Ruraling career guidance research and practice: learning from rural perspectives

Abstract

Existing career guidance research and practice is based on urban, or metrocentric, models and assumptions, which are problematic for rural communities. In the field of education, researchers have argued that ‘ruraling’ scholarship can be beneficial in challenging existing metrocentric models and opening new ways of imagining practice. In this paper, we apply the concept of ‘ruraling’ to the field of career guidance, arguing that rural scholarship can reveal implicit spatial assumptions in existing models and approaches, challenge neoliberal and metrocentric discourses and re-envision career guidance in ways that are more inclusive and spatially sensitive.