Page 26 - insights-autumn-2019

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The Changing Role of the Teacher in Careers
Education and Guidance – does Teacher Education
Offer a Match or a Mismatch?
Research on newly-qualified teachers: to what extent are Dutch secondary school teachers
equipped to provide Career Education and Guidance to students in accordance with the Framework
for Career Education and Guidance for Young People
Several trends such as globalisation, rapidly
changing technologies and social and
demographic developments are transforming
our industrial society into an information or
knowledge society (Van Vianen, 2013). As a
result, the labour market is becoming both
increasingly unpredictable and dynamic in
recent years. Due to this process young
people are entering a labour market which
requires flexibility from them (Kuijpers, 2018).
That is why it is essential that young people
learn how to make choices. Similar to other
subjects, they need guidance in this regard to
achieve this skill properly (Kuijpers, 2018). In
turn, this creates a challenge for teachers,
because their role is expanding into becoming
a counsellor in career education and guidance
next to their teaching. This requires teachers
to become equipped in terms of both
knowledge and skills to guide young people in
their career development (Dutch government,
2016).
In this study teachers who are authorised to
teach the lower grades of secondary school
(11-16 years) are interviewed. In the
interviews the following question was posed:
'To what extent are future teachers equipped
to provide Career Education and Guidance in
accordance with the Framework for Career
Guidance for Young People (Euroguidance,
2017).’ This framework describes different
roles and the associated (and desired)
expertise of professionals in education. In this
study two sub-questions are used, namely;
first, to investigate the extent to which
1
teachers have become equipped within their study
programme to provide Career Education and Guidance,
and second, the extent to which the working
environment provides support to the newly-qualified
teacher in his or her work on Career Education and
Guidance.
THE SUBQUESTIONS ARE:
∠ Sub-question 1: To what extent does the teacher
education on Career Education and Guidance by the
starting teachers for lower secondary school fit in with
the Framework for Career Guidance for Young People
and to what extent is this necessary (Euroguidance,
2017)?
∠ Sub-question 2: To what extent do new teachers
experience that their working environment supports
Career Education and Guidance in accordance with the
Framework for Career Guidance for Young People
(Euroguidance, 2017)?
This study has shown that the education obtained in
Career Education and Guidance by the newly-qualified
grade two teachers is not in line with the framework,
because future teachers hardly attend courses that
prepare them for the role as described in the framework.
In addition, it has become clear that there is potential for
improvement when it comes to the working environment
of the teachers who are just starting their careers.
Generally, at the institutions where the respondents
followed their teacher education, Career Education and
Guidance is not a part of the curriculum. This has
become evident from the fact that teachers express that
they have little knowledge of the vision on Career
Education and Guidance, their role as a teacher and
their possibilities for development with regard to Career
Education and Guidance.
1 http://euroguidance.nl/_images/user/instrumenten/Euroguidance_Publicatie_Raamw
erkVoorLOBJongeren_Engels_def.pdf �