Abstract
Higher education students provide many reasons for their taking a particular degree. These typically relate to their current vocational interests and future employment prospects. This is significant since students’ vocational identities and consequent decisions develop in a complex dynamic of vocational personality, characteristic adaptations, and life stories, all interacting with affordances in the social, economic, and cultural contexts of students’ lives. Using contemporary personality theory and vocational psychology theory, we focus on the third dynamism—life stories—to explicate a method that facilitates assessment for and of learning in the context of career. Here we describe the conceptual and methodological dimensions of “My Career Chapter—A Dialogical Autobiography” (McIlveen, 2006) as an exemplar of an innovative pedagogical method with its conceptual foundations in vocational psychology and the theory of dialogical self. We will describe examples of its application in postgraduate studies and elaborate on its teaching and assessment affordances for career education. Finally, we will outline practical implications for the continuing application and evaluation of My Career Chapter, and the curricular vision that drives it, in higher education and career development learning.
My Career Chapter—A Dialogical Autobiography (MCC; McIlveen, 2006) is a semi-structured, qualitative career assessment tool and learning activity. MCC enables the user (e.g., student or client) to compose a brief autobiographical narrative about his/her career. Typically, the narrative created through MCC is integrated into career learning activities within educational or counselling contexts. These activities focus on crucial developmental tasks, such as exploration of occupational interests, career decision-making, values clarification, and resolving career conflicts. Moreover, the constructivist, meaning making narrative generated through MCC is used to elucidate career-related life themes (Savickas, 2005) that are authored, narrated, and edited by the dialogical self (McIlveen & Patton, 2007).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bayne, H. B. (2013). My Career Chapter. In C. Wood & D. G. Hays (Ed.), A counselor’s guide to career assessment instruments. 6th ed. (pp. 493–497). Broken Arrow: National Career Development Association.
Boud, D. (2010). Assessment 2020: seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education. University of Technology Sydney: Office of Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.olt.gov.au/system/files/resources/Assessment2020_final.pdf
Boud, D., & Soler, R. (2016). Sustainable assessment revisited. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(3), 400–413. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1018133.
Bridgestock, R. (2016). Graduate employability 2.0: social networks for learning, career development and innovation in the digital age. Paper for discussion. Retrieved from http://www.graduateemployability2-0.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2016/09/Graduate-employability-2-0-discussion-paper.pdf-page=5&;zoom=auto,-20,574
Brott, P. (2015). Qualitative career assessment processes. Rotterdam: Sense.
Brown, S. D., & Ryan Krane, N. E. (2000). Four (or five) sessions and a cloud of dust: old assumptions and new observations about career counseling. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of couseling psychology. 3rd ed. (pp. 740–766). New York: Wiley.
Brown, S. D., Ryan Krane, N. E., Brecheisen, J., Castelino, P., Budisin, I., Miller, M., & Edens, L. (2003). Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: more analyses and new hypotheses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62(3), 411–428. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00052-0.
Duffy, R. D., Blustein, D. L., Diemer, M. A., & Autin, K. L. (2016). The psychology of working theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(2), 127–148. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000140.
Hermans, H. J. M. (2001). The construction of a personal position repertoire: method and practice. Culture & Psychology, 7(3), 323–365.
Hermans, H. J. M. (2006). The self as a theater of voices: disorganization and reorganization of a position repertoire. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 19(2), 147–169. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10720530500508779.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Gieser, T. (Eds.) (2012). Handbook of dialogical self theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Hermans-Konopka, A. (2010). Dialogical self theory: positioning and counter-positioning in a globalizing society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Kempen, H. J. G. (1993). The dialogical self: meaning as movement. San Diego: Academic Press.
Kuijpers, M., Meijers, F., & Gundy, C. (2011). The relationship between learning environment and career competencies of students in vocational education. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78(1), 21–30. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.05.005.
Law, B. (1999). Career-learning space: new-dots thinking for careers education. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 27(1), 35–54. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03069889908259714.
Law, B., Meijers, F., & Wijers, G. (2002). New perspectives on career and identity in the contemporary world. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 30(4), 432–449.
Lengelle, R., & Meijers, F. (2014). Narrative identity: writing the self in career learning. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 42(1), 52–72. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2013.816837.
Lengelle, R., & Meijers, F. (2015). Career Writing: a creative, expressive and reflective approach to qualitative assessment and guidance. In M. McMahon & M. Watson (Eds.), Career Assessment: Qualitative Approaches (pp. 145–153). Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei: Sense Publishers.
Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Geijsel, F., & Post, M. (2015). Career writing as a dialogue about work experience: a recipe for luck readiness? International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 16, 29–43. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-014-9283-1.
Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., & Post, M. (2014). Career writing: creative, expressive and reflective approaches to narrative identity formation in students in higher education. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 85(1), 75–84. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.05.001.
Loevinger, J. (1985). Revision of the sentence completion test for ego development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 420–427.
McCash, P. (2006). We’re all career researchers now: breaking open career education and DOTS. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 34(4), 429–449. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03069880600942558.
