resources, articles, handbooks & monographs

1st May
careers work - distinct or extinct?
monograph - pdf: details how public-sector careers work will thrive alongside private-sector career-coaching - doing what only it can do, & not re-hashing C20th answers to C21st questions - we need a new start, from scratch - with stakeholders and clients the narrative is for navigating a changing, disputed and confusing journey - from careers workers the thinking is broader on psychology, more critical on economics, wider on social forces, sharper on ethics & closer to both curriculum and community - credibly defending careers work, re-imagining it, and evaluating it - organisations like the UK’s Career Development Institute cannot escape the challenge - & you should have your say

7th November
on-line careers work - hit and myth
article - pdf: examines ‘internet hits’, what on-line careers work does well - & myths which mislead and damage life chances - shows how careers workers are well placed to enable students to deal with this - (1) ‘grasp’ enables critical on-line thinking - (2) ‘reach’ enables transfer of on-line learning to off-line life - & (3) ‘embodiment’ embeds virtual learning in real-life identity - shows why all of this requires direct-and-personal contact

15th August
check this out
article - html: long-standing café resources - all influential - reorganised to link to recent café work, listed below - 'check-this-out' up-dates - on theory - reforming practice - establishing partnerships - repositioning curriculum - scrutinising narrative - tapping into social systems

8th August
new times. new thinking, new action
linked review of major café themes - pdf: just as it seemed that careers work is being shown the door, it finds another way in - & it's outsiders who help us find it - because what helps the comfortable can penalise the excluded - & they are the core of a growing number who celebrate stories rather than turn to expert advice - but stories need scrutinising, & careers workers are well qualified to enable that kind of critical thinking - not least in digital literacy - the trouble is that we are in no position to deliver what we know we do best - the way back is to value that... & why we do it... & who we allow to influence us - we know enough about how to do it... our biggest challenge is locating where we position ourselves... and the when is now - it's a new beginning, where vaunting qualifications is a C20th answer to a C21st question

7th August
examples of three-scene storyboarding - narratives of learning-for-living
handbook - pdf: storyboarding engages career workers & student-or-clients in talking & listening to each other - this is a quick start to that technique - illustrated by twelve worked examples, each setting a filmic narrative alongside its expert case study - key design features help expertise converse with experience - graphics add to the depth of storytelling - layout shows competitive positioning and exploratory discovery - narrative imagination gives control of one’s own story - enabling personal well-being while also enlarging careers-work professionalism - the handbook links to other sources on all these issues

1st August
digital literacy - repositioning on-line careers work
monograph - pdf: teachers are not best placed to enable people in the manipulation & configuration of on-line devices - we need another concept of digital literacy - one that calls on what educators do best - & not least when helping with career management - the monograph dismantles the imagery of digital ‘natives’, ‘visitors’, ‘colonists’, ‘neighbours’ & ‘predators’ - it argues for the critical scrutiny of the relationship between on-line virtuality & off-line reality - that means that digital literacy is not an on-line facility with devices, it is an off-line capacity for probing what the devices find - & that positions educators as enabling awkward questioning - how can an on-line self represent an embodied identity? - what links on-line connections to wider realities? - how does anybody know when on-line searching finds reliable learning? - we need this kind of critical-thinking narrative for realising the full potential of the net

28th June
enclaves, systems and voice
monograph - pdf & presentation: part of the MMU's project on ‘Place, Space & Social Justice In Education’ - shows how geography impacts life chances - & sets out how any place can become a bigger space - explains why it recognises enclaves rather than just localities - & how that serves social justice - it means working with ‘usefulness’ rather than ‘effectiveness’ - with exploration more than competition - with reliable process more than impartial content - & with the voicing of experience more than the engagement of expertise - the outcomes are best expressed as narrative rather than diagnosis - and both guidance and careers education need to make more space for all this - or lose the plot - presentation

