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the
underpinning
Challenging
biographies relocating the theory and practice of careers
work
Challenging biographies and third-age guidance:
the use of narratives in guidance work with older age groups
Geoff
Ford
Senior
Consultant for the Third Age Employment Network
Fellow of the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling
Visiting Associate of the Centre for Guidance Studies at the University
of Derby
This
article reviews Challenging Biographies, and considers
the role of narrative-based approaches within third-age guidance.
It usefully sets the argument in the context of recent research
into third-age guidance. The author sees the arguments as helping
to explain why many older adults, looking for empathetic listeners
who could act as sounding boards for ideas, actually receive the
IAG equivalent of a cold shower. Geoff blames nobody
for this. But, he argues, telling ones own story is a natural
human impulse. And it tends to increase as the story gets longer.
Geoff
has his reservations about Challenging
Biographies.
But he looks forward to further work being done on the issues it
raises.
Challenging
Biographies is a most timely and rewarding symposium of papers on
narrative perspectives applied to career guidance and repays detailed
study. It could prove to be a landmark in the development of guidance
practice. Interest in the use of narrative approaches within guidance
in the UK is increasing - driven by the holism that has shaped Connexions
policy and by accompanying disenchantment with the increasing bureaucratic
control of the guidance agenda. This is widely seen as top-down
and target-driven, and designed to meet official requirements rather
than individual needs. In these circumstances it is especially refreshing
to read so clear and lucid a re-affirmation of the practical and
ethical necessity for genuinely client-centred guidance.
The three essays (by Linden West, Bill Law and Hazel Reid) that
constitute the heart of the publication, differ considerably in
their approaches but complement each other extremely well. In very
general terms (because the papers are too rich to summarise properly
in a brief description) Wests paper illustrates the value
of narrative methodology applied to career through psychotherapeutic
approaches based on four case-studies - two of whom are young single
parents, one in his 30s, and one woman returner aged 50+. Laws
paper makes a powerful case for the greater use of narrative-led
methods within careers education and guidance mainly with young
people. Law argues that narrative thinking is more consistent with
the way people actually learn through the process of living and
as members of families and local communities, and illustrates his
thesis with examples drawn from published auto/biographies. Reids
contribution views narrative methodology through the pragmatic eyes
of an experienced practitioner, and provides a nice balance to the
two more impassioned papers that precede.
Reid
raises questions that will be of concern to all practitioners reading
Wests and Laws papers. They include:
>
What are the practical implications of adopting narrative approaches
within guidance?
>
What are the time and
resource implications?
>
To what extent would
clients welcome telling their story?
>
How could the use of
narrative best be introduced into guidance practitioner training?
It
is to the credit of the editor that these and other questions are
explored in some depth in the final and all-important chapter, which
is presented in the form of a discussion between West, Law and Reid
chaired by the editor, Andrew Edwards. Reids pragmatic yet
supportive questioning is a continuing theme throughout this discussion,
and ensures the participants return regularly to the practicalities
of implementation. The authors are in agreement that there is a
need for local developments based on guidance practice, and that
these should be carefully mapped, evaluated and subjected to collaborative
action research - to establish what works and (if so) why it is
effective.
A
recurring theme throughout Challenging Biographies is the authors
concern about the eroding effects that the current target culture
can have on client-centredness within guidance. In contrast, narrative
approaches to guidance place individuals right at the centre of
the guidance process. The case for more emphasis on peoples
own stories so convincingly set out in Challenging Biographies,
is simultaneously a graphic exposition of the reasons why so many
clients of all ages are repelled by target-centred guidance.
The
importance of individual narrative in third-age guidance
When
invited to review Challenging Biographies I was asked specifically
to do so within the context of guidance work with older adults.
A recent DfES-funded research initiative, the Challenging Age project
(Ford et al., 2003), examined the guidance requirements of older
adults and the extent to which Information, Advice and Guidance
Partnerships and their members are able to respond to these. A condition
of the research was all those interviewed should have received guidance
from a member organisation of an IAG Partnership. However, many
of those interviewed wanted to talk initially about their experiences
when attending their local job-centre, normally the first IAG agency
visited after being made redundant. The Challenging Age research
team found that the reactions of adults aged 45+ towards their visits
to job-centres were generally hostile. The papers in Challenging
Biographies enable one to see why.
The
research shows that older adults, often at a forced transition in
their lives because of redundancy from previously long-standing
employment with the same company, frequently visit job-centres expecting
to discuss their hopes and ambitions for the future. For many adults
aged 45+, redundancy appears to provide the opportunity for a career
change to an occupational area more in line with interests and values
- which may have altered and developed substantially since initial
choice of occupation on first leaving education. Frequently, they
wish to explore other occupations where they can extend the use
and development of skills and experience under-utilised in their
previous place of employment. This may include interest in exploring
learning and retraining opportunities.
