Social Justice and Career Development: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Abstract

Social justice has underpinned career development work since its inception. Over time however, while awareness of social justice issues has been retained, the focus of intervention has largely remained individual. Further, career theory has been criticised for its lack of attention to cultural influences such as gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation, in people's career development. In this regard, progress has been made to the extent that multicultural and diversity competencies have been identified and elaborated. However, such competencies maintain a predominant focus on interventions with individuals and there have been calls for career development to identify social justice competencies which necessarily suggest different roles and levels of intervention for career development practitioners. As the implications of globalisation become more apparent and societal inequity is perpetuated, it is timely to revisit the social justice origins of career development and consider how career development may position itself in the 21st century. This paper examines social justice in career development theory and practice, and considers implications for career development practitioners.