Suzi Rodrigues Workshop presentation from Cross-Border Seminar 2017 in Belgrade

1. Promoting Parental Support and Vocational
Development of 8th Grade Students
Euroguidance Cross-Border Seminar 2017
Suzi Rodrigues

2. The importance of Parental Support in Vocational Development seems to be consensual.
(e.g., Schulenberg, Vondracek, & Crouter, 1984; Whiston & Keller, 2004; Young et al., 2006)
Higher Levels of Exploratory Behaviour
(e.g., Dietrich & Kracke, 2009; Kracke, 1997; Kracke, 2002;
Turan, Çelik, & Turan, 2014)
Lower Levels of Indecision
(e.g., Guan et al., 2015; Germeijs & Verschueren,2009;
Guay, Senécal, Gauthier, & Fernet, 2003)
Greater Parental Support/Engagement
Introduction

3. It is stated, that family is a proximal context of development and has a
major impact on adolescents’ occupational preparation.
(e.g., Noack, Kracke, Gniewosz, & Dietrich, 2010)

4. How to actively involve parents in their
childrens’ career guidance process?

5. Conjoint (Parent – Student) Activities
• There has been given grave relevance to conjoint activities (Dietrich
et al., 2011; Young et al., 1997) and conversations (Kracke, 2002)
regarding the career topic between parents and adolescent.
• Parent-student activities seem to enhance better explanatory
behaviors associated with adolescents’ occupational exploration.

6. Promoting Parental Support and Vocational Development
(8th Grade Students)
Career Intervention
Career Dilemmas

7. • To gather occupational information;
• To listen their parents’ opinion;
• To promote the discussion about career issues;

8. Recipients – 8th Grade Students and their parents
• Classroom-based activities: lead by the school psychologist;
• At home: Conjoint parent-student activity designated as career dilemmas, once a
week;
• During six consecutive weeks (30 minutes );
Career Intervention

9. STEPS:
1. Classroom: Dilemmas are distributed to the group. They consist of two A5 sized cards, one with the
dilemma itself and the other for the participants to write down the solution and also to point out with
whom they solved the dilemma.
2. Home: The participants would bring the dilemmas home and discuss them with their parents, solving the
weekly dilemma by working on a solution.
3. Classroom: Before receiving another dilemma for the following week, participants would read out their
weekly “solution” of the previous dilemma, and a discussion of the previous dilemma would follow,
conducted by the school psychologist.
Career Intervention

10. Example 1:
“Carlos has a group of friends. From a very early age, they all knew what they intended to study in
the future, except for Carlos himself. Despite this, his older brother has chosen an alternative
curriculum – a professional software course, different to the regular curriculum, although Carlos has
some interest in this field of studies. His father suggests he takes the same course as his older
brother, for his grades haven’t been the best. Carlos agrees with his father. In case his grades didn´t
allow him to apply for a University course he could always rely on the professional course and start
working in the field. His only concern is leaving his friends because at the school they are attending,
the professional software course does not exist, which means Carlos would have to change schools
and leave his childhood friends behind. In turn, his friends are trying to persuade him into enrolling
in the regular curriculum. Carlos feels torn and confused.”

11. Example 1
What would you do in Carlos’ place? Why?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: _____/_____/_____
With Whom? ____________________________________________________________________

12. Example 2:
“From a very early age, Claudia liked playing with the family’s tool kit. She loved opening up
appliances to find out how they work and repairing all those that don’t work (although, in most
cases, some pieces are left lying around after she finishes). While on holiday, she would often sneak
out to her uncle’s workshop to help him with any minor fixes he might be working on at the time.
Once she got to 9th grade, Claudia decided to continue her studies, and had no questions at all
regarding her choice – a professional course in mechanics or electronics. That’s when her problems
started. Her parents think this type of course is not right for a girl and they would also like her
daughter to chose a more general course, continuing her secondary education to become a teacher.
Claudia loves her parents and doesn’t want to disappoint them, but at the same time, she feels that
the right choice for her is not the one her parents would select.

13. Example 2
What would you do in Claudia’s place? Why?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: _____/_____/_____
With Whom? ____________________________________________________________________

14. 1. What is your feedback regarding the exercise?
2. What is the feasibility of this intervention in your country?
3. From your professional experience, do you think the
dilemas would facilitate the discussion of career issues?
4. Do you think that these dilemas opens up discussion from
various points of view, regarding career choices?

15. Fig. 1: Environmental
Exploration
Fig. 2: Self Career Exploration

16. Fig. 3: Systematic Exploration Fig. 4: Amount of Information

17. • As expected (e.g., Dietrich et al., 2011; Young et al., 1997), the intervention
applied to the experimental group showed positive results, mainly
regarding environmental exploration,
• As Young and colleagues (1997) suggested, these findings support the fact
that parental support through a conjoint activity with their children might
have a positive effect on child’s career development.

18. • How to promote exchange of experiences between
parents?
• How to promote better interaction between the school
psychologist and the familys?

19. Fig.5: Kolb Cycle of Experiential Learning (1984)

20. Exercise:
1. From your perspective, how can we increase shared
reflection among families?
2. In what way we can encourage refletion in family
dynamics?

21. • Online platform
• Discussion forums
• Vídeos

22. a53243@ualg.pt
Suzi Rodrigues