Chapter 1

When reading chapter one, I was able to see the history there has been behind career development. Social justice really struck my interests. When working in an urban school and having passion for helping children develop a career, there are statistics that really stuck with me with this population. “Not surprisingly the percentage of white families living in poverty (10.5 percent) was substantially lower than the percentages for African American (24.7 percent) and Hispanic (21.8 percent) families (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005) (Brown,2012).” Even though discrimination comes a long way, it is still apparent in the workplace. Prilleltensky’s work discusses how people can rise above to become what they want to be, however, with oppression, discrimination, and marginalization as factors, it’s hard to agree with that statement. Discrimination does not only refer to race, it also has to do with age, sex, and disability. The empowerment model tries to deal with these discriminations. However, there are factors that need to be address when it comes to this philosophy as well.

Another part of chapter one that I connected with was when Brown spoke of how practice is not always based off of theory. As an educator, we are constantly showed new research-based programs that are proven to work, and theories on how children learn and how we are supposed to teach in order to become successful as educators. However, when you are up in front of the classroom and get to know your students, some of those theories and research-based programs do not effectively work with them. There are more elements that go into what works for the students in your room. In career development Brown discusses consulting, collaboration, assessment, program design, and leadership (Brown, 2012). Another area of interest I had while reading was the difference between job, occupation, and position. I use these words interchangeably when talking about career. I am still a little unsure about the difference between these definitions.


My last thought about this chapter has to deal with was the future of work. The United States is outsourcing their work to other countries in order to allow labor to come at a cheaper price. The new global economy also allows for more work to be done at home, due to technology. Lastly, computers are replacing jobs. However, the only good thing about the technology aspect is that people have to have jobs in order to create the technology that is being created. This chapter excited me to continue reading in order to see what is in store.



Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed.). New York: Pearson.