Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study investigated a qualitative career assessment and counselling procedure that was founded upon a constructivist, narrative approach to career counselling, My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography(McIlveen, 2006). Counsellors were trained in the use of the procedure and then applied it to themselves in an intensive workshop format. Intepretative phenomenological analysis was used for the research methodology. Counsellors were then interviewed to determine (a) their personal experience of My Career Chapter and (b) their appraisal of its alignment with a set of recommendations for the design and use of qualitative assessment procedures. Four superordinate clusters were derived from the data and these included my career chapter's relationship to theory, its administrative process, the counselling process, and the counselling relationship. The results indicated that My Career Chapter satisfied the recommendations for qualitative procedures. Possible amendments to the procedure were discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brown

S. D.

Ryan-Krane

N. E.

Brecheisen

Castelino

Budisn

Miller

. (2003). Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: More analyses and new hypotheses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 411–428.

Cochran

(1997). Career counseling: A narrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Heppner

M. J.

Heppner

P. P.

(2003). Identifying process variables in career counseling: A research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 429–452.

Hermans

H. J. M.

Kempen

H. J. G.

(1993). The dialogical self. Meaning as movement. San Diego: Academic Press.

Loevinger

(1985). Revision of the sentence completion test for ego development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 420–427.

Mahoney

M. J.

(2003). Constructive psychotherapy: A practical guide. New York: Guilford Press.

McIlveen

(2006). My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography. Unpublished manuscript.

McIlveen

Ford

Dun

(2005). A narrative sentencecompletion process for systems career assessment. Australian Journal of Career Development, 14 (3), 30–39.

McMahon

(2006). Working with storytellers: A metaphor for career counselling. In McMahon

Patton

(Eds.) Career counselling: Constructivist approaches (pp. 16–29). London: Routledge.

10.

McMahon

Patton

(2002). Using qualitative assessment in career counselling. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 2, 51–66.

11.

McMahon

Patton

Watson

(2003). Developing qualitative career assessment processes. The Career Development Quarterly, 51, 194–201.

12.

McMahon

Patton

Watson

(2005). My System of Career Influences. Camberwell: Australian Council for Educational Research.

13.

McMahon

Watson

Patton

(2005). Qualitative career assessment: Developing the ‘My System of Career Influences Reflection Activity’. Journal of Career Assessment, 13(4), 476–490.

14.

Morrow

S. L.

(2005). Quality and trustworthiness in qualitative research in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52 (2), 250–260.

15.

Patton

McMahon

(2006). Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

16.

Savickas

(2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

17.

Smith

J. A.

Osborn

(2003). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In Smith

J. A.

(Ed.), Qualitative psychology. A practical guide to research methods (pp. 51–80). London: Sage Publications.

18.

Watson

M. B.

(2006). Career counselling theory, culture and constructivism. In McMahon

Patton

(Eds.), Career counselling: Constructivist approaches (pp. 45–56). London: Routlege.

Counsellors' Personal Experience and Appraisal of My Career Chapter

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References