gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace contributions to this special issue conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boitumelo m. diale department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa obakeng kagola department of primary school, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation diale, b.m., brown, a., & kagola, o. (2023). gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace. african journal of career development, 5(1), a103. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.103 editorial gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace boitumelo m. diale, anthony brown, obakeng kagola received: 15 sept. 2023; accepted: 15 sept. 2023; published: 21 dec. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace we are both pleased and honoured to present this groundbreaking special issue of the african journal of career development (ajcd) focused on ‘gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace’. in a continent where many nations still grapple with inclusivity and equality based on sexual orientation and gender identity, this is the first known issue in south africa dedicated to dissecting the subject in the context of career development and workplace environments. south africa has been a pioneer in affirming rights related to gender and sexual orientation. in the wake of apartheid, the south african constitution was recrafted to be one of the most progressive in the world, explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on gender (diversity), sex and sexual orientation. the constitutional affirmation in chapter 2, under the bill of rights, is a keystone for all south african legislation and governance models related to career development and workplace conduct (republic of south africa, 1996). the employment equity act 55 of 1998 and the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act 4 of 2000 (pepuda) also warrant mention as legislative frameworks that provide a safeguard against discrimination in south african workplaces (department of labour, 2014; republic of south africa, 2000). despite legislative landmarks, day-to-day realities reveal that there is much work to be done to transform south african workplaces into spaces of true diversity and inclusivity. discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity often starts early – in schools and higher educational institutions, places where career aspirations are moulded (buthelezi & brown, 2023; francis, 2023). therefore, a critical examination of career education from a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual (lgbtqia+) perspective is long overdue. educators, career counsellors and human resources professionals have a duty to ensure that guidance given to young people is free from bias, openly discussing career options without pigeonholing individuals into traditional gender roles or excluding them based on their sexual orientation. it is crucial to examine the lived experiences of individuals belonging to diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. while south africa has robust legislation, the everyday realities often reveal gaps in the translation of law into practice, especially in careers that are historically gendered. in sectors like mining (dlamini, 2006; maake et al., 2023; niehaus, 2002), construction (english & le jeune, 2012) and engineering (bowen et al., 2021) that are traditionally male-dominated, policy and practice can diverge widely for females and gender non-conforming identities. while many companies have inclusive human resources policies on paper, the shop floor often tells a different story (luiz & terziev, 2022). for instance, transgender individuals frequently face barriers in accessing gender-appropriate bathroom facilities despite official policies that should guarantee this right (patel, 2017). similarly, in education and nursing sectors, traditionally viewed as female-oriented careers, gay men often report microaggressions and gender bias that may not always be overt but subtly question their ‘fit’ into these roles (kalemba, 2020; moosa & bhana, 2022). while south africa’s department of basic education has anti-discrimination guidelines, teachers of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in conservative communities often are constantly facing discrimination and harassment (brown & diale, 2017; kagola & notshulwana, 2022; richardson & archer, 2008). clearly, policy formation and legislative backing are vital, but these alone do not translate into lived experiences of dignity and respect. the journey towards complete inclusion is ongoing, and each one of us has a role to play in it. we look forward to your active engagement with this special issue as we together build more inclusive workplaces for everyone. contributions to this special issue ubisi, l.m., tsabede, w. & fourie, e. intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual individuals the article delves into the challenges lgbtqia+ individuals face while searching for, entering and adapting to careers, emphasising the profound impact organisational cultural norms can have on both their professional and personal identities. the study’s primary objective was to understand how these individuals navigate the complexities of gender and sexuality diversity in diverse work settings. utilising both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the review sourced data from local and global publications because of a lack of comprehensive south african scholarship in this domain. findings revealed that, despite increased visibility and accommodation for lgbtqia+ individuals in many organisations, discrimination, encompassing issues such as racism, queerphobia and marginalisation, remains pervasive. in response to these findings, the article calls for urgent mental health support measures for lgbtqia+ employees and emphasises the necessity of implementing anti-discriminatory guidelines to foster and maintain gender and sexual diversity inclusivity in the workplace. maake, t. ‘are there gay men in the mines?’ towards unsettling the heteronormative male occupational culture in mining this groundbreaking study offers a critical examination of the male-dominated occupational culture in south africa’s mining industry, focusing on the often overlooked issue of its heteronormative nature and the resultant marginalisation of gay male identities. while previous research has examined the ways in which women are marginalised within this occupational culture, this paper fills an essential gap by addressing the erasure and challenges faced by gay men within the same context. the paper concludes with a strong call for the mining industry to acknowledge and address this heteronormative culture by promoting sexual diversity and creating safe, inclusive working environments. it calls upon the industry, policymakers and society at large to scrutinise and dismantle deeply ingrained heteronormative practices and to pave the way for more inclusive workplaces in the mining sector. msiza, v. & kagola, o. troubling gender norms: reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators this insightful paper confronts a salient issue in the field of early childhood education (ece) in south africa: the stark underrepresentation of male teachers. while research has underscored the importance of male figures in the educational context for children, the article elucidates the complex challenges that men face when considering teaching as a career in early education, particularly in navigating gender norms. structured as a self-reflective paper, the authors draw from their own experiences as young men entering the world of ece teaching in south african higher education institutions. in examining the issues that hinder men from entering and staying in ece, the authors expose the lingering gendered norms present even within institutions intended to be vehicles for societal transformation. these norms not only discourage men from entering the field but also contribute to their departure, leading to a lack of diversity that impacts both students and fellow educators. this article is a valuable addition to the discourse on gender diversity in education, presenting an on-the-ground perspective that complements statistical analyses and broad-brush policy reviews. nghonyama, m.g., maluleke, l., seitshiro, t. careership: the experiences of women in choosing career paths in technical and vocational education and training in south africa this study investigates the influence of gender and race on the career choices of students attending technical and vocational education and training (tvet) colleges. the findings reveal that both gender and race continue to significantly shape students’ career decision-making processes and eventual career paths. the study highlights the need for special attention to be given to women in tvet colleges. the conclusions stress that it is crucial to understand the various enablers and disablers influencing career decision-making, particularly the impact of gender and race. by shedding light on these factors, the study offers valuable guidance for tvet colleges on how to better support incoming students in making informed career decisions. haitembu, r.k. mbongo, e.n. & brown, a. the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment this pioneering study delves into an area frequently overlooked in workplace diversity research: the job interview experiences of transgender individuals. while previous studies have acknowledged that transgender people face substantial discrimination in the workplace, the nuances of their experiences in job interviews remain largely unexplored. this paper aims to fill this gap, offering a detailed case study of a transgender woman, selma and her experience in the namibian job market. by shining a light on the specific challenges faced by transgender people in job interviews, this study makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the barriers to employment and career progression for this marginalised community. it serves as a wake-up call for employers, policymakers and society at large to address these biases and implement strategies for a more inclusive and equitable job market. nichols, h.j. school principals’ responses in creating an inclusive schooling space for gender and sexual diverse learners this article critically examines the gap between south african department of basic education policies advocating for inclusivity and the lived experiences of lgbtiq students in schools. the article aims to investigate the role of high school principals in creating safe, inclusive environments for learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. utilising the social justice leadership theory as a lens, the study scrutinises the attitudes and actions of school principals in the free state and gauteng provinces of south africa. the study serves as an urgent call to action for educational authorities, urging them to take immediate steps to create a more socially just and inclusive educational landscape. it highlights the consequence of leadership silence and apathy, revealing how it perpetuates a discriminatory school culture and adversely affects students’ experiences and well-being. conclusion these articles illustrate that progressive constitutions and workplace-specific legislation serve as starting points, not end goals. these laws and guarantees are only as effective as their implementation and the social attitudes that support them. we hope that this issue fosters informed dialogue, highlights areas requiring urgent action and most importantly contributes to a more equitable workplace in south africa and beyond. we extend our gratitude to all contributors, reviewers and readers who have made this seminal work possible. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m.d., a.b., o.k. contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references bowen, p., peihua zhang, r., & edwards, p. 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(2008). two teachers: male, black, queer. negotiating identities in south africa. in m. dunne (ed.), gender, sexuality and development (pp. 117–127). brill. ajcd_v4_i1_2022_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contentspage i of i table of contents original research race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review indira pillay african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a53 | 21 april 2022 original research career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness melinde coetzee african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a54 | 30 may 2022 original research psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short brandon morgan african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a57 | 22 july 2022 original research efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda anne t. otwine, leonsio matagi, john m. kiweewa, herbert e. ainamaani african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a55 | 22 september 2022 original research priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training kamilla v. rawatlal african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a59 | 28 september 2022 1 8 15 24 32 vol 4, no 1 (2022) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives hande sensoy-briddick, william c. briddick african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a63 | 12 december 2022 original research affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness paul j. hartung, jeannine m. taylor, brian j. taber african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a58 | 11 july 2022 original research ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education boitumelo m. diale african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a62 | 30 september 2022 reviewer acknowledgement african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a69 | 12 december 2022 41 49 55 65 abstract introduction research methods and design results and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) lindokuhle m. ubisi department of psychology, school of social sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation ubisi, l.m. (2024). queering the role of hostel carers within the sexuality education of visually impaired learners. african journal of career development, 6(2), a133. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.133 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research queering the role of hostel carers within the sexuality education of visually impaired learners lindokuhle m. ubisi received: 03 may 2024; accepted: 23 july 2024; published: 30 sept. