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In this paper, we present our development of a previously articulated approach to counselling education of transformational learning through a relational dynamic approach (Macaskie et al., 2013). We replace the idea of integration with a values-based approach and supplement the notion of transformational relational learning with a not-knowing attitude. This perspective on education and learning in counselling parallels the attitude within psychotherapy that we teach our students. We argue that this unites relational approaches to learning and psychotherapy across modalities and offers a trans-theoretical approach that could explain the common factors research in psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines phenomenography as a viable qualitative approach in guidance and counselling research. A phenomenographic study maps the qualitatively different ways in which people experience a specific phenomenon and helps researchers to describe the aspects that make one way of experiencing a certain phenomenon qualitatively distinct from another. This paper presents an overview of phenomenographic research, encompassing theoretical, methodological and practical considerations. The application of this approach in guidance and counselling studies is illustrated with examples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rapidly changing policy contexts in England have dramatically affected the provision of career guidance, and the training and development of its practitioners. This paper takes an autoethnographic and self-reflexive approach to exploring the experience of a Senior Lecturer in Career Guidance who manages a centre that offers the Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG), and the Level 6 Diploma in Career Guidance and Development. Key questions are considered, such as: the effects of policy context on the type of qualification and curriculum offered, and their differences; the challenges of engaging learners in theoretical concepts and reflective approaches; and the tensions between ‘training’ practitioners and ‘educating’ them to develop a strong core of professionalism. The paper also considers the extent to which the learners develop as ‘knowledgeable social actors’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes incorporating the concept of the ‘observing eye/I’, from cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), to Hawkins and Shohet's seven modes of supervision, comprising their transtheoretical model of supervision. Each mode is described alongside explicit examples relating to CAT. This modification using a key idea from CAT (in the form of the addition of a Mode 8 ‘observing us’) enhances the model's utility in supervisory practice. With this adaptation, the model could also be used, with greater breadth and depth, in therapies where the primary focus is not relational. The collaboratively reflexive ‘observing us’ ensures that the very process of supervision is effectively monitored and attended to. The inclusion of this eighth level leads to more formal emphasis on the meta communication and meta commentary levels in supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Schools in the UK and beyond continue to experience the damaging effects of 'top down', 'one size fits all' 'outcome-based' educational reforms. Educators struggle to meet the dual demands of a punishing performativity- and accountability-driven regime alongside the personal, social, emotional and learning needs of their pupils, especially those whose challenging behaviour reflects an inability to cope with the relentless demands of testing and with the perceived lack of meaning or relevance of disembodied knowledge for their lives. Needless to say, many pupils find their teachers driven to behaviour just as challenging. This paper presents a rationale for reclaiming the relational at the heart of school life in order to move schools towards recovery. It is argued that it is only when schools have a central and demonstrable concern with the primacy of relationships in teaching and learning that it will be possible to reclaim the ground that has been eroded by successive marketising and managerialist agendas. Placing students and relationships at the centre is crucial to creating the collective energy, internal motivation and commitment necessary for re-establishing schools as humane centres of inclusive people development. A three stage model for achieving this is proposed: developing relational fitness; relational sustenance and depth; and relational alchemy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning. Previous experiences may create distortions in meaning-making perspectives, distortions that create templates for evaluating future experience. These templates act as barriers to being open to experience; thus there is an inability to learn from experience. The process of therapy can provide a learning milieu for the exploration and working through of these barriers, with a potential outcome of a return to learning from experience. It is suggested here that intrinsic to the learning milieu created in therapy there are elements of significant, transformative and emotional learning. Therapy is thus a reparative discourse that facilitates a return to learning from experience. A deconstruction of this concept is provided here as a way of developing the exploration of counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an account of some of the learning experiences of mature students undertaking a Level 2 Diploma course in Person-Centred Counselling over four terms in a higher education establishment in England. The central question driving this research stemmed from a desire to understand the student experience of becoming professional. Therefore the question was that of qualitative inquiry: 'What are the experiences of mature learners on person-centred counselling courses within higher education?' This paper discusses students' perceptions of training and the ways in which they evaluate their status as professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the various topics within the issue, including social-emotional learning, childhood career development competencies, and the development of social skills in children.

