OD 012 956 AUTHOR TITLE Strategies; Mass Control; *Social Vocational Education Ability to Adapt the Environment to His Appreciat

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ED 068 595 OD 012 956 AUTHOR Gordon, Edmund W. TITLE Broadening the Concept of CareerEducation. PUB DATE Sep 72 NOTE 15p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS *Career Education; Communications;*Cultural Factors; Educational Development; EducationalNeeds; *Educational Objectives; EducationalPhilosophy; Educational Planning; EducationalStrategies; Mass Media; Secondary Education; SelfControl; *Social Change; *Technological Advancement;Vocational Education

ABSTRACT The advanced technology of moderncommunications has created a condition in which thecontradictions of complex social orders, the atrocities ofinterpersonal, intertribal, and international conflicts, theinequities inherent in practicallyall of our social systems, as well asthe richness of our culturaland technical accomplishments constantlybombard the human spirit with relentless assault and stimulation.Human beings, accustomed to far simpler social environments, havereacted to these inputs with habituation or adaptation. As theseinputs increase in complexity and intensity, the process of habituationis likely to accelerate and the processes of adaptationmust become more complex. Undersuch capacities the survival of man willincreasingly depend on his capacity to use his intellectual powerto adapt to his changing environment as well as on hisability to adapt the environment tohis special needs. Such capacities arelikely to be the product of learning experiences designed tocultivate the mind and spirit of man in ways which combine competencein the use of knowledge, compassionate and empatheticappreciation of values, and masteryof selected skills. It is then thesethree which must comprise the dimensions of career education --education which prepares for continued progress in the life of a person.(Author/3M) FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- OUCEO EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- INATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN. IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU CATION POSITION OR POLICY.

Broadening the Concept of Careereducation

Edmund W. Gordon Professor of Education Teachers College Columbia University New York, N. Y. September 1972

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In a paper which has reached much toolimited an audience, Mar land has made an eloquent plea for the expansion andenhancement of the comprehensive high school to insure that all youngpeople leave the secondary school with generic competence in general educationand specific mastery of some area

of vocational education.The paper speaks primarily to the need forthe development of assessment instrumentsand procedures by which such competenceand mastery may be measured andrecorded. However, it is in this paper(written in about 1968) that Mar land used the term careerentry to refer to the transition from the truly comprehensivehigh school to post high school studyand/or work. Implicit in that paper is a concernfor the achievement of a high degree of syrmnetry in the attention given tointellectual and vocational development. Both were seen as crucial elements inthe educational process but the latter had traditionally been given second class status.The oppor=tunities for the schools to reward wider varieties of talent, todevelop curricular that had greater relevance for a wider range ofpupils and at the same time to contri- bute to the nation's pool of trained laborwere given emphasis.It is out of this kind of thinking that the current concernwith Career Education, also introduced by Marland, has emerged. Three factors, however, have contributed to aprevailing view of career education which is too narrow.First, we have traditicr.ally considered all basic education which includes vocational skillmastery as a specific goal to be vocational education. Second, in aneffort at redressing the balance to give greater status to preparationfor work, the employability potential

2 2 of the products of career education hasbeen overemphasized.Third, the traditional reservations held by academiciansfor anything that smacks of vocational edUcation has enabled experts invocational education to preempt early developments in the emergenceof career education. In the review of much of the contemporarythink ing relative to career education, one finds a heavy emphasis given to concernfor vocational education and development. As recently as1971, in searching the Educational Index for references to career education, oneis referred to vocational education as if the terms are synonymous.In some discussions of the concept, career education takes on differentmeanings depending on the level of schooling at which it is introduced. Forexample, in the primary grades career education would involveintroduction to some of the categories of work experience available in the immediatecommunity; in the middle grades youngsters are likely to be exposed to guestswho are representatives of varieties of vocations.It is also at that level that some attentionmight be given to attitudes toward work and exposure to someof the tools and instru- ments associated with categories of work. Atthe high school level youngsters would be expected to master the skills of atleast one marketable occupation. There have been some efforts at broadening the concept so asto include college bound as well as non-college bound pupils.In this scheme it is pro- posed that effort be directed at the achievement ofcompetencies in the content of general education as well as mastery of amarketable skill.Graduates of such programs (very much like the comprehensivehigh school) could go on

