Career Development Counseling for African Americans: An Appraisal of the Obstacles and Intervention Strategies

Abstract

In direct contrast to preponderance of upwardly mobile occupations held by their White counterparts, African Americans have largely been confined to those jobs considered instrumental, that is, lower-level jobs that offer little opportunity for professional growth or lucrative monetary reward (Miles, 1981). These primarily blue-collar occupations include domestic and personal service jobs, which serve mainly as a means of making a living rather than as careers. Moreover, a large number of African American college students are pursuing careers in education, social sciences, medicine, and law-fields that are perceived as protected careers and thought to be less racially discriminatory than more financially rewarding mathematicsand science-based careers (Evans & Herr, 1991; Hall & Post-Kammer, 1987). Additionally, Evans and Herr suggest that although some research notes high career aspirations among African American women, latter have also been found to have low expectations for fulfilling their career goals due to their perceptions of racism and sexism in workplace. African American graduate school enrollment stood at 4.8% in 1984, down from 6% in 1976 (Morris, 1993). According to Morris, while number of African American doctorates increased from 1984 to 1988, net gain was still 16% less than that of peak year of 1977. Of 909 African Americans who obtained PhD's in 1985, compared with 20,641 Whites, few had majored in natural or physical sciences (Heller & McMillen, 1986). At elementary and secondary school levels, mathematics and science continue to be the critical filters that separate children into [academic and professional] tracks (Shirley McBay, cited in Jones, 1993, p. 4). Jones further points out that African American children are disproportionately placed in low-level, remedial mathematics classes, a practice which significantly limits African American students' access to gatekeeping courses that ultimately qualify them for lucrative careers in mathematicsand science-based fields.