Subordinating careers to market forces? A critical analysis of European career guidance policy

This study explores language regarding career and career development in European policy documents on career guidance in order to disclose underlying view(s) of these phenomena conveyed in the texts. Qualitative content analysis was used to approach the subject in the texts, followed by a sender-oriented interpretation. Sources for interpretation include several sociological and pedagogical approaches based upon social constructionism. These provide a framework for understanding how different views of career phenomena arise. The characterization of career phenomena in the documents falls into four categories: contextual change, environment-person correspondence, competence mobility, and empowerment. An economic perspective on career dominates, followed by learning and political science perspectives. Policy formulations convey contradictory messages and a form of career \u27contract\u27 that appears to subordinate individuals\u27 careers to global capitalism, while attributing sole responsibility for career to individuals. (DIPF/Orig.

Zmiany demograficzne i potrzeba umożliwienia rozwoju „późnej kariery” zawodowej

This study explores previous research about extended working lives and later careers, as consequences of demographic changes alongside with a changing working life. Issues and themes visible in recent research on midlife and older adults’ careers opportunities are explored. A traditional literature review is conducted, in which peer reviewed articles on midlife and older adults’ careers issues and opportunities in an extended and changing working life are localized and downloaded as material for this study. This paper presents an analysis of empirical material downloaded from the Academic Search Elite database. The process of locating material from databases resulted in 141 articles selected for a deeper screening. Among these, 63 were finally selected as empirical material for analysis. Initially, the content of each article was identified, mapped, coded and categorized with content analysis as the basic method. The codes and categories with same or similar content were then brought together, and resulted in five overall themes: the need for all-age-career guidance services, career issues among certain professions, immigrants’ career paths, later careers and factors of well-being, and longitudinal correlations between early life conditions and late career. These themes are then discussed in terms of perspectives and interests that seem to dominate, and possible gaps and challenges for future research are also discussed.Niniejszy artykuł dotyczy analizy materiałów, w których opisano różne przeprowadzone badania nad wydłużonym okresem życia zawodowego oraz „późnymi karierami” jako konsekwencjami zmian demograficznych oraz zmian stylu życia zawodowego. Przedstawione zostały tematy, zagadnienia i badania dotyczące możliwości rozwoju kariery osób w średniej i późnej dorosłości, opublikowane w ostatnich latach. W artykule przedstawiono analizę materiału empirycznego pobranego z bazy danych Academic Search Elite. Proces pozyskiwania materiału do analizy przebiegał następująco: najpierw z bazy danych wybrano 141 artykułów, z których do ostatecznej analizy wykorzystano 63 artykuły. W pierwszym etapie treść każdego artykułu była identyfikowana, mapowana, kodowana i klasyfikowana jako analiza treści, która stanowiła podstawową metodę. Kody i kategorie, z taką samą lub podobną treścią, zostały połączone i wyłoniono pięć ogólnych zagadnień: potrzeba poradnictwa kariery dla osób w każdym wieku, zagadnienie kariery dla niektórych zawodów, ścieżki kariery imigrantów, późne kariery, czynniki jakości życia, podłużne korelacje między warunkami wcześniejszego etapu życia a późną karierą. Powyższe zagadnienia omawiane są pod kątem perspektyw i zainteresowań, które wydają się dominować. Pokazane są także luki i wyzwania dla prowadzenia dalszych badań w przyszłości

Social representations of career and career guidance in the changing world of working life

