TPC-Journal-V4-Issue4

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 4 295 Another expert suggested the following: “There is increased discrimination against all marginalized populations, especially those individuals of color and older workers … Scarcity of [employment] opportunity breeds hatred, blame, resentment, distrust.” Given the apparent credibility of these experts’ opinions, as well as their acknowledgement of general and unique features of this economic climate, the authors now turn to their opinions about action steps. Upon reviewing this list, it seems that many of these items would be relevant both before and after the economic crisis, while others may have a unique purpose within the crisis. For example, the top ranked item (“increase knowledge, awareness and counseling skills in regard to contextual and cultural factors’ influence on the career development of traditionally marginalized populations”) might be considered best practice based on common training standards (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2009; NCDA, 2009a, 2009b) at any time; while one of the items tied for second (“increase knowledge of economic systems and their effect on clients’ career development”) might be considered a suggestion specific to the current economic crisis. As one expert asserted, “Career professionals need to be trained in macroeconomics and global business so they understand trends and can adequately train/inform their clients throughout the course of their career development.” This call for an understanding of economics is certainly not new in the career development literature (Blustein, 2006), but is not present in training standards for counselors (CACREP, 2009) or career counselors (NCDA, 2009a, 2009b). In terms of the ranking of the general categories, it is of interest that Theory & Research was ranked lowest of the general categories. While this is speculation, the experts in this study may have believed that current theory could be expanded to include the plight of marginalized populations (the highest ranked item in this category indicated as much), and that efforts would be more appropriately focused on using current theory to better train career counselors and serve clients. For example, Social Cognitive Career Theory certainly is “flexible” enough to address this topic through the concepts of contextual affordances and personal inputs (Lent et al., 2000), and a large body of existing research does just that. So it seems that experts are more focused on putting research and theory into practice than on developing new theories and findings. Suggestions for Action The remaining question is how this list can best be used to take action. In a general sense, this question might be better framed in terms of professional and organizational strategic planning. Given the purview of one’s career counseling practice or educational influence, how might this list aid in strategically choosing actions that can support the career development of traditionally marginalized populations? For example, career counseling centers in higher education settings might consider the Practice and Training items the most relevant and accessible items from this list. Private practice counselors working in geographic areas where English is not the most common language might act on the item suggesting that it is important to have multilingual methods for communicating these resources to clients (e.g., having Spanish language materials for English as a Second Language clients). Specifically, one expert suggested that those in private practice should “develop a library of Spanish language resources, websites, etc. relevant to educational and vocational development, options, etc.” Board members of organizations such as the NCDA might view this entire list as a model for strategically addressing the needs of traditionally marginalized populations by deploying its resources and networks to correspond with the ranking of the four thematic categories (Practice, Training, Theory & Research and Advocacy). While this list can be used to generate actions unique to organizations and practice areas, it may also be helpful to return to some specific suggestions that experts made within these 18 categories. For example, in