Bill Law

Community interaction: A ‘mid-range’ focus for theories of career development in young adults

Abstract Thinking about career development changes not only in response to the discovery of new empirical evidence but also in response to prevailing social climates. In contemporary Britain both the evidence and the social climate are pointing to yet new formulations of career-development theory in terms which accord overriding importance neither to the explanations offered by the sociologist nor to those offered by the psychologist. Some of this evidence is examined, and a theoretical formulation is attached to it. The implications are that guidance practitioners should see themselves both as applied psychologists and as applied sociologists.

New perspectives on career and identity in the contemporary world

For much of the 20th century, career and identity have been intimately interwoven: to know about work has been to know about the self. But meanings for both are differently constructed at different times in different discourses.This article re-examines the meaning of the concept of identity under late modern conditions. It draws on discourses ranging from neuro-physiology to autobiography. The primary purpose of the piece is to set up some signposts for alignment of the careers-work field to the demands of our time. In particular, the article concludes that much of policy-directed development in this field takes too little account of emerging and significant relationships between career and identity.

Career-learning space: New-dots thinking for careers education

Abstract For more than 20 years, both careers education and guidance have drawn much of their rationale from the DOTS analysis which analyses practice for coverage of decision learning (D), opportunity awareness (O), transition learning (T), and self awareness (S). Its assumptions are rooted in theory, unifying the aims of careers education and careers guidance as enabling choice. More recent theory and practice engage a wider range of thinking: they acknowledge the complexity of contemporary career planning, and accommodate interactions which occur in the social and community life of the ‘choosing person’. The practical implications are for more progressive career learning, in conditions which enable ‘due process’ to establish viable bases for both choice and change of mind. This thinking more sharply differentiates careers education from guidance, setting out a strong rationale for the former. It does not replace DOTS, but extends it into a new-DOTS re-conceptualisation termed ‘career-learning space’. T...

System orientation: a dilemma for the role conceptualisation of ‘counsellors’ in schools

Abstract A survey of the American and British literature on counselling is used to elaborate an hypothesis concerning the importance in the minds of counsellors of the organisational as well as the interpersonal relationships they make. The hypothesis is tested and confirmed by a questionnaire enquiry to counsellors, pastoral care staff, guidance staff and others in British secondary schools. It leads to an elaboration in organisational terms of the notion of ‘directiveness.

The contexts of system orientation in secondary-school counselling

Abstract This is the fourth and final article in a series exploring the ways in which secondary-school counsellors resolve their working dilemmas. It examines evidence to suggest that the resolution of such dilemmas, in terms of the degree to which the demands of the school are legitimated, is carried out in the internal context of other considerations in the minds of the counsellors. Among these other considerations are the extent to which they seek to work within a ‘person-focussed’ frame of reference, as opposed — perhaps — to the use of organisational structures; and the extent to which they see themselves in a posture of active ‘interventionism’ in the lives of their clients or the functioning of the system. Evidence is also examined which indicates that the effects of system orientation may be modified by the external context, represented by the capacity of the system as an organismic cell to resist ingression. The suggestion emerges that counsellors are involved in sociological as well as psycholog...

The concomitants of system orientation in secondary school counsellors

Abstract Counsellors resolve their working dilemmas in terms of an orientation which they bring to the system in which they work. This ranges from extremes of acceptance and close co-operation, to extremes of challenge and independence. Evidence is given to indicate that the position which an individual adopts on such a continuum is related to factors in his personality, to his experience of inter-role conflict between teaching and counselling, to his experience of intra-role conflict with colleagues, to the designation of his role, to the amount of time available for its fulfilment, and to the length of the counselling training he has received. The findings tend to indicate that counselling is beset by internal philosophical tensions, and that the introduction of counselling is not necessarily part of a historically inevitable movement towards more openness in schools.

Counsellors as teachers

Abstract An examination of the arguments for and against the role combination of teaching and counselling leads to a view of counselling as being, in some senses, an ingression into the traditional practices of teaching and, in other senses, an egression from them. The traditional practices of teaching are, therefore, analysed in such a way as to generate items for an inventory to measure ‘teacher identification’. The inventory also includes items which invite respondents to reject the ingression of non-teaching principles and practices. En route to the development of the inventory, some observations are made concerning the kinds of role combination with teaching which counsellors tend most to resist.

Deconstructing the Enterprise Culture

Abstract A notion as pervasive and much-used as ‘enterprise’ will, inevitably, have done harm as well as good. The core concepts in the notion are explored, and examples are examined of how they have been put to teachers and counsellors in careers education and guidance work. While the libertarian text of education for enterprise may be unacceptable to many, the struggle to deal with it has forced a realisation of its more valuable subtext. This illustrates how ‘education for enterprise’, or any other change, cannot be implemented without paying attention to the organisation and management of change as well as to its intended outcomes, and how this process may have its own sometimes more beneficial effects.

Anne's story: A counsellor's dilemmas

Abstract One model of counselling is to identify the ‘problems’ of the client, to facilitate exploration of these problems, and to provide resources for whatever ‘change’ or ‘choice’ might best solve, or at least ameliorate, them. It is a tidy model. But life is not as tidy as that. And there is plenty of room in autonomous human relationships for the counsellor to find himself exploited by the client and in conflict with the expectations of society. Before he begins to listen to his client a counsellor should listen to himself, and work out just how much of that kind of ambiguity he can tolerate. This article shows how one client posed some of those questions for one counsellor.

New school for the old school: career guidance and counselling in education

These are critical times for career guidance and counselling in education. Wherein the twentieth century emphasis was on training well-socialised citizens and well-trained employees with technical skills (Cedefop, 2010), the twenty-first century attention is focused on active citizenship (Veugelers, 2009), intrinsic motivation (Grugulis & Vincent, 2009; Payne, 2000), the ability to work together (Leckey & McGuigan, 1997), and proactive adaptability and resilience to changing circumstances (Hillage, Regan, Dickson, & McLoughlin, 2002). Prerequisites for these so-called twenty-first century skills are self-awareness and self-directedness of students (Savickas et al., 2009; Schulz, 2008). In education and educational policy, self-direction has until today often been conceived of as ‘self-regulation’ on the basis of individuals taking more responsibility, being in control and the development of metacognition.