This thesis explores the meaning of career as a phenomenon and its implication for career guidance. In 1996, career as a phenomenon was more or less considered to be an obsolete or even extinct phenomenon. Since then, career guidance has received increased attention along with the increased interest in lifelong learning strategies. This thesis is motivated by the paradoxical message of career as an extinct yet living phenomenon. Career is outlined as a bridging issue that involves several contexts and is characterized by a number of dominating discourses in tension with one another. Two educational fields linked by career are of particular interest: the field of education and training in working life and the educational field of career guidance counselling. This thesis explores the meaning of career among a triad of various interested parties in this time of transition in the world of working life, and it explores the sense in which such understanding(s) of career influence policies and practices of career guidance. The thesis is based upon four separate studies. The first study explores, in order to disclose underlying views on career, how the language of European policy documents on career guidance characterize career and career development. Qualitative content analysis is used as the basic method to approach the subject in the texts, with an inductive development of categories. The analysis then conducts a sender-oriented interpretation, based upon a textual model for analyzing documents. The results revealed that underlying perspective on career in the documents derive from economic perspective, learning perspective and political science perspective, and communicate career as subordinated to market forces. The second study pays attention to the receiving side of the ideational message, disclosed in the first study. The second study extends the analysis of the first study with an exploration of ethical declaration documents for the profession. The exploration focuses on significant key principles, the profession's role and mission, and significant changes between the initial and the revised ethical declaration. Similarities and differences were compared, combined with the first study’s results as an interpretive frame for analyzing what consequences and significance the core meaning of career at structural level will have for career guidance practice. The results revealed an implicit shift of emphasis in the career guidance mission, which creates uncertainty regarding on behalf of whom the guidance counsellor is working. The third study explores common-sense knowledge of career, among a group of people influenced by changing conditions in working life. This study explores what social representations people have about career. The study also explores how people's anchored thoughts reflect scientifically shaped thoughts, and how they relate to thoughts currently dominating on structural level. Results disclose how the group explored has stable social representations of career that are anchored in the past, in previous working life conditions, and that contrasts with perspectives dominating in the structural context. The group also has dynamic representations, which provide space for negotiation of the meaning of career. The fourth study explores guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of careertherein. Results generated four social representations expressed in argumentative pairs of opposites. The first pair is concerned with their professional mission and reveal their professional identity. The second is concerned with career. Their view on their mission and their professional identity is in sharp contrast with how they experience others' interpretation of their mission, as being a matching practice on behalf of the business sector. Guidance counsellors reject the general view of career among others' and they regard career in the context of guidance as something other than the common view. At the same time guidance counsellors reveal difficulties in really clarifying the meaning they ascribe to career. The empirical findings of each of the four studies are finally interpreted as a whole in the final section of this thesis. With support from social representations theory, the empirical findings illuminate the sources as bearers of social representations of career, which both meet and clash

Subordinating careers to market forces? A critical analysis of European career guidance policy

This study explores language regarding career and career development in European policy documents on career guidance in order to disclose underlying view(s) of these phenomena conveyed in the texts. Qualitative content analysis was used to approach the subject in the texts, followed by a sender-oriented interpretation. Sources for interpretation include several sociological and pedagogical approaches based upon social constructionism. These provide a framework for understanding how different views of career phenomena arise. The characterization of career phenomena in the documents falls into four categories: contextual change, environment-person correspondence, competence mobility, and empowerment. An economic perspective on career dominates, followed by learning and political science perspectives. Policy formulations convey contradictory messages and a form of career 'contract' that appears to subordinate individuals' careers to global capitalism, while attributing sole responsibility for career to individuals

The uneasy relationship to career : Guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of career

This exploration of guidance counsellors’ social representations of their mission and of career generates two pairs of opposing social representations. The first pair—impartial educational support on behalf of the individual and a practice of matching on behalf of the business sector—concerns their mission. Constitutive elements of these refer to their professional identity and, in contrast, to surrounding actors’ misinterpretation of their mission. The second pair—the common view of career as something bad and career in the context of guidance as something other the common view—concerns career. Guidance counsellors express an uneasy relationship to career and implicitly view it as internal personal growth

The uneasy relationship to career : Guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of career

This exploration of guidance counsellors’ social representations of their mission and of career generates two pairs of opposing social representations. The first pair—impartial educational support on behalf of the individual and a practice of matching on behalf of the business sector—concerns their mission. Constitutive elements of these refer to their professional identity and, in contrast, to surrounding actors’ misinterpretation of their mission. The second pair—the common view of career as something bad and career in the context of guidance as something other the common view—concerns career. Guidance counsellors express an uneasy relationship to career and implicitly view it as internal personal growth

The uneasy relationship to career : Guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of career

This exploration of guidance counsellors’ social representations of their mission and of career generates two pairs of opposing social representations. The first pair—impartial educational support on behalf of the individual and a practice of matching on behalf of the business sector—concerns their mission. Constitutive elements of these refer to their professional identity and, in contrast, to surrounding actors’ misinterpretation of their mission. The second pair—the common view of career as something bad and career in the context of guidance as something other the common view—concerns career. Guidance counsellors express an uneasy relationship to career and implicitly view it as internal personal growth

