Career Writing creative, expressive, and reflective writing in career guidance Reinekke Lengelle, PhD candidate Congrès International 2014 en orientation.
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Career Writingcreative, expressive, and reflective writing in career guidance
Reinekke Lengelle, PhD candidate
Congrès International 2014 en orientation et développement de carrière, 4 - 6 Juin, Québec, Canada
Career writing is…
A narrative approach to career guidance that aims to help address the challenges that require self-direction
What is needed?
Individual narrativesto replace ‘grand narratives’
A new story, about who you are, that provides both meaning and direction and
lets you navigate the current (career) climate.
Approaches
Narrative career counselling-one on one with an expert-costs time/money-although it’s a co-construction, counsellor puts it together for you
Career writing (also a narrative approach)- people learn to construct/write their own narratives - time and cost effective (work with bigger groups)
Research
Collaborative effort Athabasca UniversityThe Hague University of Applied Sciences(Research group)
PhD dissertation, Tilburg University, The NetherlandsAdvisorsRob Poell Department of Human Resources. Tilburg University, The NetherlandsMark L. Savickas Department of Family and Community Medicine. Northeastern Ohio Medical University
Colleagues Frans Meijers The Hague University, Mijke Post Research “floor manager” The Hague University
Research question:
Can 2 two-day career-writing courses – one before and one after work placements – foster the development of a career narrative among students in higher education?
Participants:
Third-year Dutch bachelor students20 Experimental group 20 Control groupVarious cultural backgroundsMore females than males
The set upExperimental group2 day career-writing course5 month work placement 2 day career-writing course
Control group1 writing sample5 month work placement1 writing sample
The interventionCreative, expressive, and reflective writing• Fiction• Journaling• Poetry• ‘Inquiry’• Sharing of work in the classroom
Data collection• Writing samples
• Work-placement self reports
• Luck Readiness Index
• Employer evaluations
How did we measure if career writing had the desired effect? • Dialogical Self Theory coding• LIWC “Luke”(Linguistic Index Word Count) • Luck Readiness Index – 52 questions• Employer evaluations – 16 statement
questionnaire
• Dialogical Self Theory codingI-positions, expanded I, meta, promoter• LIWC (Linguistic Index Word Count) pronoun switching, increase in cognitive/causal/insight words, emotions words (positive & negative)• Luck Readiness Index – 8 qualities
• Employer evaluations – 16 statement questionnaire
Results
Dialogical Self Coding
Work placements alone do not serve in helping to construct meaning and direction.
Results
Linguistic Index Word Count (LIWC)Work experience, without the dialogue about it, leads to more negative feelings.
Results
Luck Readiness Index Scores measuring: Flexibility, Optimism, Risk, Curiosity, Persistence, Strategy, Efficacy, Luckiness
Work experience increases luck readiness, but with a dialogue, the jumps are bigger.
Results
Employer Evaluations
Students who were able to have a dialogue about work experiences before they embarked, were evaluated more positively by employers.
Career writing does contribute to the formation of a career narrative that helps provide both meaning and direction as shown by the results that all point in the same direction.
Results are modest yet hopeful
Possible discussion:-future research directions-weaknesses of the research
Recommendations
So you want to be a facilitator of Career Writing…
• try it first yourself (embodied experience)• write regularly for your own joy and curiosity• find exercises, writing prompts, poems, and resources that YOU like• don’t make make it another hoop for students or clients to jump through• slow down, make space, and grow courage • use the research, theory, and information that now exists to make a case for career
writing at your institution
Publicationsreinekke@athabascau.ca
www.blacktulippress.com
• Lengelle, R. & Meijers, F. (2015). Career Writing: Creative, Expressive, and Reflective Approaches to Narrative Career Learning and Guidance. The Canadian Journal of Career Development (Accepted).
• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2014). Career Writing as a Dialogue about Work Experience: A Recipe for Luck Readiness? (Submitted).
• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2014). Career Writing: creative, expressive, and reflective approaches to narrative identity formation in students in higher education. Journal of Vocational Behavior (In press).
• Lengelle, R. & Meijers, F. (2014). Narrative Identity: writing the self in career learning. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 42, 52-72. DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2013.816837.
• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2013). The effects of creative, expressive, and reflective writing in career learning. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83, 419-427.
• Meijers, F. & Lengelle, R. (2012) Narratives at work: the development of a career identity. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 40, 157-177.
• Winters, A., Meijers, F., Lengelle, R, & Baert, H. (2012) The self in career learning: An evolving dialogue. In Hermans, H & Gieser, T (Eds.), Handbook of dialogical self theory (pp. 454-460) UK: Cambridge University Press.
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