Introduction to the special section.

investigate how the facts of lived experience organize themselves

into a whole that gives new meaning to a life in progress.

(Savickas, 2008, p. 218)

Savickas (2008) writes that "Tiedeman viewed the then-prominent theories of Roe (1956), Holland (1959), and Super (1957) as unarticulated parts, each in a neat box of Newtonian science" (p. 219), and, as Tiedeman developed his critique of his contemporaries' theories, his own view along with new definitions emerged. Tiedeman's new language for career was an attempt to get his peers to break out of their old ways of thinking. For him, "career is guided thought that lends direction to a person's vocational behavior" (Tiedeman, 1964, p. 18). This new view provided the impetus for the development of career construction theory. In Tiedeman's process theory of self and career (as Tiedeman eschewed such, this is not the name of his theory, merely descriptive), "career emerges from self-organization, purposeful action bridges discontinuity, and decisions evolve through differentiation and integration" (Savickas, 2008, p. 217).

David Jepsen (2008) provides a personal and logical argument as to why we should read Tiedeman's work and, at the same time, gives us the essence of Tiedeman as a person and of his professional contributions. Jepsen writes of what made Tiedeman unique to the world of career development. Like a Zen Buddhist master, Tiedeman "recognized paradoxes in career decision processes (e.g., the requirement that a decision maker be both committed and tentative at the same time; Tiedeman, 1967, 1975)" (Jepsen, 2008, p. 226).

First, according to Jepsen (2008), Tiedeman

insisted that he did not write a career theory. Rather than

advancing theoretical propositions amenable to empirical tests, he

offered "primitive terms in a science of career development"

(Tiedeman & O'Hara, 1963, p. v). He believed that each person can

become a career theorist, that each of us is capable of developing a

theory of our own career. (p. 226)

Second, Tiedeman

conceptualized the human career as a process, not an outcome, such

as a series of occupational roles. From his perspective, career is

"a lifetime achievement, always in the process of emergence"

(Tiedeman, 1971, p. 123). He frequently used the analogies of motion

and flow when describing career. Specifically, he believed that

career is "the time-extended working out of oneself" through

mechanisms such as acts of deciding and "mapping of self (Tiedeman,

1971, p. 124). (Jepsen, 2008, p. 226)

Third, Tiedeman

framed the goal of a person's career development not as entering a

job or an occupation but rather as "the making of a life and the

evolution of existential meanings" (Tiedeman & O'Hara, 1963, p. 4).

Whereas other career scholars emphasized vocational behaviors or

work roles, Tiedeman insisted that the fundamental quality that

develops throughout a career is the meaning the person attributes to

experiences.... [Tiedeman] argued that the internalization of the

decision processes, that is, going beyond the words used in talking

about decisions, leaves the person with a heightened sense of

personal agency. (Jepsen, 2008, p. 226)

David Duys, Janice Ward, Jane Maxwell, and Leslie Eaton-Comerford (2008) revisit Tiedeman's contributions as applied to today's world and conclude that his ideas hold up remarkably well. These authors focus on Tiedeman's decision-making process--a nonlinear model that allows for career path recycling and revisiting of previously completed phases. According to these authors, Tiedeman's (1961) model "provides a framework to better understand phases associated with evolving priorities throughout life" (Duys et al., 2008, p. 237). They also discuss an application of this process that they call "retro-development" (Duys et al., 2008, p. 236), or the process of working backward through these decision-making phases.

Finally, they discuss "parallel streams" (Duys et al., 2008, p. 237), which occurs when people simultaneously pursue different vocational interests.

For Tiedeman, engagement in parallel vocational paths is not seen as

a failure to make a significant investment in a primary occupation

but rather as an accepted manner of further exploring one's

interests and abilities. A counselor who operates from Tiedeman's

perspective would be quite comfortable helping a client

simultaneously deal with issues associated with each endeavor. (Duys

et al., 2008, p. 237)

Duys et al. (2008) contend that these ideas embedded in Tiedeman's (1961) original model address variables often ignored by other models. "The idea of nonlinear movement, flexibility, and individual development that Tiedeman's model explores makes it an excellent resource for counselors helping clients contend with a volatile labor market" (Duys et al., 2008, p. 239).