Teachers leading teachers : understanding middle-leaders’ role and thoughts about career in the context of a changed division of labour

This longitudinal study aims to create in-depth knowledge about the phenomena of middle-leadership and career in school by identifying (1) driving forces for seeking and maintaining middle-leading positions, (2) opportunities and difficulties in maintaining the middle-leading role over time, and (3) underlying thoughts of career disclosed in the respondents’ expressions. Five different reasons for seeking middle-leading positions are identified and driving forces for maintaining the position are categorised as either internal reward/non-observable outcomes or external reward/observable outcomes. Furthermore, the results show that different types of difficulties arise in distinct phases and that middle-leaders’ needs for support therefore vary over time. Additionally, the complexity of teachers’/middle-leaders’ career thinking clearly emerges, and implications for practice are discussed.Special issue: Understanding Middle Leadership: Practices and Policies. Guest Editors: Peter Grootenboer, Christine Edwards-Groves and Karin Rönnerman</p

Zarządzanie rozwojem profesjonalnym i uczenie się nauczycieli w kontekście nowej pozycji zawodowej

In 2013, the Swedish government introduced a career reform for teachers (SFS 2013, p. 70) that established two new career-track positions, namely, lead teachers and senior subject teachers. This study analyses the process of integrating this career reform into the Swedish school system in its early stage and focuses on lead teachers’ professional development and learning when trying to interpret and translate this new career position in their daily working life. The study explored teacher´s ideas, strategies and actions to govern themselves in relation to the demands for research and proven experience within the career reform, as well as their underlying views of career. For the empirical data collection, we interviewed twelve lead teachers. The analysis of the data generated four different governmentalities that these teachers used to govern themselves when trying to handle the career reform in their practices: the school developer, the process manager, the subject specialist and the involuntary careerist. Teachers relate their rationalities to different career discourses where organizational, individual and professional discourses are prominent to various degrees. Furthermore, underlying representations of career relate to both hierarchical views, and to a perspective of exchange. In addition, two new representations of career emerged: career as a non-hierarchical or equal level position, and career as a sorting tool. The results indicate that lead teachers have found themselves caught in tensions between multifaceted meanings of career, research-based education, and personal and organizational pressures associated with the intentions of the career reform.W 2013 r. szwedzki rząd wprowadził reformę ścieżki rozwoju zawodowego dla nauczycieli (SFS 2013, s. 70), która ustanowiła dwa nowe stanowiska, mianowicie nauczycieli wiodących i doświadczonych nauczycieli przedmiotowych. Badania, których wyniki prezentuje niniejszy artykuł, analizowały proces wprowadzania tej reformy do szwedzkiego systemu oświatowego na wczesnym etapie, koncentrowały się na rozwoju zawodowym i uczeniu się nauczycieli, próbujących jednocześnie zinterpretować i wprowadzić nowe stanowisko do codziennego życia zawodowego. Zbadano postrzeganie kariery zawodowej przez nauczycieli, a także ich pomysły, strategie i działania związane z radzeniem sobie z wymaganiami nowej reformy dotyczącymi pracy badawczej i udokumentowanego doświadczenia zawodowego. W celu zebrania danych empirycznych przeprowadzone zostały wywiady z dwunastoma nauczycielami wiodącymi. Analiza danych wygenerowała cztery różne rządomyślności stosowane przez nauczycieli, próbujących poradzić sobie w swojej praktyce z reformą zawodową: deweloper szkoły, kierownik procesu, specjalista przedmiotowy i mimowolny karierowicz. Badanie wykazało, że nauczyciele odnoszą swoją racjonalność do dyskursów zawodowych, w których w różnym stopniu istotne są dyskursy organizacyjne, indywidualne i profesjonalne. Ponadto podstawowe reprezentacje kariery dotyczą zarówno poglądów hierarchicznych, jak i perspektywy wymiany. Dodatkowo pojawiły się dwie nowe reprezentacje kariery: kariera jako pozycja niehierarchiczna lub równa i kariera jako narzędzie podziału. Wyniki wskazują, że nauczyciele wiodący znaleźli się między wielowymiarowymi znaczeniami kariery a edukacją opartą na badaniach oraz presją osobistą i organizacyjną związaną z założeniami reformy rozwoju zawodowego