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Models Of Guidance Assignment: Winter 1997.
Diploma in Careers Guidance, College of Guidance Studies, Swanley.
Cole Davis
"......careers education and guidance is receiving greater
public-policy attention in the UK than ever before. This offers
new opportunities but also new threats. There is a danger that
development will be narrowly policy-focused, and will lose touch
with the field's theoretical roots. Theory, policy and practice
are mutually dependent: each is impoverished without fertile
links with the others."
Watts, A.G., Law, B., Killeen, J, Kidd, J.M. and Hawthorn, R.
(1996) Preface to Rethinking careers education and guidance.
London: Routledge.
Evaluate this statement and discuss the relationship of guidance
models to theory, in order to provide evidence of how this mutual
dependency can be achieved in practice.
Policy and practice in careers education and guidance are now
closely linked, given the impact of unemployment and socio-
economic change. It should not be surprising in these
circumstances that theories should have a diminished role. It
could be argued, however, that one, opportunity structures, has
thrived in the short term at the expense of the others. The
gauging of the relationships between theories, policy and
practice will be the primary focus here. The relationship
between guidance models and their underlying theories will be
discussed in concluding, as this may form an explanation for
career advisers' relative ignorance or lack of concern for the
models supposedly guiding their practice (Kidd, et al, 1994).
Over more than two decades, youth unemployment has risen
dramatically. The climate of technological change and global
competition has affected the nature of available jobs. Clear
strategies are necessary to assist young people in adapting to
these new circumstances. Careers education, therefore, has been
promoted, particularly within schools, as a means of developing
knowledge and skills to gain access to education, training and
employment in ways which are both realistic and relevant to
personal abilities and aspirations. This should provide a
foundation for careers guidance: a range of activities to assist
individuals in the pursuit of such aims and in the development of
self-awareness as a necessary precondition for progress and,
arguably, as an end in itself.
As well as increased attention and financial support, the
concern of policymakers about the importance of careers education
and guidance has led to closer scrutiny of outcomes.
Evaluations, however, are often created within the prevailing
management models (e.g. Total Quality Management), which are in
turn founded within the dominant economic zeitgeist. Watts
(1996) cites two governmental policy aims, social equity and
economic efficiency, as well as the promotion of a quasi-market
approach to the running of careers services. A conflict in
emphasis should be expected, therefore, when models of guidance
are considered.
Various models inform practice. Trait-factor assumes that
there are measurable and practical significant differences
between people suited to different occupations; that well-adapted
individuals within an occupation would be seen to share
psychological characteristics; that individual differences would
interact significantly with occupational differences, and - most
crucially here - that job and person characteristics would be
consistent enough to predict long term outcomes (Rounds & Tracey,
1990). This developed into a congruence model within a theory of
'person-environment fit': individuals would seek out and create
environments that allowed for their idiosyncrasies within a
reciprocal process (Holland, 1973). Most obvious practical
extensions are computer assisted guidance and psychometric tests.
The latter tend to be very much associated with the perceived
weaknesses of this scientifically supported model: it is
perceived to be mechanistic and divorced from clients'
individuality. Within guidance models, such prescriptiveness was
also seen to be embodied within Rodger's Seven-point plan.
Developmental models are perceived as more attuned to
individual needs. Key developmental tasks are achieved at
particular stages as part of the evolution of career maturity.
Given the general expectations of 'stages', this is still a
nomothetic and arguably self-perpetuating approach. In
practical terms, transitions and interventions should occur when
the individual is ready for them.
One developmental application is DOTS, an analysis method for
training. Kidd (1996) cites the FIRST model for training and
Super's life-career rainbow (1980) as a possible guidance
application. Super's self-concept theory, however, would appear
to have greater relevance to more able young people than to
others (Kidd, 1984) and its attempt at being comprehensive
renders it too complex to be of practical use (Yost & Corbishley,
1987). There is also very little research support for such
ideas as adolescent turmoil, stress and identity crises (Coleman,
1992).
