among mid-career adults in several European countries, this article argues in favour of narrative inquiry as a tool to inform policymakers and influences policies, for example in the field of career guidance and counselling and lifelong learning. A selection of narratives is provided as an example to show how unique situated knowledge within the context of mid-career adults’ life is influenced by existing policies or implies that policies need to be changed. By providing snapshots of the findings from these two studies and exemplify their informative value for policy, the article advocates for the usefulness of narrative inquiry. The presentation of qualitative data humanises the commonly found statistical representations of individuals’ life circumstances and enables imagination and meaning making.     

Careers in dairy: adolescents perceptions and attitudes

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of Irish adolescents towards potential careers in dairy farming within the context of generational renewal for a dynamic agri-food sector.

Design/methodology/approach: The lens of occupational choice theory was used to present a framework within which potential careers are considered. A questionnaire-survey was undertaken with 490 Irish adolescents (15–18 yrs).

Findings: While parents have the greatest influence on the career choices of adolescents, there was a positive correlation between studying agricultural science in school and considering an agricultural related career. Adolescent's attitudes towards careers in dairy farming were subject to perceptions about gender, farm ownership, potential income and work-life balance. There was a high degree of openness to gaining work experience on dairy farms.

Practical implications: With an increased interest in agricultural science in second level schools in Ireland, the findings point to opportunities to influence awareness and attitudes of adolescents and their parents about career possibilities in dairy farming and to encourage both familial and non-familiar generational renewal.

Theoretical implications: The paper contributes an understanding of career choices and aspirations in adolescence to add to the growing body of literature on generational renewal in farming.

Originality/value: This paper focuses specifically on dairy farming, providing more detailed information about adolescents’ perceptions of dairy farming careers. The study highlights the positive relationship between studying agricultural science in school and subsequent interest in agricultural related careers. The results indicate that generation renewal in agriculture can be enhanced by giving increased attention to agriculture in school curricula.     

Second-career teachers: Perceptions and mission in their new careers

This article explores why middle-aged individuals in Spokane, Washington, USA, left successful careers and entered the field of education and reveals their perceptions of the field of teaching. After a number of years in occupations that were successful and well-respected and offered considerably more salary, these mid-life career transitioners started a new career that they considered a 'vocation.' Three separate interviews each were conducted with seven second-career teachers and the themes and perceptions of these individuals which emerged are presented. The themes and perceptions discussed in this article are: life-changing events which prompted the participants to change careers; the differences and similarities noted between past careers and teaching; the challenges faced by the second-career teachers (students and administrators); and the common personal mission of all participants. The article also offers insights on how administrators can help these second-career teachers fit into the field of education by understanding their unique needs and abilities.     

The journey through college of seven gifted females: Influences on their career related decisions

Using a multiple‐case study design, this research explored influences on choice of major and career related decisions of seven gifted female students from the end of high school through college over a five‐year period. Major findings suggested that academic preparation opportunities that could limit ability to achieve prominence in chosen careers by limiting access to academic programs and institutions were disappearing for females; future orientation that included dual career marriage and family expectations were consistently expressed over time, and changes in choice of major and institution, as well as career indecision were experienced. Career guidance interventions may have facilitated the career decision making efforts of these gifted females and deficits in career development may be a major barrier to career attainment for gifted females.     

Developing different identity trajectories: lessons from the Chinese teachers

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate how three Chinese teachers developed their teacher identities in a reform context. Drawing upon data from a larger social historical study, the work-life narratives of the three teachers at different stages of their careers were used as case studies to showcase three types of teacher identity development trajectories, namely, learning to be both professional educator and subject teaching expert，learning to be subject teaching expert, and navigating to balance between educator and subject teacher. This study also investigated the factors that influence identity development trajectories of teachers and develops a conceptual framework for understanding teacher identity development in China. The framework shows that Chinese teachers’ exertion of their individual agency is embedded in the institutional context. Meanwhile, interpersonal relationships can work as a buffer to alleviate the tension between the institution and individual teachers. The study also shows the ways in which Chinese teachers’ exert their agency when developing their identities. The findings have significant implications for teacher education in terms of how to develop positive teacher identity over the course of a teacher’s career.     

What will I be when I grow up? An analysis of childhood expectations and career outcomes

In this paper, we utilise the British National Child Development Study to explore the determinants of career expectations formed at the age of 16. We analyse the influence of careers advice and resources at school on career expectations as well as the influence of education. In addition, we explore the accuracy of occupational expectations as compared to the occupation that the respondents subsequently become employed in. Throughout our findings, human capital and gender play a pivotal role in explaining career expectations as well as explaining the accuracy of the occupational forecast. Interestingly, the level of school resources available for careers guidance in terms of the number of teachers who are qualified to give careers advice and the amount of specific careers guidance training received by these teachers both have relatively small effects upon career expectations.     