5th April
three-scene storyboarding - learning for living
monograph - pdf: storyboarding is an interactive format-and-process for seeking meaning in experience and purpose in action - it offers a basis for life-wide & life-long relevance for learning programmes in all sectors - it has had a long and varied development, but all its features are collected in this handbook - it explains the method, illustrates the process, examines issues, sets out the theory, probes the philosophy, references the research, identifies the outcomes & suggests implications for policy - in a contents-list of almost forty 'nutshells' - all easily-searched - and all readily-linked - the underlying question is ‘live and learn or live and don’t learn, which is best?’ - there’s more than one way to find out in this handbook

1st January
philosophies for careers work
article - pdf (needs printing): interactive examination of philosophies of careers work - in crisis we need to be clear about such, often unspoken, assumptions - use this to develop your position on a spectrum of orientations, from post-modern to pragmatic - all are invested, day-by-day, in the ideas & materials we develop - it's time to probe what we claim - to understand why we are contested - to enlarge our professionalism - to know what directions we conscientiously can take - and must now avoid - ...and, also, to give a person a reason to get out of bed in the morning

other recent thinking
ten propositions in search of careers-work professionalism
monograph - pdf: a fully-referenced defence of our professions - the personal commitment and the organisational frameworks which support it - explaining disappointment with twentieth-century progress - offering a basis for an independent new start - enlarged thinking for negotiating funding, for research-&-development & for gaining the interested attention of clients-&-students - & of partners-&-stakeholders - no more postponements of recurrent fear - a new basis for sustainable hope

bill law's three-scene storyboarding
resource - ppt: now entirely reorganised presentation - supports day-long participative workshop - key features, use in guidance & curriculum, & programme possibilities - new section on enabling questioning of narratives & on learning outcomes - designed to build a community of storyboarding practice

careers-work professionalism
article html: our professionalism is at a cross-roads - cuts and stress are eroding hope and aspiration - we can do something about it - this article re-works our credibility, expertise, partnerships & impartiality - & shows how that opens up new possibilities - for our clients and students - but, first, for us - it parallels the report of the careers profession task-force

__________

FILMS
careers talk on the net
four short films examining issues for the future of careers work

filmed in Thessaloniki
38 minutes - in English
how understanding career management re-frames career expertise
_________

check this out
long-standing & influential café resource

interactive blogs,
contacts & films

15th March
how public-sector careers work thrives alongside private-sector career coaching

23rd January
how & why professional careers workers need to shape he outcomes for a narrative workshop

17th January
Thessaloniki lecture - what political, commercial or useful future for careers work?

23rd October
David Andrews on the past, present & future of careers education in schools

17th October
why we need a career-learning theory
- now?

28th August
the essence of storyboarding -
findings, progress, issues and needs

23rd August
the future for narrative in careers work
can we? should we? will we?

23rd July
how narrative opens mutually comprehending partnerships between education and working life

11th July
presentation for the MMU
'Place and Space In Education'
conference

25th June
mapping careers-work reform -
convenient myths or local voices?

22nd May
change needs a new narrative -
but where to start?

!2th April
storyboarding as a research tool -
supporting independent professionalism

!0th April
what do you say to this short account of careers - work storyboarding?

3rd March
post-coded careers -
how living, learning and working gathers into enclaves

24th February
careers work
in the thick of it -
NEETs and what we know about them

23rd December
opinions on
'why is professionalism
so important to careers work?'

15th December
language and career
who cares what anybody says about careers?

21st October
five practitioner leads for the future of careers-work professionalism

18th August
2011 riots -
time for careers-work reform

9th August
who's that kid in the café?
identity and role in careers work

1st June
careers-work on the net -
the future?

14th May
crunch-time for careers-work professionalism

12th April
why don't the poor listen to us?

18th March
careers-work creativity - the fizz and the burn?

14th February
the future of careers-work professionalism?

have your say on the café & its programme

get occasional free café reviews: e-mail 'yes' to Bill
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