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: literature suggests that the comprehensive sexuality education (cse) of children with disabilities (cwds) remains located within parental and educators’ ecologies. however, very little focus has been given to the role of hostel carers, especially given that most special schools are mainly residential schools. as such, there is no policy, guidance, or training consideration for support staff such as hostel carers who equally play a care and support role for the cse needs of cwds. objectives: the aim of this article was to explore how hostel carers in south african residential schools for the blind (sfb) perceived and responded to their role in providing cse to visually impaired learners. methods: thirty-six hostel carers from three sfb were conveniently sampled and interviewed in separate focus group discussions. queer theory underpinned this study, while the data generated was analysed thematically. results: given that visually impaired learners spend 9 months of the year in hostels to be given holistic institutional support, hostel carers reported assuming a major role in their cse. but because they saw themselves as unqualified, outnumbered by learners, and inundated by other responsibilities (e.g. cooking and cleaning), they reported being powerless and incapable to sufficiently cater for the cse needs of visually impaired learners. conclusion: the study suggests that hostel carers have been neglected as care and support agents, despite playing a crucial role in the growing psychosexual needs of visually impaired learners. contribution: a holistic approach to providing cse to visually impaired learners incorporating carers is provided. keywords: care and support; comprehensive sexuality education; hostel carers; queer theory; visually impaired children. introduction carers are strategically placed to offer advice on communication in relations, healthy sexual choices, family planning, while balancing the rights and protection of all parties involved (ubisi, 2023; ballan & freyer, 2017; stoffers et al., 2023). learners with visual impairment (lvi), that is those with low to complete vision loss, spend around 9 months of the year within residential hostels to be given adequate academic, social, and subsistence support while situated in the care of the school for the blind (sfb) (kelly et al., 2002). during this extended stay, carers can form bonds with lvi creating trust, closeness, and feelings of belonging (kagola & notshulwana, 2022; lucas & fox, 2019; malgosa et al., 2023). carers not only take care of their basic needs but also help them adapt as they transcend physical, emotional, social, and sexual maturity which all contribute to optimal health (ubisi, 2023; ballan & freyer, 2017; stoffers et al., 2023). even with the myths and misconceptions that children with disabilities (cwds) are pure, innocent, and will most likely not be interested in sexual activity, carers know the importance of providing human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and promoting vital sexual health1 through the vehicle of comprehensive sexuality education (cse2) to improve sexual health of lvi (de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017; rohleder et al., 2012). part of the awareness by carers is that parents of lvi are often not involved in their children’s negotiation of sexual identity and decision-making (kelly et al., 2002). conversations around sex debut and sexual practices are often ignored and subdued, making it hard for young visually impaired people to open up about their growing sexual development (abdul karimu, 2017). given the conservative morality around pre-marital sex, who and (with whom) should have sex (ubisi, 2020), visually impaired youth become scared and ashamed discussing sex and other private matters with their parents (abdul karimu, 2017). as evidenced in abdul karimu’s recollections, now a visually impaired woman, about receiving sexuality education in sfb (2017): similarly, in the school for the blind that i attended in the 1980s, which enrolled persons with visual impairment from kindergarten through to middle school (equivalent to grades 1–10), and ran a handicraft section for persons older than 18 years, we were not permitted to openly discuss issues around sexuality nor date the opposite sex. (p. 128) especially in the african continent where disability and sexuality are hardly discussed simultaneously (rohleder et al., 2012), visually impaired youth tend to rely on adults in their schooling environment to have open and non-judgemental conversations around sex and their sexual and gender identity (ubisi, 2021). but this sometimes requires that we queer who is (and what makes) a parent in an environment that is outside the learners’ private household. queer theory, as a lens which tries to interrogate what is normative practices, will be an invaluable approach to reconsider this parenting role. yet, despite carers forming invaluable sources of knowledge regarding the sexual health of lvi as immediate providers (ballan & freyer, 2017), their placement within special schools has not been met without its own challenges when it comes to delivering the hiv and cse curriculum (de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017; rohleder et al., 2012). most carers have limited secondary and even lesser tertiary qualifications to care for cwds. with such poor educational background, especially regarding the sexuality of lvi, can translate to gaps in their own knowledge about cwds’ sexuality (louw, 2017). special needs schools are usually funded by the dwindling budgets of government departments. with such limited fiscal resources, they are often unable to employ the required number of full-time teaching and support staff. carers occupy multiple roles in the residential premises, including cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, bathing learners, making up their beds, and supervising supper time in halls of 150+ learners. as learners cannot be monitored minute-to-minute, the caregiver load may not allow for carers to be responsive to all learners’ growing needs, particularly when it comes to extra-curricular activities, which takes place out of their watch. perhaps it is such roles and responsibilities imposed upon carers to be always with lvi to avoid incidents such as sexual intercourse taking place within the school and hostel residents that carers find it hard to report any misconduct to parents and school managers. at the same time, teaching sexuality education in special schools is fraught with its own challenges for teaching and support staff. rohleder et al. (2012), for instance, found that although most teachers and parents saw the need for hiv and cse, there were various disagreements on which contents (e.g. masturbation) and pedagogies (e.g. use of props) to teach the two subjects. de reus et al. (2015) maintain parents expected teachers and carers to reinforce conservative sexual norms, which translates to fewer to no teenage pregnancies in schools or else the school becomes blamed for these incidents. however, what parents and school managers may fail to consider is that lvi have basic human rights to move and associate with whomever, particularly as they reach the age of sexual consent (age 16). louw (2017) found that most special schools in south africa were expected to run in a vacuum in which parents and other external institutions (e.g. media) were not seen as likely to lend an influence in its learners’ sexual (mis)conduct. ubisi (2023) found challenges within the delivery of the curriculum itself, suggesting that concepts such as handling disclosure are rarely explicated for carers to apply in everyday scenarios. for this reason, chappell (2016) advocated for a whole-based curriculum of both teacher, carer, and peer-led activities to bridge gaps in care and support. theoretical framework: queer theory queer theory is a critical, discursive praxis of examining truths about society and culture to uncover what has been taken for granted (kirsch, 2000). hunt and holmes (2015, p. 156), for example, use the term ‘queer’ as a verb and a ‘deconstructive practice focused on challenging normative knowledges, identities, behaviors, and spaces thereby unsettling power relations and taken-for-granted assumptions’. alsop et al. (2002, p. 96) assert that the aim for queer theorists is to revisit hegemonic concepts such as gender and sexuality, and unearth their ‘naturalness and inevitability’, while underscoring the ability to ‘celebrate transgressions from them’. sexuality education remains a highly controversial, contested, and sometimes silenced issue, particularly among cwds (de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017; rohleder et al., 2012). as mentioned above, particularly in the african context where disability and sexuality are almost avoided in family discussions (chappell, 2016), carers must be brave to confront value-laden discourses to not only validate but also create safer spaces for lvi to broaden their sexual identity. this requires them to become caregivers in loco parentis (in the place of parents). this requires us to queer the term of a parent and what it really takes to be defined as a parent in situations where learners are outside their private households. this queer act of who is and what it takes to become a parent is both a self-sacrificial act and heavy load for carers to partake as they often become blamed for their learners’ behaviour in the school premises (ubisi, 2023). as the findings will show, carers partake on this decolonial project in this in loco parentis role with even limited knowledge about sexuality or policy guidance. within this context in mind, i concur with hunt and holmes’ (2015, p. 156) recommendation for queer theory when working in liberatory, transformative, and social justice spaces that, ‘queerness is then less about a way of “being”, and more about “doing”, and offers the potential for radical social critique’. research methods and design sampling thirty-six hostel carers were identified and recruited from three south african sfb across three local provinces (see table 1 for the participants’ characteristics). the rationale for choosing the specific schools was based on the three biggest provinces in the country with the most available sfb in them. these schools further draw learners from other provinces and therefore consist of a diversity and representativeness of lvi in the country from different backgrounds. these schools further draw carers also from different provinces themselves, bringing a wide sample of carers from different socio-cultural backgrounds. carers aged from 22 to 47 years old. carers had 2–14 years of experience in working with cwds, while their level of education ranged from grade 7 to grade 10. none had any post-secondary education or tertiary training in special needs education. table 1: number of hostel carers recruited per school for the blind. data collection methods the study employed an exploratory, qualitative, multiple case study design for data collection and analysis methods (creswell & creswell, 2018). focus group discussions, with an unstructured interview guide, were used to generate data. the fgds lasted from 1 h to 2 h with breaks in between. all in all, three fgds were held in english and other african languages (isizulu, sesotho, isixhosa by the principal investigator fluent in these languages) to avoid language barriers in the data collection process, given south africa’s diverse linguistic landscape. data management and analysis the recorded audios of the interviews were converted into written transcribed for accuracy (babbie & mouton, 2001). data saturation occurred when no additional data, themes, or coding emerged, and the study demonstrated a robust capacity for replication (babbie & mouton, 2001). all data will be stored and destroyed after 3–5 years in a google drive file with access only to the principal investigator. data were thematically analysed using the braun and clarke’s (2006) steps of thematic analysis: (1) immerse oneself with the data, (2) identify codes, (3) chart preliminary themes, (4) review themes in relation to the research aim, (5) name themes in consultation with the research aim, and lastly (6) write the report. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa, college of education ethics review committee (no. 2022/04/13/90352025/02/am), together with its outlined procedures for obtaining informed written consent, voluntary participation with no negative consequences of declining, and confidentiality of participants’ identifying information. no financial remuneration was provided for participating in this study. results and discussion this article presents qualitative findings from 36 hostel carers in 3 sfb generated from 3 fgds to find out how they perceived and responded to their role in providing cse to lvi. the findings showed carers remained at the frontline of lvi’s growing psychosexual development. however, the findings also suggested that carers face a myriad of obstacles that complicate their ability to transfer sexuality education within spaces, which constrain to provide informed care and support. below is a discussion of the two emergent themes, interpretations, and recommendations: (1) carers on the frontline, and (2) challenges of being on the frontline. carers on the frontline carers reported a host of sexual behaviours by lvi from early childhood when they start sexually stimulating themselves in public places to their teenage years when they engage in risk-taking behaviours to have sex with each other within the residential premises. self-stimulation in the classroom carers noticed that lvi start exploring their sexuality through touching themselves or each other in class: ‘you will see them touching themselves [down there] … and they also have their own secret places where they can do those things.’ (carer 1, female, 32 year old) carers showed appropriate responses towards this these displays, acknowledging that lvi, much like their sighted peers, discover sexuality randomly or accidentally such as by touching themselves or others to build their sexual knowledge (kagola & notshulwana, 2022; lucas & fox, 2019; malgosa et al., 2023). this finding enables us to queer the existing assumptions about sexuality and disability as it is falsely believed that people with disabilities are disinterested in sex or that all of them are asexual (de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017; rohleder et al., 2012). as such, this creates a need for more parental, teachers, and hostel carers’ involvement in cwds’ growing psychosexual development (chappell, 2016). as ubisi (2020) advises, parents and other carers need to create secure, respectful, and teaching moments for lvi such as teaching them when and where to engage in self-stimulation. engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour as their sexual curiosity expands during puberty, in accordance with their growing urges, lvi engaged in high-risk sexual behaviours despite their close inspection and monitoring: ‘because we use to say girls one side, and boys one side and not to be mixed. even at night, gates are locked, but they have a way of breaking the gates and go to the girls.’ (carer 2, female, 37 year old) this is a significant finding that addresses the sexual agency of visually impaired youth that is often ignored and unaddressed in literature (ubisi, 2023). that is, lvi also make decisions (whether informed or uninformed) about their growing bodies and sexual desires. these decisions could lead to unwanted or unplanned sexual experienced or debut (kelly et al., 2002). as available literature corroborates, carers remain cognisant that parents blame them for their children’s early sexual debut (ubisi, 2023). yet for carers to be fully held liable in lvi’s sexual debut would mean that they task to always regulate and police their movement and association – a human right’s violation (constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, chapter 2, section 18 and 21). this finding further supports how we need to queer the way the sexuality of visually impaired people continues to be denied, silenced, and problematised by institutional settings. this view may in turn communicate to visually impaired youth that all experiences of sexuality are wrong and to be avoided (chappell, 2016). challenges of being on the frontline carers, however, perform a frontline role as sex educators and parents within these spaces amid many constraints in their training, work conditions, and professional limits. poor training and limited education most carers could not read and write with a highest education level of grade 8. as previous studies suggest, carers cannot substitute the role of qualified and trained specialists in disabilityand child-related sexual health such as social workers (chappell, 2016; de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017). as one carer noticed: ‘we can talk the whole day when it comes to children. the school really needs a social worker’. however, in this context, carers are forced to take on a parental role of ensuring that lvi have optimal access to proper sexual health. within this context, professionalism becomes compromised as carers cannot turn a blind eye to the risky sexual behaviours young visually impaired youth engage in within hostels and the rest of the schooling premises. this requires a queering of the traditional role of a professional carer. if carers can be seen as parents with an even greater influence in the lives of lvi, carers can generate more support and recognition for their roles in the lives of lvi. this would require that carers become included in the larger school ecology, which makes decisions and advocacy for the sexual empowerment of lvi. for instance, louw (2017) suggested that a school-based support team’s responses with intersectoral collaboration of parents, teaching, medical, welfare, and support staff such as carers would exert a greater involvement in the sexuality education programmes of lvi. shortage of staff carers remain in shortage but carry multiple roles, which are indispensable to the running of the entire school. yet carers have suggested that having to provide sexuality education amid their day-to-day roles came at other demands namely: ‘… a person who is not on duty will come to you and say while you are dishing up, the children are kissing [outside].’ (carer 3, female, 22 year old) within such cases, sexuality is left to slip through the cracks, as carers cannot be in two places at once. this finding raises another aspect that should be queered, and that is the self-advocacy role of lvi in their own sexuality education (ubisi, 2023). according to chappell (2016), the cse curriculum was not supposed to be led by teacher and school staff alone. but peer-led sexuality education remains a concerted effort by learners to commit to their own positive sexual choices. as such, carers could be seen as useful agents who could work alongside lvi to support the selfand peer-led cse groups by lvi (louw, 2017). talking alone is not enough carers do not have an equal standing in schools as teachers and school principals. for learners, this makes it easier to rebel against the authority of carers. as such, talking to lvi about delaying sexual debut is sometimes not enough as: ‘…the child will not listen to anything from you. they just go off.’ (carer 4, female, 26 year old) carers have a choice of techniques to inculcate values, attitudes, and beliefs about healthy sexual choices including role play, drama and theatre, poetry, and the use of object relations (chappell, 2016; de reus et al., 2015; louw, 2017). for instance, ubisi (2023) has suggested the potential of queering the traditional sexuality education for cwds by introducing the use of anatomically correct models, which blind learners can feel and touch (e.g. the difference about what is an erect versus a flaccid penis). handling secondary disclosure as sexuality often contains fluid and delicate scenarios, carers must meander through ethical dilemmas such as knowing how to handle disclosures of personal information such as when: ‘you will find that there is a boy and a girl, and the girl will go to the boy knowing her status.’ (carer 5, female, 31 year old) disclosures for carers are often complicated because they involve information that parents may not want anyone else to find out (e.g. a lvi taking anti-retroviral medication because they were born with hiv). this finding enables us to queer what should be the ethical and professional limits of carers as they are often confronted and privy to very sensitive and private information of their learners. moreover, the finding also requires us to consider the ethical and legal standards we should have for carers. scholars such as ubisi (2023) suggest that disclosure needs to be handled with the school’s residential psychologists, nurses, social workers, or the most available specialist to protect the security of the carer. psychological strain carers perform roles imbued with emotional labour, with the potential of psychological decline in their ability to coping with demands over time. as for some of the women in their 40s and 50s, carers reflected on their caregiver support efficacy and mental health as: ‘you see here my son, how can you stay with 200 children because even to the only one that you have as your own sometimes makes you feel like you are getting mental illness.’ (carer 6, female, 53 year old) this finding suggests that we queer the double burden of parent and care provider that is often imposed on carers. they have to fulfil these roles without much support from parents and the school governing bodies. because of the lack of professional training, they are often ignored in self-care and continuous professional training. st jerry (2021) recommends that carers who find themselves in formal structures such as schools or hostel manage their caregiving load and its impact on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. st jerry (2021) suggests carers care for each other through support groups, debriefing with senior colleagues, and relying on holistic self-care practices to prevent work-related burnout. conclusion the aim of this article was to explore how hostel carers in south african residential sfb understood and acted on their role in providing cse to visually impaired learners. carers in this study formed frontline agents, taking on various sexual health concerns of lvi from their early childhood to the teenage years. however, carers were often presented with various contextual obstacles such as shortage of staff, a lack of training, and handling disclosures, which compromised their ability to render effective sexuality education. first, to build an integrated, holistic approach for carers providing sexuality education with their limited training and constrained working conditions, carers need to acknowledge the knowledge and resources they have, such as the bonds and personal caregiving experience of raising these learners. secondly, carers should seek the partnership of teachers, school governing bodies, and governmental departments to capacitate them as they form part of the school’s teaching and learning agents. thirdly and finally, carers need to also be mindful of their own efforts worth celebrating and maintaining self-care, which will better contribute to their caregiving efficacy. this study is the first study to use queer theory, making its insight drawn a major contribution to the theory. the study has suggested the need for policy, which would promote further upscaling and competencies of carers to be able to provide quality care and support around the sexual health of lvi. carers were suggested as invaluable role players in school management teams making them a crucial aspect of the school’s community of practice for care and support. future studies are encouraged to follow carers undergoing formal and informal in-service training within their ability to offer cse to lvi to improve their caregiving capacity. acknowledgements the author would like to thank ms samantha irish for her professional editorial 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(2002). gender and reproductive rights, glossary, sexual health. retrieved from https://www.who.int/health-topics/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights#tab=tab_1 footnotes 1. the world health organization (who) (2002) defines sexual health as: ‘… a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being related to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. for sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled’. 2. comprehensive sexuality education is a holistic, attitudeand value-driven, lifelong approach at children and adults, among others’, safe and informed sexual decision-making, communication in relationships, agency, consent, contraception, and diverse gender and sexuality identities (unesco 2018). abstract introduction what is gamification? methods results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) yaseerah akoodie department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa sumaya laher department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa sergio peral department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa citation akoodie, y., laher, s., & peral, s. (2025). gamification and vocational assessments: a systematic review. african journal of career development, 7(1), a167. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.167 original research gamification and vocational assessments: a systematic review yaseerah akoodie, sumaya laher, sergio peral received: 06 mar. 2025; accepted: 23 may 2025; published: 08 sept. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: gamification – the integration of game-like elements into non-gaming contexts – has gained attention for improving engagement, motivation and user experience in assessment. while widely used in organisations, its role in vocational assessment remains underexplored. objective: this systematic review aims to explore how gamification is employed in vocational assessments, focusing on its practical uses, associated benefits and identified limitations. methods: using a structured eight-step systematic review process, searches were conducted across four electronic databases to identify relevant articles published between 2010 and 2024 that utilised gamification in vocational assessment. after an extensive full-text screening and quality appraisal, six articles met the inclusion criteria. thematic analysis using coding reliability was applied to organise findings into relevant themes. results: from the themes it was evident that gamification enhances engagement, motivation and skill development in vocational assessments. interactive simulations can help individuals adapt to evolving career demands. however, ethical concerns such as data privacy, cultural biases and the balance between technology and human-centred approaches present challenges. conclusion: gamification supported by advancements in artificial intelligence demonstrates great promise in vocational assessment. addressing ethical considerations and cultural sensitivities is essential to maximise its effectiveness. proper implementation can transform these tools into powerful career development resources. contribution: this study highlights gamification’s potential in vocational assessment, emphasising its role in engagement, motivation and skill development. it outlines key benefits and challenges, offering insights for ethical and culturally sensitive implementation to maximise its effectiveness in empowering diverse individuals in career planning and development. keywords: artificial intelligence; gamification; gamified assessment; vocational assessment; career guidance; ethics. introduction gamification – the use of game-like elements in non-game contexts – is gaining attention in psychological assessment, particularly in vocational contexts, because of its potential to enhance user engagement, motivation and the perceived relevance of assessments (hamari et al., 2014; karagiorgas & niemann, 2017). in vocational assessment, where effective career matching depends on personal reflection and sustained motivation, gamified tools offer an engaging, client-centred approach that resonates with younger generations accustomed to interactive digital environments. although widely applied in education and corporate training, the use of gamification in vocational psychological assessment remains underexplored – especially in lowand middle-income settings such as south africa. core game elements such as feedback loops, progress tracking and challenge-based tasks have been shown to increase attention, intrinsic motivation and perceived task relevance (seaborn & fels, 2015). these features align with the psychological demands of vocational assessment, which requires individuals to reflect on their values, skills and aspirations and thus holds potential for use in this space. in south africa, where young people face persistent socioeconomic barriers, educational inequalities and high unemployment rates, the need for innovative, scalable career assessment tools is urgent. gamification may help bridge access gaps by offering assessments that are both engaging and accessible. however, without a clear understanding of what works, for whom and under what conditions, there is a risk that implementation may be driven more by novelty than by evidence. a systematic review provides a rigorous and transparent approach to synthesising current research, identifying methodological trends and assessing the efficacy of gamified vocational assessments. this review therefore aims to examine how gamification has been applied in vocational assessment as well as its effectiveness. the literature review for this study contextualises the understanding of gamification within the field of assessment by clarifying the core concepts. what is gamification? gamification may be defined as the process of enhancing services through the inclusion of game elements into a non-gaming context (deterding et al., 2011). this technique has been implemented in various industries such as commerce, health and education (hamari et al., 2014). it is believed to be an effective tool based on the association between the game experience and the enjoyment and intrinsic motivation that it may offer to the task at hand (inocencio, 2018). motivation, in this context, refers to the psychological processes that drive individuals to engage with tasks or activities enhanced by game-like elements such as badges, leaderboards or immediate feedback. these elements aim to increase engagement and satisfaction by tapping into both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. huotari and hamari (2012) previously highlighted gamification as a supporting agent for value creation for users, through motivational affordances as well. this places motivation in a significant position in gamification as it suggests that engaging users in this manner encourages performance and adds value to the task. while the direct effects on intrinsic motivation are unclear, gamification has empirically proven that performance can be enhanced by providing external motivators in the form of game elements, for example; badges, leaderboards, levels, points, competition and challenges, virtual goods, content unlocking and more (mekler et al., 2017; werbach & hunter, 2012). in this manner, gamification may leverage both types of motivation by providing rewards and immediate feedback. unlike traditional assessments that often rely on delayed feedback and extrinsic motivation, gamified systems offer real-time recognition. for instance, earning badges or climbing leaderboards provides immediate acknowledgement of achievements, fostering a sense of accomplishment and encouraging continued engagement (deterding et al., 2011). further popularity is acquired because of the encouragement towards collaborative learning, the increased levels of participation and attractiveness, ease of use, continual engagement and the productivity provided (kocadere & cağlar, 2015). however, this effectiveness is debatable as some studies show that the gamification effect on motivation is lower than the expectations created by such publicity (inocencio, 2018). within assessment, gamification is employed in two ways, either as a gamified assessment or a game-based assessment (gba) (distiller, in press; georgiou et al., 2019). gamified assessment versus game-based assessment gamified assessment refers to the use of game design elements – such as points, levels, challenges, feedback and rewards within assessment processes. these assessments maintain the core purpose of evaluating skills, knowledge or attributes but present tasks in a more interactive, game-like format. sometimes referred to as gameful design, gamified assessments maintain the psychometric properties that are used in a traditional assessment but differ from a traditional assessment in its application. the application of game elements are used to create an enjoyable, productive, efficient, less anxiety-provoking and more playful environment (georgiou et al., 2019; landers & sanchez, 2022). game-based assessments alter the core of a traditional assessment model by utilising the complete scope of game thinking, applying the principles of game design to measure human performance and capitalising on the inherent psychometric properties and participants’ striving nature towards games (georgiou et al., 2019; landers & sanchez, 2022; landers et al., 2022). game-based assessment focuses primarily on rebuilding an assessment as a game. a requirement of gba is that the assessment is engaging and voluntary in order to capture an individual’s peak