However,
the front-line staff in job-centres invariably appeared to their
clients as unsympathetic, although the older adults normally recognised
the pressures and constraints under which the staff were working.
The staff appeared intent on speedy placements to remove the older
clients from the unemployment register, and feedback suggests that
many advisers were quick to introduce reality into the
encounter...
"there
isnt much choice at your age and its mainly part-time
work"
"you
cant expect as good a salary, youll have to compromise"
and
(commonly)...
"if
we submit you for jobs and you refuse to go for interviews because
youre on a training or education course, well have to
stop your benefit".
Although
Challenging Biographies does not cover the work of job-centres,
readers will see clearly that the front-line job-centre staff can
be seen to be cutting right across and indeed often totally
ignoring their clients personal stories and the directions
in which they hoped their stories, newly released from previous
constraints, could now develop. What many older adults were seeking
were empathetic listeners skilled in guidance techniques, who could
act as sounding boards for ideas - which were able to
add to the clients range of possible opportunities, and were
on their side, efficient, interested and able to help. What they
actually received was the IAG equivalent of a cold shower
an end to hope and an end to story, at least as the story was evolving
in the minds of the clients. The clients story often appeared
to be supplanted by the front-line workers story defined
by targets, managerial pressures, the desire for a good quarterly
report and (possibly) the prospect of promotion.
These observations are not intended as a criticism of the staff
involved. It is difficult to criticise the front-line workers too
severely for their behaviour. Challenging Biographies shows very
clearly that it is the system which is wrong. Exclusive concentration
on targets undermines the client-centred and trusting relationships
between individual and helper that lie at the heart of all effective
guidance encounters and activities. Indeed. target-driven guidance
which shifts the agenda from the client to the adviser, is ultimately
self-defeating. Clients are swift to see the alternative agenda
and are turned off because their own needs are not recognised. The
extent to which client disenchantment with the services they receive
may be a factor in helping to explain the large numbers of adults
made redundant at 50+ who join the ranks of the hidden unemployed
and never work again, may never be known.
The
Challenging Age research on older workers indicates that guidance
providers that are genuinely client-centred are much more likely
to achieve positive and sustainable outcomes, because the services
they provide are in tune with the wishes and expectations of their
clients and are therefore genuinely customer-focused.
In
contrast, guidance that runs against the grain of individual narratives
may prove to be decidedly counterproductive in terms of helping
to harness the countrys wealth of talent and potential, because
it ignores the very qualities that the workforce development agenda
is aiming to develop. As West and Law demonstrate, guidance that
focuses on peoples individual stories simultaneously takes
account of such pivotal factors as their abilities, ambitions, hopes,
personal circumstances, roles, gender, class, race, feelings, assumptions,
beliefs, values and geographical location. The desire to extend
ones skills through appropriate education and training is
seen as integral to the inbuilt ambition of many individuals to
continue to improve themselves, regardless of age. Where this desire
is not in place, it may be the result of countervailing forces including
low self-confidence and morale. It should not be the role of official
organisations concerned with increasing the national supply of skills,
to reinforce the negative.
Although
there may be difficulties in making the case at bureaucratic level,
the individual factors and considerations that constitute peoples
personal narratives, are central to personal action planning and
implementation. As such they should also be of pivotal interest
to the policy makers, because socio-economic policy that fails to
take account of the needs, circumstances and behaviour of individuals
is doomed to failure. Macro-policy at national and international
levels, and micro-decisions at the individual level may remain unconnected,
and progress along two separate and distinct paths.
As
all guidance workers who work in any depth with the 45+ know, narrative
approaches are an essential element of effective work with older
adults. Many older people preface the initial interview by trying
to tell their story. A main problem for practitioners is finding
sufficient time and resources to listen properly, place the individual
and her or his story centre stage, and avoid short cuts that may
bypass the individuals requirements. This is one reason why
front-line job-centre advisers are often unable to listen properly
often to their own as well as their clients frustration.
However, it is difficult to see how third-age guidance can operate
effectively unless there are sufficient opportunities for individuals
to work through and make sense of their individual narratives.
Telling ones own story is a natural human impulse which is
often undeveloped in the young (and may be further suppressed by
shyness and low self-esteem) but which tends to increase as the
story gets longer. Older adults often want to tell their story
to guidance workers and, if the process is handled sensitively,
this can be very helpful to the clients. Linden Wests case
studies in his opening paper, 'Challenging auto/biographies: careers
and guidance in a 5 to 9 world' - which describe Wests work
with four individuals struggling to build or rebuild their careers
- are especially valuable in enabling us to understand the process.