McIlveen, P. (2006). My Career Chapter: a dialogical autobiography. Retrieved from http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/23797
McIlveen, P. (2007a). Counsellors’ personal experience and appraisal of My Career Chapter. Australian Journal of Career Development, 16(2), 12–19. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/103841620701600204.
McIlveen, P. (2007b). A test for theoretical integration: systems theory framework and dialogical self. Australian Journal of Career Development, 16(3), 31–37.
McIlveen, P. (2012). Transformative career development learning: building capacity for self-determination. In P. A. Danaher, L. De George-Walker, R. Henderson, K. J. Matthews, W. Midgley, K. Noble & C. H. Arden (Eds.), Constructing capacities: building capabilities through learning and engagement (pp. 144–159). Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
McIlveen, P. (2015a). My Career Chapter and the career systems interview. In M. McMahon & M. Watson (Eds.), Career assessment: qualitative approaches (pp. 123–128). Rotterdam: Sense.
McIlveen, P. (2015b). My Career Chapter: a dialogical autobiography. Chinese version. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283663464_My_Career_Chapter_A_Dialogical_Autobiography._Chinese_Version. doi:https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3281.8645.
McIlveen, P. (2015c). A reflexive research approach to professional competencies for life designing. In L. Nota & J. Rossier (Eds.), Handbook of life design: from practice to theory and from theory to practice (pp. 269–281). Boston: Hogrefe.
McIlveen, P. (2015d). 我的生涯篇章 与职业生涯系统访谈 [My Career Chapter and the career systems interview. Chinese version]. In M. McMahon & M. Watson (Eds.), Career assessment: qualitative approaches (pp. 123–128). Rotterdam: Sense. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283663595_My_Career_Chapter_and_the_Career_Systems_Interview._Chinese_Version doi:https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1971.1440.
McIlveen, P. (2017a). Dialogical self: co-investigator in career self-research. In M. McMahon (Ed.), Career counselling: constructivist approaches (pp. 153–163). London: Routledge.
McIlveen, P. (2017b). Using My Career Chapter with a Malaysian engineer to write and tell a career story. In L. A. Busacca & M. C. Rehfuss (Eds.), Postmodern career counseling: a handbook of culture, context, and cases (pp. 105–117). Alexandria: American Counseling Association.
McIlveen, P., & du Preez, J. (2012). A model for the co-authored interpretation of My Career Chapter. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 7(4), 276–286.
McIlveen, P., Ford, T., & Dun, K. (2005). A narrative sentence-completion process for systems career assessment. Australian Journal of Career Development, 14(3), 30–39.
Meijers, F. (2002). Career learning in a changing world: The role of emotions. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 24, 149–167.
Meijers, F., & Lengelle, R. (2012). Narratives at work: the development of career identity. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 40(2), 157–176. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2012.665159.
Meijers, F., & Lengelle, R. (2015). Career learning: qualitative career assessment as a learning process in the construction of a narrative identity. In M. McMahon & M. Watson (Ed.), Career assessment: qualitative approaches (pp. 41–48). Rotterdam: Sense.
McIlveen, P., & Patton, W. (2007). Dialogical self: author and narrator of career life themes. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 7(2), 67–80. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-007-9116-6.
McIlveen, P., & Patton, W. (2010). My Career Chapter as a tool for reflective practice. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 10(3), 147–160. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-010-9181-0.
McIlveen, P., Patton, W., & Hoare, P. N. (2007). My Career Chapter: guidance counsellors’ appraisal of its suitability for adolescents. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 17(2), 148–159. doi:https://doi.org/10.1375/ajgc.17.2.148.
McIlveen, P., Patton, W., & Hoare, P. N. (2008). An interpretative phenomenological analysis of clients’ reactions to My Career Chapter. Australian Journal of Career Development, 17(3), 51–62. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/103841620801700308.
Patton, W., & McMahon, M. (2014). Career development and systems theory: connecting theory and practice. (3rd ed.) Rotterdam: Sense.
Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). Hoboken: Wiley.
Tan, K. (2007). Conceptions of self-assessment: what is needed for long-term learning? In D. Boud & N. Falchikov (Eds.), Rethinking assessment in higher education (pp. 114–127). Abingdon: Routledge.
Whiston, S. C., Li, Y., Goodrich Mitts, N., & Wright, L. (2017). Effectiveness of career choice interventions: a meta-analytic replication and extension. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 100, 175–184. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.010.
Winters, A., Meijers, F., Lengelle, R., & Baert, H. (2012). The self in career learning: an evolving dialogue. In H. J. M. Hermans & T. Gieser (Ed.), Handbook of dialogical self theory (pp. 454–469). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Healy, M., McIlveen, P., Hammer, S. (2018). Use of My Career Chapter to Engage Students in Reflexive Dialogue. In: Meijers, F., Hermans, H. (eds) The Dialogical Self Theory in Education. Cultural Psychology of Education, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62861-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62861-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62860-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62861-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)