A philosophical consideration of qualitative career assessment

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This chapter entails a consideration of the philosophical dimensions of career assessment as an act of social construction. As a philosophical chapter that necessarily renders our own values in this text, we declare our endorsement of social constructionism (Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Gergen & Davis, 1985) and the Systems Theory Framework of career development (STF; Patton & McMahon, 2014). Indeed, we present this statement quite deliberately for we believe it is incumbent upon all scholars and practitioners who engage in a process of a philosophical consideration to metaphorically wear their epistemic and professional values on their sleeves to ensure transparency and understanding (Prilleltensky & Stead, 2013). Thus, the chapter begins with a selection of historical moments in the evolution of the field of career development. We present a caution that career assessment-qualitative and quantitative-is itself an historical, culturally constructed entity that manifests the power of career practitioners afforded them by clients’ unwitting collusion with the discourse of career. We then present a conceptualisation of narrative through the lens of social constructionism.