performance (heinzen, 2014). the strength of gba arises in monitoring the performance of an individual by analysing the information trails left behind by participants therefore alluding to gba as a formative assessment too (stanciu & david, 2020). game-based assessment emphasises on the time taken to respond, accuracy of the answers, points earned, the internal thought processes of individuals over time and the number of attempts candidates make. all this information is transferred to a spreadsheet for analysis in order to produce in-depth results that traditional assessments cannot provide (stanciu & david, 2020). game-based assessments thus differ from traditional vocational assessments in both format and user experience. while traditional assessments often rely on paper-based or static digital questionnaires to measure interests, abilities or personality traits, gbas incorporate interactive elements such as challenges, rewards and real-time feedback to assess similar constructs in a more engaging way. a key strength of gbas is the potential they hold to enhance motivation, reduce test anxiety and simulate real-world decision-making, which may be particularly beneficial for younger or digitally native users. however, woźniak (2015) argues that playing a game is not equivalent to real-life situations even though the game tasks may reflect tasks that are critical for the job. the way players carry out their roles in the gamified assessment or gba is merely an approximation of how an individual may perform in the professional environment (woźniak, 2015). another consideration surrounds the use of adding objects to the game environment, the interface or specific colours to increase engagement or authenticity as it may introduce biases into the assessment. these game elements among others used to engage users may undermine their validity or become too engaging therefore diminishing the purpose of the game (kato & de klerk, 2017, as cited in stanciu & david, 2020). fairness also comes into play as individuals with little or no gaming experience may view the use of gamification in a high-stakes environment as unfair or those that have extensive gaming experience may consider the game as poorly designed, executed or unfair too (stanciu & david, 2020). this is particularly pertinent in the south african context where gbas hold promising potential but also present notable challenges. given the country’s youth demographic, many of whom are familiar with mobile technology and digital platforms, gbas could offer a more engaging and relatable approach to vocational assessment, particularly in settings where traditional methods fail to capture attention or motivation. the interactive and visually stimulating nature of gbas may also help reduce test-related anxiety and promote deeper self-reflection among users. however, several contextual factors must be considered. access to digital infrastructure remains uneven, especially in rural or under-resourced schools (jansen, 2019; van dijk, 2020), which could limit the scalability and fairness of gba implementation. in addition, language diversity, cultural relevance and digital literacy vary widely, raising concerns about inclusivity and validity (foxcroft & de kock, 2023; laher, 2024). thus while gamification shows considerable potential, its use in vocational assessment must be approached with careful evaluation. without a solid understanding of its effectiveness, target users and optimal application contexts, there is a risk that its adoption may be driven by trends rather than solid evidence. conducting a systematic review offers a structured and transparent way to consolidate existing findings and evaluate the overall effectiveness of gamified vocational assessments. this review therefore seeks to explore how gamification has been implemented in vocational assessment and assesses its impact to ultimately consider its potential for use in the south african context. in this systematic review, we specifically explore: (1) how is gamification utilised in vocational assessment? (2) what are the benefits of gamification in vocational assessments? (3) what are the limitations of gamification in vocational assessments? methods research design this study takes the form of a systematic review. the primary objective of a systematic review is to present a comprehensive and coherent synthesis of the available studies with regard to a specific research field to allow for a common and comprehensive understanding on the status of a given research area (laher & hassem, 2020). given the lack of knowledge in the field of vocational assessment on the efficacy (or not) of gamification in vocational assessment, a systematic review is thus useful. the eight-step process suggested in uman (2011) was followed in this review. steps 1 to 4 required the researchers to formulate a review question and title, define the inclusion and exclusion criteria, develop a search strategy and locate and select the studies to be used. step 5 expected the researchers to extract data and step 6 required that the quality of the studies be assessed thoroughly. during steps 7 and 8, the researchers needed to analyse and interpret the results as well as disseminate the findings. search strategy, data collection process and study selection in order to attend to the comprehensive nature of a systematic review, a search strategy was required. the guidelines presented in the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) statement were followed (page et al., 2021). four electronic databases, namely psycinfo, sabinet, sacat and ebscohost were chosen and searched. within ebscohost, specific database categories were selected, including academic search ultimate, business source ultimate, mental measurements yearbook, computers and applied sciences complete, ebook collection (ebscohost), humanities international complete, open dissertations and the psychology and behavioral sciences collection. these databases were selected for their ability to provide both international and african-focused literature relevant to the fields of technology and vocational assessment. following this, the keywords ‘gamification careers’, ‘gamification career assessment’, ‘gamification vocational assessment’, ‘game-based career assessment’ and ‘gamified career assessment’ were used as search terms. these terms were selected for their breadth, allowing for the identification of a wide range of potentially eligible studies. each search term was investigated using boolean operators to refine and expand the search strategy. specifically, the or operator was used to include synonyms and related terms (e.g. ‘gamified career assessment’ or ‘game-based career assessment’), ensuring a wider scope of retrieval. the and operator was used to combine concepts and narrow the search to more relevant articles (e.g. ‘gamification’ and ‘vocational assessment’). this method ensured that search results included studies that incorporated both concepts, while still allowing for a comprehensive collection of related literature. the search results for each term were saved to zotero. in the case where prodigious amounts of articles were found, the results were manually examined until saturation was reached, that is, when there were no more articles based on title screening that addressed vocational assessment. inclusion and exclusion criteria to be included in the sample, the following inclusion criteria had to be fulfilled: (1) articles needed to be in english, (2) articles published between 2010 and 2024 were considered to ensure the most recent research was analysed and (3) the article had to address vocational assessments and some element of gamification in vocational assessment. articles were excluded if the article had focused on online elements that were not gamified and/or if vocational assessments were not considered. more specifically, articles were excluded if vocational assessments and gamification were not discussed in conjunction or if gamification was discussed in any domain other than vocational assessments. data extraction and analysis once all searches were completed, the extracted articles were screened following three phases: title screening, abstract screening and full-text screening using the prisma process. studies were screened for eligibility by the authors and an independent reviewer where uncertainty existed. any discrepancies were discussed between the authors and articles were only retained once these were resolved. studies were retained only if the inclusion criteria were met. following this, the quality of the articles were appraised using the casp (critical appraisal skills programme tool). this included the 10 item checklist for qualitative studies and for quantitative studies; an adapted 12 item checklist created by laher and hassem (2020) was used. mixed methods studies were evaluated using a combination of the two checklists to ensure that both elements of the study design were rigorous. all articles met the quality criteria. articles were analysed using the coding reliability thematic analysis technique as proposed by braun and clarke (2022). ethical considerations this study is a systematic review conducted on publicly accessible, peer-reviewed articles, as outlined in the methods section and following the prisma guidelines. in accordance with the policies of the university of the witwatersrand at the time of commencement, 04 march 2020, an ethics waiver was not required for this type of review research. this study was conducted using published studies. no data was collected from animals or human participants. consequently, no ethics waiver clearance number is applicable. as this review involved no human participants or identifiable personal data, it posed no risk to individuals. results a total of 836 articles were identified across the database searches that met the inclusion criteria (see figure 1). after removing duplicate articles, 534 articles were retained and screened by title. following the screening, 52 articles were retained and subjected to abstract screening. it is significant to note that during this screening process, any grey literature, specifically magazine articles, blog posts, research protocols and general online company posts and editorials were excluded. other articles had been excluded if they had only focused on gamification or only on vocational assessment or if the focus was only on technology with no mention of assessment. figure 1: prisma 2020 flow diagram for gamification in vocational assessment review. a total of 19 articles published between 2016 to 2024 were included for full-text screening. of these, 11 (57.9%) articles were excluded as they either covered vocational assessment or gamification, not both, or they used gamification but in organisational settings like manufacturing or talent assessment, not vocational assessment. moreover, two (10.5%) articles were excluded because of poor quality. thus, six articles were retained for analysis as they addressed the use of gamification and/or artificial intelligence (ai) in the area of vocational assessment. table 1 provides a brief descriptive overview of the articles included in this study. of the six articles, three were qualitative studies, two were quantitative studies and one was a mixed methods study. the sample sizes utilised in each study ranged from one participant (e.g. alchin & mcilveen, 2017) to 2935 participants (e.g. leung, 2022). the studies were conducted in a range of countries including south africa (1), ireland (2), finland (1), hong kong (1) and australia (1). only three of the studies specified the age of their samples (alchin & mcilveen, 2017; leung, 2022; scholtz et al., 2016), which ranged from 15 to 20 years old. four of the studies included the gender identity of their sample, collectively comprising 1387 males (47.13%) and 1556 (52.87%) females. table 1: description of articles included in the systematic review (n = 6). as per the codebook reliability thematic analysis technique, three themes were identified across the papers, namely: (1) the use of gamification and/or technology and/or ai in vocational assessment, (2) the benefits of gamification and/or technology and/or ai in vocational assessment, and (3) the limitations of gamification and/or technology and/or ai in vocational assessment. these results are presented hereunder. theme 1: the use of gamification in vocational assessment gamification was primarily employed to serve two functions in vocational assessment, namely informing individuals about career choices and allowing individuals to make personalised career plans within a virtual environment. scholtz et al. (2016) developed a gamified system at nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu), south africa, to help a group of 12 students build foundational knowledge about careers in computer science. they showed that the incorporation of design elements such as visual appeal and gamified elements can enhance one’s understanding and career-related knowledge. in particular, textual elements presented on computers were more effective than audio elements. in addition to enhancing vocational knowledge, gamified systems have been utilised to empower students and promote engagement. alchin and mcilveen (2017) introduced the u-cube, a gamified career counselling tool modelled after the rubik’s cube, to stimulate career-related conversations and ideas. this tool was applied in a case study with a 15-year-old student referred for career counselling because of a lack of interest and motivation. this rubik’s cube-like device was designed with the intention to support clients to consider career influences in a safe environment rather than a list or survey. in this way, clients are able to hold a colourful toy that allows them to manipulate, fidget and rotate the cubes to different scenarios or words. the tactile experience of the u-cube has been found to be attractive to clients as the tool eases the personal nature of discussion through probing words about careers therefore stimulating conversation. in this manner, the gamified u-cube assessment allows for individuals to construct their career influences prior to working with a career counsellor and post counselling. mcguire et al. (2017) also investigated the role of gamification in fostering student engagement. through interviews with eight students aged 19–25 years enrolled in visual arts and design and computer games development programmes, they explored how gamified approaches could enhance engagement. students played the prototype gamified system as a means to understand the skills they need to pursue specific career opportunities and the job positions that become available as they earn each skill. each level completed successfully equipped them with skills needed for various occupations and further increased their career prospects. building on this, mcguire et al. (2018) conducted a follow-up study, piloting a gamified system with avatar functionality to examine its influence on student motivation. this pilot study involved eight students from a computer games development course at the institute of technology, carlow. students were allowed to choose an avatar in navigating the career awareness system as a means to increase their enjoyment, interest and autonomous decision-making power. more recently, leung (2022) evaluated infinity, a computer-assisted career guidance system (cacgs), to examine its impact on career adaptability, decision-making efficacy, and higher education aspirations among 2935 12th-grade students in hong kong (mean age = 17). in the infinity career education curriculum, students identify specific actions to take in each lesson, such as creating a personalised action plan, while career teachers follow up on these actions in class or during individual career guidance sessions. this process is designed to strengthen career preparedness. a comparison between users (n = 844) and non-users (n = 2091) revealed the system’s effectiveness in supporting students’ career planning. westman et al. (2021) conducted a multi-method study to explore how ai could enhance career guidance services in higher education. their