Career trajectories of older women: implications for career guidance

As work and employment transitions become more frequent and difficult, the demand for formal career guidance increases. Women are likely to experience structural labour market disadvantage and may benefit from formal support that is sympathetic to their particular needs. Yet the traditional psychological paradigms that dominate career guidance practice have assumed homogeneity. To contribute both to broader debates about careers services for adults and the development of more relevant theoretical frameworks for career practice for women, results are presented from an international, comparative qualitative investigation of the career trajectories of older women (aged 45 to 65) in Australia, England and South Africa. These results confirm a need for career guidance that is nuanced and differentiated for women.     

Narrative identity: writing the self in career learning

We propose that writing can be employed to foster the kind of career learning required in the twenty-first century. The article offers insights into how writing exercises and approaches can be applied to help students construct their career stories in a way that allows them to engage in a dialogical learning process and work in a self-directed way. Creative, expressive and reflective writing practices are described and parallels are drawn between these and existing practices and theories in narrative career counselling. Key exercises in graduate courses for writing for personal development are discussed and a theoretical explanation is given as to why a particular order of approaches and exercises works best to promote career learning.     

Advising on career image: perspectives,practice and politics

This article analyses qualitative data gathered from a survey of career practitioners on the issue of career image (n?=?355, 75% female, 89% white and 78% from the UK). Findings reveal three key themes which represent how career image relates to practitioners’ values and beliefs, how practitioners make decisions about whether to address the topic in their practice and the strategies they use to address career image with their clients. Findings are discussed with reference to Watts’s socio-political ideologies of guidance. The data indicate that career practitioners are often uncomfortable about discussing career image, but address it where they believe that it is important to their clients’ success. While some practitioners believe the existing structures to be unjust, they generally seek to address this injustice at the individual level rather than seeking any kind of social transformation.     

Shifting landscapes of counselling identities in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

The professional identity of counsellors and guidance practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand is currently under review as a result of the passing of legislation regulating health professionals and the proposed introduction of national registration of counsellors. In this paper I explore this debate, and examine the professional identities claimed by counsellors, counselling psychologists and psychotherapists. The current discussion in this country is both informed by and provides an illuminating lens on professional identity issues in Australia, the UK and the US. An alternative construction of professional identities that are localised and dynamic, yet distinctly of Aotearoa New Zealand, is proposed.     

Protean career orientation,vocational identity,and self-efficacy: an empirical clarification of their relationship

There is a large interest in how people can be more protean in their career development, exhibiting a self-directed striving for personally valued career outcomes. However, existing research on the protean career needs to better address issues of antecedents and outcomes as well as unique effects of a protean career orientation (PCO). We present two studies investigating how PCO is related to vocational identity clarity and occupational self-efficacy. Study 1 reports a 1-year, three-wave cross-lagged study among 563 university students and established that PCO preceded changes in identity and self-efficacy—but not the other way around. A 6-month longitudinal study of 202 employees, Study 2 showed that identity clarity and self-efficacy mediated the effects of PCO on career satisfaction and proactive career behaviours. PCO only possessed incremental predictive validity regarding proactive career behaviours. However, we could not confirm specific direct or mediated effects of PCO on job satisfaction. These results imply that PCO is closely related to vocational identity clarity and self-efficacy because it enhances these career attitudes. Moreover, identity and self-efficacy mediate some, but not all of the effects of PCO on important career outcomes.     

Good looks and good practice: the attitudes of career practitioners to attractiveness and appearance

Empirical evidence attests the impact that career image has on objective career success, yet little is known of how career practitioners conceptualise and operationalise this information. This article presents the quantitative findings of an online survey of career practitioners (n?=?399, 74% female, 89% white and 75% from the U.K.) exploring their attitudes and practices towards issues of appearance and attractiveness. Career practitioners who participated in this survey acknowledged that beauty, self-presentation and interpersonal skills influence career success, and 96% of them considered conversations about career image as part of their professional remit. The career practitioners felt relatively comfortable and well informed in their discussions in this arena, but would welcome further guidance and training to inform their practice. Ethical and practical implications for the profession are considered.     

