In search of career-life meaning: Enhancing the existential experience of a gifted learner

Abstract

This article reports on how intervention research based on integrative career counselling enhanced the existential experience of a gifted learner. The participant of this study was a purposively selected gifted 17-year-old girl learner in search of a career that would help her experience meaning, purpose, and hope in and through her career-life. An explanatory (QUALITATIVE-quantitative) research design was used together with qualitative career construction counselling-based methods. A new standardised test was used to generate quantitative data. Savickas’ guidelines for analysing career construction-elicited data were implemented to identify themes and subthemes in the outcomes. The intervention helped the participant decide on a career through which she could experience meaning, purpose, and hope in her career-life. Longitudinal research is needed to determine the medium- and long-term influence of the type of intervention discussed here with gifted learners in individual as well as group contexts across the diversity spectrum.

Keywords

Existential experience gifted learners career construction counselling qualitative-quantitative approach intervention research

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