Developmentally appropriate career assistance at the level of secondary schooling is i mportant for at least two reasons. First, the specification of a career direction is a key developmental task of adolescence. It is an integral part of the identity transformation process during this life stage, a quest for meaning and connectedness extendin g a sense of self beyond the family system. At this personal level, it makes sense to assist the young in developing the repertoire of career development 'resources' they may require along this journey. At the centre of this process I S the possessi on of an informed knowledge-base, of self awareness and awareness of opportunities and l imitations in post-school learning and work environments; and the talents to integrate these two in planning and moving along a given path. At a time w hen young people face far greater tensions and dilemmas in
moving toward adult roles and responsibilities, it i s simply not acceptable to allow them to flounder along a path with little purpose and opportun ity for career development. Toward this end, a developmental ly appropriate careers service must cater for the variability of needs, from basic descriptive information about what qualifications might be required for a particular occupational field, for instance, to more indepth personal assistance to help resolve personal concerns which may impede progress i n career choice crystallisation and specification .
Secondly, it is during the senior years of secondary schooling that many experiences and decisions related to post-secondary school transitions occur. I t is, t herefore, i n the best i n terests of the country as a whole to ensure that young people are exposed to experiences that will optimi se progression in post-school learning and work envi ronments. This means ensuring that career plans and decisions are informed in rel ation to opportun ities and limitations of the labour market. I t is i ndeed antithetical to u ndertake further education or training, for instance, with little or no
awareness of the occupation al implications of the course. On the one hand, the young person is required to invest the resources to commit themselves to a particular course of study or training programme and its requirements, including finance, energy, and very likely, hope for future success in learning and work environments. On the other hand, the n ation' s education and training systems must pass on the resources and support adequately to meet the needs of their client base and, ultimately, to contribute to the country 's economic efficiency. B oth the individual and the learning or work environment h ave much to gain from the young person ' s informed awareness of post school pathways.
The school ' s careers service, then, is at the interface between the needs of the young person and the needs of society. At a time when the country is attempting to balance personal equity w ith national efficiency, the development of an informed national policy for careers assistance in all of our learning and work environments is timely. Indeed, as Watts ( 1 996) has reasoned, a good careers service is a 'market maker' which he described as being:
A way of making the labour market and the education and training market, work more effectively by ensuring that the individual actors within these markets are fully informed about the range of options and their pros and cons i n relation to l abour market demand (p.45).
The purpose of the empirical case study section of this thesis is to l ook more c losely at the role of the school setting in relation to the career development needs of a sample of secondary school seniors. This focus is illustrated by the dark shaded area in Figure 6. 1 . In keeping w ith the exploratory orientation in ecological research (cf. , B ronfenbrenner, 1 979), the case study sought to affirm the salience of career development in the young person ' s overall personal development, and to explore the responsiveness of careers assistance in the secondary school setting.
TIME Government philosophy Occupational structure Family system Economic environment · . . ·. International economy ' TIME
/
Post-schoolj
education & Peer group Socio-cultural \f training system , traditions ,
'
Figure 6.1
Community •
involvements
Microsystem (school and adolescent career development) and mesosystem (the relationship between the two)
foci of the empirical investigation.
6.2 Assumptions, Aims and Research Questions
As identified in Chapter One, the value of a developmental contextuali st framework is its capacity to gui de toward the selection of person al and school variables for analysis and to identify the boundaries around the generalisability of findings. Adopting this framework was a sensible solution to the impracticality of attempting to include empirical assessments of all the variables, levels and processes that might be conceptually relevant in an ecologically-oriented approach to adolescent
career development. Accordingly, the assumptions, goals and research questions
ecological dimensions i nteracting with adolescent career development i n this country, which comprised Part Two of this thesis.
6.2. 1 Assumptions
( 1 ) Career development is a life-long developmental journey, characterised by a series of 'challenges' , each of which presents an opportunity for growth or a place for 'stuckness'.
(2) The young person's experience of the challenge feeds into later development, with the potential for optimisation, but also the attendant danger of limiting growth later in adult development.
(3) Moderating the experience of the challenge is the young person's readiness.
( 4) The crystallisation and specification of a career direction represent the developmental challenges of adolescent career development.
(5) Challenges require the resources for informed self- and environmental exploration to be available to the young person.
(6) The New Zealand secondary education system has a responsibility to provide access and opportunity for the young person to develop these resources; through the provision of developmentally adequate career information, career guidance, career counselling and career education services.
6.2.2 A ims and Research Questions
With these assumptions i n mind, the aims and associated research questions guidin g the empirical c ase study were as fol lows:
( 1 ) To identify the nature, philosophy and location of career services in participating schools and examine the objectives, core principles, components and organisational climate in the context of current education policy.
(a) What is the existing philosophy regarding careers assistance and how does this fit (i) i nto the overall school philosophy, and (ii) with related existing education policy?
(b) What constitutes the schools' career services, i ncluding objectives, core principles, components and organisational climate?
Who is responsible for the schools' career services and how are components of the services i ntegrated in the mainstream curriculum?
(2) To assess and document the career development needs and coping strategies of a sample of senior secondary school stude nts; from the perspectives of students, parents and school staff.
(a) What are the career development characteristics of participating students?
(b) What coping strategies do the students employ to deal w ith career and educational planning and decision-making?
(c) What do parents consider to be the career development needs of their children?
(d) What do school staff consider to be the career development needs of their senior students?
(3) To provide informed commentary on the extent to which the careers service provisions i n participating schools meets the needs of their senior students.
(a) What is the relationship between students' career development characteristics and coping strategies, and what does the literature suggest might be the intermediate and longer-term implications for students' career development?
(b) What do participating students, parents and school staff identify as being areas of (i) strength, and (ii) need for improvement in existing careers service provisions in their schools?
(4) To provide feedback for development and improvement in the nature and delivery of careers assistance in participating schools.
(a) How might schools improve their careers service programme for senior students?
The methodological strategies adopted to address these aims, along with l imitations that define parameters for the generalisability of findings are addressed in Chapter 7 . The results of this investigation are then presented and discussed in Chapter 8, which also concludes Part Three of the thesis.