3 5 of man's labor from idiosyncraticnuturance and crafting tohomogeneous and repetitious manipulation.Cybernetic era may not only completelychange the nature of man's work butcould eliminate work as anessential human education function.The implications of thesechanges will greatly influence and practically all other aspectsof our society. As societies become morecomplex and congested, political processes become more intricate and therequirement for politicalizationbecomes almost essential to survival.The growing political awarenessand social action of significant segmentsof the society is but a reflectionof this pheno- menon. As a result ofthis politicalization and other pressures,patterns of social organization are in aconsiderable state of flux with oldfoci and institutions giving way to new andsometimes none. In addition,institutional ties are being severedand alienation is prevalent. Inthis period of increasingly rapid change, old values aresurrendering to new, contradictionsbetween professed and practical values arebecoming more obvious, and conflicts between values are more disruptive.Among the contradictions none is more obvious than the fact of hunger andpoverty in the midst of affluence.This discrepancy in the distribution ofsociety's wealth is maintained by ourtechno- 3 logical developments that havebroaght us to a point where ourpotential productivity is almost unlimited.Such conditions in Cle presence ofhigh economic potential could become the basis forradical changes in the political economy of the nation.Prediction of the direction of changeis difficult, but the existence of such circumstances makeobsolete many aspects of traditionalcultures as well as the current predominanttrend toward political and socialconservatism. 6

To enable our educational efforts to matchthe demands of these developments, attention must be focused on remodelingthe concepts and structure of education so that schools of the future will not onlybe more appropriately aligned with the needs of that future society, but will alsobe a positive force in facilitating societal transition.The vast amount of knowledge available to man, together with the demands ofthe advanced technology by which our society moves will require of our student-future-citizensskill in the management of knowledge; just as changes in the politico-socialsphere will make more necessary than ever before competenciesand skill in intrapersonal management and interpersonal relations. A society which approaches education with these concerns might appropriately give attention to five specific educational goals.

1. Mastery of basic communication skills: Education for all in our society must be built upon the mastery of basic skills in symbolic representa- tion and utilization.The survival tools of the cybernetic era are communication skills including speech, reading, writing and arithmetic computation.

2.Problem solving: The movement from anxiety, confusion and disorder to problem formulation involves competence in the analysis of dataand experience leading first to problem identification followed by competence in the synthesis of concepts and postulates to the end that strategic approaches to problem solution may be generated.

3.The management of knowledge; Knowledge of the physical, biological, and social sciences is so vast as to preclude complete content nasteryby any single person.Knowledge of the dimensions of these fields, mastery of

7 important. Al- priority.At another time, the roleof producer may be most though the assignment ofpermanent pre-eminence to any oneof these roles In must be avoided, temporaryemphasis on one or another maybe justified. that sense some concernwith vocational education maybe justified since the vocational role is one forwhich we must prepare (atleast in the immediate development may be inappropriatefor future).However, vocational skill long-term goal fulfillment.It is no 'longer appropriate tofocus entirely on appropriate to too small a one's vocational skillsand role, for it may be portion of the human life span.One's career should beconcerned with several that one could other roles.Preparation for all of theseroles is essential so of settings; move in and outof work, politics,institutions; relate in a variety utilize knowledge and skillfor appropriate socialadjustments; assign values decisions; and develop and make choices inunanticipated situations requiring appreciation for aesthetic andhumane values in preparationfor many roles as an expressiveand compassionate being. One of the reasons for thisshift in concern is the factthat man increasingly devotes less of his time tothe production of thingsand services and more to when one leisure.Leisure is thought of as thevarying periods in the life span is free from the requirementsof productive work orservice and free to devote from energies to voluntaryself-expression.In leisure gratification comes doing things relevant toone's own voluntary pursuitof life's idiosyncratic meanings. Thus, one'sinvolvement in self-fulfillingactivities is essential to the living of ameaningful and satisfying life. In earlier stages of oursociety, most people wereable to give meaning to their lives throughthe work of their vocations. For many,the search for meaning and satisfaction was notengaged. The society did not extendthat privilege to them.But one of the contradictionsof the present period which is likely to extend into the next,is to be found in societalconditions which constantly stimulate man tosearch for meaning and satisfaction,but which provide limited resources forfulfilling that search. What isthe essential ingredient necessary to the livingof a meaningful and satisfyinglife?Pro- bably nothing is more important tothis process than is intellect.It is through man's intellect thatall else becomes possible.It is the development of intellect that has enabled manto rise above lower formsof animal life. It is also intellect whichprevents man from beingreduced to robot status by the technology of his owncreation.Yet it is the intellect of manwhich receives so little attention inalmost all our efforts at schooling. According to Anthony Wallace,what a man should learn is afunction of hisculture.' What is expected of education depends upon whether it occurs in a revolutionary, conservative orreactionary society. No society isexclu- sively based on one of these valueorientations although one doespredominate in a given group during a particularperiod. According to Wallace, any one society will repeatedly progressthrough this tripartite cycle ofrevolutionary, conservative, and reactionary stages.