One of the case studies is of a 52- year-old woman beginning to
recognise her own potential after years of caring; another is of
a man in his 30s with a young family who has experienced several
redundancies in insecure employment and is risking a
vocational degree; and two are of disaffected younger mothers living
in East London and both trying to rebuild their lives through community
and further education. Although only one of Wests cases is
strictly in the 45+ age group, the guidance processes are transferable
to older adults. Many older adults share similar experiences to
the four individuals featured in the case studies.
The
45+ often bring considerable baggage to the guidance
situation and want to tell their story in order to make sense of
it, to themselves and to others. There may be a strong element of
self-justification in the storytelling understandably so
because work is central to individual well-being and negative experiences
such as redundancy can shatter self-esteem. The vast majority of
older adults want to feel that that their lives have been worthwhile
and they have made a positive life contribution. Telling ones
story can help to reinforce ones sense of self-worth in ways
which go well beyond self-justification as many politicians
who have written their own life histories will recognise.
Loss of job may mean loss of community and the human support networks
that arise naturally within the workplace. Many redundant individuals
may experience considerable isolation and need to communicate with
empathetic listeners. For many who have experienced severe loss
of purpose and community, story telling may be therapeutic and a
helpful way of working through the grieving process.
Many
older adults engage in narrative in order to work out what the various
elements in their story mean in the past and present, and
also in the future - in terms of planning and taking the story forward.
This process presents many opportunities to guidance workers, provided
they have time to listen carefully and help in identifying main
themes, distinguish the positive features from the negative, and
reflect these back to the individual clients. Many 45+ want help
in: assessing their skills, abilities and potential and in determining
what they can offer to future employers; compiling and writing CVs;
and presenting themselves effectively in interviews. Working through
ones personal story with a skilled and empathetic helper who
is able to tease out the significant detail is of crucial importance
to these and other guidance activities.
The
narrative of some older adults may reveal that they have a
chip on their shoulder - understandable where years of loyal
service may have resulted in involuntary job loss, but not helpful
in future job-hunting. Skilled guidance workers can help older individuals
to develop in self-awareness and recognise the dangers if they reveal
the chips to future employers. Space for individuals
to work through their story at key transition points, reflect, reassess,
develop in self-knowledge and then move forward, can contribute
to personal health and lead to a healthier - as well as wealthier
- society.
The
art of listening
Self-evidently, the professional skills of the listener are central
to the effective use of narrative approaches within guidance. One
of the strengths of Challenging Biographies is its potential to
enhance the listening skills of the reader by helping them to listen
for and recognise significance and structure in the narrative of
the teller - although the writers have not purposely set out to
write a training manual. West, Law and Reid are themselves skilled
listeners and their abilities are reflected throughout their descriptions
of narrative processes, use of case studies, and analyses. These
sections, principally composed to communicate the benefits of narrative
techniques applied to guidance, also have the added value of heightening
the readers own awareness. Self-awareness, as all skilled
guidance workers know, is an essential prerequisite for successful
client-centred guidance including effective listening.
Wests sensitively written case studies and Laws analysis
of published biographical writing are especially helpful in developing
the readers sensitivity and client orientation. It would be
difficult to read either of these two profound and compassionate
analyses of peoples lives and the many influences that have
shaped - and which continue to shape them, without also reflecting
on ones own life and those of others one has known, and therefore
emerging the more effective listener.
Guidance and the
life journey
The
especial strength of Laws paper lies in its vivid reaffirmation
of career as indivisible from each individuals
journey through life, and the social networks in which people live,
move and have their being. For guidance workers consumed with the
achievement of outcome-driven targets, Laws analysis is both
salutary and restorative. For older adults concerned that redundancy
and other life circumstances mean that their lives may have lacked
purpose and been wasted, Laws analysis and emphasis on the
centrality of the life story within guidance is potentially transformational.
The authors of Challenging Biographies stress the role of telling
ones story in helping to clarify and determine action. Many
guidance practitioners working with older age groups will share
the experience of listening to stories that are a form of premature
obituary 'this is what I was, look at me now'. In his latter
days Herbert Sutcliffe, the great Yorkshire opening batsman, developed
a reputation for buttonholing people to tell them about his performances
during his heyday. We all know people like Herbert Sutcliffe - retired
sports-people are not alone in writing their own obituaries. Effective
guidance practitioners need to develop the skills to help older
individuals to transform their self-written obituaries into springboards
for action.
