The adolescent stage of development entails many overt and covert challenges and influences that have bearing on spheres of later life, including career development. With South African counsellors being largely dependent on Western career theories, the influence of contextual factors such as cultural beliefs and historical background on the career development of South African adolescents has been largely ignored. The recent acknowledgement of the unique and complex interrelationship between individuals and their specific social, environmental and societal context has motivated the development of an overarching theoretical framework of career development, the Systems Theory Framework (STF). The present study has therefore employed the STF and a qualitative career assessment measure, the My System of Career Influences (MSCI), to facilitate in exploring and describing the unique systems of career influence on the career development of a group of South African adolescents. A non-probability, purposive sampling technique was employed to obtain the sample from a co-educational, Xhosa-speaking secondary school situated in a low socioeconomic area. The research approach was exploratory and descriptive in nature, and the MSCI assisted in the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from a sample of 64 Grade 9, 10 and 11 female and male black adolescents from low socioeconomic status environments. The qualitative data was subjected to content analysis to identify themes, while frequency counts/percentages were used for the quantitative data. The results of the study indicate that all influences within the three interrelated career systems have an influence on the career development of black adolescents. Furthermore, the MSCI workbook was shown to assist participants in identifying and evaluating significant systemic influences that have contributed to their career development to date. Participants from both genders and all grade levels were able to successfully complete the MSCI workbook and provide reflective comments on their MSCI personalised diagrams. The applicability of both the STF and the MSCI are acknowledged. Limitations and recommendations for future research based on the present findings are suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9920 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Geijsendorpher, Clare |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | xv, 210 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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