Abstract
Narrative career counselling has been widely adopted in career development in the more than two decades since Savickas (1993) exhorted the field to move from scores to stories in his seminal article “Career counseling in the postmodern era.” The pioneering works of Cochran (1997), Peavy (1997), and Amundson (1998) provided examples of “how to do” narrative career counselling and since then, much has been written on new and innovative approaches, resulting in Hartung’s (2013) claim that the field has taken a “narrative turn” (p. 30). Examples of interview processes and qualitative career assessment instruments provide practitioners with a broad range of options. By injecting “news of difference” (Bateson, 1979, p. 228) into career counselling, narrative approaches revitalised the field by placing emphasis on the client–counsellor relationship and the dialogue in which they engaged, privileging the voices of clients as well as their ability to construct their futures, and taking an “individual in context” (McMahon, Watson, & Patton, 2014, p. 30) perspective of clients. Moreover, narrative career counselling was widely hoped to offer solutions to concerns about the cultural relevance of practice and its capacity to cope with complexity. Narrative career counselling, however, is in its embryonic stages in practice and research (Di Fabio, 2016), particularly in research where both the process of narrative career counselling and its outcomes need to be better understood; there remains a need for the evidence base for narrative career counselling to be strengthened.
Almost 25 years since Savickas’ prophetic words, it is time to take stock of narrative career counselling. For example, despite its popular appeal, has narrative career counselling achieved the potential envisaged for it and has it built an evidence base that attests to its processes and outcomes? This special issue, Narrative Career Counselling: A tension between potential, popular appeal, and evidence, invites contributors to consider the status quo of narrative career counselling and its way forward. The special issue will conclude with a synthesis of views from the contributions that offers a future agenda for narrative career counselling.
Types of manuscripts sought
Australian and international researchers are invited to submit manuscripts not only on innovative approaches to narrative career counselling but also on research directed towards building its evidence base. Thought-provoking manuscripts that challenge readers to engage critically with the practice of narrative career counselling and make suggestions for its way forward are encouraged. Topics that might be of interest to readers of the Australian Journal of Career Development include, but are not limited to: the use of narrative career counselling with individuals who may be disenfranchised; facilitating inclusion through narrative career counselling; using narrative approaches in group settings; integrating narrative career counselling and quantitative career assessment; qualitative career assessment; research concerning the process and outcomes of narrative career counselling; the use of narrative career counselling in diverse settings, e.g. schools, community agencies.
Deadline for submissions
Submit manuscripts to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acd by 31 January 2018.
Use 12-point Times New Roman and limit submissions to 30 pages, double spaced, all inclusive.
The special issue will be published in July 2018.
Contact the Guest Editor, Dr Mary McMahon on marylmcmahon@uq.edu.au
AJCD Editor: Professor Peter Creed