Mid-career reframing: the learning and development processes through which individuals seek to effect major career changes

This article focuses upon the processes whereby individuals reframe their career goals and career direction mid-way through their working lives. Three cases, drawn from Denmark, Germany and Italy, are used to exemplify these processes. The cases are part of a larger study which included the development of a model that could accommodate the different ways in which learning could support labour market transitions across the life-course, where these transitions may involve shifts away from initial occupational identities. The model was used to inform the case analysis whereby career reframing processes could be viewed from three perspectives: reframing as a process of identity development, as a form of relational, emotional, practical and cognitive development and taking place within particular opportunity structures.     

Searching for an optimal balance: Dual career experiences of Swedish adolescent athletes

ObjectivesThe paper presents a national level Swedish project aimed at examining adolescent student-athletes' dual career experiences (including sport, studies, and private life) during their first year at national elite sport schools (Swedish abbreviation RIGs will be used) with a particular focus on development of their athletic and student identities. The developmental model of transitions faced by athletes (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003) served as underlying frameworks.DesignA longitudinal mixed-method research design was used with autumn-to-spring quantitative and qualitative parts.MethodSixteen year old student-athletes, representing 27 sports and 33 RIGs (n = 261 in the first and n = 250 in the second measurement), completed three quantitative instruments. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants.ResultsResults revealed (a) significant changes in the participants' transition/adaptation variables from the first to the second measurement accompanied by rather high perceived quality of adjustment at RIG both at the beginning and at the end of the educational year; (b) significant contributions of the transition variables to the perceived quality of adjustment with personal resources as a key predictor; (c) significantly higher athletic than student identity in both quantitative measurements, but with inter- and intra-individual differences with regard to balancing the two shown by the qualitative data.ConclusionsThe study contributes to deeper understanding of dual career experiences of Swedish adolescent athletes; the authors provide recommendations for psychological dual career support services at RIGs and outline future research in the Swedish dual career model.     

Structural support,networking and individual survival: career changes in Italy and Spain

Southern European countries, like Italy and Spain, have been severely affected by the recent economic crisis. This has affected their labour market in terms of increased unemployment, while many of those in employment feel more insecure. As a consequence, many individuals turn to education as a step to making a career change. The opportunities and hindrances stemming from socio-economic institutions such as vocational education and training (VET) and higher education, labour market regulations and career guidance are highly influential in the ways in which individuals manage their career transitions and engage in lifelong learning. This article outlines the structural conditions in the two countries in respect to career guidance provision and reflects, based on individual accounts of mid-career workers, how individuals negotiate the system.     

Ethnic differences in illness perceptions,self-efficacy and diabetes self-care

This study assessed differences between Europeans, South Asians and Pacific Islanders in illness perceptions, self-efficacy, self-care, metabolic control and retinopathy in diabetes. We also evaluated the role of illness perceptions and self-efficacy in diabetes self-care and metabolic control within each group. A total of 86 Europeans, 86 South Asians, and 87 Pacific Islanders with type-2 diabetes completed self-report measures of illness perceptions, self-efficacy and self-care. Metabolic control and retinopathy data were collected from patient records. Results showed that Pacific Islanders and South Asians held shorter illness timeline perceptions compared to Europeans. Relative to both the other groups, Pacific Islanders also had elevated scores on three illness perceptions subscales: consequences, identity and emotional representations. They had lower medication-specific self-efficacy as well as poorer medication self-care, metabolic control and retinopathy. In all three groups, self-efficacy was fairly consistently related to self-care, but not to metabolic control. Illness perceptions were less consistently related to self-care, but were associated with metabolic control.     