Recent trends in developmental psychology and developmental systems theory have opened child career development learning (CCDL) to new perspectives. This study adopts a Systems of Influences perspective with the aim of highlighting the development of systems of influences characterising students attending an Italian primary and middle school. Two levels of analysis emerged, addressing (1) the ability to identify influences and (2) the self and social awareness characterising the personal systems of influences developed by participants. This study underscores the relevance of a diachronic and systemic perspective in understanding age-specific systems of influences and their meaning for CCDL and related educational actions. It also provides insights into the meaning of the current complex challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Career exploration enables children to gain self- and occupational knowledge, and to assign meaning towhat is learnt at school. Children's career exploration can be conceived as a foundation for career developmental learning and academic success. In this manuscript, we review articles published over the last five years to address whether these constructs have been articulated. The included 19 manuscripts showed that career exploration, learning, and academic success have been mostly studied separately. Future efforts to integrate career and academic theories might be useful to advance research covering relations among these constructs. Specialised training from career practitioners, age-appropriate strategies, and collaborative alliances with policymakers, community stakeholders, and educational agents seem critical for career guidance practices targeting children's career and academic flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of decent work, inclusion and supporting individuals to find pathways to learning and work opportunities present new opportunities and real challenges. Job security, roles and labour markets are changing rapidly. We focus on how the UK careers support landscape in each of the four home nations is changing in response to the pandemic. We argue that the quasi-market, experimental approach to careers provision in England has significantly weakened young people's access to professionally-trained advisers. We outline a 'spaces and places paradigm' to reframe careers support in transformative ways. Our results show fragmented policies in England will not create the level of support needed by individuals, particularly those most vulnerable in the aftermath of Covid-19, to build better futures for themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers systemic thinking in relation to the Systems Theory Framework (STF) and to career theory. An overview of systems theory and its applications is followed by a discussion of career theory to provide a context for the subsequent description of STF. The contributions of STF to career theory and to theory integration are presented. Finally, the key constructs of work, learning, and career identity are considered through the lenses of STF and systemic thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This explores the narratives from three individuals in low-skilled employment in the UK. The interviewees reflected upon their experiences of learning from compulsory education and beyond and their pathways through education to employment. The narratives illustrate how with the support of significant others, resilience and proactivity, they can overcome negative influences and subjective barriers to learning. Their barriers to learning will be examined in terms of their impact on future pathways and aspirations. The discussion will conclude by examining the role of significant others, and the potential role of career professionals, in combatting negative experiences of learning in order to raise aspirations and support positive pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany and Denmark, the systems of further education and career guidance are well developed, offering a wide range of services and learning opportunities for targeted, specific and also general skills development. Based on an empirical study with mid-career individuals in both countries, the article investigates how the different systems support individuals to manage a career transition and develop their individual pathways. Mid-career transitions can be considered particularly challenging as they often reflect a more profound crisis and major concerns about future career opportunities. Constraints that prevent individuals in mid-career to fully benefit from the learning and guidance offers available can be identified in both countries. These range from the availability of programmes and accessing funding to getting the ‘right’ information. These constraints partly derive from adult education and guidance systems presupposing linear careers rather than disruptive trajectories and horizontal mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An editorial introduction to the issue is presented, highlighting its featured reports taken from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) 2011 qualitative survey of mid-career changes.

