Piloting career development: Whole school interventions

Kamilla Rawatlal

doi:10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.33

Abstract

Background: The article reports on a project that was undertaken as a pilot study for a whole-school approach (WSA) to career education intervention that was integrated into the Grade 10, Life Orientation (LO) curriculum at a public, secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Objectives: Using an ecological framework, interventions to improve learners’ future orientation and motivation were piloted with Grade 10 learners’ at the micro-, meso- and macro-level to inform career education.Method: An approach, using an intervention and control school involving three phases was conducted. The mixed method evaluation involved the administration of baseline questionnaires to all Grade 10 learners and included, the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM), the Future Orientation Scale (FOS). Multivariate analysis and repeated measures of analysis and variance were also conducted. Qualitatively, process evaluation using fidelity checklists and post intervention interviews, with key informants was conducted. Focus group sessions with learners were also utilised.Results: The findings support how career learning can be integrated and evaluated in a whole- school curriculum. In a WSA, an integrated system of career education in every secondary school is proposed.Conclusion: This research supports the call for career education to be shifted from a peripheral to a central role that can be integrated into the curriculum. This study, although in a limited way, supports the need for broader, contextual approaches to career development, and acknowledges the vital role school membership and career development play in the mental health promotion of adolescents.

Highlights

A whole-school approach (WSA) focuses on shaping the whole school, and this includes the school’s ethos, relationships, organisational and management structures, the physical environment, the taught curriculum, and pedagogic practice, so that the experience of school life is conducive to the health of all who learn and work there (Weare & Markham, 2005)
Various studies in South Africa have emphasised the need of young people for career education
Chuenyane’s (1983) study indicated 90% of the African high school population had ‘serious career planning problems’ (p. 278). This has been identified by numerous studies in the last decade (Mtolo, 1996; Ntshngase, 1995) where learners have pleaded for career education in secondary schools

Summary

Introduction

A whole-school approach (WSA) focuses on shaping the whole school, and this includes the school’s ethos, relationships, organisational and management structures, the physical environment, the taught curriculum, and pedagogic practice, so that the experience of school life is conducive to the health of all who learn and work there (Weare & Markham, 2005). Implicit in a WSA, is an integrated system of career education (Stead & Watson, 2006) This approach to career education encourages a diversity of activities that is systematic, coordinated and transcends boundaries of academic subjects to ‘enhance the career development of all students throughout the school experience’ This approach to career education is based on the premise that in making the transition from school life to adulthood, all learners need guidance in exploring their interests and abilities (Avent, 1988) Such an approach to make career education in South Africa more accessible is critical, given the work of Maree (2013; Savickas, 2012a), who identified that despite the documented importance of career counselling it is typically young people whose parents can afford it, that access the service. The article reports on a project that was undertaken as a pilot study for a wholeschool approach (WSA) to career education intervention that was integrated into the Grade 10, Life Orientation (LO) curriculum at a public, secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion