2019 Archives

Teacher candidates’ experiences in conducting professional development: A course instructor’s perspective

May 8, 2019By Rachel So

By Kwesi Yaro

This call for proposals has come at an opportune time when I am still grappling with ideas on a final project I am designing for a course I have been assigned to teach this summer as a sessional instructor. In relevance to this call, I argue for the need for teacher professional development for science and mathematics teachers with emphasis on teacher candidates gaining hands-on experience in planning and conducting professional development with community partner schools on connecting social justice, equity, placed-based and Indigenous knowledges pedagogies into math and science teaching.

Teacher candidates’ engagements with community has been seen to provide a sense of social responsibility, awareness to community and global issues, collaborative work and personality development. Thus, aspects of EDUC 452B 308 Inquiry III, which I will be teaching this summer are aimed at preparing mathematics and science teacher candidates to challenge themselves in making effective contributions to professional growth in their respective future schools and communities through getting involved and taking leadership roles in professional development activities.

This will require gaining not only theoretical knowledge of conducting successful professional development (Pro-D) but also, first-hand experience through working with community partners such as schools. Specifically, in an era where education has taken a more humanistic approach; based on the principles of human rights and dignity, cultural sustainability, social justice, peace, inclusion and protection” (UNESCO, 2016 p. 24), it is important that mathematics and science educators employ more critical perspectives in their teaching and learning in response to the myriad of national and international social, political and ecological challenges we face today. As a result, secondary math and science teacher candidates obtaining first-hand experience in planning and executing/leading Pro-D activities with a focus on infusing placed-based, social justice and Indigenous knowledges in mathematics and science curriculum will be beneficial not only the teacher candidates, but also the in-service teachers who also grapple with incorporating social justice, placed-based and Indigenous knowledges pedagogies in math and science lessons (Nicol, Bragg, Radzimski, Yaro, Chen, Amoah, 2017).

Thus, this proposed Pro-D activity for schools will encourage teachers to integrate critical issues of social concerns in mathematics and science teaching. Broadly, the proposed activity will also foster community engagement through rich learning experiences with community partners such as schools. Moreover, collaborating and working with community partners (schools) will continue to portray academic institutions as places that value inquiry learning, community building and cherish the integration of experiential, sustainability-focused, social justice, place-based learning and explore such abstract concepts while they make explicit connections to practice.

In closing, I hope to share with the audience (from an instructors perspective) my experiences with teacher candidates’ designing and leading professional development activities for in-service teachers on ways of infusing social justice, placed-based and Indigenous knowledge into the K-12 math and science curriculum.

Author Bio

Kwesi Yaro is a PhD candidate studying curriculum studies in Mathematics Education at the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. He holds an MA in Mathematics Education from the University of British Columbia and BEd (Mathematics focus) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Kwesi is also a Sessional Lecturer for Mathematics Methods courses at the Faculty of Education, UBC. Currently, he is working with researchers from multi-disciplinary STEM backgrounds to explore the possibilities and challenges confronting 21st-century teachers in teaching mathematics for social justice. For his doctoral research, he is employing Afrocentric worldviews to investigate cultural strategies African immigrant families deploy to support their children’s mathematics learning in the Canadian context. Kwesi hopes his research will contribute knowledge and insights that will guide teachers and other educators towards a more culturally responsive mathematics teaching.

Career development from school to work: A holistic understanding of the physical and psychological process of international student transition

May 8, 2019By Rachel So

By Liton Furukawa (Cannexus20 GSEP Award Winner)

With the growing population of international students changing the demographics in Canada, and the dramatic increase of internationalization in the academy as a part of the Canadian present and future, the federal government now offers a new immigration category called the Canadian Experience Class to assist a certain number of graduates. The transition from school to work is crucial for the international students who wish to apply as a skilled worker under the Canadian Experience Class. For the majority, getting a job or being self-employed as a new entrepreneur after graduating from a school is an inevitable process, which is a significant transition in an individual’s career life. Comparable with any other noteworthy life event, school-to-work transition creates challenges that require readjustments and might result in exciting or distressing experiences. Existing research has not yet reached consensus on the mechanism for a well-adapted career transformation, and school-to-work programs emphasizing individuals’ lifestyles, career adaptability and school-to-work transition are lacking. The present study aims to explore the underlying factors that influence an individual’s experience of school-to-work, thereby guiding career counselling professionals to promote a satisfying school-to-work transition for individuals.

