Adolescence is an important developmental stage when decisions and plans are being envisioned. The important factor that adolescents deal with is the imminence of the reality that they will soon end their high school life and reach the period of independence of young adulthood when they have to transition to the university (Herr, Cramer & Niles, 2004). As the adolescent makes a transition to the adult world of work and academic life, it is inherently difficult to separate home from the workplace. A large number of high school students continue to reflect uncertainty about their career plans and therefore desire for more career guidance. The researcher conducted a focus group discussion with adolescents in order to have a realistic view about their situation of career certainty and indecisiveness.As Shakespeare's famous phrase in Hamlet says, To be, or not be, is the question (Shakespeare & Pearce, 2008, p.44). This quote can represent a student's process of choosing a major or making a career. Although the basic foundation for a career decision begins when a child is still in the elementary school, it is at the adolescent stage of life when decision about the future is made and carved out. In order to enter into a good career and make it successful, one needs to make an appropriate decision. Unfortunately, there are many who fail to make a good decision, few are hesitant to make decisions, some fear to make decisions, and still others are forced by others to make decisions. Besides involving one's emotions, vision, surroundings, a good decision is made by one's self. In other words, as Donald Super puts it, making one good decision is an individual and a psychological task.Another quote from Hamlet, To thine own self be true (Shakespeare & Pearce, 2008, p.16), is apt to the situation of adolescents who are being undecided, in which case the institution needs to pay a special attention on this matter of career decision. When a person is confused over making choices regarding his career in spite of being at the right age, then he tends frequently to change his mind; such a state is called career indecision. Therefore, the objective of a phenomenological study is to take the phenomenon of the client's problem as the topic of inquiry.MethodParticipantsFor the interview the researcher conducted a focus group discussion for 2 groups of 14 members each in two different schools and went through deliberation according to the goal and purpose of the researcher. There was an equal distribution of males (50 percent) and females (50 percent) with a modal age of 16 (80 percent). The participants represented the 4th year students who were enrolled in the year 2014-2015.Instrument and procedureThe researcher developed a questionnaire which was validated by three registered guidance professionals. The interview questions were open-ended and derived from the literature and previous studies on career indecision and certainty. Upon receiving the consent of the participants and their parents, the interview session was scheduled depending on the availability of the participants. For a phenomenological inquiry, a semi-structured interview was conducted to follow up the queries and clarify the inquiries to be answered by the participants. By bringing together a group of participants to discuss or share their views and opinions, new strands of thought emerged. The said session, which lasted for 45 minutes, was audio recorded to ensure that everything that transpired in the process was captured.Mode of analysisTranscribing the interview materials was done solely by the researcher. After the interview or discussion, thematic analysis was conducted in order to limit the expressions of the students. The process of this analysis was done in the following way: bracketing the phenomenological expression, delineating units of meaning, grouping into mass of meanings to form themes, summarizing the interests, and finally extracting general and unique themes from the session. …
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Apr 25, 2024
Alaa Alsqour + 1
Open Access