Providing transitional
space
In
Yorkshire there is a successful guidance organisation specialising
in work with older adults, which is staffed by skilled and empathetic
listeners. The staff listen carefully to individuals as they tell
their stories and adopt the approach, 'Right, thats where
you were. Its now in the past. What are you going to do in
the future and what are you now going to do about it?' The approach
may seem brutal, but it works. In practice the past is not forgotten.
Staff work with each individual to help them identify the positive
features of their stories, and how these may help them continue
to make positive contributions in the future. The staff genuinely
care, and the clients realise this and respond positively as a consequence.
Genuine care is pivotal to the organisations success. The
outcome statistics and feedback from clients show that the results
are impressive, however these are defined.
The guidance organisation concerned Target Third Age York
is one of a limited number of projects nationally which are
providing individuals, and older individuals, with the opportunity
to appraise themselves and their situation, and make considered
decisions. In his opening paper, West suggests that Connexions may...
"provide
a precious transitional space for highly marginalised youngsters
to take stock, to question and challenge, to form new and supportive
relationships, as well as value themselves and their life experience,
a little more positively. Space perhaps to tell their stories, and
to be listened to by committed, personally and politically conscious
advisers. This may not change a world, but it may create a sense
of agency and choice, however limited, perhaps for the first time
in a life."
Target Third Age York, and similar initiatives such as Experience
Works! in the East Midlands, are demonstrating that many individuals
aged 45+ also require a 'transitional space' in order to take stock,
regain confidence and self-esteem, and assess and discover what
skills and qualities they can offer the community and how they wish
to apply these. This in its turn means space to work through their
own story with skilled and sympathetic listeners, and plan their
next steps. Personal values often assume a greater importance as
people age. So does the need to maximise ones contribution
through paid or unpaid work, and gain a sense of reassurance that
ones life has been worthwhile.
Many
older adults experience career change in their later years for reasons
that include redundancy and early retirement. The personal implications
for individuals, and the decisions they have to make, can be as
difficult for the older adults concerned as they are for young people
in the Connexions priority groups. Older and younger age groups
share a similar need for 'transitional space' to make well-considered
decisions. Indeed, it is difficult to see how government can harness
the skills and experience of older adults without providing more
space for individuals to assess and determine how government-inspired
initiatives and other opportunities fit their own personal narratives.
Individuals need to be happy with their choices if they are to optimise
their abilities and outputs. Forced decisions dictated by targets
risk demotivation, disillusion and wastage of abilities and potential
- as the Challenging Age research demonstrates.
Initiatives that offer transitional space provide time
to work through ones own story, identify the significant features
and plan ahead, but this does not necessarily mean that individuals
need to do so in the context of the conventional guidance interview.
Initiatives such as Target Third Age York, Experience Works! and
similar community-based schemes offer adults from a diverse range
of backgrounds (manual, technical, management and professional)
the opportunity to take stock, explore, test themselves through
paid and unpaid work experience, and (not infrequently) follow courses
of learning in order to enhance employment prospects and improve
personal presentation.
The
most successful initiatives offer a wide range of guidance activities
(Ford et al., 2003). Clients may choose to join a planned course
or attend on a drop-in basis. This means that adults are able to
tell and explore their story over a period of time with skilled
mentors, and compare their experiences and gain support from other
clients. Peer mentoring is normally a key feature of these initiatives
and peer support groups occur naturally.
In
her paper, Hazel Reid rightly raises the question: 'will narrative
approaches be viewed as esoteric or can they connect with the day-to-day
realities of guidance practice?' Reids concerns include both
the time implications, and the extent to which narrative approaches
can be reconciled with current interest in, and practice of, short-cut
guidance interventions in order to reach targets.
It
may be that narrative approaches fit more easily into the longitudinal
guidance process made possible within community-based initiatives
that provide transitional space. The community location
also ensures that narrative approaches, which tend to take place
more naturally within the known community environment, automatically
embrace the social, economic and political context in which people
live and work, and the effect on the workplace of such factors as
technological change and globalisation. Narrative-led guidance methods
are no longer a theoretical concept, but are grounded in the reality
of community living and in the daily interchanges and conversations
between clients and helpers who have come to know and trust each
other. Solutions (i.e. next steps) evolve from a continuing appraisal
of personal narrative rather than being foisted on to individuals
to save time and meet targets. In Reids words...
"an
uncritical delivery of guidance intervention, focused on individual
development that ignores the wider aspects of social context, power
and politics, risks partial 'sticking plaster' treatments".
At
the very least and this is arguably the prime reason for
the greater use of narrative-led approaches within day-to-day guidance
practice one needs to have an understanding of each individual
before prescribing the treatment. As the stories grow longer with
age, so the risk increases that the generalisations resulting from
quick fix guidance which are unsupported by sufficient
understanding of the individuals concerned, may miss the mark because
they are detached from the flesh and blood of the actual
person. There can be no personal ownership because there is no personal
context within which to place any recommended actions.
