Browsing by Subject "Career Guidance and Counselling"

Objectives. The purpose of this thesis is to examine sustainable development in the context of career guidance and counselling in schools within Finland. This study focuses on career counsellors´ perspectives and experiences on sustainable development in their own work in schools. The theoretical framework of the research is the concept of Green guidance by Peter Plant. According to Plant, career guidance and counselling must be developed to meet the challenges of a sustainable future. The purpose of the thesis was to examine how career counsellors handle with sustainable development in their counselling work. The research question is: In what way career counsellors describe their perspectives and experiences on sustainable development in their field? Methods. The data was collected using an electronic questionnaire and 57 responses were received from the career counsellors working in basic and upper secondary schools and vocational institutions. The career counsellors´ answers to the questionnaire were analysed using content analysis and their answers were themed into five categories. Results and conclusions. The themed answers showed the different ways career counsellors were using sustainable development in their guidance work. About half of the career counsellors had included the themes of sustainable development in their guidance, while about half of the respondents had not addressed sustainable development in any way in their guidance. Some of the career counsellors understood the themes of sustainable development as everyday actions stemming from their value base, while for some, sustainable development was only seen at the level of the educational institution´s strategy. For some career counsellors, themes of sustainable development had emerged in the starting points and practices of guidance interaction based on students´ initiatives.