Changing the approach to career counselling in a disadvantages context : a case study

• Published in: Australian journal of career development Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 62 - 70
• Main Authors: J. Maree, J. M. Molepo
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 01-09-2007
• Subjects: Career choice; Career counselling; Career development; Case studies; Disadvantaged; Secondary school students; South Africa
• ISSN: 1038-4162; 2200-6974
• DOI: 10.1177/103841620701600312

The project described here addresses the need to cross the divide between a status quo of no assessment in South African schools and the exclusive use of tests by psychologists in this context, and provides researchers with much-needed information to empower teachers in schools to offer viable career counselling to learners. The research aims to identify appropriate assessment instruments for career counselling in a diverse context. The authors also aim to facilitate teachers' understanding and acquisition of a postmodern, narrative approach to career counselling to enable South Africa to benefit from such research conducted throughout the world. The authors carried out their research from 2003 to 2006 on ways in which to propose innovative career-counselling methods. In this article, they focus primarily on research conducted on disadvantaged populations. They worked with 1,200 learners in Years 9 and 11 in 13 schools in four South African provinces (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West). They gathered background data on the learners and visited the schools once every two months for two years. Learners were requested to start writing their life stories and to reflect on their experiences during the first few sessions. The verbatim excerpts are presented arranged and grouped thematically. The results of the project suggest that a postmodern career construction approach may indeed yield more satisfactory results than the traditional approach. Seemingly, local contexts can be accessed in such a way as to accommodate and reflect on intervention-based career construction theoretical underpinnings.