The influence of group career construction counselling on Tanzanian high school students’ career decision-making difficulties

ABSTRACT

This study examined the influence of a group career construction counselling intervention on the career decision-making difficulties of Tanzanian students. Convenience and purposive sampling were used to select 35 high school participants from a single public school in Tanzania. A qualitative approach was employed and an intrinsic single-case, descriptive, intervention career design was implemented. An eight-week career construction counselling intervention was executed. The data were generated using different qualitative data sources. Thematic data analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the intervention enhanced most of the participants’ career decision-making capacity, bolstered participants’ psychological selves, improved their career adaptability, and bolstered their ability to make informed career decisions. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies in various contexts with different participants. Career construction counselling interventions for students of different ages and strategies to establish the long-term impact of these interventions should be devised.

KEYWORDS:

• Group career construction counselling
• career decision-making difficulties
• career decision-making
• psychological selves
• Tanzanian high school students

Acknowledgments

We thank the students for participating in the research. We also thank Tim Steward for his editing of the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Epilogue

Now, more than 12 months after the intervention, follow-up conversations with many of the participants indicated that they were making good progress with their studies. They have enrolled at different universities where they are pursuing degrees that reflect their preferred career choices as uncovered during the intervention.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Research Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Jacobus Gideon Maree

Jacobus Gideon Maree is an educational psychologist and a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. He holds doctoral degrees in Education (Career counseling), Mathematics Education, and Psychology, and he lectures counselling for career construction to educational and counselling master’s psychology students. Since 2014, he has authored or co-authored 35+ peer­reviewed articles and 20+ books/book chapters and successfully supervised eight doctoral theses and seven master’s dissertations. A regular keynote speaker at national and international conferences, he has received multiple awards for his work, and he has a B1 rating from the National Research Foundation.

Grace Makunja Magere

Grace Makunja Magere is an educator and a lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling at the Sokoine University of Agriculture. She holds a doctoral degree in Learning Support Guidance and Counselling from the University of Pretoria and she is passionate about supporting secondary students struggling with making subject choices and career decisions. She endeavours to help them develop a career identity early in their lives by enhancing their career decision-making capacity and adaptability.