Can career teachers support parents in helping their child?

Abstract

European countries focus politically on involving parents in the career development and educational planning of their child in secondary education. A recent professional call encouraged informed or collaborative interventions of schools, communities and families. If a career teacher/leader takes up this challenge, what (additional) competences are required? This paper reports on a qualitative study with six Dutch career teachers who were involved in the design and execution of a parent-involved career intervention at their school. In designing and performing this parent-involved career intervention, career teachers reported the need for specific knowledge and skills, and particularly an attitude to actively being able and wanting to move into the unknown needs of parents. Additional competences are also needed by other members of school staff such as tutors.

Full text

CAN CAREER TEACHERS/LEADERS SUPPORT PARENTS IN HELPING THEIR
CHILD?
Abstract
European countries focus politically on involving parents in the career development and
educational planning of their child in secondary education. A recent professional call
encouraged informed or collaborative interventions of schools, communities and families. If a
career teacher/leader takes up this challenge, what (additional) competences are required?
This paper reports on a qualitative study with six Dutch career teachers who were involved in
the design and execution of a parent-involved career intervention at their school. In designing
and performing this parent-involved career intervention, career teachers reported the need for
specific knowledge and skills, and particularly an attitude to actively being able and wanting
to move into the unknown needs of parents. Additional competences are also needed by other
members of school staff such as tutors.
Keywords: Parental involvement; career education and guidance (CEG); secondary schools;
career teacher/leader; competences.
Introduction
European countries have a political focus on the role of parents in secondary education related
to the choice of study (Katznelson and Pless, 2007). In implicit and explicit ways parents
influence their adolescents’ (educational) career with outcomes such as those quoted by
Young et al. (2001, p.191): vocational aspiration and achievement; career decisiveness; career
exploration; career commitment and career self-efficacy. Adolescents perceive their parents as
the major collocutor (Otto, 2000), as highly interested in (Katznelson and Pless, 2007) and
most involved in the educational choices to be made. The (career) teacher and tutor come in
second place (McMahon et al., 2001; McMahon and Patton, 1997; McMahon and Rixon,
2007).
Regardless of socio-economic status (SES), parents report a need for help in providing
support in career development and in educational planning throughout childhood and
adolescence (Arrington, 2000; Otto, 1989). Rather recent is the professional call for informed
or collaborative interventions of schools, communities and families (see special issue of the
IAEVG-Journal 2015, 15(2)), referring to limited practice and research in relation to parent-
involved career interventions.

The Dutch Ministry of Education funded a research and development (R&D) project for
parental involvement in CEG through a career intervention with three main objectives:
a) meeting the current information needs of parents;
b) improving the communication between school, students and parents; and
c) supporting parents in building self-confidence in their parental role of helping their child to
make career choices.
This R&D project has been executed with the career teachers of six senior general secondary
schools (HAVO) between June and December 2012. In their role as ‘career leader’ they also
support tutors and teachers in delivering the career provision in their school. Supported by the
researcher, the career teachers designed together a career intervention of four successive
sessions (ten hours in total). Each career teacher executed the career sessions at their school
site, for which parents and their child registered voluntarily.
Two of the research questions for the R&D project were:
1) How does this career intervention differ from your current practice as a career teacher in
your school? and
2) If so, which competences are needed additionally for a career teacher?
Methodology
Participants
The opportunity sample for the study were the career teachers of six HAVO schools around
the Netherlands, who (an inclusion condition) had at least two years’ experience as a career
teacher/leader of the HAVO department. All were female, ranging in age from 32 to 60 (M =
43.3, SD = 10.0).
Instruments
The following qualitative data were collected, while executing the career intervention
(October – December 2012):
 Each career teacher handed in a colour-coded script after executing each career
intervention session, indicating what had not been done, what had been added as it felt
needed in the circumstances and what should be done differently next time.
 Oral report self-evaluation by each career teacher took place during three focus group
sessions, sharing common experiences on attitudes and competences. During each focus

group session, common issues, derived by the researcher from the handed-in scripts, were
analysed and discussed. These sessions have been recorded in a written report and been
verified by each career teacher.
 Interview-transcripts were produced of the six in-depth i.c. standardized open-ended
interviews of each individual career teacher with the researcher. Questions posed were:
1) “In what ways does, what you as a career teacher did in the career intervention for
parents and students, differ from your existing school practice?”;
2) “What knowledge, skills and attitudes do you need as a career teacher, specifically in
the design of the career intervention for parents and students together?” and “What have
you learned from it?”;
3) The same questions as in 2) above for executing the career intervention; and
4) “What are your observations for these groups of staff at your school involved in
executing the career intervention: tutors, teachers, colleague career teachers/leaders?”
These interviews of 30 minutes took place alongside the last focus group session.
Analysis
The qualitative data have been entered in Excel. An open coding method (Creswell, 2009, p.
186) guided the analysis. Firstly, this involved the inductive process of organising data into
categories, secondly identifying patterns among them and finally interpreting the data to
provide answers to the research questions (McMillan and Schumacher, 2010, p. 367).
Results
The career teachers compared their existing practice to their ‘new’ practice of four career
sessions for parents and students together. The main findings were:
 Career teachers didn’t have any insight into the actual questions of parents at the time
their child was going to make an educational/career choice.
 School-initiated contact with parents in CEG are limited to a supply-driven, information-
centered presentation (as part) of one evening.
 It is unusual to have demand-driven sessions with parents and students together on such a
scale (voluntarily, participation varied between 15 and 90 parents and students), structure
(interactive) and sequence of events for any issue in the school.
 Some career teachers noted the more active role of the tutors and also their resistance to
an increase in their workload. Other career teachers noted the enthusiastic response of the
cooperating colleague career teachers.

When asking for the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of them as career teachers
specifically in the design and in the execution of the four career sessions for parents and
students together, and what they had learned from doing this, the main findings were:
In the area of knowledge:
 Up-to-date knowledge of developments in higher education, information resources, the
labour market and world of work. And knowing that this knowledge is up to date.
 Knowledge of how to design interactive sessions.
 Knowledge of the role and influence of parents in the career development and educational
planning process of their child.
Concerning the appropriate skills:
 Can assess needs of parents by grade levels and translate these needs into a demand-
driven provision for parents and students.
 Can alone, or in collaboration, design a series of meeting (s) for parents and students with
the following features:
o a draft converted to a script with: entrance, emotional icebreaker, explanation /
information, practice, evaluation and scheduling;
o a process that supports the content;
o an interactive process, with a balance of plenary versus group work.
 Can make a statement about their own role (and that of others in the school e.g. tutor,
teacher) as careers supporters as well as about role expectations. For parents these are: to
get into a conversation during the career sessions with their child, for the student: to take
an active role.
 Can organise, plan, monitor time and communicate clearly to those directly and indirectly
involved in the school and clearly, fully prepare and instruct the co-executors as to their
role and duties.
Required attitudes of the career teacher to design and execute a parent-involved career
intervention:
 Have courage and persuasiveness both towards the participants and the co-executors.

 Be open to and actively empathize in what parents do not seem to know. This shows for
instance by
o respectfully and consciously start with the dream of their child; and
o anticipating respectfully both in content and pedagogy with regard to parents.
 Is aware of the differences in the initial situation among the participants in terms of level
of information and the relationship between parent and child and responds appropriately.
Additionally, career teachers noted that they were not the only members of staff lacking
specific competences.
3) Tutors and teachers are not accustomed to cooperating in activities with the career teacher
in supporting students and parents in the career development and educational planning of
students and their parents. This requires a renewal of agreements within the school’s
organisation.
4) Facilitating meetings with parents and parents plus students puts additional demands on
the skills of tutor/mentors in interview technique and attitude.
Conclusions
The challenge of involving parents in the career development and educational planning of
their child in secondary education was taken up by six Dutch career teachers/leaders.
Supported by the researcher, together they designed a parent- and-student-involved career
intervention, which then they executed with staff colleagues in their own schools. In the
qualitative research for the R&D project it appeared that experienced career teachers/leaders
expressed the need for additional knowledge and skills for such a government-promoted
initiative or collaboration. Specifically, they emphasised the attitude needed of each member
of school staff: be able and wanting to actively move into the unknown needs of parents. The
career teachers/leaders involved also noted that tutors and teachers aren’t acquainted with
providing a demand-driven provision in which they support parents in helping their child and
are directed by their career teacher/leader.
References
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For correspondence: Annemarie Oomen, PhD student at University of Derby, UK.
E-mail: a.oomen@outlook.com