Measuring the Outcomes of Career Guidance

This paper considers the importance of contextual factors which impinge on career guidance activities and their outcomes. It then seeks to identify and clarify definitional and measurement issues, and considers the types of outcomes which are considered desirable and can be identified. Following a discussion of the types of outcomes which are commonly addressed, and the criteria attached to those outcomes, it assesses the various methods of measuring outcomes which are, or might be, employed. It next reviews the existing evidence on the outcomes from career guidance. Finally, the implications of the discussion for both policy and future research agendas are addressed.     

Regional lifelong learning policies and the social vulnerability of young adults in Girona and Vienna

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interface between lifelong learning policies and the definition of social vulnerability of young adults in two regions located within the European Union. Girona comprises a constellation of small towns with important industry, service and hospitality sectors. Vienna is a global city where many key international operators are based and employ a large number of highly qualified professionals. The article explores to what extent the meta-governance and the ‘causal narratives’ of lifelong learning policies contribute towards shaping the prevailing images of youth vulnerability in these regions. In Girona, bureaucratic governance patterns lifelong learning policies, which strongly rely on the potential of career guidance to encourage the youth to undertake further education. Correspondingly, policy designs and professional discourses emphasise that the beneficiaries previously failed at school. In Vienna, authorities govern lifelong learning by means of both bureaucracy and complex networks of employers and non-profit organisations. The ‘causal narrative’ of the policies straightforwardly claims that all youth must have an experience with employment, whether in apprenticeships or in transitional workshops that emulate real jobs. There, policies portray beneficiaries according to their capacity to undertake and finish apprenticeships.     

Rhetoric of the classroom: The exigencies of the technical writing class as topics for memos

The instructor and students in a technical writing class constitute a complex organizational unit with an array of interests, needs, values, and agendas. The need to negotiate and define both shared and conflicting goals and assumptions presents a richly problematical rhetorical situation. In this context, we can use the old standard organizational genre, the memo, in ways that are both rhetorically and pedagogically rich, helping students to write themselves—and their instructors—into a more vital, satisfying, and effective learning environment.     

Gendered transitions,career identities and possible selves: the case of engineering graduates

This article, drawing upon the Paired Peers project, a longitudinal qualitative study (n = 90), examines how seven UK engineering graduates, four women and three men, construct their career identities during the transitionary period from university to work. It explores how gender and the occupational cultures that reside within the sector, and the wider sociocultural context, affect women’s careers identities, choices and trajectories. The longitudinal design, characteristics of the cohort and the theoretical framework of possible selves contribute to the originality of this empirical research. In this paper, we show how female graduates gradually adapted their occupational aspirations and career identities to fit with socio-cultural expectations and how they struggled to construct viable ‘engineering’ selves in the vital career identity development phase of their first years of employment when most female STEM graduates change careers.     

Governing through guidance: an analysis of educational guidance practices in an Italian lower secondary school

ABSTRACT

Current social policy discourse defines educational and career guidance as a key tool to enhance individual self-realisation while pursuing collective social objectives (economic growth, reduction of drop-out rate, social inclusion). Relying on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, critical research has long destabilised this mainstream narrative by stressing that guidance polices constitute a technology of government through which the political ambition to govern is realised by shaping citizens’ desires and ambitions. This article aims to provide an in-depth empirical analysis of how governing practices unfold within a concrete guidance setting. Based on ethnographic data, the essay focuses on guidance practices addressing 13–14-year-old students in Italy moving from comprehensive education to a tracked educational level. Particular emphasis is given to the role played by guidance forms, questionnaires and exercises. These materials, it is argued, enable particular technologies of the self that are key to involving individual in practices of self-government.     

The PhD – is it out of alignment?

ABSTRACT

Globally there is recognition that doctoral programmes need to offer the opportunity for career pathways beyond academia, as PhD graduates are entering a range of careers. Consequently, some doctoral programmes now provide opportunities to develop a broader skill set. However, most PhD programmes in the United Kingdom and Australasia still concentrate on disciplinary knowledge and developing research skills. Moreover, the assessment has remained narrowly focused on a written thesis and an oral examination. Here we apply the notion of ‘constructive alignment’ to doctoral education and find that, even in terms of preparing PhD graduates for academic and research careers, the curriculum lacks opportunities to develop and assess relevant skills. The situation is even more extreme for wider careers beyond academia. To achieve alignment, we suggest providing more structured learning opportunities and personalised professional development plans with formative portfolios. If wanting true alignment in the PhD, a portfolio would be the summative assessment, but this is likely a step too far for a conservative academy.     