Client-centred models base themselves on Rogers' client-
centred counselling (1942) and Kelly's personal construct theory
(1955). Both are idiographic (as opposed to nomothetic),
stressing the ability of the person to make conscious and
responsible decisions, and, in Kelly's case, to construct
reality. Kelly's approach, using repertory grids to examine
bipolar 'constructs' of reality, is rarely used because of the
prohibitive amount of time taken creating the grids and limited
numbers of clients who would benefit from such a cerebral
approach. Rogers' approach centres on the emotional and the
immediate; embodied within the approach are practical skills
which are widely applied in guidance and in counselling, often as
part of an eclectic process model.
One such process model is Egan's 'skilled helper' (1990),
which itself fuels the 'Swanley Model' (Fielding and Vautier,
1994). Under the category 'goal-directed', Kidd (1996) cites
Egan's model alongside social learning and interpersonal
interaction models. Being rarely applied (Kidd et al, 1994),
these latter models will not concern us further.
More of a socio-economic approach is taken by Ken Roberts
(1977). Occupational choice being ephemeral in comparison to
shaping factors such as market forces and parental influence,
careers guidance has a circumscribed role as a lubricant for
access to the labour market.
Considering opportunity structures as the dominant paradigm,
"though possibly only for the time being", he describes his
theory's impact upon policy and practice.
"It is rarely possible to attribute specific policy
effects to particular research projects and
publications. My arguments could hardly have lessened
careers guidance's difficulties in gaining increased
public funding. They could also have contributed to the
political pressure for guidance to pay less attention
to individuals' own interests and inclinations in
preference to presenting the realities of labour
markets. Devolving careers guidance budgets to
employer-dominated Training and Enterprise Councils is
likely to amplify these pressures.
"I can speak even more confidently about the
opportunity structure theory's influence on research.
The emphasis in studies during the 1980s was not on
young people's choices but on how their opportunities
varied by sex, race, educational attainments and, in
particular, where they lived. (Roberts, 1993)
And yet more money is being placed into guidance, by the British
government and by the European Social Fund. This may reflect
confidence in the careers service as labour exchange; the
writer's experience on work placement was that considerable
effort was spent upon processing availability of jobs and
training schemes, in parallel with the Jobcentre. Funding may
have been stimulated by evaluation studies citing "modest but
significant" learning outcomes (Killeen & Kidd, 1991). Practice
here (hopefully) influences policy-makers.
Other theories have had less success in informing practice.
Many careers advisers seem only dimly aware of theoretical models
or dismissive of their value. One questionnaire survey of
careers officers (Kidd et al, 1994) indicates that the training
of practitioners may be a determinant. Theories may be used to
support skills rather than to determine them, their implications
may not always be explained, or they may be applied according to
client groups or students' preferences. Practitioners may just
fail to recall theory, of course (one adviser trained at Swanley
claimed on the writer's placement to be using the eponymous
model; it would appear to have evolved in the using!) They may
also claim that theory is of limited relevance.
One operational manager interviewed by the writer claimed that
the company's practice was person-centred, meaning in this case
that it followed the needs of the client. This does not in
itself, however, prescribe any particular course of action. In
discussing theories in more depth, the manager claimed that no
one theory worked in practice and that therefore eclecticism was
practised. Given the lack of coherent explanation, subjective
judgement and personal preference seem to be the order of the day
rather than the systematic 'technical eclecticism' recommended by
Lazarus (1989), which is "grounded in research ... open to
verification and disproof ... [and] is not anti-theoretical or
atheoretical."
The fate of the trait-factor model is equally instructive
about essentially atheoretical practice. Almost all interviews
observed by the writer on placement contained an estimate of
clients' abilities in order to consider the realism of proposed
career and training decisions. At secondary schools, teachers'
predictions were the instruments of assessment. While large
numbers of predicted GCSE A grades, or very low grades, were
probably reliable measures for gauging likely academic
attainment, students with middling results were probably ill-
served. In any event, tests were never used to examine
differential abilities or aptitudes; interest inventories were
never used to stimulate those with little direction (and in one
school, the careers computer lay unused).
