Chapter 2: The Evolution of Career Counseling in the Schools

School counselors represent a historical cornerstone of the counseling profession and career development has been a long-standing 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, reflects a symbiotic relationship with societal developments. Urban migration, Sputnik, technological advances, the global economy, and exploding cultural diversity serve as examples of how societal factors influence 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, which resulted in increased efforts to move talented students toward science-related coursework and careers. The point is that career interventions do not occur in a vacuum. By understanding the forces at work in society, there is an excellent chance that one will gain important insight into the career interventions being provided in schools (Herr & Niles, 1988).