Strengthening Career Guidance for New Jersey High School Students

This report is based on the findings of a conference held in October 2003 by the Heldrich Center and the State of New Jersey. The report includes the highlights of major speeches by Heldrich Center director Van Horn, Labor Commissioner Kroll, and Education Commissioner Librera, and of breakout discussions that included educators, counselors, business people, and researchers. The report highlights well-documented recommendations regarding improvements in career guidance, education, and awareness in the public schools, and in how local alliances and partnerships can play a major role in preparing students for a dynamic workforce. Includes findings of Heldrich Center-Fund for New Jersey survey of high school students regarding careers and preparation for college

Transforming the Educational Experience of Young Men of Color

The first of a four-volume series on the role of school counseling in the education of young men of color, this report includes short essays, student-produced artwork, and an interview on the topic

Reimagining career guidance: towards a pluralistic perspective

Difficulties concerning the identified mis-match between supply and demand sides of the labour market are discussed. The variability of career guidance services for young people across Europe is illustrated together with policy initiatives in some cases leading to problems of professional identity and limited support to clients of the service. The risks associated with a monoculture of ‘one size fits all’ approach to guidance practice are discussed. The principles of pluralistic approaches to counselling are discussed with the suggestion that this might prove to be a fertile way forward for career guidance practice

Integrating Mindfulness into the Training of Helping Professionals

Mindfulness refers to the purposeful and nonjudgmental focus on internal and external experiences in the present moment. Extensive research in the fields of psychology, medicine, and counseling has explored the use and benefits of mindfulness-based practice in general. Such research has determined that mindfulness enhances skill development and counselor preparation within the human service professions. Therapeutic and educational settings have thus increasingly embraced mindfulness practices. This exploratory paper posits that the study and practice of mindfulness can be beneficial for both faculty and graduate students in the fields of Mental Health, School Counseling, and School Psychology. The aims of this paper are three-fold: 1. Review the literature on mindfulness-based practices across these disciplines; 2. Assess the benefits of mindfulness and how it aligns with the professional missions; and 3. Outline the contours of a curriculum designed and implemented by the co-authors to educate and train future counselors and school psychologists in mindfulness practices

Career, family, and workforce mobility: an interdisciplinary conversation

The purpose of this article is to synthesize conceptual and empirical work from the fields of both sociology and career development to explore how issues of career, family, and workforce mobility are necessarily interrelated. The use of work from sociology and career development demonstrates that the complexities of family solutions to career mobility undo the apparent simplicity of delivering a worker to a new worksite. Although organizations and governments work to develop policies that incentivize mobility, including transport infrastructure, housing, employment conditions, and tax incentives, these will not necessarily address the private concerns and priorities of families. This article argues for an interdisciplinary approach to better understand the intersubjective complexities implicated in the growing phenomenon and expectation of worker mobility and suggests both areas and design strategies for further research

Career development, management, and planning from the vocational psychology perspective

This chapter is a consideration of career development, planning, and management from the perspective of vocational psychology. Before describing career development, management, and planning, the chapter begins with a brief overview of the discipline of vocational psychology, highlighting recent trends toward its redefinition. This is followed by a description of the significant constructs and theories of vocational psychology, along with the paradigms under which they are subsumed. In concluding, there is reiteration of a call for paradigmatic diversity in theory, research, and practice

The ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social Justice Advocacy Framework for Professional School Counselors

The recent endorsement of the advocacy competencies by the American Counseling Association signals their relevance to the school counseling profession. This article outlines the importance of being a social change agent, the value of advocacy in K-12 schools, and how school counselors can use the advocacy competencies as a framework for promoting access and equity for all students. Implications for professional school counselors and school counselor educators in using the advocacy competencies are also addressed

"Low-Income Students of Color in the U.S. Neoliberal Public Education System: An Examination of Federal and State Intervention Policies”

In this thesis I will use a critical policy analysis approach to examine US education reform and its effects on social inequality. I situate my analysis within the rise of neoliberal ideology which prioritizes market-driven values, champions individualism, diminishes social responsibility, and promotes deregulation. I seek to answer research questions such as: how does the United States’ neoliberal agenda create, maintain, and reproduce the marginalization of low-income students of color? How is the neoliberal agenda embedded in US education policy and law at state and federal levels? And, how might students of color conceptualize themselves within the larger framework of neoliberalism? As evidence I draw on theory, policy analysis, and existing empirical data on one of the most underperforming public schools in San Diego, California, with most of the students being minorities and low-income: Abraham Lincoln High School

Promoting Partnerships for Student Success: Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative

The Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative aimed to increase the success of young, low-income, and academically underprepared California community college students by helping colleges strengthen their support services and better integrate these services with academic instruction. This report describes what the nine participating community colleges did to meet the goals of SSPIRE and offers lessons for other institutions drawn from MDRC's research on the initiative