Transcript Working with career beliefs - Career Education Association of Victoria

Why work?
Skills to understand career beliefs in
multicultural settings
Career Education
Association of Victoria
Biennial Conference
Workshop presented by:
Gideon Arulmani
Harnessing diversity
Social cognitive environments
• Work occurs within a social context: a context characterised by
patterns of beliefs and ways of thinking.
• Mind-sets engendered by social frames of reference give a
particular colouring and interpretation to the meaning and purpose of
work.
• Prevailing ideologies and community experiences cohere into a
social-cognitive environment.
• Values – positive, neutral or negative – could be attributed to work in
general and to specific occupational clusters.
Harnessing diversity
Career Beliefs
• A conglomerate of attitudes, opinions,
convictions that seem to cohere together to
create mind-sets that underlie people’s
orientation to the idea of a career.
• Can be so deeply ingrained that they may not be
identified by their holders as beliefs, but held as
unquestioned, self-evident truths.
• Whether accurate or not, career beliefs exert a
facilitative or inhibitive influence on individuals’
orientations to career goals (Krumboltz 1979;
1994).
Career Beliefs
Types of career beliefs
• Examination of ‘types of career beliefs’ have
pointed us toward common elements that could
bind diverse groups together.
• Our analysis has consistently thrown up three
kinds of career beliefs that seem to interlock with
career development:
-
Proficiency Beliefs
Control and Self-direction Beliefs
Persistence Beliefs
Proficiency beliefs
Beliefs about the importance of acquiring qualifications
and skills that enhance personal proficiency
for an occupation.
Indian situation:
- Wide variability in the manner in which socialcognitive environments actually nurture this belief
- Close link to socio-economic status
Proficiency beliefs:
Differences between groups
Type of group
Possible impact on career
development
Socio-economically vulnerable
groups:
Low emphasis on acquiring work skills
proficiencies
Could be at risk to enter the world of
Middle class groups:
Extraordinarily high emphasis on
acquiring qualifications
Willing to commit time and resource
for acquiring proficiency; BUT could
show a confusion between preparing
for the world of work and acquiring
qualifications
work as unskilled labourer
Control and Self-Direction Beliefs:
Beliefs about personal control over life situations and
the orientation to directing one’s life
Type of group
Possible impact on career
development
Socio-economically vulnerable
groups:
Weak orientation to exercising selfdirection over life trajectory;
helplessness in the face of barriers
Could view the future in terms of the
deprivations experienced in their
present situation; unable to grasp
real opportunities, and take control
of their lives
Middle class groups:
Stronger orientation to exercising
self direction and creating
opportunities; high motivation to
engage with career development
tasks
Are likely to value and seek
counselling and guidance services
for career planning
Persistence Beliefs:
Beliefs that support persistence toward career goals
despite difficulties and barriers that emerge
during career preparation
Type of group
Possible impact on career
development
Socio-economically vulnerable
groups:
Persistence toward career goals is
lower and less consistent; sacrifice
long term goals to meet immediate
needs in the here and now
Career planning may not be
perceived as relevant in a context
where survival is still the foremost
expectation from employment
Middle class groups:
Persistence toward career goals is
higher and more consistent;
planfulness and skills for goal setting
are high
Could be more willing to making long
term career plans and face difficulties
and barriers to the achievement of
career objectives; have the necessary
support to persevere toward career
goals
Discussion Point (Group 1)
Proficiency beliefs
Beliefs about the importance of acquiring qualifications and skills that enhance
personal proficiency for an occupation
Proficiency beliefs
Possible impact on career
development
Discussion Point (Group 2)
Control and Self-Direction Beliefs
Beliefs about personal control over life situations and the orientation to directing
one’s life
Control and Self-Direction beliefs
Possible impact on career
development
Discussion Point (Group 3)
Persistence Beliefs
Beliefs that support persistence toward career goals despite difficulties and
barriers that emerge during career preparation
Type of group: Socio-economically vulnerable groups
Persistence beliefs
Possible impact on career
development
The multicultural context
• Career beliefs are not artefacts that only embellish the
exotic east
• The notion of social-cognitive environments and
career beliefs need not be restricted to
geographical locations and cultural contexts
• Beliefs pertaining to career choice are present in
all families and communities – eastern or western.
• The young person’s orientation to work could be
influenced by these social cognitions.
The multicultural context
• Higher likelihood of counsellor and counselee coming
from differing social-cognitive environments
• Individualism – collectivism: Career decision-making
could reflect strong community orientations with a
preference for co-operative decision-making
• A ‘respectable’ career: The attitudes of prestige, social
status can be carried over from ‘home’
• Transmission of attitudes: Career beliefs could be
passed on from one generation to another
Discussion Point (Group 1)
Higher likelihood of counsellor and counselee coming from differing socialcognitive environments
List the counsellor’s career beliefs that could be at variance from those of the
counselee
Discussion Point (Group 2)
Individualism – collectivism: Career decision-making could reflect strong
community orientations with a preference for co-operative decision-making
 List the career beliefs that could emerge from an individualistic socialcognitive environment
 List the career beliefs that could emerge from a collectivistic social-cognitive
environment
Discussion Point (Group 3)
A ‘respectable’ career: The attitudes of prestige, social status can be carried over
from ‘home’
 List career beliefs that could be ‘carried over from home’
Working with career beliefs:
The vignette technique
• Vignettes are verbal descriptions that simulate or re-create real
events and situations
• Verbal pictures, designed to identify attitudes and elicit opinions
• Useful particularly in situations where the re-creation of real life
events is difficult and cumbersome
• Effective way to learn about the thoughts, perceptions and
unexpressed feeling
• Vignettes place abstract ideas within a familiar context and thereby
help the person understand or identify with the idea more easily
Developing vignettes
for career beliefs
• Listen to commonly used statements
• Look for patterns in these statements
• Look for ‘threads’ - commonalities
• You could use the career belief pattern
frame we have just discussed
• Embed the content of these statements
into vignettes.
Career Beliefs in the Maldives
“It is the government's
responsibility.”
“My father will do it for me.”
“I cannot leave my
island.”
“This job is
against my
religion.”
Young Maldivians were saying NO
rather than YES to personal
engagement with work and career
development
“It’s too hard for me.”
“This job is
beneath
my dignity.”
“I would
rather be
unemployed.”
Discussion Point (Group 1)
Develop a vignette that would tap into Proficiency Beliefs
Discussion Point (Group 2)
Develop a vignette that would tap into Control and Self-Direction Beliefs
Discussion Point (Group 3)
Develop a vignette that would tap into Persistence Beliefs
Thank You!