In the concluding article in this special section, Anna Miller-Tiedeman (2008) offers us her perspective on the work of her late husband, partner, colleague, and collaborator, David Tiedeman. Miller-Tiedeman was arguably David Tiedeman's most influential collaborator given that she introduced him to constructivism and quantum physics in the 1970s (Savickas, 2008). Using his own words, Miller-Tiedeman guides us through Tiedeman's work. She uses the structure of (a) his professional credo, (b) his Harvard Studies in Career Development, (c) his declaration in 1983 about career, (d) his thoughts about statistics of vocational guidance, and (e) his beliefs about self-counseling and consciousness.

Furthermore, she cites four practice or theory and practice themes in Tiedeman's work. Tiedeman's first practice theme "involves protecting personal perception in an effort to increase individual personal development" (Miller-Tiedeman, 2008, p. 243). Tiedeman's second theory and practice theme "involves supporting an idea capable of liberating the perception, thereby freeing it for increased development" (Miller-Tiedeman, 2008, p. 244). Tiedeman's third theory and practice theme "holds that statistics matter little in an individual life. If anything, they tend to capture, not liberate, perception, and this can truncate development" (Miller-Tiedeman, 2008, p. 244). Tiedeman's fourth practice theme "involves moving to a science supporting a consciousness of being conscious in order to recognize process even at a young age" (Miller-Tiedeman, 2008, p. 244).

Miller-Tiedeman also graciously contributed the curriculum vitae and photographs that accompany this special section.

Conclusion

Tiedeman was always growing and developing, as he moved from an outcome- to a process-focused view of life and career. What runs throughout the articles in this special section is Tiedeman's contributions to both theory and practice. He knew he was offering intellectually provocative insights into career development, and he deliberately used a new language to move career counseling and development professionals out of their comfort zone to help them overcome their previous professional learning and their inertia. "Tiedeman's change in language about careers both reflected and fostered the change he sought to bring about in career theory" (Savickas, 2008, p. 220).

He grew out of his statistics phase, as Miller-Tiedeman (2008) stated, but he could only do that through his own expertise in that field of study. Just as Picasso's modernist view of art grew out of his excellence in the foundational techniques of representational art, so did Tiedeman evolve. As an expert statistician, he could see through the holes in that worldview, and it led him to a new vision, a vision informed by engineering, science, and physics. A vision so big that it encompassed the relativity of a person's universe; the importance of perception; and how individuals construct their own lives, vision, and theory about their own human nature as well as their careers.

There is no reason why kids can't themselves be theorists of human

nature. It's too heady a game, theory in human nature, to permit

psychologists to monopolize it. It's the capacity to theorize about

one's own nature which I make the center of my work. (D. V.

Tiedeman, personal communication, July 7, 1971)

Finally, as Savickas (2008) writes,

[Tiedeman] elaborated a new paradigm that applied a constructivist

epistemology to the comprehension of career. His model of career

consciousness fits postmodern societies with their information

technology and global economies. Counselors who use career

construction models and narrative counseling methods are well

advised to revisit Tiedeman's initial formulations. His seminal

articles provide inspiration and instruction for the continuing

elaboration of career construction theory. (p. 223)

His process theory of self and career laid the foundation for today's career construction theory and other constructivist, social construction, and narrative theories. For this and all that he gave to our profession, with this special section, we pay tribute to the contributions of David Valentine Tiedeman.

References

Duys, D. K., Ward, J. E., Maxwell, J. A., & Eaton-Comerford, L. (2008). Career counseling in a volatile job market: Tiedeman's perspective revisited. The Career Development Quarterly, 56, 232-241.

Jepsen, D. A. (2008). A tribute to David Tiedeman. The Career Development Quarterly, 56, 225-231.