Three theoretically based explanations all seem plausible:
process models predominated; some practitioners had an antipathy
towards trait-factor models; and others did not recognise
assessment activities' existence within their interviews. Policy
also affected practice, however: the European Social Fund paid
for the company to train practitioners to Level A, but after
funding was discontinued, testing was only performed when paid
for, regardless of need. Even the general sense of being person-
centred was insufficient to justify usage without funding.
The effectiveness of policy is most obvious when applied to
careers education in schools and the provision of guidance in
further education. Integration into the school curriculum is now
a statutory requirement (Law, 1996); F.E.F.C. funding is linked
to the provision of assessment and guidance on entry, during, and
on exit for further education courses (Hawthorn, 1996). In a
general way, developmental theory may be in evidence.
Competition and limited resources circumscribe such
initiatives, however. Individualised careers education seems
particularly problematic in practice.
Practice has informed policy, through feedback, in the area of
action plans. As summaries of action, these had been integral to
guidance as a means of evaluation. The practice of counting
action plans, attached to funding, part of the economic and
management ethos referred to hitherto, necessitates a large
number of time-controlled interviews and an emphasis on very
clear directional decisions at the end of any claimable
intervention. This is anathema to developmental models, which
require the readiness of individuals to make decisions (including
thinking time). Practitioners' opinions would appear to have
filtered back and the system is under review.
Such feedback has not modified models of guidance, where the
links appear to be least fertile. As suggested by research
(Kidd et al, 1994) and by the writer's experience on work
placements, unsystematic eclecticism or personalised integration
seem to be common practice. Practice is likely to be as good as
the personal qualities of the practitioner, who may well follow
the style most likely to produce smooth interviews.
Process models, using Rogerian techniques, are likely to
produce this effect. The client may feel listened to and even
cared for. Whilst this may be a precondition for effective
guidance, this does not ensure a suitable direction or even
adequate consideration of an individual's circumstances.
There may be varying explanations for this process dominance
in the teaching of guidance. More content-based models of
guidance may be seen as competing, with tutor or student
preferences leading to ill-judged victories. Practice placements
may teach the application of different theories to different
situations, but funding policies mean that most are ignored in
practice.
It is suggested here that the reason why no one model would
appear to work well is because of the relationship between the
models and the underlying theory. Models of guidance are,
understandably, simplified applications of theories.
The widespread Rogerian techniques may carry with them a
largely irrelevant therapeutic underpinning. Without other
clearly defined theories in play, a process may become the
theoretical basis for career interventions.
Such a problem is reflected in the general disregard of trait-
factor theory. Here again, views of process obscure the nature
of the theory. Its lack of popularity comes from students'
understanding of a mechanistic seven-point plan and the hangover
from 1970s criticisms of psychometrics.
Developmental models are either inapplicable in isolation or too
complex for practical use (e.g. Super's Life-Career Rainbow,
1980). Opportunity structures is widely applied but by
definition does not focus on individual needs and aspirations.
Whilst continuous professional development may answer the
tendency of practitioners to drift away from their training, this
may be a poor stratagem if the source is flawed. A new
integrated model of guidance is suggested to draw more
effectively from relevant theories.
Person-centred or process models may retain their usage as
sets of techniques or parameters for the conducting of
interviews. Within interviews, however, assessment - via
interviews or tools as appropriate (e.g. qualifications may be
used to measure attainment) - should be a clear and recognised
priority for gauging levels and direction.
Trait-factor theory, therefore, should be central to the
teaching of guidance, concentrating on the nature of attributes;
tests and computer aided guidance should not be seen by students
as disparate elements of guidance.
Developmentalism and opportunity structures would inform
practice and should come to the fore when this suits clients'
individual needs. It may, however, be misleading to introduce
them as central theories for potential application to interviews;
their value is in training practitioners in the context and
complexities of practice.
A clearer approach to theories and their respective values is
required. The models of guidance derived from them may then
interact more positively with policy, currently the most
influential factor.
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