Self in career theory and counselling: a discourse analysis perspective

Abstract

A rapidly changing postmodern working world demands revised conceptualisations of the self.Recent scholarship in discourse analysis invites an investigation into how selves are constructed and fabricated within a complex matrix of social discourses, and how this may impact on the field of career counselling and development. This paper examines the self in career counselling and development from a Foucauldian discourse analysis perspective in terms of the self's situatedness in history, narrative, and power. In addition, counselling implications within a discourse analysis perspective are provided.

The 'Postmodern Turn' in the Social Sciences

“…. See, for instance: ; ); ; ; ); ); ; ; ; Seigel (1999); Stead and Bakker (2010); , pp. 90-4 and 192-8;; .…”

“…On the power-ladenness of the self, see, for example: Kelemen and Peltonen (2001), pp. 151 and 161-4;Stead and Bakker (2010), pp. 51-3;Susen (2007), pp.…”

Access, opportunity, and career: supporting the aspirations of dis/abled students with high-end needs in New Zealand

“…Engaging in a psychological process of self-making, career functions as an 'overarching construct that gives meaning to the individual's life' (Young and Collin 2000, 5). Constructed in relation to other facets of life, career is formed and shaped by the individual who assigns their own priorities, attaches their own meanings, and narrates their own stories about themselves (Stead and Bakker 2010) and their life/style. The Career Industry Council of Australia, for example, drawing on a Canadian model, talked of how career can be understood as: 'A lifestyle concept .…”

Extending The Metaphor of Narrative to Dialogical Narrator

“…Recently, scholars have demonstrated the utility of research methods that operationalise social constructionism and capture the dynamics of narrative in process, namely, discourse analysis (Stead & Bakker, 2010), the action-project method (Young, Valach, & Domene, 2005), and autoethnography (McIlveen, 2007b). Innovations such as these are vital for the articulation of social constructionism as a paradigm, because they may advance as research methodologies that are consistent with the criteria for trustworthiness of qualitative research (cf.…”

“…Thus, unlike the essentialist notion of self, from the perspective of social constructionism, career and self are embedded in context and culture, produced in discourse, and constructed in narrative as an active process (Collin & Guichard, 2011). In this way, cultural and discursive perspectives of career and self (Stead, 2004;Stead & Bakker, 2010) require consideration of narrative as a linguistic entity.…”