| Abstrakt: |
A career education unit, Follow Your Dream, was integrated with the Alberta Learning (2003) English Language Arts 20-2 program and delivered to 68 Grade 11 students at an urban middle school in Calgary. The nine-lesson career education unit encouraged students to complete structured career-planning activities and analyze a variety of poems related to self-awareness, perseverance and ambition. According to student feedback after the final lesson, 96 per cent of students somewhat or fully agreed that the unit had helped them to identify their personal values on self-fulfillment, 95 per cent indicated that the unit had allowed them to discover their strengths and attributes, and 100 per cent felt that the unit had enabled them to (1) identify meaningful goals to pursue, (2) explore meaningful career options that promoted their individuality and strengths, and (3) evaluate their career options and their support systems to pursue their goals. On average, 90 per cent of the students rated the activities as "helpful" or "very helpful." Overall, the career-planning unit was successful in its use of English language arts to engage students in career-planning activities. Career exploration is critical during senior high school as students begin to engage in self-exploration and evaluate their future career options (Garg et al 2010; Porfeli and Lee 2012; Super 1990). The process of career exploration and decision making can be particularly stressful for adolescents, as they are influenced by multiple social networks and pressured to make long-term career decisions (Garg et al 2010; Porfeli and Lee 2012). Adolescents may attempt to place the responsibility for making a career decision onto others and may even delay or avoid making a choice, which could ultimately lead to a less than optimal decision (Gati and Saka 2001; Witko et al 2005). Therefore, senior high school students must be provided with the necessary career education, counselling and tools to make meaningful choices for themselves and effectively transition into postsecondary education or the world of work. However, career counselling research also indicates a lack of resources for these students, as high schools are challenged to provide graduates with the knowledge and skills to pursue individual career goals (Bloxom et al 2008). Career education that is offered as a separate, standalone course has not been favourably received by high school students in Alberta (Bloxom et al 2008; Witko et al 2006), which may reflect the general lack of training that teachers have in this area (Witko et al 2006). Furthermore, students may receive a limited amount of individualized career-planning support from guidance counsellors, as there are often shortfalls between counselling resources and student demand (Connelly, Blair and Ko 2013; Slomp, Gunn and Bernes 2014). To address these concerns, multiple researchers have recommended that career education be integrated into mainstream curriculum (Code et al 2006; Hiebert 2011; Perry and Wallace 2012; Slomp, Gunn and Bernes 2014; Truong 2011; Welde et al 2015a, 2015b, 2016; Witko et al 2005). This integration would reduce the burden on guidance counsellors, as students would be able to engage in career-planning processes within mainstream coursework under the direction of their teachers. It would also make course material more relevant and engaging by encouraging students to see the connections between academic content and real-world career applications. This paper outlines a cross-curricular method to deliver career education to senior high school students through the study of English poetry. The unit presented in this article was created and implemented as part of a larger study, which has been described elsewhere (Slomp, Gunn and Bernes 2014; Welde et al 2015a, 2015b, 2016). In addition to meeting English language arts (Alberta Learning 2003) objectives and addressing English as a second language1 (ESL) (Alberta Learning 1997) outcomes, this poetry unit provided students with career knowledge and skills that they may directly implement in their lives after high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
