Current status and future agenda for the theory, research, and practice of childhood career development.

A population that needs future attention with regard to individual-level career development interventions is students with disabilities, including those with learning and behavioral disorders. Meeting the needs of youth with emotional and behavioral disorders as they transition into adulthood is a challenging task (Benitez, Lattimore, & Wehmeyer, 2005). Career outcomes for youth with these disordes are typically affected by poor social skills, social stigma, mental illness, academic failure, and higher unemployment levels (Benitez et al., 2005).

As such, Levinson (2004) has suggested that career development programs for students with special needs should ensure the following: (a) planning for postschool adjustment that begins early in a student's education; (b) individual education plans that specify transition services; (c) integration of students with and without disabilities; (d) curricula that focus on relevant and functional life skills; (e) instruction that takes place in the community; (f) curricula that focus on academic, vocational, and social skills; (g) program planning based on a comprehensive, transdisciplinary vocational assessment; and (h) transition programs that include work-based learning activities, adult world orientation, and supportive adults.

Summary and Conclusion

Through this discussion of the current status of the childhood career development literature, it becomes clear that career theorists have placed limited emphasis on childhood developmental processes. As evident in the review conducted by Watson and McMahon (2005), the extant literature identifies career behaviors but does not explain the process by which these behaviors have been learned. These authors called for a dual focus on how children learn and what they learn. What has been argued in the present article is the need to reexamine the childhood developmental pathways of life's work for all children, not just those from more privileged groups. One suggestion for theory regeneration was to borrow extensively from childhood and life span developmental theory and research. Collaboration across disciplines, settings (e.g., university and schools), and nations was encouraged. A second suggestion is that qualitative research methods should be used as a means of understanding children's experiences and behaviors in context.

Within the realm of research, scholars are urged to be more inclusive in studying children from diverse socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, gender, and special-needs groups. Sociocultural contexts, including the family, should be studied more closely. Finally, longitudinal research designs could contribute much to the field's knowledge of the emergence of developmental processes over time. Future practice agendas could include infusing career-building competencies throughout all academic subject areas; learning through experiential activities; and replacing fragmented, isolated interventions with an integrated process of intervention.

The time has come to move toward the study of the developmental processes of children's work behavior rooted within life contexts. A reexamination and reconsideration of theory, research, and practice will require coordinated efforts of multidisciplinary professionals, concerned community members, and families.

References

American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Baker, S. B., & Taylor, J. G. (1998). Effects of career education interventions: A metaanalysis. The Career Development Quarterly, 46, 376-385.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Beale, A. V. (2000). Elementary school career awareness: A visit to a hospital. Journal of Career Development, 27, 65-73.

Beale, A. V. (2003). It takes a team to run a restaurant: Introducing elementary students to the interrelatedness of occupations. Journal of Career Development, 29, 211-220.

Benitez, D. T., Lattimore, J., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2005). Promoting the involvement of students with emotional and behavioral disorders in career and vocational planning and decision-making: The Self-Determined Career Development Model. Behavioral Disorders, 30, 431-447.

Blustein, D. L. (2001). The interface of work and relationships: Critical knowledge for 21st century psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, 179-192.

Brathwaite, A. D. (2002). A way with words: A unique approach to literacy and career development. Journal of Career Development, 28, 221-225.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Byrnes, J.P. (1998). The nature and development of decision making: A self-regulation model. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chanter, C., & Welsh, L. (2000). Fifth-grade students experience careers that use mathematics. Teaching Children Mathematics.7, 236-241.

Dweck, C.S., & Leggett, E.L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273.

Engle, S.H. (2003). Decision making: The heart of social studies instruction. The Social Studies, 94, 7-10.

Evans, J.H. & Burck, H.D. (1992). The effects of career education interventions on academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Journal of Counseling & Development, 71, 63-68.

Fouad, N.A., & Smith, P.L. (1996). A test of a social cognitive model for middle school students: Math and science. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 338-346.

Galotti, K.M. (2005). Setting goals and making plans: How children and adolescents frame their decisions. In J. E. Jacobs & P.A. Klaczynski (Eds.), The development of judgment and decision making in children and adolescents (pp. 303-326). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Gillies, R.M., McMahon, M., & Carroll, J. (1998). Evaluating a career education intervention in the upper elementary school. Journal of Career Development, 24, 267-287.

Ginzberg, E., Ginsburg, S.W., Axelrad, S., & Herma, J.L. (1951). Occupational choice: An approach to a general theory. New York: Columbia University Press.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.

Gottfredson, L.S. (1981). Circumscription and compromise: A developmental theory of occupational aspirations [Monograph]. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28, 545-579.

Gottfredson, L.S. (2002). Gottfredson's theory of circumscription, compromise, and self-creation. In D. Brown & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development (4th ed., pp. 85-148). San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass.

Green, A., & Keys, S. (2001). Expanding the developmental school counseling paradigm: Meeting the needs of the 21st century student. Professional School Counseling, 5, 84-95.

Harkins, M.A. (2000). Career education in the primary grades: Building work-readiness through an experiential curriculum, Childhood Education, 76, 219-224.

Harkins, M. A. (2001). Using literature to establish career concepts in early childhood. The Reading Teacher, 55, 29-32.

Hartung, P.J., Porfeli, E.J., & Vondracek, F.W. (2005). Child vocational development: A review and reconsideration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66, 385-419.

Helwig, A.A. (1998). Occupational aspirations of a longitudinal sample from second to sixth grade. Journal of Career Development, 24, 247-265.

Helwig, A.A. (2001). A test of Gottfredson's theory using a ten-year longitudinal study. Journal of Career Development, 28, 77-95.

Helwig, A.A. (2002). Sex and developmental differences by complexity of functions of occupational aspirations of school children across ten years. Psychological Reports, 90, 597-605.

Isaacs, A., Carroll, W., & Bell, M. (2001). A research-based curriculum: The research basis of the UCSMP [University of Chicago School Mathematics Project] Everyday Mathematics curriculum. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from http://everydaymafh. uehicago.edu/educators/Revised_Research_Base_5.pdf

Jalongo, M.R. (1989). Career education. Childhood Education, 66, 108-115.

Johnson, L.S. (2000). The relevance of school to career: A study in student awareness. Journal of Career Development, 26, 263-276.

Kaplan, A., Middleton, M.J., Urdan, T., & Midgley, C. (2002). Achievement goals and goal structures. In C. Midgley (Ed.), Goals, goal structures, and patterns of adaptive learning (pp. 21-53). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Klaczynski, P.A., Byrnes, J.P., & Jacobs, J.E. (2001). Introduction to the special issue: The development of decision making. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 225-236.

Klaczynski, P.A., & Reese, H.W. (1991). Educational trajectory and "action orientation"; Grade and track differences, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 441-462.

Kobylarz, L., &Crow, C., & Ettinger, J. (2004). The national career developmentguidelines. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://www.acrnetwork.org/ncdg.htm

Krumboltz, J.D. (1996). A learning theory of career counseling. In M. L. Savickas & W. B. Walsh (Eds.), Handbook of career counseling theory and practice (pp. 55-80). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Lapan, R.T., Shaughnessy, P., & Boggs, K. (1996). Efficacy expectations and vocational interests as mediators between sex and choice of math/science college majors: A longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49, 277-291.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unified social cognitive-theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance [Monograph]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79-122.

Lerner, R.M. (1995). America's youth in crisis: Challenges and opportunities for programs and policies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates