Chapter 10: Career Development in Schools: An Historical Perspective

School counselors represent a historical cornerstone of the counseling profession, and career development represents a longstanding core focus of the work performed by school counselors. Professional school counselors provide career interventions to address the developmental needs of their students and to maximize students’ potential for success as workers and citizens. Moreover, the evolution of school counseling and, by extension, the career counseling strategies used by school counselors reflect a symbiotic relationship with societal developments. Urban migration, Sputnik, technological advances, a global economy, and exploding cultural diversity serve as examples of societal factors influencing the values emphasized and the career interventions used by school counselors. For example, the flight of Sputnik led to the National Defense and Education Act that led to increased efforts at moving talented students toward more involvement in science-related course work. The point is that career interventions do not occur in a vacuum. Understand the forces at work in society and there is an excellent chance that one will gain important insight into the career interventions being provided in schools (Herr, 2001).