a storied approach to career counselling: incorporating career assessment mary mcmahon the...
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A storied approach to career counselling: Incorporating career assessment
Mary McMahonThe University of Queensland
Australia
Mark WatsonNelson Mandela Metropolitan University South
Africa
XXIX International Congress of Psychology, Jyvaskyla, Finland, 3 – 5 May, 2009
Storytelling and career assessment
Our Research Goals
Facilitating a story telling approachCombining quantitative and qualitative career assessment within a story telling approach to career counsellingUsing a “qualitative approach” with quantitative career assessment
Storytelling and career assessment
An Example of Our Research
Combining quantitative and qualitative career assessment within a story telling approach to career counselling
Qualitative assessment: My System of Career Influences (MSCI)Quantitative assessment: SDS, Values Scale, Life Role Inventory, CDMSE
Storytelling and career assessment
Career counselling challenges Constructivist approaches are a work in progressOperationalising a philosophy Few (if any) modelsEvidence baseHow do career counsellors learn to integrate constructivist approaches into practice?How do we teach constructivist approaches?
Storytelling and career assessment
Career assessment challenges Located within broader context of challenge to career developmentRelationship between theory and assessmentTendency to simplify career assessment challenges to a
quantitative vs qualitative assessment debate
But
This is not a new issueIt is an issue located within the history of career assessment and career counsellingThe challenge really is about process and career assessment’s relationship with career counselling
Storytelling and career assessment
Super (1957)“So many factors affect vocational development, these factors are so interdependent and interactive, and our means of assessment are still so limited in nature, that to confine appraisal to the use of a few tests, or to an interview, or to a brief combination of these two, is to risk getting an incomplete and unbalanced picture of the person and of his prospects” (p. 305)
Storytelling and career assessment
Super (1957)
“there is still a widespread tendency to think of vocational counseling as the giving and interpretation of tests with some reference to personal and occupational data” (p. 305)
Storytelling and career assessment
A Way forward – And/Both
Quantitative and qualitative assessments can provide a complementary process, where the strengths and limitations of each approach are counterbalanced by the strengths and limitations of the other.
(Whiston & Rahardja, 2005)
Thus:
Qualitative assessment can expand quantitative assessment by emphasizing the subjective aspect of worklife … counselors can translate quantitative information into qualitative understanding that supplements the client’s self-knowledge and understanding of contextual influences.
(Savickas, 2000)
Storytelling and career assessment
Desirable practice in career assessment: Some Clues from History
Holistic assessment
Assessment and counselling are combined in a process
Active involvement of client in the process
Storytelling and career assessment
A continuum of practice
Traditional More recentapproach approach(Logical-positivist (Constructivistworldview) worldview)
Implications for:the role of the client
the role of the counsellor the nature of the counselling relationship
the place of career assessment
Storytelling and career assessment
Client role
Passive recipient Active agent, story teller
Counsellor role
Expert, actuary, directive Interested, tentative and curious inquirer, respectful listener, tentative observer participant, supporter, co-author, biographer, facilitator
Counselling relationship
Counsellor dominated, expert driven, test and tell, problem solving, objective, directive
Mattering climate, collaborative, subjective,
Storytelling and career assessment
A linear process
Starting point Outcomes
Career assessment Occupational titlesScores Action plan
The place of assessment:More recent approach
Starting point Outcomes
Entering the life Story continuesspace of the client Learning
Career action
Story and meaning
Career assessmentprocesses
Storytelling and career assessment
The place of career assessment
Client’s life space
Counsellor Shared story and meaning
Careerassessment
Storytelling and career assessment
Storytelling and career assessment
A story telling approach
Connectedness
Reflection
Meaning Making
Learning
Agency
Storytelling and career assessment
Facilitating a story telling approach
Valuing and encouraging client agency
The importance of language
Emphasis on process not content
Emphasis on meaning not content
Emphasis on listening and facilitating
The creation of a reflective space
Storytelling and career assessment
Storying quantitative career assessmentStory crafting questions (examples)
Connectedness(multilevelled)
In what other facets of your life does this apply?How has that manifested in your previous experiences?
Reflection How do you interpret that?What are your reactions to that?
Meaning Making If you were to explain that, what would you say? What sense do you make of that?
Learning What have you realised that you were not previously aware of?
Agency How do you interpret that?How did you respond to that situation?
Storytelling and career assessment
Anticipated outcomes
Practical suggestions for combining qualitative and quantitative career assessment
Practical suggestions for using qualitative approaches with quantitative career assessment
Practical suggestions for career counsellors wishing to use story telling approaches
Practical suggestions for counsellor educators