research examined the perspectives of both students and staff, identifying key requirements for assessment practitioners to effectively adopt ai-based tools. the study also highlighted the opportunities that ai implementation could create for improving the accessibility and efficiency of career guidance services. westman et al. (2021) found that students viewed ai as particularly useful for suggesting study programmes, thesis topics, work placements and job opportunities. in addition, students perceived ai as more efficient than vocational staff in identifying areas for development, allowing for earlier intervention and support. from a practitioner’s perspective, ai offers the potential to transform vocational assessment practices. westman et al. (2021) reported that professionals believed ai could assist in recognising prior learning, predicting future competencies and automating routine administrative tasks. thus across the studies, gamified tools have demonstrated their potential to inform individuals about career options and facilitate decision-making within interactive and immersive environments. in south africa, scholtz et al. (2016) developed a gamified system to increase students’ foundational knowledge of computer science careers, highlighting how visual and interactive elements can boost understanding more effectively than passive formats. similarly, the u-cube, introduced by alchin and mcilveen (2017), exemplifies how tactile gamification can stimulate meaningful career-related conversations, particularly with disengaged or demotivated youth. mcguire et al. (2017, 2018) further showed that gamified platforms with features like skill progression and avatar selection can foster motivation, autonomy and deeper engagement by aligning assessment activities with real-world career paths. in a large-scale study, leung (2022) demonstrated that gamified systems such as infinity can improve career adaptability and decision-making efficacy among adolescents, offering scalable support in educational settings. furthermore, the integration of ai into gamified systems (westman et al., 2021) demonstrates the potential to personalise vocational guidance, automate routine tasks and improve accessibility. students viewed ai as effective for identifying academic and career opportunities, while practitioners saw value in its ability to streamline assessments and predict competency development (westman et al., 2021). together these studies indicate that gamification has the potential to provide dynamic, user-centred tools that support informed, autonomous and scalable vocational decision-making across diverse contexts. this can also be enhanced by the incorporation of ai. theme 2: benefits of gamification in vocational assessment gamification is described as a tool for enhancing motivation, engagement, skill acquisition and career readiness by incorporating game-like elements that immerse users, foster autonomy and facilitate learning while preparing them for real-world challenges and adaptability. across the papers, we found evidence for gamification assisting with improving motivation and engagement, contributing to skills development and improving career readiness and adaptability as described in the sub-themes hereunder. sub-theme 2.1: enhanced motivation and engagement gamification served as a motivational tool for test-takers. for instance, scholtz et al. (2016) reported heightened levels of engagement among students participating in gamified learning environments. a key appeal of gamification lies in its ability to immerse test-takers in imaginative scenarios. by incorporating game-like elements, individuals can adopt new identities, assume roles as diverse characters and perform tasks that might be unattainable in the real world – such as flying a dragon or leading a warrior tribe. moreover, gamified systems often provide real-time feedback through mechanisms like trophies and progression to increasingly challenging levels (scholtz et al., 2016). these virtual accomplishments can mirror real-world outcomes, such as career promotions, thereby also enhancing the motivational impact (mcguire et al., 2017). another aspect of motivation fostered by gamified assessments is the promotion of autonomy. mcguire et al. (2018) found that allowing users to customise avatars as part of the gamified process significantly enhanced their sense of autonomy, further contributing to increased engagement and satisfaction. sub-theme 2.2: contribution to skill and knowledge acquisition two studies spoke to gamification enhancing test-takers’ skills and knowledge across various domains. scholtz et al. (2016) incorporated visual and textual elements into a gamified assessment designed to expand students’ understanding of careers in computer sciences. their findings demonstrated that these elements effectively facilitated knowledge acquisition in this domain. alchin and mcilveen (2017) utilised the u-cube, a gamified career counselling tool, to help a client identify their skills and strengths while fostering personal growth and self-awareness. sub-theme 2.3: improved career readiness and adaptability users of the infinity cacgs experienced fewer career decision-making difficulties, greater clarity in their choices and a stronger understanding of career planning compared to those who did not use the system (leung, 2022). mcguire et al. (2017) demonstrated the value of their prototype gamified system in assisting students to develop networking and collaboration skills with the aim of preparing students for the interpersonal demands of their future careers. theme 3: limitations of gamification and/or artificial intelligence in vocational assessment while useful, gamification is not without limits. gamified and ai-driven assessments raise several challenges in vocational assessment as was evident across the articles. these include ethical concerns about transparency and data privacy, heightened difficulty levels that may cause anxiety, the limitations of early-stage prototypes, interindividual variations in outcomes and the lack of personalisation and human centeredness. these are described in the sub-themes hereunder. sub-theme 3.1: ethical concerns regarding test-taker awareness similar to traditional assessments, gamified assessments present ethical challenges that warrant careful consideration. one notable concern is the lack of test-taker awareness about the rules and mechanics of the gamified system. often, participants are required to adapt and learn as the assessment progresses, which can lead to unintended consequences, like high levels of difficulty with certain tasks (mcguire et al., 2017; scholtz et al., 2016). westman et al. (2021) further emphasised the risks associated with ai usage, including the potential misuse of sensitive and private student information and concerns about the quality and reliability of data processed by ai systems. these issues underscore the importance of addressing ethical considerations to ensure that gamified and ai-driven assessments are both fair and secure. sub-theme 3.2: assessment difficulty test-taker anxiety is a common challenge in traditional assessments, and this issue can be further intensified in gamified assessments, especially when the tasks exceed the test-taker’s abilities or gaming experience. scholtz et al. (2016) observed that students faced significant difficulties with certain tasks in a gamified setting, while mcguire et al. (2017) reported that some students struggled to understand the purpose of the game itself. sub-theme 3.3: caution against prototypes or premature assessments artificial intelligence tools, such as large language models (llms), tend to be less effective during the initial stages of development and implementation compared to their performance after extensive training on large datasets. mcguire et al. (2017) found that students often struggled to understand the purpose of gamified assessments during their pilot testing. westman et al. (2021) also found that gamified assessments require development that ‘in detecting silent signals, interpreting affective states, motivating and encouraging, creating a safe atmosphere as well as relaying empathy and hope’ (p. 49). these findings highlight the importance of ensuring that gamified assessments in vocational settings are thoroughly developed and rigorously tested before implementation, rather than relying on early-stage prototypes. sub-theme 3.4: interindividual variations the outcomes of gamified assessments can vary depending on the characteristics of the participants. leung (2022) found that assessment outcomes, such as career adaptability resources, varied based on factors like participants’ gender and the type of school they attended. furthermore, alchin and mcilveen (2017) cautioned against the use of the u-cube, stating that ‘its utility for different groups of clients is yet to be properly explored’ (p. 167). sub-theme 3.5: lack of personalisation and human-centredness some students felt that the suggestions provided lacked relevance to their specific courses or did not consider factors such as their location or study schedule. in addition, some suggestions were deemed too advanced and not suitable for beginners, as they appeared to be geared towards later career stages. this feedback highlighted a need for a more personalised approach in the delivery of information (westman et al., 2021). in order to engage individuals in career counselling, a practitioner is required to understand the process well and to utilise content that would be meaningful to the individual client (alchin & mcilveen, 2017). as stated by westman et al. (2021) ‘human touch’ is still needed to ‘detecting silent signals, interpreting affective states, motivating and encouraging, creating a safe atmosphere as well as relaying empathy and hope’ (p. 49). discussion from the results, it is evident that gamification does have the potential to be effectively integrated into vocational assessment to enhance student engagement, knowledge and skill development. through the use of gamified assessments, the career development process can be aided as these assessments assist individuals in exploring career options that are of relevance to them. it also introduces career literacy in order to initiate a thought process around careers and assists in supporting the development of a working alliance and playful exploration so that negative career thoughts can be altered (sampson et al., 2004). this is considered important as negative career thoughts can impact readiness to engage in career problem solving and identify any career opportunities. by incorporating elements of play and interactive mechanics, gamified systems offer a transformative approach to traditional assessment practices, particularly for improving career-related knowledge, skills and adaptability. artificial intelligence has significantly enhanced the use of gamification in vocational assessment by enabling personalised, efficient and accessible career guidance. artificial intelligence-powered tools, such as chatbots and adaptive systems, provide tailored feedback and recommendations for study programmes, job opportunities and skill development. for practitioners, ai automates tasks, predicts competencies and adapts to job market trends, transforming vocational assessment into a dynamic, data-driven process. artificial intelligence also supports efficiency by automating routine tasks and predicting competencies, enabling assessors to focus on strategic decision-making. however, the success of such systems depends on rigorous testing to ensure their reliability and relevance. the results of this study also highlight the challenges associated with using gamification for vocational assessments. these include ethical considerations, data privacy, anxiety and cultural differences, which must be addressed for effective implementation. despite its benefits, gamification has limitations with one of the most significant being that of ethics with regards to data integrity and privacy. artificial intelligence-driven gamified systems often require large amounts of personal data, raising questions about how this data is stored, used and protected. in addition, the mechanics of gamified systems may not always be transparent, leading to potential test-taker confusion or unintended consequences. another limitation involves the potential for increased anxiety among participants. tasks that are too difficult or exceed an individual’s gaming experience can lead to frustration, negatively impacting the assessment’s effectiveness. similarly, excessive reliance on gamification elements like leaderboards may inadvertently create stressful environments rather than fostering motivation. interindividual differences such as cultural background, digital literacy and access to technology also play a role in the efficacy of gamified assessments. outcomes can vary widely among participants, emphasising the need for tailored approaches to accommodate diverse needs. the lack of human-centred interaction in gamified or ai-driven assessments limits their ability to address emotional and motivational aspects effectively. a ‘human touch’ remains crucial for fostering a supportive environment, suggesting that hybrid models combining technology with human facilitation may offer the most balanced approach. it is important to reflect on what these results indicate for the practice of vocational assessment generally. it is clear from the discussion that there is evidence to support the efficacy of gamified vocational assessment tools. however, as yet there are no tools developed that can mimic the functions required of a comprehensive vocational assessment as provided by traditional assessment tools. from the descriptions provided in the results, it is clear that all the tools identified perform a limited set of functions and as such cannot offer the holistic guidance needed to facilitate vocational decision making. what is interesting across the systems in the study is the potential gamified assessments hold to dynamically assess an individual’s strengths, abilities and interests in a way that can enhance current traditional and narrative vocational assessment and counselling approaches. specifically, the narrative approach to vocational assessment and counselling (maree, 2020) focusses on agency, empowerment and self-belief and offers a dynamicity and personalisation over and above that provided by traditional vocational assessments. gamification in vocational assessment has the potential to complement narrative methods by offering interactive experiences that build confidence, promote decision-making and foster a sense of achievement – values central to career development. however, the fact that we were only able to locate six studies for this systematic review suggests that using gamification for vocational assessment is still in its infancy. hypothetically there is much potential, but this requires more research. this is not to say that gamified tools do not exist. there is much evidence in education and in selection and recruitment for gamified assessments (aouam et al., 2023; thomas et al., 2022; zeybek & saygi, 2023). these would need to be tested within the vocational assessment context. in the south african context, there has been research on gamified assessments. lill et al. (2023) reported on the utility of cognify, a gba of cognitive ability. there was support for a general factor of cognitive ability across the entire sample but only partial metric and scalar invariance could be achieved with lill et al. (2023) advising further research as well as a need to re-examine cut-off scores and create south african specific norms for the internationally developed game-based cognitive assessment. distiller (in press) reports on the locally developed odyssey. the odyssey assessment battery combines traditional psychometric methods with gamification to enhance engagement and accessibility while maintaining validity and reliability. it includes one fully-fledged gba and traditional assessments enriched with gaming mechanics, thus ensuring compliance with south african labour legislation and suitability for