If we want to create holistic, impactful career education programs for schools, then we need to bring teachers along for the ride. Teachers are the ones on the front lines, talking to students and equipping them with the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in their adult lives, which puts them in an unrivalled position to positively influence career development.
The problem many of us who work in this space face is that teachers are not the easiest bunch to reach. All teachers, regardless of what they teach, or where they teach it, have had a rough trot over the past few years, and are understandably reluctant to add to their workload or deliver another program (Pressley, 2021). The rise of standardized testing and additional data and accountability requirements on teachers, usually externally imposed, can also make them reluctant to consider new programs or adjustments to curriculum (Perryman & Calvert, 2020).
But if we want to really embed careers within the curriculum, which is one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate relevance, boost student engagement and improve career decisions, then we need to get teachers on board. They are the ones who are in the classrooms, delivering the lessons, and they have the power to connect (or not connect) their content with career pathways – but they need support to do so.
Teachers can hold the key
After immediate family, teachers are often the next most influential factor in a young person’s career decisions (Vernon & Drane, 2020). This makes sense, when you think about it – they have regular contact with students in a context where they are learning and thinking about their future, and teachers hold a position of authority and (hopefully) trust for their students, so it’s no surprise that their opinions and ideas hold weight with young people.
That isn’t to say that teachers are holding in-depth career conversations with each student; in practice, the influence teachers exert manifests in a couple of ways:
- Teachers connect their content to career pathways,
- Teachers share their opinions on careers and pathways, and
- Teachers pass judgment on their student’s capacity to succeed in certain career pathways.
So, what does this look like?
Connecting content to careers
Teachers often connect their content to careers. For example, a science teacher might explain the real-world use of a chemical formula, or an English teacher may mention that journalists often need to write book reviews for magazines and online publications.
Sharing opinions
When careers and pathways are brought up in class, teachers may subconsciously pass judgment about the pathway. That doesn’t mean they are explicitly negative; rather, they might make a face or use a tone of voice that students pick up on.
Judging capacity
It’s important for teachers to share their opinions about a student’s abilities – they do this to assess their students – but they also occasionally comment on a student’s capacity to achieve a certain career pathway. When they do, their comment might not even relate to the student at all, but rather to the perceived likelihood of them obtaining that pathway (“Medicine is hard!” or “Lots of people want to become musicians”).
Let’s ensure teachers understand their influence and have accurate information to share
Teachers often aren’t aware either of their influential role, or of the impact of their words and actions (Austin et al., 2021). They also may not feel confident about their ability to provide accurate information or quality guidance; after all, career education is not really in their job description.
My Social Enterprise, Study Work Grow, is based in Australia and provides career resources to hundreds of schools across the world. A couple of years ago, we created our own career education program called Ponder. But when we started rolling it out in schools, we had little intention of involving teachers in the process, because the last thing we wanted to do was to add to their workload. We imagined that most career educators and guidance counsellors would slot Ponder into their assemblies or whole-school programs. In our most optimistic dreams, we thought they might be able to grab a bit of time each week with whole-year cohorts to deliver the program.
Which is why we were so thrilled/surprised/delighted when schools started telling us that they were delivering Ponder in homeroom, and that teachers were the ones hosting the conversations.
What we’ve found is that teachers who are delivering Ponder on behalf of their career educator have grown in confidence and become more engaged in the process of supporting their students, because this program gives them the framework to have positive conversations. It feels like we’re inserting career education by stealth at this point – many of these teachers have felt so engaged with the topics that they now have the confidence to start embedding career-related learning within their wider curriculum.
It’s not the only solution, but it seems to be heading in the right direction. Regardless of whether you are delivering Ponder or any other career education program, we believe that including teachers in the conversation and supplying them with accessible (and easy-to-use) resources can make a world of difference.
Ponder is based on the revised version of the Australian Blueprint for Career Development, which was based on the Canadian Blueprint for Life/Work Designs (Hooley et al., 2013). It provides a scope and sequence for delivering high-impact career education which builds career management competencies, and the program contains a full suite of easy-to-use resources which we’ve found to be highly engaging for young people. Ponder is already used extensively in Australian schools, and has recently been the subject of an OECD Case Study for ODiCY, and we are seeking Canadian schools to pilot Ponder within a Canadian context. To find out more, email lucy@studyworkgrow.com.au.
