Tristram Hooley is a researcher and writer on career and career guidance. He holds professorial roles in the University of Derby, Canterbury Christchurch University and the Inland Norway University of Applied Science and is the Chief Research Officer for the Institute of Student Employers. He has published seven books, including Career Guidance for Emancipation: Reclaiming Justice for the Multitude Career Guidance for Social Justice (with Ronald Sultana and Rie Thomsen), published in late 2018. He will be drawing on this and other publications in his workshop as well as his experience of working in the space between research, practice and policy. He also writes the Adventures in Career Development blog.
Career Development for Social Justice: Developing Emancipatory Practice
Careers education and guidance is a profoundly political process. It operates at the interface between the individual and society, between self and opportunity, between aspiration and realism. It facilitates the allocation of life chances. Within a society in which such life chances are unequally distributed, it faces the issue of whether it serves to reinforce such inequalities or to reduce them.
– Tony Watts
We all know that life isn’t fair. Career development is often the process of helping people to manage that unfairness and to make the best out of the chances available to you. However, it can be frustrating that the chances that our clients have to build good and meaningful career, to access decent work and create a good life for themselves and their families are so influenced by their position in society, their gender, ethnicity, sexuality and religion. Traditionally career development professionals were encouraged to support people to adapt to what life throws at them and become resilient to challenges and oppression. But, a growing movement for social justice in the field is asking whether this is really the best approach. This workshop will be highly practical and offer a series of resources and exercises that will help career development practitioners engage with social justice and identify new practices and approaches that they can adopt.
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
- Explain what social justice is and demystify key concepts like opportunity structure, neoliberalism, oppression and responsibilisation
- Discuss the ethical issues involved in engaging (and not engaging) in social justice as a careers practitioner
- Identify the five signposts towards socially just career development (build critical consciousness; name oppression; question what is normal; encourage people to work together; and work at a range of levels) and explain their relevance to your practice
- Make use of a range of resources, models and tools for delivering socially just career development