'AnthonyC. Wallace, 'Schools inRevolutionary and ConservativeSocie- 4 ties. " Social and CulturalFoundations of Guidance, EstherM. Lloyd-Jones and Nora Rosenau, editors.New York: Holt, Rinehartand Winston, 1968 page 196. 11

A particular philosophy ofeducation, which determineswhat is to be learned, is associated with each stage.Priorities for learning areassigned and classified into three categories:the development of intellect -the ability to critically analyzetransmitted culture to generate or createsomething more; the development of morality -capability of establishing valuesand discerning meaning from them; the developmentof skills - the mechanics oroperations used to achieve morality,intellect and productivity.It is interesting to note that none of the stages ( revolutionary,conservative, or reactionary) rank intellect as the top learning priorityfor the society. Learning priorities for arevolutionary society support a processof cultur al transformation byconverting the population to a newcode of morality, as its primary concern.The first task for this society is tofill positions of leadership with intellectuallyresourceful people who adhere tothe new moral- that ity.These personnel are designated todevelop and carry out a program will co avert the populace to itsrevolutionary ethic.Intellect serves a secondary but importantfunction in a stage of cultiAral,moral transformation. In a conservative society sincecode formation is established,intellect has no special use or politicalinfluence. Schools have no reasonto emphasize intellect, and responsibility forintellectual education is left to theindividual. Pseudo-intellectualism and pretentious amateursflood academia with incom- petencies. The pure intellectutilizes his talents in contributingto amoral production of new weapons, newphilosophies, and new curricula. Thesystem rewards technological advancementand places technical skill training asthe highest educational priority andintellect, that is separated frommorality, as the lowest. is centered around In a post-conservative orreactionary society learning revolutionary two matters: (1)renewal of enthuJiasmfor a once-pure, It should be noted morality,(2) suppression ofcontradictory doctrine. reactionary societies is that a common phenomenonin revolutionary and discrepan- the paramount concernwith morality.However, there are severe morality and intellect cies in their designsfor achieving it.In the former, in the latter, are viewedjointly to achievepredetermined behavior; while intellect is viewed as an enemy.In the conservativesociety, intellect is simply ignored. Mostalarming, however, isthat a moral or skill-based education is forced uponthe young at the expenseof personal and intellectual societal develop- development.Clearly, then, it seemsthat in all stages of ment technique andsocialization are stressed whileintellectual cultivation is assigned low priority. For the emerging socialorder it is cruciallyimportant that the paradigm described by Wallace bechanged to insure that thedevelopment of intellect be raised to the highestpriority.Skills and imposed moralitywill leave man insufficiently equipped to dealwith the most criticalproblems of twenty-first century man. Even now,the advanced technologyof modern communications bas created a condition inwhich the contradictions ofcomplex social orders, the atrocities of interpersonal,intertribal, and internationalconflicts, the inequities inherent in practicallyall of our social systems, aswell as the richness of our cultural andtechnical accomplishmentsconstantly bombard the human spirit withrelentless assault andstimulation. Human beings,

13 accustomed to far simpler socialenvironments, have reacted tothese inputs with habituation or adaptation.As these inputs increasein complexity and intensity, the-process ofhabituation is likely to accelerateand the processes of adaptation must become morecomplex. These processes arereflected in growing insensitivity tosocial and moral indignation orshock, increasing insulation and isolation inpersonal-social interchange, alienationfrom the concepts, institutions andaffiliations which heretoforehave provided sta- bilizing points of reference, anddisaffection or loss of a senseof faith in nature, in society, inauthority figures, or in oneself ascontinuing influential forces. Under such conditions the survivalof man will increasingly depend on the capacity of man to use hisintellectual power to adapt to hischanging environment as well as on hisability to adapt the environment tohis special needs. Such capacities and likely, tobe the product of learningexperiences designed to cultivate the mind andspirit of man in ways whichcombine competence in the use of knowledge,compassionate and empathetic appreciation of values and mastery ofselected skills.It is then these three which must comprise the dimensionsof career education--educationwhich prepares for continued progress in the lifeof a person. Obviously, such aneducation must be concerned with masteryof basic communication skills;competence in problem solving; competencein the management of knowledge;preparation for continuing education, employmentand leisure; and competence inself management. The specific content tobe emphasized will vary as theemphases of the society change. For anumber of years that content willprobably in- ti

4 14 elude some concern with masteryof a marketable skill along withother content specialties. However, if thateducation is appropriatelymanaged, it will not have as its purpose masteryof that specific skill or content.Its purpose will be to use that content asthe vehicle by which intellectualitythecapacity to understand and to adapt--isdeveloped and enhanced. For if careereducation, or any education,does not do that, it is inadequateeducation.