The
role of guidance activities in helping to 'tell the story'
Most
individuals who are confronted with career change are likely to
want access to a skilled listener at some stage of the transitional
process, who can assist reflection, self-assessment and future planning.
The Challenging Age enquiry shows just how much older adults value
the skilled and experienced personal support available on a number
of specialist community-based initiatives. Those providers that
older people identified as being particularly helpful are all highly
personalised and people-focused initiatives that combine
a number of guidance activities and learning opportunities within
an integrated service (Ford et al., 2003).
During the Challenging Age consultations, participants were asked
to identify the forms of help and support they required in order
to overcome barriers preventing them from working and learning.
Although few used the term guidance, the activities
they identified are integral to high quality information, advice
and guidance. They include:
>
accessible, personally relevant, up-to-date and sufficiently detailed
information in relation to older people: (a) to assist career choice;
(b) to identify suitable local opportunities (jobs, learning, volunteering);
and (c) to locate local organisations that can help;
>
expert
advice that helps them relate the information to their own circumstances.
>
staff
who are prepared to listen and have the expertise and commitment
to act as 'sounding boards' and 'sources of ideas', and to help;
>
staff
who motivate, provide older people with hope and encouragement,
and offer help and support in regaining lost confidence and self-esteem;
>
staff
continuity not having to repeat ones personal story
on each visit;
>
staff
who offer skilled and personal support over a period of time and
to whom older people can return (i.e. personal advisers and mentors).
Feedback also indicates that older people welcome follow-up and
tracking of progress because these show that agencies
are interested and genuinely care;
>
skilled
assessment including help in identifying: existing and transferable
skills, aptitudes and experience, and relating these to the current
labour market; previously unrealised potential; and preferred learning
styles (so that they can make optimum use of learning opportunities);
>
help
with such areas as personal presentation, writing CVs, interview
techniques, job-search and self-advocacy including techniques
to overcome age stereotyping and hidden or overt discrimination;
>
training
opportunities that provide them with skills required by the local
labour market, and which they can afford;
>
opportunities
for work trials, work sampling and work experience so that they
can try out their skills, find out about unfamiliar occupations
and prove themselves to employers;
>
peer
group support to extend networks, provide motivation and
encouragement, and support each other in achieving personal objectives.
Law,
Reid, and Wests papers in Challenging Biographies, and the
concluding dialogue between the three authors facilitated by Andrew
Edwards, enable one to view those guidance activities identified
by older adults as particularly helpful in a fresh light. Significantly,
most and arguably all - of the activities and services are
those that will enable older individuals to tell, and to identify,
the key features of their own personal narratives, and to begin
the process of mapping out the next chapters. Older adults clearly
want and welcome narrative approaches to guidance - although they
are more likely to express their preferences in such terms as 'staff
with time to listen', 'staff who care and are interested', 'staff
who know what they are doing and can help me to work out what to
do next'.
Applying
narrative-based approaches within guidance
There
are few mysteries involved in narrative-based guidance approaches,
and even fewer mysteries in understanding why Challenging Age and
similar consultation-based research projects indicate that they
are likely to be welcomed by the public. People want to be listened
to and respected, and have their career problems taken seriously.
However, narrative-based approaches require considerable levels
of skill to implement properly, and a particular combination of
relatively rare qualities of sensitivity and insight in the practitioners.
In her paper, Narrative and career guidance; small talk or useful
dialogue?, Reid is right to focus attention on the training implications
of narrative-led approaches for guidance practitioners. Active listening,
and the ability to reflect back the significant features of her
or his personal story to the narrator, is a highly-skilled art,
which central control and emphasis on targets may have eroded.
The
value for individuals of greater emphasis on narrative approaches
within guidance is skilfully conveyed in Bill Laws typically
wise and profound paper, 'Guidance: too many lists, not enough stories'.
By using material from published biographical writing Law provides
a perceptive analysis of how individuals actually shape their lives,
develop their careers, and learn from the experience of living.
It follows from Laws timely reminder that work and career
are inseparable from the rest of each individuals progress
through life, and that successful career guidance is essentially
life guidance, however much the constraints imposed by time and
targets may set limits on the guidance intervention. Skilled attention
to individual narrative can help to ensure that guidance is offered
within the context of each individuals life, life journey
and circumstances rather than circumscribed and externally dictated
outcomes.
Part
of Laws thesis is that individuals are more likely to manage
their careers and lives successfully if they have a deeper understanding
of the processes that shape their individual stories their
relationships with other people and within their communities, the
power of conversation and talk, cultural factors, apparently chance
events and meetings that may prove life-shaping, and the continuing
search for meaning in their lives which they share with the rest
of humanity.
Laws
paper, Guidance: Too many lists, not enough stories
merits detailed study and consideration. It is ostensibly an argument
for the greater use of narrative methods within guidance, and especially
within careers education and guidance for younger age groups in
school, college and Connexions initiatives. In practice, it is much
more than this. By exploring a wide and contrasting number of narratives
(mostly written by well-known writers and public figures), and by
drawing out the significance of the differing ways in which the
personal stories are told, Law is able to identify the key
and often life-changing stages in each story-tellers
own learning process. These stages (or significant stepping
stones) in the story-tellers lives are categorised for
convenience as twenty signposts for careers work, and
classified into five story elements. The signposts
and 'story elements are important because Law uses these to
illuminate the actuality of much career development and decision-making,
which he presents as the consequence of a series of life events
rather than dependent on outcome-driven guidance interventions without
reference to the wider life context.
The
case that Law is making for greater attention to the importance
of personal narrative in careers work is equally applicable to other
age groups, including the 45+, and so are Laws twenty signposts
to careers work. It would be possible to cite examples of the relevance
of all twenty of the signposts to guidance work with
older adults. However, four examples will suffice at this stage:
>
Allegiances
and letting go. Many older redundant workers continue to be
locked into allegiance to their previous work situation and experience
difficulty in letting go.
> Roles linking setting and person. Older women
in particular may be typecast, and have typecast themselves into,
roles which have come to define them as people, and may experience
difficulty and guilt in understanding and dealing constructively
with a growing awareness that they still have the capacity and the
potential to shape new roles and extend their identities.
> Meaning as theme. Considerable numbers of older adults
have embarked on new careers and new lives by recognising, and being
helped to recognise, themes that repeat themselves throughout their
life stories.
> Turning points and crucial questions. During the Challenging
Age research project the researchers met a considerable number of
older adults who had encountered turning points, and been able to
ask and obtain answers to crucial questions, during the transitional
space made possible within community-based guidance initiatives.
These initiatives frequently create many opportunities for meaningful
experiences and encounters through staff, peers, activities,
community involvement and networks. Some of these can prove life
shaping and life enhancing for the individuals involved.
Unless guidance can find ways of helping people to understand and
take control of these and other personal factors that influence
and shape their lives, much of the guidance available to people
will continue to fall on stony ground because individuals are insufficiently
empowered to take effective action. The Challenging Age research
has shown that older adults, many of whom are affected by the economic
changes caused by technological developments and globalisation,
are particularly likely to experience feelings of disempowerment
and helplessness. Laws analysis is particularly helpful in
indicating how a broader and more encompassing conception of the
guidance process can help older individuals to understand what is
happening to them, what may be holding them back, and how to recapture
the initiative.
Issues
for Challenging Biographies
There
are some questions.
Old DOTS,
'NewDOTS and
'NewDOTSS
For
example, Laws profound contribution to Challenging Biographies
seems to me to have one major weakness. Law provides a persuasive
case for the greater use of narrative approaches within careers
education and guidance. However, I feel that the vehemence with
which he argues the case causes him to devalue the DOTS model of
careers education for which he himself is largely responsible (Law
& Watts, 1977). DOTS has underpinned the vast majority of CEG
programmes for over 25 years, and its formulation is one of Bill
Laws outstanding contributions to guidance, of which there
have been many.
The
problem lies in the enthusiastic presentation, and consequent overstatement
of the case in an otherwise brilliant and sensitive paper. On first
reading, many readers could be left thinking...
"Weve
based our guidance programmes and provision on DOTS and now along
comes the author and says we should be doing something new
and were not sure how to do it, nor do we know if we have
the time or resources to do so successfully."
This
could leave guidance practitioners feeling deprived, uncertain -
and somewhat rudderless.
A
second reading of Laws paper, however, shows that a wholesale
jettisoning of DOTS is not what he is advocating...
"This
is not a post-DOTS argument, for the abandonment of
past thinking; it is a NewDOTS plea, for a much-needed
extension of existing thinking".
This
is a key sentence and should be italicised in the paper, because
this cautionary statement is subsequently submerged in Laws
enthusiasm for the new.
The missing element is any overt consideration of what happens to
old DOTS if and as a new DOTS evolves from
the new thinking. Basically, Laws intention is to build on
what is already in place by recognising its shortcomings in the
new age of flexibility and individualism, and adjusting accordingly.