‘If you’re wrong for the place you just don’t survive’: examining the work of early career teachers in context

ABSTRACT

This article presents evidence from across the segregated secondary school system in NSW, Australia, through the close analysis of three cases of teachers’ work in contrasting schooling contexts. Through this comparative approach, the relationship between school context and the work of the early career teacher is foregrounded, troubling views of teaching as reflecting a certain kind of life cycle in which early career teachers in particular are seen to be subject to pressures such as stress and burnout. In contrast, I argue that specificities of context, exacerbated by a market-based policy approach which has driven greater levels of differentiation between schools, have particular consequences for teachers, both in the nature and scale of the challenges with which they are faced. In demonstrating how teachers’ work is affected by context, I also speak back against recent, often ill-defined discourses of ‘classroom readiness’ and ‘teacher quality’, which emphasise the roles of teachers and teacher educators rather the systems within which they work.     

International mobility and cultural perceptions among senior teacher educators in Israel: ‘I have learned to suspend judgment’

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to explore the motives underpinning career mobility, and the impact of such mobility on changing the perceptions of senior teacher educators from Israel who have experienced cross-cultural professional transitions during the mid-career stage (hereafter referred to as ‘internationally oriented teacher educators’). A thematic analysis of five interviewees’ retrospective narratives highlighted three motives driving career mobility: the opportunity for professional development; the joy of adventure and challenge; and the need to bring about a fundamental change in their careers. In addition, two categories of changes in perceptions that occurred following international mobility were mapped: (a) pluralistic perceptions in a multicultural higher education environment, and (b) culture of learning among the younger generation. The discussion raises similarities and differences between the findings and the literature on career mobility in higher education.     

The development of the Teachers’ Attitudes toward Career Learning Index (TACLI)

Teachers play an important role supporting young people to form their career identities and to make successful transitions into further learning and work. In England, there has been limited research that has looked specifically at the role of teachers and none of which has tried to establish a measure of teacher attitude toward careers work. This article details the development of the Teachers’ Attitudes toward Career Learning Index, which was created to measure attitudes and engagement in career learning on teachers in England. The instrument went through a survey design process which included content validity and construct validity components. The process identified five underlying factors in teachers’ attitude and engagement in careers work: (1) career learning and support practices, (2) school career strategy attitudes, (3) subject career learning attitudes, (4) career support attitudes, and (5) school career strategy practices. This process helped refined initial theoretical constructs regarding teachers’ roles in careers learning.     

Adult education and social planning

ABSTRACT

This article examines the participation of ‘third-sector’ organisations in public education in England. These organisations act as a cross-sectoral policy network made up of new kinds of policy experts: mediators and brokers with entrepreneurial careers in ideas. They have sought to make education reform thinkable, intelligible and practicable in terms of a computational discourse consisting of code, networks, interactivity and feedback, and related ideas of decentralisation, open methods and personalisation. What characterises this style of thinking is an ‘anti-political’ preoccupation with computer-coded systems and the idea of networks as a model for new political and educational forms.     

Barriers experienced by male office management students in a traditionally nonmale environment: a comparative study

Abstract

Males are still underrepresented in the office management environment and this article pertains to the tendency to discriminate against men students studying towards administrative and office-related qualifications. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the perceptions (regarding various barriers in executing their studies) of male office management students in a female-dominated occupational career choice have changed since 2002 and to determine the level and quality of guidance received on entering this field. The study encompassed a literature review and empirical surveys (2002 and 2010) which were conducted by means of structured questionnaires. Although there was an overall increase in male office management student numbers, gender discrimination undoubtedly, as well as ineffective or no career guidance still had a negative effect on these individuals and their career choices. Educators and career guidance officers should take every possible measure to reduce all gender segregation and become more sensitive to and actually provide career guidance to students planning to make career choices.     

The development of strong career learning environments: the project ‘Career Orientation and Guidance’ in Dutch vocational education

Schools are increasingly acknowledging their responsibility to guide students in their career development. However, the guidance that is provided in the Netherlands, as well as in other Western countries, focuses for the most part on helping students towards their academic achievement, and not on helping them to develop competencies to manage their own career. In order to promote this type of career guidance, 37 secondary vocational schools in the Netherlands participated in a project that offered a training programme, aiming to teach teachers how to conduct career dialogues with students. The programme offers expert guidance to integrate a dialogical approach to career guidance and a more enquiry- and practice-based curriculum in the school’s vision and policy. In this article, the results of semi-structured interviews with 50 teachers who participated in the project are presented. These interviews were conducted right after the start of the project, to study how teachers perceive the initial situation regarding career development in their schools, as well as their perception of the initiated plans and ambitions for development, both in their own learning environment and the learning environment of their students.