Chapter 1: Introduction to Career Development in the Global Economy and Its Role in Social Justice

Things to Remember

· The reality of the global economy and its implications for employment in the United States

· Why the need for career development services may be at its highest level in half a century

· The language of career development The reasons that careers and career development are important in the fight for social justice

· The major events in the history of career development

History of Vocational Guidance and Career Development

As will be discussed later in this chapter, there are currently calls for the adoption of a new paradigm for the theory and practice of career counseling and career development services that focuses on both individuals and the social contexts in which they function. These ideas are not new, but throughout much of the twentieth century they were neglected. The call for understanding the individual and how he or she is influenced by his or her context is a century-old echo of the voices of the social reformers who founded the vocational guidance movement in education, business, industry, and elsewhere. Reformers in Boston, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; and Grand Rapids, Michigan, focused on immigrants from Europe who came to the United States by the tens of thousands; high school dropouts who were unprepared for the changing workplace; oppression in the workplace; substandard public schools; and the need to apply scientific principles to career planning and vocational education. It is the latter idea, the focus on scientific principles that has received the most criticism, along with the failure to adequately address multicultural issues. Currently, some career development specialists are urging practitioners to abandon theories and strategies rooted in modern philosophies in favor of those rooted in postmodernism.

Looking backward to 1913 and earlier, it is worth noting that social reformers formed the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education (NSPIE) in 1906, which became the parent organization of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) in 1913. These reformers were advocates for vocational education, and they carried their fight to state legislators, to the National Education Association, and beyond. One of NSPIE’s achievements was drafting and successfully lobbying for the passage of the Smith–Hughes act in 1917, legislation that laid the foundation for land grant universities and vocational education in public schools (Stephens, 1970).

These earlier reformers were advocates. One mechanism they used to initiate local reforms was the settlement house, which was a place in a working-class neighborhood that housed researchers who studied people’s lives and problems in that neighborhood. In 1901, Frank Parsons founded the Civic Service House in Boston’s North End, and in 1908, the Vocation Bureau, an adjunct of the Boston Civic Service House, was opened. Leaders working out of the North End house established trade unions and generally conducted other activities aimed at empowering workers. These reformers also performed a variety of educational activities aimed at improving vocational skills. In the Boston Civic Service House, these activities were conducted under the auspices of the Breadwinners’ Institute and the Vocation Bureau (Stephens, 1970).

The Employment Management Association (EMA), a federal agency, was formed in 1913. Its goal was to promote vocational guidance in business and industry. EMA, NVGA, NSPIE, and other organizations lobbied aggressively for systemic changes in business, education, and governmental agencies during the early years of the twentieth century and were highly successful, perhaps because more than 50 groups united in collaborative efforts to advocate for needed reforms. According to Stephens (1970), the interest in reform had dissipated by the late 1920s because of dissension within NVGA and disagreements among NVGA and other organizations, such as the National Education Association, with which they had partnered to pursue reform.

As can be seen in Table 1.1, formal interest in facilitating career development and occupational choice began in the nineteenth century in places such as San Francisco and Grand Rapids.

Table 1.1 Historical Highlights of Vocational Guidance, Career Development, and Career Counseling in the United States

Sources: J. M. Brewer (1942); F. W. Miller (1968); A. P. Picchioni and E. C. Bonk (1983); M. Pope (2000); J. J. Schmidt (1999); J. A. Holstein and J. F. Gubrium (2000).

Year

Event

1883

Salmon Richards publishes Vacophy, which calls for vacophers to be placed in every town. He envisioned the role of the vacophers as providing vocational assistance to all.

1895

George Merrill experiments with vocational guidance at the California School of Mechanical Arts in San Francisco.

1898–1907

Jesse B. Davis instructs students about the world of work at Central High School in Detroit. In 1907, Davis moves to a principalship in Grand Rapids, MI, where he encourages teachers to relate subject matter to vocations.

1905

Frank Parsons establishes Breadwinners’ Institute, a continuing education center for immigrants and youth, in the Civic Service House in Boston.

Circa 1908