Law rightly identifies that DOTS is 'a means of sorting careers
work provision' and that 'it does not help us to understand how
careers themselves are actually managed'. Law argues that there
is now a need to 'weaken... the grip of outcome-driven thinking'
through the greater use of narrative methods and consequently a
greater emphasis on 'the way people learn and... the way learning
is shaped by attachment to group cultures'. The argument is basically
for a new DOTSS, with the additional S signifying
the all-important social, cultural and personal aspects of career
decision making, career management and career development. New
DOTSS provides space for the individual story, for the social
being and for the process of life itself, from which career guidance
can become all too easily detached and especially so in a
top-down culture dominated by prescription, direction and targets.
I would suggest there is now an urgent need for a second paper which
defines the kinds of programmes and provision Law is envisaging,
and offers practical guidance on how to plan and implement them.
The
potential value of new DOTSS can be readily illustrated
from a brief consideration of the guidance requirements of older
adults, as can the proven value of old DOTS. Although
old DOTS was framed within the context of careers education
and guidance in schools, its relevance to guidance work with other
age groups has long been apparent. The Challenging Age research
shows that many older adults require considerable help in:
>
identifying
and learning about suitable work and learning opportunities and
the extent to which they are open to older people;
> developing their self-knowledge for example, many older
need skilled help in identifying their skills, strengths and potential
and often undervalue their own abilities and experience;
> making decisions this can be particularly difficult
for individuals who have lost their self-confidence and self-esteem
through redundancy and repeated rejection for reasons related, or
apparently related, to age;
> negotiating transitions successfully very few older
adults have received training in career management. Job-search and
self-presentation skills may have been lost through non-usage. Action
planning related to career and learning may have seemed unnecessary
for individuals locked into the daily routine of apparently secure
work and daily living.
This
is the old DOTS agenda and remains highly relevant.
However, feedback from older adults shows that they also need help
in understanding their current situation personally, culturally
and politically if they are to regain their autonomy and
act independently. Many older adults feel disempowered and victimised
by their circumstances. DOTS, without due attention to the additional
S, may provide the structure for action, but omits any
consideration of the individual factors that stimulate motivation
and willpower, and enable individuals to take their story forward
in positive fashion, rather than sign off at a negative and premature
ending.
Quick-fix
guidance
My
second reservation about Challenging Biographies is the apparent
lack of sympathy shown in West and Laws papers for quick-fix
solutions, tempered though this is by Reids pragmatism. Reid
pertinently queries whether narrative techniques may currently be
'too focused on understanding and not focused enough on action',
and whether 'the approach
is
still too abstract at present'.
I would suggest that this depends on the practitioner. Used successfully,
as the evidence from Challenging Age suggests, attention to individual
narrative may rekindle the energy required to convert information
and advice into positive action.
However,
time will always be a constraint for the majority of practitioners
- and arguably the majority of individual clients also. Many older
adults (and other age groups too) want to get on with their lives.
Time begins to appears particularly short when one has passed 50.
Finance and lack of it is another constraint many people
beset with mortgages and family expenditure need to earn a living.
These
constraints need to be recognised in any further development of
narrative techniques, if the guidance theory is to be converted
into guidance practice which is widely available, and not remain
the province of the few. Indeed, it is possible that story- telling
may itself be subject to quick fix approaches
or perhaps more exactly to the more efficient use of available resources.
For
example, greater focus on individual narratives may not necessarily
always mean that guidance workers need to allocate longer periods
to listening when clients are 45+. Personal narratives continue
to be told within each persons individual consciousness, irrespective
of whether there is an external audience. Many older adults may
be able to do much for themselves within multi-activity guidance
initiatives which enable individuals to appraise themselves and
develop in self-knowledge in various situations - provided they
have access to the necessary help when they require this.
For those on transitional space initiatives this may
mean short reflective periods with a personal mentor, member of
the peer support group, or possibly with a trained peer mentor (Experience
Works! has piloted peer mentor training to support older adults).
Guidance practitioners may be able to organise guidance interviews
on a sequential or sandwich basis rather than concentrating
all the available time into one interview, so that time is available
for personal reflection between interventions.
Written guidance material and computer programmes might be purposely
prepared to assist clients in working through their personal narratives.
Indeed, some guidance resource materials can already be used in
this way, although all too often time and other constraints mean
that the emphasis is on rapid self-assessment rather than conscious
stimulation and support of narrative approaches within a more carefully
considered guidance and self-guidance context.
Guidance
as part of the story
A
third issue stems from the fact that, at no point in Challenging
Biographies, do the authors consider the possibility that guidance
interventions (including quick fixes and DOTS-influenced
careers education and guidance programmes) can themselves be seen
as part of the individuals much larger and longer story.