The Politics of Teaching of Indigenous Traditions in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Reflecting on two study abroad trips to New Zealand in 2005 and 2007, I suggest in this essay that it is possible to mitigate the risk of (American or European) students recapitulating imperial attitudes through development of a rigorous curriculum focusing on the legacies of colonialism, institutional racism, and the somewhat dubious phenomenon of “post‐colonialism.” Readings, I argue, should be in continual play during cultural and social activities, operating in a dialectal move toward an “ethics of respect.” Such an ethics remains aporetic, or uncertain, insofar as no code of behavior can render us immune to the political and polemical effects of past and present forms of imperialism. However, a cultivated respect for distance and difference, including regarding questions of “authenticity,” can help to actualize the transformative promise of studying (indigenous) religion abroad. This essay is published alongside of six other essays, including a response from John Barbour, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).     

Social identity and the perception of history: cultural representations of Aotearoa/New Zealand

The context of intergroup relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand was investigated using perceptions of history by Maori (Polynesian‐descended) and Pakeha (European‐descended) samples from university and the general public. There was strong consensus that the Treaty of Waitangi was the most important event in New Zealand's history, but only Maori, the subordinate ethnic group, showed in‐group favouritism in their judgments regarding the Treaty. Pakeha, the dominant group, showed outgroup favouritism, and distanced themselves from past injustices using linguistic strategies. Maori students showed interest in their ethnic origins (ontogeny), rating the distant past and Polynesian history higher, and free‐recalling more events prior to European arrival than other groups; Maori in the general population shared a more similar perception of history to Pakeha. Both in‐group favouritism and ontogeny were found in sentence‐completion choices. Historical perceptions were strongly related to positions on current political issues. Results are related to social identity theory, social representations theory, and social dominance theory. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chaplaincy and Mental Health Care in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Exploratory Study

This paper summarizes an initial exploratory study undertaken to consider the ministry of New Zealand chaplaincy personnel working within the mental health care context. This qualitative research (a first among New Zealand mental health care chaplains) was not concerned with specific health care institutions per se, but solely about the perspectives of chaplains concerning their professional contribution and issues they experienced when trying to provide pastoral care to patients, families, and clinical staff involved in mental health care. Data from a single focus group indicated that chaplains were fulfilling various WHO-ICD-10AM pastoral interventions as a part of a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to mental health care; however, given a number of frustrations identified by participants, which either impeded or thwarted their professional role as chaplains, a number of improvements were subsequently identified in order to develop the efficiency and effectiveness of chaplaincy and thus maximize the benefits of pastoral care to patients, families, and clinical staff. Some implications of this exploratory study relating to mental health care chaplaincy, ecclesiastical organizations, health care institutions, and government responsibilities and the need for further research are noted.     

Creating a research agenda in career counselling: the place of action theory

After identifying historical and current problems in career counselling research, we propose a research agenda based on contextual action theory. This theory has been used as a framework for research in the career field and for general counselling practice. It is advantageous for several reasons including its conceptual basis, its detailed qualitative and quantitative research method, and the significant link it provides between research and practice. It is supported by the action-project method, an integrated set of procedures developed for conducting research. Contextual action theory and the action-project method can address major emerging issues in career counselling, for example the place of emotion and the use of narrative, and advance the research agenda in this field.     

Personal Accomplishment,Mentoring, and Creative Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Creative Work Involvement: The Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Affect

This research explores the relationships among personal accomplish- ment, mentoring, affect, creative self-efficacy, and creative involvement. With a sample of working adults (N = 242), structural equation modeling results revealed that the data fit the theoretical model well in that creative self-efficacy fully mediated the relationships between personal accomplishment and creative work involvement and between mentoring and creative work involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that positive affect moderated the relationship between personal accomplishment and creative self-efficacy but negative affect did not, signifying that positive affect may be a necessary situational factor to optimize the personal accomplishment-creative self-efficacy link. In contrast, negative but not positive affect moderated the link between mentoring experiences and creative self-efficacy, suggesting that mentoring experiences associated with negative affect situationally may have been likely to have a significant consequence in weakening creative self-efficacy. The findings expand upon self-efficacy and mentoring theories by highlighting the importance of employing theoretically relevant moderating and mediating variables in research investigating the etiology of possible variables associated with vital workplace outcomes.     