In a literature review, the researcher probes issues such as international students’ lifestyles, school-to-work transition as a career developmental process, school-to-work transition and career adaptability, and the new challenges of school-to-work transition and career counselling in Canada. This research aims to gain a holistic understanding of the physical and psychological process of individuals going through their school-to-work transition and the researcher employs a narrative analysis to evaluate a student’s lifestyle. The research assumes that the quality of an individual’s experience in a school-to-work transition, physically and psychologically, depends on their career adaptability, which is determined by their lifestyle and the social and economic environment as a theoretical framework for career adaptation.

The relationships between international students’ lifestyles, career adaptability and school-to-work transitions will be explored in a cross-sectional and mixed design study of 100 international students divided into two groups. The first group has 50 participants in their last year of study at two universities in the province of British Columbia – University of Victoria (UVic) and Royal Roads University (RRU). The second group is a control group of 50 international student graduates from these two universities who are currently employed. All participants will be recruited by RRU’s international offices and the UVic Global Community. A mixed design of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in this study in order to gain a holistic understanding of the mechanisms that impact an individual’s response to the school-to-work transition. Both the Well-Being Inventory (Vogt, Taverna, Nillni, & Tyrell, 2018) and Career Transition Inventory (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 2014) will serve as frameworks for the open-ended questions in the semi-structured interviews ranging from 30 to 45 minutes. The narrative data will be analyzed and the statistical program – MANOVA will be used to test the hypothesis.

Author Bio

Liton Furukawa speaks five languages and has taught courses across the curriculum and instruction, arts education and educational technology at universities in Asia and North America. Her doctoral interdisciplinary research transformed from theory to practice and involved the topics of school-to-work programs, cross-cultural adaptation, entrepreneurial education from an international perspective, and career exploration and development play in children.

Money talks: Financial considerations in careers

May 8, 2019By Rachel So

By Mirit Grabarski (Cannexus19 GSEP Award Winner)

Traditionally, work was seen as a source of income and defined by its economic value – “what people do for financial compensation in order to make a living” (Brief & Nord, 1990 p.2). People looked for self-fulfillment outside of work, in things such as hobbies and leisure time. With the technological, economic and social changes in the late 20^th century, as well as with the developmental of humanistic psychological theories and examination of human needs, work became an integral part of one’s self-actualization. It became a way to demonstrate personal values and find meaning, grow and learn, build relationships and realize talents.

This change in perceptions is reflected in the history of career theories – from finding what a person will be good at (Holland, 1985) to what people need to be fulfilled in their career (Hall, 1976; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2006) and how they construct meaning (Savickas, 2002). The state of the current research reflects this trend – in a recent review of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, employee well-being was listed as the most prominent research topic (Byington, Felps & Baruch, 2019). In a way, the focus has shifted from compensation, or objective success, to satisfaction, or subjective success.

In my doctoral research I explore the perceptions of agency that people have over their careers as a way to understand career motivations. My findings from a pilot study with 18 business students and a qualitative study with 31 interviewees from various vocational backgrounds support the modern career theories to a large extent, when factors such as a need for growth and challenge, personal meaning and a desire to make in impact were found to act as important motivators of career decisions. However, one interesting finding was that money still plays an important role in career decision-making. While often people expect the workplace to provide them opportunities to realize their potential, financial considerations are still an important factor that may influence career decisions in multiple ways. First, compensation is still a parameter of objective career success, which some people find motivating by itself. Second, financial security might act as a need that has to be fulfilled, especially for people who experienced poverty or insecurity during childhood. Finally, money, or financial security, may act as a moderator – enabler or suppressant of other motivating factors: with sufficient funds people are more willing to fulfill their other career needs, such as work-family balance, actualizing work values with a more meaningful job, or taking more risks; on the other hand, not having enough funds might lead to postponing self-actualization or making decisions that are seen as a compromise. Says one participant (M, 51, administrator): “I still have that ‘I want to be able to provide for my family’ and that’s a huge driver for me… and at the end of the day I want my kids to be okay, and I also want my standard of living to be where it is now and I don’t want it to decrease.” As compensation still plays an important role in career decision-making, it is essential to adapt career theories to include this factor, for a more compete and accurate picture of the reality.

