Watch A Little More Hope, A Little Less Blame | Rosie Phillips Davis | TEDxMemphis -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POYbkD1gnj8

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As you review this, reflect on how systemic oppression, inequalities, and the "just world" fallacy have served to restrict career opportunities of individuals from marginalized backgrounds. Consider how our society is structured to benefit those with power and privilege.

Use this forum to discuss how to support decent/quality work opportunities.

4.1: Theories & Models

The framework of culture-infused competencies by Collins and Arthur (2007) describes three domains of core competencies:

• Domain I: Demonstrate Cultural Awareness of Self - Counsellors are encouraged to recognize they are cultural beings and consequently their own cultural identity shapes their worldview and approaches to "counselling." Consequently, counsellors strive to increase awareness of their own personal cultural identities and views on work, life, and learning.
• Domain II: Demonstrate Cultural Awareness of Other - Organizational, social, economic, and political contexts impact a client's understanding of career concepts, challenges, and success. Counsellors are encouraged to help clients cope and adapt to contextual factors impacting their barriers.
• Domain III: Establish A Culturally Sensitive Therapeutic Relationship - This is characterized by a culturally sensitive working alliance where the goals and tasks of the career counselling process are agreed upon and established in a collaborative, trusting, and respectful manner. Counsellors are encouraged to be mindful of counsellor-client mismatches and culturally inappropriate interventions that can impede a client's motivation.

The core construct is cultural identity. In their Culture-Infused Career Counselling (CICC) model, Arthur and Collins (2011) identified six guiding assumptions:

• Culture is relevant in career interventions with all clients, not just those in designated groups
• Culture is also relevant for all counsellors and career practitioners
• Views of career and career issues are socially and culturally defined
• Career theories and models contain cultural assumptions
• Career goals and interventions need to be collaboratively defined with clients to ensure they are a cultural fit
• Counsellors and career practitioners may need to go beyond traditional roles to change systems and policies

Pope (2019) developed the Career Counseling with Underserved Populations (CCUSP) model, offering tips for working effectively with individuals from nondominant cultures:

• Take responsibility for your own biases/prejudices
• Know/use process of cultural identity development
• Know special issues of specific cultures
• Directly address issues of discrimination
• Recognize that group career counselling has strong appeal to many minority clients
• Pay particular attention to the role of the family
• Pay attention to special issues of dual-career couples
• Be aware of special issues using career assessment tools with individuals from diverse cultural groups
• Help clients overcome internalized negative stereotypes or internalized oppression
• Attend to coming-out issues with clients for whom cultural membership is not obvious
• Overcome societal stereotyping as a limitation on occupational choice through occupational role models/networking interventions
• Maintain a supportive atmosphere in your office
• Provide positive advocacy for culturally diverse clients

Leong (2011) also described the Cultural Accommodation Model (CAM) which defined several domains which are equally important to understanding a human's experience:

• Universal (U) - traditional "Western" models of career development tend to focus on the knowledge base of mainstream psychology and universal laws of human behaviour which have been supported by long-standing, large-scale bodies of research.
• Group (G) - all persons share an association/bond with some "group" whether that be based on cultural identities, social class, occupation, religion, or gender. It is this domain where the cross-culturally applicability/suitability of the U domain is critically analyzed and critiqued.
• Individual (I) - the personal differences and unique human experience. This helps us to challenge stereotypes or overgeneralizations of the G domain.

To apply the CAM in practice, counsellors must strive to:

• Identify cultural gaps/blind spots in existing theory
• Select current culturally specific concepts/models to fill gaps and accommodate the theory
• Test the culturally accommodated theory

The notion of acculturation, that is the modification of or changes in a person's culture as a result of contact with another culture, has been expanded to help counsellors further understand the cultural location of their clients (Nuttgens & Campbell, 2010).