Skilled
guidance practitioners can help individuals to view the interventions
in this light, to be incorporated into the story or rejected as
the individual sees fit. This should be part of the democratic process
of guidance, where ownership and control remain firmly with the
individual client. Problems are most likely to occur where bureaucratic
pressures, including targets and financial penalties, demand that
the guidance intervention should represent the end of a chapter
and be accepted by clients, irrespective of their relevance and
interest to the individuals concerned.
Guidance
and the human condition
These
reservations should not be seen as detracting from the value of
the book itself, indeed rather the reverse. One of the great merits
of Challenging Biographies is that it deliberately sets out to encourage
debate. The excellent concluding chapter is arranged in the form
of a dialogue chaired by the editor, Andrew Edwards. In his introduction
to this chapter Edwards writes:
"
. the central ideas (about narrative and auto/biographical
approaches) are still evolving and taking shape, and maybe still
possess a certain elusive and elastic-type quality that makes their
application to guidance training and practice difficult to determine.
None of the writers are under any illusion about this."
The
three papers that form the main part of the book, combined with
the concluding dialogue, deserve to succeed in their objective of
focusing attention on the potential value of narrative approaches
within guidance and in generating discussion, debate and
hopefully innovation and action.
In the conclusion to his paper, Linden West writes:
"All
of us, whatever our background, have experiences of feeling lost,
bewildered, confused, angry, stupid, rejected, misunderstood and
redundant. Globalisation, and the uncertainties, anxieties
and new possibilities this brings have the potential to unsettle
us all. Each of us needs human, symbolic and imaginative resources,
from time to time, to enable us to cope and revise our story and
rebuild a career, in new ways. By reflecting on our own autobiographies,
as professionals, and the struggles to develop our narrative repertoire,
we can better connect with others engaged in the same process. Therein
lies, perhaps, the auto/biographical challenge for the
guidance community: remembering the fragile but sometimes courageous
humanity that we all share, when we tell our stories."
This
paragraph typifies the contributions in Challenging Biographies.
All the papers manifest the authors humanity and transparent
concern for the human condition confronted by the immensity of national
and international change. For the future of guidance, it is imperative
that Challenging Biographies should succeed in achieving one of
its objectives of helping to refocus the attention of the guidance
community on each individual seeking help, and away from sole preoccupation
with targets. If this happens, then the thought and commitment which
have so evidently been dedicated to the production of this excellent
book, will be thoroughly worthwhile. Hopefully, however, its influence
will be even more extensive, and will help to concentrate attention
on how narrative approaches can be incorporated more widely into
guidance practice.
Conclusion
My
main task has been to consider and review Challenging Biographies
within the context of adult guidance, with particular reference
to the feedback on guidance requirements received from the many
adults, front-line guidance staff and managers interviewed during
the Challenging Age research. This paper shows how closely narrative
techniques meet the needs and demands of older adults. To varying
degrees, a number of community-based initiatives appear to be practising
narrative approaches (although not called as such), often because
the workers instinctively recognise the requirement.
In
the course of preparing this review I have discussed narrative-based
approaches with a number of colleagues involved in third-age guidance,
and the general consensus is that guidance involving older adults
cannot succeed unless sufficient attention is paid to each individuals
personal narrative. Listening carefully, and helping older clients
to understanding the significance of their story, are seen as fundamental
to third-age guidance. This is an aspect of guidance for older adults
that requires much more detailed research and development.
We
owe the authors a considerable debt for refocusing our attention
on the needs of the individual, at a time when the professional
and client-based standards and responsibilities of guidance workers
are under constant challenge. Challenging Biographies should not
only be widely read its content and messages should be widely
considered, debated and - wherever possible - implemented. The book
is already an important addition to the canon of guidance literature.
If it succeeds in its objective of restoring individuals and their
stories to their rightful place at the centre of current and future
guidance practice, then its impact will be truly ground-breaking.
You
are in The Career-learning Café
www.hihohiho.com
the underpinning
WHERE NOW?
A Connexions
practitioners
review of Challenging Biographies
update of Bill's chapter
Guidance: Too many lists, not enough stories
biographical material
with career use
practical implications
References
Edwards,
A (ed.), Reid, H., West, L., & Law, W. (2003).Challenging Biographies:
relocating the theory and practice of careers work: implications
of narrative perspectives for third age. Canterbury: Canterbury
Christ Church University College.
Ford,
G., Watkins, B., Bosley, S., Hawthorn, R., McGowan, B., & Grattan,
P. (2003). Challenging Age: Information, Advice and Guidance for
Older Age Groups. Sheffield: Department for Education and Skills.
Law, B., & Watts, A.G., (1977). Schools, Careers and Community.
London: Church Information Office.
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