President's Letter: Elementary Seeds for Career Development

Career preparation develops during elementary school through family expectations, behavior and academic supports. Children begin to form and explore career identities early in life and elementary school counselors provide developmentally appropriate scaffolding that is essential to their development. Elementary school counselors understand that career preparation is an interconnected process comprising cognitive development, social/emotional development, environment expectations and support. Research supports K-6 career readiness. Elementary-aged children are making choices that influence their career goals and plans every day (Trice & McClellan, 1994). Around the age of five, children are already beginning to shape their career aspirations (Gottfredson, 1981). By nine years old, some children begin eliminating career choices that may require more ability than they believe they have (Gottfredson, 1981). Therefore, beginning the process of career readiness at the elementary level can help increase students’ awareness and help them make connections about careers of interest and their skills.

In elementary school, students enter what Piaget calls the concrete operational stage of development. Concrete thinking begins to emerge and students develop a more realistic understanding of the world. Children gain self-awareness that affects how they perceive themselves in relation to others and the ideas set by society. In Erik Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development, children enter a stage called “initiative vs. guilt,” when they begin to assert their power and control over the world through play and other social interaction. Students are actively exploring their environment and developing a sense of control. Children then transition to the phase “industry vs. inferiority,” when they are tested on academic content and learn to master academic tasks. Students who excel develop self-confidence, while student that fail develop feelings of inferiority. These positive and negative feeling greatly affect future career outcomes and self-esteem. Based on the aforementioned research, and given all we know about the cognitive development of elementary students, one would think that employment of elementary school counselors would be a top priority in Michigan’s career development agenda.

Elementary school counselors can promote career awareness activities by integrating mini career centers into the curriculum that allow students to explore career and technical education (CTE) themed career pathways. Allowing students to participate in project and work-based learning activities in CTE programs increases their awareness of professional trades. Incorporating extended learning opportunities such as career days, career fairs and business and industry field trips is also an excellent way elementary school counselors can RAMP up their career programs.

To provide students the career development to pursue careers of interest, we must move beyond outdated narratives of school counselors and career development. The greatest impediment to increased career development for students in the state of Michigan is our parochial focus on professional development for high school counselors, extremely high student-to-school-counselor ratios, our lack of elementary school counselors and our failure to acknowledge the impact career development has on elementary school students.

Contact Tony Warren, MSCA president, at warrent@calhounisd.org for references for this article