• Traditional: Clients speak only their language of origin, hold traditional beliefs, and practice traditional customs
• Marginal: Clients may or may not speak English or French as well as a language of origin, and do not see value in either mainstream or traditional cultures
• Bi-cultural: Client accepts practices and beliefs of both mainstream and traditional cultures
• Assimilated: Clients have rejected their culture of origin in favour of mainstream culture
• Pan traditional: Clients are integrated into mainstream culture, but make an effort to continue traditional ways and to recover lost practices and customs

Clearly, cultural values, language factors, and unique experiences must be considered when determining the counselling strategies to be implemented when working with clients from a different culture. However, counsellors will have some essential human experiences in common with their clients. Knowledge, empathy, and experience working with essential human processes can be a beginning to building a strong culturally sensitive therapeutic alliance.

References & Additional Resources:

Arthur, N. (2019). Culture-Infused Career Counselling: Connecting culture and social justice in career practices.

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In N. Arthur, R. Neault, & M. McMahon. (Eds.), Career theories and models at work: Ideas for practice (pp. 21-30). CERIC.

Arthur, N., & Collins, S. (2011). Infusing culture in career counseling

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. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 147-149. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01098.x

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Collins, S., & Arthur, N. (2007). A framework for enhancing multicultural counselling competence.

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Canadian Journal of Counselling, 41(1), 31-49.

Leong, F. T. L. (2011). Cultural accommodation model of counseling

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. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 150-152. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01099.x

Nuttgens, S. A., & Campbell, A.J. (2010). Multicultural considerations for counselling First Nations clients

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. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 44(2), 115-129.

Pope., M. (2011). The career counseling with underserved populations model

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. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 153-155. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01100.x

Pope, M. (2019). The career counselling with underserved populations model in practice

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. In N. Arthur, R. Neault, & M. McMahon (Eds.), Career theories and models at work: Ideas for practice (pp. 337-346). CERIC.

4.3: Decent/Quality Work

Career counsellors are in a unique position to support overcoming our history of systemic oppression which has disproportionately impacted the career advancement and economic opportunities for those from marginalized backgrounds. The Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) emphasized how the focus on the career development of those who hold privilege has resulted in the constraining and often exclusion of marginalized groups who aren't able to access meaningful, stable, and decent work (Blustein et al., 2019).

In accordance with PWT, "decent" work is viewed as:

• Physically and interpersonally safe working conditions
• Hours that allow for free time and adequate rest
• Organizational values that complement family and social values
• Adequate compensation
• Access to adequate health care

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

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are a good example of how to support decent work through equity, diversity, and inclusion in workplaces and societal institutions. It calls for a reimagining and reshaping of our economic and social future. Watch a brief video for an overview of all 17 goals; however, Goal 4: Quality Education

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, Goal 5: Gender Equality

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, and Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

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may be of particular interest to you:

https://youtu.be/0XTBYMfZyrM

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Future Skills refers to "quality work" as something that "can be transformative for individuals and their families in raising their living standards, improving workplace productivity, and promoting social inclusion" (2023, p. 3). It is a multi-dimensional concept comprising:

• Income and benefits - e.g., stable and liveable wage, access to health/wellness benefits, access to wealth-building opportunities like profit-sharing
• Skills and prospects - e.g., formal/informal training or work experience, job security/stability, opportunities for career advancement
• Working conditions - e.g., manageable work intensity, predictable work schedule/hours, flexibility, managerial support, adequate resources, worker voice and autonomy
• Safety and rights - e.g., freedom from discrimination, equity and fairness, psychological safety, physical safety, right to collective bargaining/representation
• Social environment - e.g., feelings of belonging, meaningfulness, and recognition

As you work with clients in reducing barriers and improving access to decent/quality work for marginalized groups, it's clear that social justice and advocacy play an important role.

References & Additional Readings:

Blustein, D. L., Duffy, R., Erby, W., & Kim, H. (2019). The psychology of working theory: A transformative approach to work and career

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. In N. Arthur, R. Neault, & M. McMahon (Eds.), Career theories and models at work: Ideas for practice (pp. 63-72). CERIC.

Future Skills Centre (2023). Quality of work: Literature review. https://fsc-ccf.ca/research/quality-of-work-literature-review/

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (n.d.). Take action for the sustainable development goals.https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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United Nations. (2018, April 20). Do you know all 17 SDGs? [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XTBYMfZyrM

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