This article focuses upon the processes whereby individuals reframe their career goals and career direction mid-way through their working lives. Three cases, drawn from Denmark, Germany and Italy, are used to exemplify these processes. The cases are part of a larger study which included the development of a model that could accommodate the different ways in which learning could support labour market transitions across the life-course, where these transitions may involve shifts away from initial occupational identities. The model was used to inform the case analysis whereby career reframing processes could be viewed from three perspectives: reframing as a process of identity development, as a form of relational, emotional, practical and cognitive development and taking place within particular opportunity structures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present article examines how the five process constructs of reflection, connectedness, meaning making, learning and agency are operationalised in a constructivist approach to career counselling, specifically a storytelling approach. This article reports on an exploratory case study of a Black South African female university student. The case study provides examples of how a career counsellor enacts these constructs and facilitates their development in a client, as well as examples of how they are evident in client dialogue and action. Insight into the process of a storytelling approach to narrative career counselling is demonstrated, from which tentative suggestions are made about how to facilitate the process constructs of reflection, connectedness, meaning making, learning and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the perspective of an educational psychotherapist, whose concern is with the emotional factors and experiences which can affect learning, this article seeks to explore and reflect upon the views and findings concerning the role and importance of fathers which may be linked to learning and educational achievement. The term 'father' is used to describe the parent other than the mother or primary carer and recognises that in modern society this role can be taken by those other than the birth father, but the article is written from the perspective of the traditional relationships which are likely to affect the majority of children about whom we are concerned in our society today. Research linking father involvement and commitment with positive developmental and educational outcomes is the framework within which various aspects of the paternal relationship are explored. The nature of parental relationships, the capacity to cope with challenge and adversity and resolution of the Oedipal stage, are linked to the capacity to explore the outside world and to engage in the educational task. The learning task is seen as the symbolic bridge to the outside world and consequent social inclusion, with fathers at the heart of this engagement. The article thus seeks to promote paternal significance and engagement in all work concerning vulnerable children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devolution instigated in the United Kingdom in 1997 was a further stage in a long historical process. Nonetheless, prior to the 1990s, the basic structures of career guidance services were broadly similar across the UK. But the marketisation of careers services that took place under the Conservative government in the mid-1990s went further in England than elsewhere. This helped to pave the way for the markedly different directions followed post-devolution, with England seeking horizontal integration of services for young people and adults respectively, whereas Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have emphasised vertical integration of career guidance services on an all-age basis. Some sectors have been affected less by devolution than others. It is suggested that the model adopted in England has already weakened the structures for career guidance provision, and is currently at risk of weakening them still further. The relative size of England means that these weaknesses could have ripple effects on the other home countries too—in relation to professional training and professional status, for example. Existing collaborative mechanisms need to be strengthened, and a culture of mutual learning enhanced, if the potential benefits of diversification are to be fostered and its potential risks avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A massive expansion in student numbers in higher education, coupled with an overall reduction in funding, has led to higher staff–student ratios and a reduction in the amount of staff time available to support students. This has been linked to rising demands being placed on student support services. This article draws on case studies of five students experiencing mental health difficulties, to provide insight into these issues from the student perspective. The students confirmed that aspects of the higher education environment had exacerbated their difficulties. An innovative model of support is described. Traditionally interventions for students with mental health difficulties have focused at the individual level. We argue that attention also needs to be paid to changing aspects of the environment and that this would improve the learning experience for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A programme designed to develop the capacity of voluntary agencies and community groups to deliver information, advice and guidance (IAG) on learning and work to their clients and members is outlined. Four forms of capacity building are distinguished: internal IAG capacity building, based on developing IAG resources within the agency or group itself; external IAG capacity building, based on the agency or group offering IAG resources delivered by outside providers; learning capacity building, based on learning brokerage; and organisational capacity building, contributing to the development of the agency or group in broader terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Thirty-five clients who had received counselling completed a letter to a friend describing in as much detail as possible what they had learned from counselling. The participants' written responses were analysed and classified using the Structure of Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The results suggested that an expanded SOLO offers a promising and exciting way to view the outcomes of counselling within a learning framework. If the SOLO taxonomy is found to be stable in subsequent research, and clients are easily able to be classified using the taxonomy, then this approach may have implications for the process of counselling. To maximise the learning outcomes, counsellors could use strategies and techniques to enhance their clients' learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on a study which analyzed the impact of the first ten years of the National Curriculum in England and Wales upon personal-social education. Progressive impact for a non-progressive effect; Effects on the personal-social curriculum; Conceptualization of the personal-social curriculum.