Salient Features of Supers Approach toward Career Counseling and Transition - Term Paper Example

 Career Development 1-Introduction The present paper examines in details Salient Features Of Super’s Approach Toward Career Counseling And Transition, i.e., Life-Span And Life-Space Approach and link this approach to a student’s career choice or A Teacher’s Career Choice. The paper has been divided into sections and subsections for better clarity and understanding of the reader and at the end of major sections critical discussion follows bringing out issues which need to look into more detail. 2- School Counselor One of the most crucial obligations delegated to leaders in education and administration is the job of carefully planning and executing staffing of school districts with professionals whose qualifications are according to the requirements so that high quality educational programs can be delivered according to the broader plans of the government and other stakeholders. However, this very area is facing a lot of hard time simply because of the fact that the professionals “baby boomers”, those who joined U.S. workforce in the post World War II era are now retiring in a considerable pace. Besides, the increasing challenges which are posed in the present work environment many school districts are still not up to the mark to confront the challenge of recruitment. Rebore (as cited in Beverly et al., n.p., 2005) observes that this would stand to be a mistake if authorities and administrators of school think that recruiting school counselors without well-set planning and systematic execution of this planning would be easy. There is dire need for concerted effort to fill the vacancies emerging by the day in school counseling area. 2.1-Problem Across United States there is dearth of school counselors. The educators who are presently working as school counselors have been struggling to serve large number of students on their side. At the same time, there are a number of administrative duties which fall out of the circle of counseling obligations of these educators (Beverly et al., n.p., 2005). 2.2- Macro-Recruitment Approach Another problem with the recruitment process of procedures of school counselors is that more stress and energy is being put on the macro-level checks. Schools and school districts can alleviate these specific recruitment practices by shifting their energies to the micro level checks and procedures of school counselors’ recruitment. For instance, it would be a wise policy measure to take into focuses improved human resources planning and how increased sources and expertise of school counselors can be efficiently applied to the field. According to analysts, there is high need that micro-recruitment efforts are now re-doubled for better results and effective recruitment (Beverly et al., n.p., 2005). The teachers who are planning to switch to the jobs of career counselors to keep into touch with such problems as quoted above on the national level. However, on the individual level, there are a number of prerequisite that the teachers need to make sure so that proper career transition takes place, for instance from elementary school teacher to elementary school counselor. In the following lines I would discuss specific measures to be taken while transiting career, with regard to Super’s theories of Life-Span and Life-Space. This is important because studies have shown that teachers consider that switching over to the job of school counselor is a more challenging step, something that would require more adaptation, more strenuous workload, and more challenging roles as school counselor (Goodman, et al. n.p. 2004). 3- Super’s Theories of Life-Span and Life-Space and Career Transition 3.1- Overview of Super’s Theory Super’s life-space, life-span approach toward career counseling has been the primary interpretation of the process of development of career counseling which has been used in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and other industrialized countries of the world. Every since the early 1950s, Super’s approach of life-space and life-span has been in the process of evolution both in terminology and construct. Because of its inherent comprehensiveness in talking about what career counseling behavior is and because of it usefulness as basic content, there is common thought that still this approach is in the process of evolution and need further refinement. However, in the following passage, specific points of this approach are used to help bring out what feature Super’s theory proposes for career counseling. However, below is the refined version of Super’s approach for sake of clarity and understanding (Herr, n.p. 1997). 3.2 - Career Transition and Early Years According to the interpretation of Super’s approach, there is this inclination that influences of early childhood play a role of critical determinants in a person’s later career behavior and affect the person’s career choice. As such a number of interpreters of Super’s approach consider that early childhood influences must be analyzed while career transition is taking place. For example, for people with disabilities career development would require the examination of the following areas: work personality of the person (what is the self-concept of the person being a worker); competencies of work (what are their habits of work, skills both physical and mental); goals of work (what career objectives the person carries with them in a given time period). All these areas along with others, must be viewed in detail while preparing a person with disability for career counseling or career transition. The services of career transition should take under consideration longitudinal focus which must be career-oriented. Occupational-choice perspective should be avoided because it is commonly a single-time thread which is more likely to mar the person’s later career development (Szymanski, n.p. March 1, 1994). Looked from this angel, an elementary career counselor must be familiar with all the possible consequences of the influences that a student’s early life has on their later career. Elementary counselor bears the responsibility of creating such morale in students as can make them bold enough to make career choices in the later life. Moreover, any person making career transition should consider their early life influences, likes, and dislikes for better choice. 3.3- Role of Family The role of the family of a student should play a role in the career transition and planning phase of the student’s life. This is important due to the fact that the process of career transition and its outcome does not affect an individual only, but the entire family. Although it is now in the legislation that families should be a partner is the planning process of student’s career transition, this does not seem to be practiced well. There is another reason for this ambiguity of family involvement in the process of planning and career transition. It is that there are no clear mandates for the services of adults. However, it is clear that family involvement plays a significant role in career transition and planning. 3.4- Culture According to Super’s approach, it is also important that cultural implications of the surrounding in which student is living must be taken into consideration while transition planning. Additionally, it should also be the focus as to what effects the surrounding culture holds for the student. This is because culture is a bundle of a number of concepts, cultural beliefs, and so on that surely affects behavior of a student. For instance, “In the preschool years, one's work personality is influenced by one's role models, by parental expectations, and by societal treatment of one's culture or gender group” and if this consideration is overlooked in career transition, there might appear flaws in right career choice (Szymanski, n.p. March 1, 1994). Conclusion Although there are a lot of other issues that may be discussed here, for the sake of space it must be noted that Super’s life-span and life-space theory looks at career building and transition not in isolation or as one-point-in-time event. Super sees it as something that is interlinked with a number of other variables surrounding a person’s life and must be examined and analyzed with a longitudinal approach so that better choice-options are available to students. If a teacher is switching over to becoming a teacher counselor, the teacher must look back at their childhood influences and link them to the career choice they are going to make. Do they have a link, a positive connection? If yes, the career choice is right. Moreover, it is also important to see what family support, community background, and surrounding culture hold for such a job. If these connections are positively joined, the career choice is up to the mark. Works Cited Goodman, R, Keller, T., McCauley, A., & Peterson, J. S. (2004). “Teachers and non-teachers as school counselors: reflections on the internship experience”. Professional School Counseling. Accessed on July 15th, 2008 from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-116734816.html Herr, E. L. (1997). “Super’s life-span, life-space approach and its outlook for refinement”. The Career Counseling Quarterly. Accessed on July 15th, 2008 from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-11393750.html Szymanski, E. M. (March 1, 1994). “Transition: life-span and life-space considerations for empowerment”. Exceptional Children. Accessed on July 15th, 2008 from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14965952.html Beverly, C. K., Joseph, P., Diane, R. P., & Paul, A. W. (April 1, 2005). “Recruiting teachers into a career as school counselor in a school reform environment”. Planning and Changing. Accessed on July 15th, 2008 from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-877541461.html Read More