Author Bio

Mirit Grabarski is a doctoral student in Ivey Business school at Western University. Her research interest lies in the intersection of career development and gender roles. She is also interested in the Positive Organizational Scholarship movement and specifically issues such as empowerment and resilience.

References:

Brief, A. P., & Nord, W. R. (Eds.). (1990). Meanings of occupational work: A collection of essays. Free Press.

Byington, E. K., Felps, W., & Baruch, Y. (2019). Mapping the Journal of Vocational Behavior: A 23-year review. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 110(1), 229-244.

Hall, D. T. (1976). Careers in organizations. Goodyear Pub. Co.

Holland, J. L. (1985). Making Vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Prentice-Hall.

Mainiero, L. A., & Sullivan, S. E. (2006). The Opt Out revolt: When people are leaving companies to create Kaleidoscope careers. Davies-Black Publishing.

Savickas, M. L. (2002). Career construction: A developmental theory of vocational behavior. In D. Brown & associates (Eds.), Career Choice and Development (4th ed., pp. 149-205). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Is work inherently meaningful? Rethinking meaning in work

May 8, 2019By Rachel So

By Mindy Chiang

“Meaning in work” literature has expanded rapidly in the past decade in vocational counselling and organizational psychology. This body of work highlights the relationship between meaning in work and a host of positive work and life outcomes for samples ranging from working adults to college students (see Duffy & Dik, 2013 for a summary). This literature is largely quantitative, measuring meaning in work, often conceptualized as work “calling,” using standardized measures where one common definition of calling is – a transcendent summons to a career path that is prosocial and tied to one’s personal sense of meaning (Dik & Duffy, 2009).

It is perhaps unsurprising that other conceptualizations of meaning in work exist. For instance, within calling research, there is the “neoclassical” perspective described above which retains the emphasis on an external caller and the prosocial aims of calling, and an alternative perspective (e.g., Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2011) that has a more humanistic focus with emphasis on the individual’s sense of purpose and passion (Duffy, Dik, Douglass, England & Velez, 2018). Might it be conceivable that individuals’ sense of meaning in work is in fact more fluid than any of these conceptualizations?

Recently, Bendassolli and Tateo (2018) contested the notion in current literature that “meaning” in work is an entity that can be statically measured. They posited instead that “work is inherently a meaningful activity, mediating between personal and collective culture” (Bendassolli & Tateo, 2018, p. 137). This intriguing proposition calls for qualitative work that examines the process of individuals’ meaning-making in the work setting. Findings from such work may shed light on the nature of “meaning in work” and add further nuance to this burgeoning literature.

Author Bio

Mindy Chiang is a Master’s student in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. As someone whose career path has been shaped by her evolving sense of meaning, she is especially interested in studying meaning-construction in the career context. Her other research interests include cultural diversity in mental health and existential psychology.

References

Bendassolli, P. F., & Tateo, L. (2018). The meaning of work and cultural psychology: Ideas for new directions. Culture & Psychology, 24(2), 135-159.

Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2009). Calling and vocation at work: Definitions and prospects for research and practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 37, 424–450.

Dobrow, S. R., & Tosti-Kharas, J. (2011). Calling: The development of a scale measure. Personnel Psychology, 64, 1001–1049.

Duffy, R. D., & Dik, B. J. (2013). Research on calling: What have we learned and where are we going? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(3), 428-436.

Duffy, R. D., Dik, B. J., Douglass, R. P., England, J. W., & Velez, B. L. (2018). Work as a calling: A theoretical model. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(4), 423.