candidates in emerging markets. odyssey evaluates competencies like problem-solving, english literacy, numeric literacy, instruction assimilation and detail orientation. to ensure fairness, games are untimed to reduce test anxiety and use adaptive techniques to match candidates’ proficiency. odyssey is designed for accessibility and operates in low-bandwidth environments. the games use simple mechanics and relatable contexts, resonating with south african candidates’ experiences. the instrument has good reliability and validity within the organisational sector in the south african context (distiller, in press). however, while both these assessments hold potential for use in vocational assessment to assess constructs relevant to career decision-making, neither cognify nor odyssey have been used for vocational assessment. conclusion gamification, supported by ai and other technologies, offers immense potential for vocational assessment by enhancing engagement, skill acquisition and career readiness. however, its effectiveness hinges on ethical implementation, cultural sensitivity and balancing technology with human-centred approaches. further while gbas have the potential to support career development in south africa by making assessments more accessible and engaging, their design and deployment must be carefully adapted to local realities. this includes ensuring offline accessibility, cultural sensitivity and rigorous validation within the south african population. by addressing these challenges, gamified assessments with or without the incorporation of ai can become pivotal tools for empowering diverse learners in dynamic career landscapes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions y.a. was responsible for the conceptualisation of the study and wrote the article until the methods section. she conducted the systematic review searches, completed the literature review and played a key role in editing and finalising the final dataset. s.l. was responsible for the conceptualisation of the study and contributed to writing the literature review, methods, data analysis and discussion section. s.p. was responsible for reviewing and editing the document. he also assisted with data analysis and write up. funding information the authors acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of the university of the witwatersrand in covering the article processing charges for this manuscript. no additional funding was received. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. the article does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder or agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references alchin, c., & mcilveen, p. 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(2023). gamification in education: why, where, when, and how? – a systematic review. games and culture, 19(2), 237–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231158625 abstract introduction troubling men’s presence in early childhood education teaching and teacher education theoretical framework research methods and design results discussion and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) vusi msiza department of early childhood education, school of education, university of kwazulu-natal, pinetown, south africa obakeng kagola department of primary school, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation msiza, v., & kagola, o. (2023). troubling gender norms: reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators. african journal of career development, 5(1), a85. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.85 original research troubling gender norms: reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators vusi msiza, obakeng kagola received: 28 apr. 2023; accepted: 02 july 2023; published: 01 sept. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: early childhood education (ece) in south africa and globally continues to present low numbers of male teachers. however, studies have highlighted the importance of having men in children’s lives in the schooling context. however, getting men into the early years comes with various challenges, including those that relate to men choosing teaching as a career and, in particular, negotiating the gendered norms. therefore, it is important to understand the reflections of men in the early years of teaching. objectives: this self-reflective paper reflects on the authors experiences as young men becoming early childhood teacher educators in two south african higher education institutions. method: this qualitative study employed self-reflexive methodologies and narratives to show how the author have negotiated the normative constructions of gender in ece. results: the authors found that even though institutions of higher education are vehicles for transformation, there are historical and contextual gendered norms that perpetuate inequalities. they also found that the inequalities may contribute to the recruitment, retainment and resignation of men in ece teaching. conclusion: the paper suggests the need for conversations on transforming gender relations among staff and students within ece disciplines. contribution: the gendered inequalities experienced by male teacher educators demonstrate a need to revisit career development approaches for teacher education in south africa. keywords: early childhood education (ece); gender regime; masculinities; self-reflexive; teacher education. introduction teaching as a profession, particularly in early childhood education (ece), is universally associated with a feminine image (bhana et al., 2022). globally, there have been campaigns intended to recruit more males into ece (herein grade r to 3). countries such as the united states, united kingdom, australia and new zealand recruited males in ece with the aim of providing male role models and father figures, especially for boys from single-parent households (wernersson, 2015). similarly, in mpumalanga, south africa, the provincial department of education has trained a significant group of young individuals as ece teachers, aiming to enhance the quality of education in those areas (sanews 2015, 26 february). initiatives such as australia’s ‘male teachers strategy’ have emphasised the recruitment and retention of male teachers to create an inclusive environment and positively influence boys’ attitudes (palmer et al., 2019). however, no significant improvement has been made thus far. the attempts to diversify the ece educational space have raised global debates and research interests around ece teaching and learning (wernersson, 2015). the debates are mainly centred around how the heteronormative construction of ece teaching has sustained the educational space as women’s terrain and enabled men to distance themselves. the socially constructed idea that ece teaching as a career path is suitable only for women and not a respectable profession for men has been one of the many hindrances to improving the underrepresentation of men in ece (moosa & bhana, 2019). moreover, the socially constructed notion that ece teaching and, subsequently, ece teacher education is a career suited for women is based on the understanding that ece teaching is care work, which is not approved as a male responsibility (bhana et al., 2022; cruickshank, 2020). the afore is made visible by kagola and notshulwana (2022) and msiza (2021) in their respective studies. these authors state that the ideal identity of a man teaching in the ece is not what men who subscribe to dominant and hegemonic forms of masculinity aspire to. therefore, globally, including south africa, men are sceptical of teaching in the early years because of the discourses of dominant and hegemonic masculinities that relegate care as unimportant (cruickshank, 2020; msiza, 2021). in south african schools, there is minimal support for career education and guidance, potentially providing children and youth with a broader understanding of their career choices (maree, 2013). however, since the dawn of democracy in south africa, career education has been incorporated into the life skill/life orientation subjects in the new curriculum assessment policy statement (caps) (maree, 2013). part of implementing the new curriculum in south african schools was to redress past injustices through an education underpinned by democratic values such as social justice and gender equality (dieltiens, 2002). equitable distribution of labour forms part of addressing issues of gender equality in the workplace. for schools, this might theoretically mean teachers should provide learners with multiple opportunities to explore all possible professions and not be discriminated against in their career choice. however, because of the sustenance of hegemonic patriarchal practices such as the ‘real man’ discourse, that is centred around stoicism, violence and aggression (ratele, 2014), it is difficult for men to ignore the gender binary and work in professions previously regarded as women’s terrain, such as nursing and ece teaching (bhana et al., 2022; ratele, 2014). in working towards reimagining new versions of pro-feminine and caring masculinities, moosa and bhana (2019) and ratele (2014) have argued that it is essential for men to consider professions that are historically constructed outside the realm of typical manhood. wernersson (2015) posits that reflections, courageous conversations and public engagements with men already in the educational system should be encouraged to attract and retain more male teachers. in this paper, we follow francis’s (2021:286) recommendation that to start thinking about change, personal and professional growth is important for one to ‘sometimes do painful, critical reflection, especially as it relates to developing a critical consciousness for changing self and society’. therefore, in this special edition and as teacher educators located in two different teacher education institutions in south africa, we are responding to the following research question driving the study: how have we negotiated the normative constructions of gender in early childhood teacher education? troubling men’s presence in early childhood education teaching and teacher education literature in both the global north and south postulates that the identities of ece teachers and teacher educators seem to be centred around the socially constructed idea of the profession as being women’s work (bhana et al., 2022; chang-kredl & kingsley, 2014; cheruvu et al., 2015). multiple gendered discourses persist in ece and are reproduced while the few men within the teaching profession navigate their identities in a highly gendered space (bhana et al., 2022). additionally, brody et al. (eds. 2020) argue that men who have chosen ece teaching as a career choice experience challenges in their career trajectories even though their decision to join the phase is noble. this is visible in literature in the global south because of its unique historical, geopolitical and sociocultural factors that continue to construct the ece context as a feminine space. moreover, these colonial legacies, patriarchal systems and socio-economic disparities constantly shape societal perceptions of gender binaries while reinforcing traditional gender norms (bhana, 2016; ratele, 2014). factors such as these affect the recruitment, retention and acceptance of valuable and competent professionals within ece. consequently, men who intend to work in ece disrupt the normative construction of ece. bhana (2022) and msibi (2019) found that schools and higher education institutions are spaces that reproduce and sustain patriarchal hegemonic ideals of masculinities that perpetuate the ‘real man’ discourse. for example, msiza (2021) has found that male ece teachers constructed nappy changing as an activity that relegates their masculinities to a lower level in the hierarchy. furthermore, kagola and notshulwana (2022) in their study about a same-sex desiring male ece teacher found that men, irrespective of their sexual orientation, disassociate themselves from teaching sensitive topics and sexuality education. it is therefore important for teachers and teacher educators to be cognisant of how they deliver content, position themselves in their respective contexts and be reflective in their practices (eds. brody et al., 2020). teachers and teacher educators are central to the work of reform. they also play an integral role in developing preand in-service teachers tasked with guiding learners, especially in ece, in becoming active agents of change (bhana, 2016; brody et al., 2020; connell, 2011; msibi, 2019). theoretical framework theoretically, the paper is informed by the theory of masculinities (connell, 2005). connell (2005) defines masculinity as a place within gender relations where men and women enact practices that may contribute to culture, personality and experience. in addition, masculinities are multiple; for instance, there are hegemonic, subordinated, marginalised and complicit (connell, 2005). this suggests that there is more than one way in which masculinities can be performed as they are liable to change and often contested (connell, 2000). in short, there is no single, rigid and fixated way of being a man. masculinities are about how men position themselves within gender relations (messerschmidt, 2018). masculinities do not exist in isolation or in a vacuum. instead, masculinities are constructed within specific institutional settings that have history and culture (hearn & kimmel, 2006). also, context is important in constructing masculinities; hence, they are constructed locally, regionally and globally (connell & messerschmidt, 2005). within the teaching specialisation of early childhood education, there are normative constructions of gender, particularly of masculinities. this article uses the theory of masculinities to understand how to negotiate constructions of gender in early childhood teacher education. the study reflect on the authors experiences as young men and student teachers and this experience also includes experiences as academics employed in a career or profession that is statistically dominated by women and socially constructed as suitable for women. to understand the experiences, the article draw on the work of south african masculinities scholars (mfecane, 2020; morrell, 1998; ratele, 2016). considering the country’s history (colonial and apartheid) of men and masculinities and violence, ratele (2016) has sought to understand masculinities from the african perspective and how black men can be liberated from normative constructions of gender, racism and economic oppression. in this article, the hope was to use the theory of masculinities and pay attention to the theories emerging from the global south, as connell (2018:339) argues that ‘knowledge about gender not only has a politics, it also has a geopolitics, and this geopolitics has a history’. the theory and the self-reflexive methodologies of doing research adopted for this study are helpful in assisting in sharing how the authors have negotiated the normative constructions of gender in early childhood teacher education and how they have liberated themselves as men and academics (ratele, 2016). research methods and design a qualitative research approach was adopted. according to creswell (2013), qualitative research is about understanding individuals within their context and the experiences they share from real-life situations. thus, the authors were interested in their lived experiences of negotiating normative constructions of gender within early childhood teacher education. consistent with flick (2007), the authors conceptualise qualitative research not only as a methodology to generate data but also as a way in which lived experiences can contribute towards addressing social challenges. noting that lived experiences in negotiating the normative constructions of gender in ece teacher education are context-dependent and subjective, an interpretive paradigm was adopted. in line with narrative research, the interpretive worldview is not interested in people’s objectivity but in their relationality (clandinin, 2016; creswell, 2013). clandinin and connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry