While many of us have had the privilege to think long and hard about our career journey (likely leading us to this very Career Development class we are taking today), I've met many people over the years who have had no such privilege. Working with refugees during their first 90 days in the U.S. at CWS Refugee Resettlement Program for four years led me to mull over the idea of career development and social justice in the United States. So often I would encounter doctors, lawyers and professors from other countries working as poultry line workers, dishwashers and hotel housekeepers here. While they were grateful for the work, and, as social workers, we were relieved to see them employed, I often wondered about them down the road. Would they be able to find better-paying, better-matched careers for themselves in the future? Would they be satisfied, even happy? Would they be able to provide for their families? Would their sacrifices be "worth it" if their children could go on to live the American dream and find satisfying vocations?
Along this line of thinking, I truly appreciated that Brown added culture to Sear's 1982 list of factors that influence career development: "Given the increasingly multicultural nature of our society, our conceptualizations of career development and our approaches to intervening in the process must take into consideration cultural background" (Brown, 2016, p.8). The United States is undeniably a healthy mix of cultures from all over the globe, and I'm glad to note Brown's inclusive approach in reaching out to clients and students of all backgrounds when career counseling. While immigrants, English language learners and more marginalized members of our society may have been historically overlooked, Brown seems to lay the ground work for the social justice and change of approach involved in career counseling in a diverse, modern world.
Beyond this, I appreciated that Brown brings to light the disparities between ethnicity, race and earnings, specifically when comparing the significantly higher household incomes of white families compared with minority families (Brown, 2016, p. 13). Brown also highlighted the higher earnings that men enjoy in this country (about 20 percent higher) compared to equally hardworking women (Brown, 2016, p. 13).
I hope to one day advocate not only for the careers of immigrants and their children, as well as English language learners, minorities and girls, but for the many cultures of students who have been traditionally overlooked, underserved or marginalized in our school systems. What I'm most excited about is learning practical techniques and ideas for counseling and outreach to the diverse cultures of students that represent Lancaster City schools. In fact, Lancaster's public school system has a majority of minority students --55.5% Hispanic, 22.7% African American, 19.5% Caucasian, and 2.3% Asian/other (Proximity One, 2014.), and as Brown points out, "At some point during the first half of the twenty-first century, nonwhites will make up a majority of workers" (Brown, 2016, p.22). This doesn't even mention the possibility of women making up the majority of the workforce one day! Thinking of these changing statistics made me all the more excited to learn contemporary best practices for reaching all of our diverse and changing student populations. Fortunately, I believe Brown's work will get me a little closer to that goal.
Brown, D. (2016). Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development (11thed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 978-0-13-391777-2.
Proximity One (2014). "School District Comparative Analysis Profiles." proximityone.com/sddep.htm#pa
No comments:
Post a Comment