Emancipatory potential of community interaction in career education

Abstract

This article contributes to a further development of Bill Law’s Community Interaction Theory (1981, 2009), by highlighting its emancipatory potential. Through an action research project with teachers, career counsellors and the article’s author, collective knowledge was developed on career education in lower secondary schools in Norway, with particular focus on integrating career learning through work placement activities. Analysis show challenges in contributing to career education’s liberating potential without sufficient insight into how to facilitate a reflective career learning process. The paper concludes that, to strengthen a focus on emancipation, career education needs to build on Community Interaction Theory by emphasising the collective, contextual, complex, and critical dimensions of career learning.