Couples Work in Cultural Context: Te Ao Māori and Poststucturalist Practices Informing Counselor Training in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article outlines key themes that appear in the teaching of poststructuralist ideas and practices for couples counseling within the Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling Program at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, and it explores the congruence of this pedagogical approach with Māori (indigenous) understandings of relationality, collaboration, and partnership. The diploma program's curriculum includes narrative therapy and relational language‐making. Themes explored in this article include: understanding (heterosexual) couple relationships as contextualized entities, deconstructing dominant discourses of coupledom, and the positioning of counselors/teachers as nonexpert. Taking each theme in turn, the authors, one of them Māori and two Pākehā (European), articulate points of alignment with Māori cultural concepts and practices.     

The role of career adaptability in predicting entrepreneurial intentions: A moderated mediation model

Guided by the Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2013), we view entrepreneurship as an adaptive vocational behavior driven by an individual's self-regulatory capacity to thrive in a complex entrepreneurial career context. Our research model posited that individuals rely on their adaptive resources and entrepreneurial self-efficacy as they form entrepreneurial intentions. Career adaptability, as self-regulatory competencies, is further strengthened by prior exposure to family business. We collected data over three measurement periods from Serbian business students (n = 380) and validated the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). The moderated mediation model was supported and as predicted: (a) career adaptability was positively associated with entrepreneurial intentions and (b) the mediated relationship between career adaptability and entrepreneurial intentions via entrepreneurial self-efficacy was stronger for individuals with prior exposure to family business. In addition, we provide evidence for the psychometric properties of CAAS by examining its internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and factor structure. Taken together, our study offers the groundwork for understanding successful adaptation in the entrepreneurial career context and supports the cross-national measurement equivalence and utility of CAAS in a developing economy.     

Consuming Male Identities: Masculinities,Gender Relations and Alcohol Consumption in Aotearoa New Zealand

The excessive and public consumption of alcohol with other men has been a traditional indication of manliness in Western cultures for many years. However, over the last two decades, this association has been eroded, in part through increased consumption by women. Within the gender‐relational context of this increase, we empirically explore ways in which particular (friendship) groups of young men and women (re)construct masculine identities. The male participants demonstrated greater discursive flexibility in enacting their gender identities through alcohol consumption compared with earlier NZ research although also greater constraints on change compared with more recent UK research. A minority of men constructed themselves as atypical in that they did not like rugby, beer or consuming vast quantities of alcohol. These men were all in professional occupations, and we speculate that their social class and financial status may enable them to negotiate alternative demonstrations of masculinity. We conclude that these findings could be explicated through an examination of national gendered identities that arose out of a pioneer culture, and the commodification of gender identities through alcohol consumption. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sites of excess: The spatial politics of touch for drag queens in Aotearoa New Zealand

This paper explores the role of touch for drag queens. I examine the ways in which touch – being touched, touching others, and feelings associated with touch – is an important component of sexualised subjectivities and places. The first part of the paper reviews the recent literature called ‘haptic geographies’. I highlight why sexualised touch has, for the most part, been absent from this literature before bringing together the limited references made to touch, feelings, sexuality and place. In the second part of the paper I draw on various media, my involvement as a member of the queer community group Hamilton Pride Incorporated and in-depth interviews to examine the role of touch and feelings associated with touch for drag queens in Aotearoa New Zealand. I pay attention to the complex politics and performances of drag queens in order to highlight the co-construction of haptic geographies and sexualised subjectivities. I argue that drag queens’ bodies and spaces may be understood as sites of excess where the pleasures and pains of touch may form and break bodily and spatial boundaries associated with hetero/homo and masculine/feminine subjectivities. A focus on drag queens and touch queers our understandings of embodiment and haptic geographies further.