Career Writingcreative, expressive, and reflective writing in career guidance

Reinekke Lengelle, PhD candidate

Congrès International 2014 en orientation et développement de carrière, 4 - 6 Juin, Québec, Canada

Career writing is…

A narrative approach to career guidance that aims to help address the challenges that require self-direction

What is needed?

Individual narrativesto replace ‘grand narratives’

A new story, about who you are, that provides both meaning and direction and

lets you navigate the current (career) climate.

Approaches

Narrative career counselling-one on one with an expert-costs time/money-although it’s a co-construction, counsellor puts it together for you

Career writing (also a narrative approach)- people learn to construct/write their own narratives - time and cost effective (work with bigger groups)

Research

Collaborative effort Athabasca UniversityThe Hague University of Applied Sciences(Research group)

PhD dissertation, Tilburg University, The NetherlandsAdvisorsRob Poell Department of Human Resources. Tilburg University, The NetherlandsMark L. Savickas Department of Family and Community Medicine. Northeastern Ohio Medical University

Colleagues Frans Meijers The Hague University, Mijke Post Research “floor manager” The Hague University

Research question:

Can 2 two-day career-writing courses – one before and one after work placements – foster the development of a career narrative among students in higher education?

Participants:

Third-year Dutch bachelor students20 Experimental group 20 Control groupVarious cultural backgroundsMore females than males

The set upExperimental group2 day career-writing course5 month work placement 2 day career-writing course

Control group1 writing sample5 month work placement1 writing sample

The interventionCreative, expressive, and reflective writing• Fiction• Journaling• Poetry• ‘Inquiry’• Sharing of work in the classroom

Data collection• Writing samples

• Work-placement self reports

• Luck Readiness Index

• Employer evaluations

How did we measure if career writing had the desired effect? • Dialogical Self Theory coding• LIWC “Luke”(Linguistic Index Word Count) • Luck Readiness Index – 52 questions• Employer evaluations – 16 statement

questionnaire

• Dialogical Self Theory codingI-positions, expanded I, meta, promoter• LIWC (Linguistic Index Word Count) pronoun switching, increase in cognitive/causal/insight words, emotions words (positive & negative)• Luck Readiness Index – 8 qualities

• Employer evaluations – 16 statement questionnaire

Results

Dialogical Self Coding

Work placements alone do not serve in helping to construct meaning and direction.

Results

Linguistic Index Word Count (LIWC)Work experience, without the dialogue about it, leads to more negative feelings.

Results

Luck Readiness Index Scores measuring: Flexibility, Optimism, Risk, Curiosity, Persistence, Strategy, Efficacy, Luckiness

Work experience increases luck readiness, but with a dialogue, the jumps are bigger.

Results

Employer Evaluations

Students who were able to have a dialogue about work experiences before they embarked, were evaluated more positively by employers.

Career writing does contribute to the formation of a career narrative that helps provide both meaning and direction as shown by the results that all point in the same direction.

Results are modest yet hopeful

Possible discussion:-future research directions-weaknesses of the research

Recommendations

So you want to be a facilitator of Career Writing…

• try it first yourself (embodied experience)• write regularly for your own joy and curiosity• find exercises, writing prompts, poems, and resources that YOU like• don’t make make it another hoop for students or clients to jump through• slow down, make space, and grow courage • use the research, theory, and information that now exists to make a case for career

writing at your institution

Publicationsreinekke@athabascau.ca

www.blacktulippress.com

• Lengelle, R. & Meijers, F. (2015). Career Writing: Creative, Expressive, and Reflective Approaches to Narrative Career Learning and Guidance. The Canadian Journal of Career Development (Accepted).

• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2014). Career Writing as a Dialogue about Work Experience: A Recipe for Luck Readiness? (Submitted).

• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2014). Career Writing: creative, expressive, and reflective approaches to narrative identity formation in students in higher education. Journal of Vocational Behavior (In press).

• Lengelle, R. & Meijers, F. (2014). Narrative Identity: writing the self in career learning. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 42, 52-72. DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2013.816837.

• Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., Post, M. (2013). The effects of creative, expressive, and reflective writing in career learning. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83, 419-427.

• Meijers, F. & Lengelle, R. (2012) Narratives at work: the development of a career identity. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 40, 157-177.

• Winters, A., Meijers, F., Lengelle, R, & Baert, H. (2012) The self in career learning: An evolving dialogue. In Hermans, H & Gieser, T (Eds.), Handbook of dialogical self theory (pp. 454-460) UK: Cambridge University Press.