was used as the methodology for this article. the narrative inquiry focuses on stories lived and told. it also focuses on how context shapes individual experiences, meanings and constructions in a particular context and period of time (clandinin, 2006). the method of personal narratives was used to generate data. narratives are a creative form that researchers in education, particularly teacher educators, can be used to reflect and think about new ways (pithouse et al., 2009). before generating the written narratives, virtual meetings were held to discuss past experiences in the early years. the authors created prompts that they both individually responded to over 2 weeks. the authors also revisited the reflexivity sections of their doctoral theses. the reflexivity sections triggered our memories about past experiences and contributed to the data generation process. after writing the narratives, the authors exchanged and read each other’s responses. they believed that although they were writing the article collaboratively, it did not mean there would be harmony in the responses and way of being (samaras & freese, 2006). this was the first process leading to data analysis. data was analysed using narrative analysis (butler-kisber, 2018; polkinghorne, 1995), where responses were re-storied into a coherent story with plots. they also engaged in the second level of analysis, which is the analysis of narratives, commonly known as thematic analysis in qualitative research (polkinghorne, 1995). in the data analysis process, they considered the two approaches to analysing the data, namely inductive and deductive approaches. the authors engaged in a rigorous reiterative process of searching for codes and formulating themes. the authors doctoral theses, which triggered our data generation process, were ethically approved at the respective institutions. v.m.s thesis was approved at the university of kwazulu-natal and o.k.s at the university of the free state. the doctoral theses focus on men in the early years of teaching. in self-reflexive methodologies, the authors are both the inquirers and learners (samaras & freese, 2006). thus, to ensure rigour, the processes of self-reflexive methodologies was followed. the draft manuscript was shared with a critical senior academic member for feedback. the authors engaged with the feedback and strengthened the article. results the findings presented herein emerged from a rigorous data analysis process that included two methods of analysis. first was the narrative analysis followed by the analysis of narratives (themes). noting the nature of the methodology, the authors presented longer vignettes to privilege the voices and enhance the richness of the narratives (chase, 2008). the analysis yielded three main themes, namely: (1) receiving career guidance, (2) the journey of becoming an early childhood teacher and (3) being a man in early childhood teacher education. receiving career guidance the existing literature indicates that career education or guidance is not enjoyed by all the learners in schools, particularly noting the contextual differences that exist in south africa, such as the geographical location of the schools and the socio-economic status in varied contexts (maree, 2013). the research question focused on how to negotiate normative constructions of gender in early childhood teacher education. however, it was deemed necessary to provide their narratives on receiving career guidance while still in high school. this provides a rich contextual understanding of their lived experiences and the development of the authors career trajectories. moreover, it informs the succeeding vignettes. in analysing the data and the vignettes presented that both v.m. and o.k. found that they grew up in the villages. v.m. received two separate career guidance sessions while o.k. received what we can term career education from life orientation (lo) teachers. the vignettes indicate no concerted effort to challenge gender stereotypes during the career guidance received: v.m.: growing up in the villages of mpumalanga, i attended several sessions of career guidance. the first career guidance i attended was in grade 11. there were different institutions, organisations and companies. there were institutions situated in pretoria. there were also various role-players, such as sector education authority [setas], the department of agriculture, companies like eskom [electricity supply commision], and various mining companies in grade 12. i remember attending a specific career guidance session organised by eskom and tvet [technical, vocational education and training] colleges. at the time, the government presented plans for constructing medupi and kusile power stations. o.k.: unfortunately for me and those i matriculated with in one of the villages of north west province, we never attended and received any organised formal career guidance. i always got career guidance from my life orientation teacher. this was somewhat limited to themes in the curriculum like ‘jobs people do’ and others were very gendered. knowing that i wanted to be a teacher of young children has been problematic since high school. i was often discouraged. what is more apparent, especially from v.m.s vignette, is that the guidance was tailored more for careers predominantly followed by men and those requiring manual labour. the same is also noted in o.k.s vignette that some of the topics they discussed in class involved jobs that people do, and they were mainly gendered. o.k., who wanted to pursue a career in teaching in the early years, was often discouraged because teaching was not constructed as a suitable or lucrative career for men. such discourses are driven by heteronormativity, and the idea of work in such provinces is understood from a frame of manual hard labour, such as mining and agricultural activities (msiza, 2022). moreover, the career education and guidance presented to both were designed to perpetuate the binary construction of what activities men and women should do, which feeds the reproduction of hegemonic masculine identity as doing hard labour and not care work. ratele (2014) postulates that masculinities are produced for others to validate or reject. therefore, o.k. was always discouraged by fellow learners and lo teachers from being a teacher. v.m. attended career guidance geared to work in spaces such as mining and engineering and not care work. the data suggest that how careers are understood and how career guidance is conducted in south africa are still gendered, with ideals of dominant and hegemonic masculinities being prioritised. the discussion in this theme presented the narratives on receiving career guidance; next theme present the journeys of becoming ece teachers. the journey of becoming an early childhood teacher although o.k. came from an environment where no career guidance was offered, the career guidance that v.m. received did not include careers like teaching. this presented several challenges in their journeys of becoming ece teachers. the authors found that in both their journeys, different parts of society, such as people in communities and those in teacher education institutions, were not open to the idea of a man in the ece. they elaborate in the vignettes: v.m.: when i chose teaching as a career, particularly teaching in the ece, i received negative comments from the young men i grew up with in the village. they used to mock me and say i am going to ‘wipe bums’ in the early years, and that’s not a serious job a man should pursue. what was more surprising and shocking were the comments made by some of the staff members at the teacher education institution i was pursuing my degree at. apparently, for them, it was for the first time seeing a significant number of men in the early years. when we arrived at the institution, male students pursuing the bachelor of education in ece were approximately 40–42. they used to ask why we chose ece as a specialisation. are we going to manage? students who knew our specialisation were also problematic during the extra-mural activities such as the residence soccer league. as men, we were ridiculed and mocked for pursuing a specialisation that was not suitable for us. o.k.: from high school, i always knew i wanted to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps by becoming a professional teacher. going to university and registering for ece was a dream come true for me. i was excited, happy and ready to be like my grandmother. the shock started in my first-year class, being one of the only two males in the cohort of students registered for the programme. we got used to being taught by white female lecturers who sometimes felt sorry for us. they would forever ask how we were settling in and if we needed any assistance. we continued as two male ece students until the completion of the programme. throughout the four years, we negotiated, convinced and assured teachers, principals and parents that we only had our profession and their children’s best interests at heart. ‘are you going to make it? do you have patience? don’t be too harsh on them they are just kids!’ these were the common comments which we got used to during our teaching practice. through ece teaching, i experienced what my grandmother always told us about positively contributing to someone’s life. i experienced it all, my learners becoming spelling bee champions and prefects learner representative council (lrc) in their intermediate years. it was indeed an experience that i would cherish all my life. the number of men is apparent in both vignettes. when v.m. was training to become an ece teacher, his cohort had a significant number of men, while o.k. had only two. although the authors have mentioned the number of men in ece, they argue that numeric representation of gender is not the only way of understanding the challenges of becoming a male teacher in ece (mcgrath, 2023). the vignettes indicate further that some of the staff members at the teacher education institutions were shocked to see men and were constantly concerned if we would manage in the ece. undoubtedly, the reaction was fuelled by the gendered understandings of careers and what men ought to do. the comment by young men in v.m.s community that he would ‘wipe bums’ was intended to discourage v.m. from continuing with a profession that is not approved in the realm of hegemonic and patriarchal masculinities. the ideal identity of a man in any society is one that has power that he can use on others and one that is wealthy (coston & kimmel, 2012). subtly, o.k. had to convince parents, teachers and principals that men in the ece were not a threat to children in any way. in most cases, the suspicions are gendered, but in a context such as south africa, suspicions are present because of the high prevalence of violence against women, children and other men (moosa & bhana, 2020). according to cruickshank (2020), men in the ece are often suspected of child molestation, and their intentions are questioned. the limited career guidance the authors received did not prepare them for the contextual realities, particularly those that relate to the normative construction of gender in the ece. mapping out career trajectories through narratives and particularly addressing how they negotiated normative constructions of gender in early childhood teacher education necessitated presenting narratives of being a man in early childhood teacher education. being a man in early childhood teacher education the prejudice and the negative comments received for pursuing an ece degree did not deter the authors from continuing and furthering studies. under this theme, the authors present narratives of being teacher educators, particularly as men in the ece disciplines in two higher education institutions. the findings in this theme are somewhat similar to their experiences as student teachers in ece. in the vignette below, o.k.s gender and teacher identities were constantly policed by suggesting team teaching or co-teaching with a female colleague. the suggestions appeared to be premised on the assumption that men cannot teach in the ece. also consistent with existing studies, it seems that the suggestions were fuelled by suspicion around how o.k., as a man, would teach the concept of sexuality to ece pre-service teachers. in their respective studies, francis and depalma (2015) and kagola and notshulwana (2022) engaged with teachers on the teaching of perceived sensitive topics and who should teach them. they found that women are better teachers of such content. this is premised on the socially constructed idea that women are more prone to engage in such content as it is perceived to be innocent from them, which is the opposite for men (kagola & notshulwana, 2022): o.k.: one thing i have realised from my teacher training to now, being a teacher educator for five years, is that the space of learning and teaching in the early years is highly guarded and gendered. one gets to negotiate every space one goes into, whether pedagogically, in community engagement or research. i teach modules such as values in education. in such a module, one negotiates the pedagogical strategies i use to teach certain sensitive content, such as the sexuality unit found in that module. i remember when we wrote the module, and in our discussion of the content, colleagues suggested that i offer the module by choosing one of the two options: (a) team teaching or (b) teaching with a female lecturer. another instance is the community engagement aspect within the programme, such as distributing sanitary towels to the girl child project, which i formed part of. interestingly, i discovered that colleagues did not like my presence. one even said ‘we do not like your line of questioning, they make us uncomfortable, and i think you should stay behind next time. pads are a woman’s thing.’ i asked them why boys are dismissed when girls are given towels in schools? i asked these questions because we wanted to normalise the talk about sexuality-related content in schools. the above vignette by o.k. indicates that apart from being policed on his teaching, there was also a gender division of labour. for instance, o.k. was told to refrain from participating in a community engagement project distributing pads to girls. because of being a gender activist, o.k.s line of questioning created discomfort among his female counterparts, despite the benefits of an opportunity to educate boys about sexuality. on analysing the data further, there seems to be discomfort about o.k. and comprehensive sexuality education. francis’s (2017) point about teachers’ lack of content and pedagogical knowledge to teach comprehensive sexuality education is evident in how o.k.s colleagues resisted and were gatekeeping. o.k. was expected to react like most men, who on a daily basis distance themselves from caring activities or those that would present them as caring. in the vignette below, v.m. narrates about his experience of attending an ece national conference and the lack of awareness he observed on the topic of men in the early years: v.m.: when i was employed as a teacher educator at the institution, i attended academic conferences, and one of them was specifically for ece. i realised that there was a general shock amongst the conference delegates. the conference was dominated by academics who were elderly, women and predominantly white. more shocking was the feedback from my presentation since my study focused on men teaching in the early years. some of the delegates who attended my presentation were surprised to learn that there were men who taught in the early years. i also learnt with shock that one of the teacher education institutions in the country did not have any men students pursuing ece, and there were no immediate plans to recruit them. being a teacher educator, i was also able to notice that the call to recruit more men was not only significant for basic education, but it was equally important for ece disciplines in higher education. the shock that v.m. observed on his identity as a man in the ece and on presenting about male teachers in the phase indicates the extent of gender imbalance in the south african ece teaching. v.m. was also concerned to learn that there was still a teacher education institution in south africa that did not have male students in their cohorts and with no plans to diversify the phase. the absence of men in teacher education institutions pursuing ece teaching appears to contribute to the low numbers of male ece teachers and the overall unfamiliarity in society. ratele (2016) has advised that as men and masculinities scholars, one should not be uncritical when studying men (including ourselves). therefore, the authors are aware that the presence of male teachers in the ece may not be enough to address the existing constructs and stereotypes (mcgrath, 2023). however, it is hoped that increasing the number of men in ece will also increase men’s involvement in caring activities (moosa & bhana, 2020). vusi’s observation indicates that ece disciplines in the country remain untransformed regarding gender and sexuality. early childhood education disciplines require a concerted effort from various stakeholders to drive and effect diversity in the early years (msiza, 2022). as francis (2017) rightly argues the prevalence of heterosexism makes the binaries of gender and sexuality more explicit, particularly in the institutional culture, curriculum and pedagogy. discussion and conclusion the presence of men in the ece as student teachers or teacher educators contributes to society’s familiarity and acceptance of men as suitable and qualified ece teachers. the study indicates that the silence on the teaching profession, particularly ece teaching in career guidance, contributes to the current normative gender constructs. the literature in the country on male ece teachers has focused on student teachers and in-service teachers. we noted a need to do a self-reflexive study and share our stories drawing from our experiences of career guidance as learners to student teachers studying a degree dominated by female students and currently as teacher educators in the same disciplines. the narratives demonstrated the following. firstly, the teaching profession is neglected in career guidance or education. in cases where it is mentioned, as seen with obakeng, it is often ridiculed and gendered. secondly, the gendering of ece teaching is evident throughout history, and our career trajectories from student teachers to teacher educators bear reference. the authors noted that what enabled us to negotiate the gendered constructs, doubts and suspicions was our activism, the pursuit of transforming ece teaching and liberating men from problematic notions of what men ought to do (ratele, 2016). they share the same sentiments with self-reflexive scholars that ‘self-study respects the notion that we teach who we are and who we becoming as professionals’ (samaras & freese, 2006:48). the authors therefore argue that their self-reflexive process created an opportunity for them to learn from themselves and past experiences. as self-reflexive researchers, the authors were well aware that to share their lived experiences, they had to acknowledge that the personal intersects with the professional (pithouse et al., 2009). this means the source of resilience in negotiating gender constructs at a time of doubt and shame began with who they are personally (activists) and who they want to become professionally. in line with teaching who they are becoming, their learnings are important for those in the ece teaching and those interested in joining the phase regardless of gender, sex and sexuality. while we continously negotiate the gendered constructions, it is clear that men who left ece teaching – whether in schools or as academics – were not able to negotiate the gendered space of ece and were not able to handle the conflictual elements of being a man in the early years (brody & gor ziv, 2020). the findings suggest that teacher education institutions have a role to play as transformative spaces. institutions should consider ways in which they can progressively lead or initiate inclusive career guidance. internally, institutions should transform the curriculum and approaches that are pro-diversity. undoubtedly, a diverse gender teaching force ‘demonstrates that education is inclusive of, uniformly valued by, and of significance to, a wide range of demographic groups’ (mcgrath, 2023, p. 81). acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.m. and o.k. have contributed equally to the development of the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of kwazulu-natal humanities and social sciences research ethics committee and from the university of the free state general and human research ethics committee (ghrec) (no. hss/0409/018d, ufs-hsd2021/1447/22). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data 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(2014). currents against gender transformation of south african men: relocating marginality to the centre of research and theory of masculinities. norma: international journal for masculinity studies, 9(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2014.892285 ratele, k. (2016). liberating masculinities. hsrc press. samaras, a.p., & freese, a.r. (2006). self-study of teaching practices. peter lang publishing. sanews. (2015). mpumalanga focuses on early childhood development, sanews.gov.za, retrieved from http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/mpumalanga-focuses-early-childhood-development wernersson, i. (2015). more men? swedish arguments over four decades about ‘missing men’ in ece and care. in s. brownhill, j. warin & i. wernersson (eds.), men, masculinities and teaching in early childhood education (pp. 13–25). routledge. abstract introduction background to the current study objectives of the study research setting findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) irma eloff department of educational psychology, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation eloff, i. (2019). student well-being in veterinary sciences: implications for student support and career agility self-confidence in gaining employment. african journal of career development, 1(1), a6. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.6 case study student well-being in veterinary sciences: implications for student support and career agility irma eloff received: 23 oct. 2019; accepted: 18 nov. 2019; published: 10 dec. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract this case study investigates the factors that support and hinder the well-being of undergraduate students in veterinary sciences. the study aims to provide textured, nuanced and in-depth qualitative perspectives on the well-being of veterinary science students. the study aims to supplement the growing body of quantitative studies that indicate substantive concerns about the psychological well-being of students in veterinary sciences. the study utilised face-to-face interviews (n = 78) and an in-depth focus group interview (n = 9) within the bounded system of a faculty of veterinary science at a large, urban university. findings indicate that the well-being of students in veterinary sciences is supported by students actively taking ownership of their psychological well-being, and the presence of animals in their social and personal lives. the study also shows that a sense of isolation, both socially and geographically, may be hindering students’ well-being. keywords: veterinary sciences; undergraduate; student well-being; student support; career agility. introduction the mental health and well-being of students of veterinary sciences have received growing attention in recent years (killinger et al. 2017; reisbig et al. 2012). studies report up to one-third of veterinary medical students, surveyed during the first and second semesters, with depression levels above the clinical cut-off and up to 15% of some student samples experiencing an increase in depression of at least one standard deviation (1 sd) (hafen et al. 2008). along similar lines, a 4-year cohort study (siqueira drake et al. 2012) in the us context has pointed out that a large number of veterinary medical students experience clinical levels of anxiety and depression across all 4-year cohorts. findings from this study indicate elevated scores on anxiety and depression, and specifically students in their second and third years had the highest anxiety and depression scores. stressors described to explain the symptoms of depression and anxiety included perceived physical health, difficulty fitting in, heavy workloads, unclear expectations and homesickness. other studies indicate that some veterinary science students with higher-functioning relationships are indeed more likely to report fewer depressive symptoms, and lower stress associated with balancing their university and home lives, but then these same students are simultaneously experiencing more stress from falling behind academically (hafen, ratcliffe & rush 2013). a need for deeper understandings about the well-being of students of veterinary sciences seems evident. background to the current study most of the studies that have investigated the mental health and well-being of students in veterinary sciences utilise psychometric and quantitative measures to collect data. the current study set out to explore qualitative aspects to potentially provide more in-depth insights into the dynamics and complexities at play. veterinary science as both science and profession is linked to several of the sustainable development goals, and therefore the well-being of future veterinarians is of concern for all. objectives of the study the study is aimed to answer the following question: which factors support and hinder the well-being of veterinary science students? the framing of the question to explore the factors that support and hinder well-being was deliberate. it was framed to provide nuanced understandings that could potentially assist the future development of support programmes for students in veterinary sciences in order to enhance their well-being. the study also adopted an open-ended format to allow authentic responses on student well-being that would illuminate the trends evident in quantitative studies of veterinary science students. research setting the study was conducted at the faculty of veterinary science, university of pretoria. it is the only faculty responsible for the training of veterinarians and veterinary nurses in the country. the faculty is ranked highly on numerous international rankings. it is situated on the onderstepoort campus of the university of pretoria, with a world-class animal hospital and state-of-the-art facilities in veterinary sciences. research methodology an instrumental case study was conducted to investigate the well-being of veterinary science students at the university of pretoria. face-to-face interviews (n = 78) and an in-depth focus group interview (time 1:06:08; n = 9) were conducted with undergraduate students of veterinary science. for face-to-face interviews, fieldworkers approached students on campus to ask the following question: ‘which factors support your well-being at the university of pretoria?’ responses were taken down manually on paper. biographic data of respondents were also taken down alongside the written responses. afterwards, all written responses were transferred to electronic format for the purpose of data analysis. interviews were conducted in the first semester of the academic year. the focus group interview was conducted by an experienced researcher in the helping professions (e.g. social work) with a group of undergraduate veterinary science students (n = 9). the focus group discussion was audio-recorded and transcribed. data from both the face-to-face interviews and focus group discussion were analysed by means of theme analysis. participants all the participants (n = 78) of this study were undergraduate students at the faculty of veterinary science (table 1). most students (n = 67) were enrolled for a degree in veterinary science (bvsc) and some (n = 11) were enrolled for a diploma in veterinary nursing. the age of participants ranged from 18 to 34 years, and the mean age was 22.6 years. the modal age was 24 years. most of the participants (n = 37) indicated english as their first language, 27 students indicated afrikaans, 11 students indicated another african language and 3 students indicated ‘other’. table 1: characteristics of participants (interview group; n = 78). all focus group participants (n = 9) were south african citizens and undergraduate students at the faculty of veterinary science, doing bvsc (table 2). their ages ranged between 21 and 40 years, with one missing value (unknown). the mean age of the focus group participants was 24.87 years, with modal ages of 21, 22 and 23 years. five participants indicated english as their first language, and the remaining four participants each indicated afrikaans, isixhosa, sepedi and tshivenda as their first language. table 2: characteristics of participants (focus group; n = 9). ethical considerations the study was conducted as part of a comprehensive student well-being research project at the university of pretoria. ethical clearance (gw0180232hs) was obtained from the ethics committee of the faculty of humanities, as well as the university of pretoria survey organising committee. findings the study indicates three main thematic factors that support and hinder the well-being of veterinary science students. student well-being is supported by the following two factors: students actively taking ownership of their own well-being presence of animals in the social and personal lives of students. student well-being is hindered by the following factor: a sense of isolation. in the next section, each of these thematic factors is discussed by sharing some direct extracts from the data sets. these extracts are illustrative, rather than exhaustive, of the broad theme that has emerged in the data. some data extracts provide confirmation for some of the themes that have been highlightedin other studies (hafen et al. 2013; killinger et al. 2017), but here provide additional nuance at personal level. students actively taking ownership of their own well-being the data from both interviews and focus group show that students’ well-being is supported when students actively take responsibility for their own well-being. many students show high levels of internal locus of control. they embrace healthy coping strategies that support their studies: ‘sporting activities, binge watching series. outings with friends, comfort eating and lots of sleep.’ (interview 20, male, 24 years) ‘balancing academics. socialising with people who can assist me with academics. taking time out for myself and away from academics. exercise to calm down stress during tests or examination.’ (interview 59, male, 21 years) ‘being surrounded by positive people and a good working environment.’ (interview 64, female, 19 years) ‘i think, the best part of studying at op [onderstepoort] is the fact that we have an amazing campus. there is so much to do here, whether you want to go to the gym, for a swim, play some squash or tennis, everything right here on campus. staying in res also helps a lot, you can meet up with friends for coffee and discuss whatever is bothering you. op really helps you have a well-balanced life.’ (interview 16, female, 23 years) ‘… the one that stood out for me the most is relationships at the moment, especially because i’m a res student … i find a great deal of comfort in friends and having that social every two weeks or whatever not even just doing something else just socialising with my peers and the residence takes a great deal of stress off my shoulders so it’s relationships.’ (focus group, response 6) ‘i think, it definitely you as an individual need to understand what aspects of your life you need to work on so that you can have a happy life so that school work is balanced with relationship and that is a very … personal thing, but i think that there should also be facilities to aid you in showing you how to do it, or how to deal with stress, how to deal with anxiety, or if there’s maybe somebody that comes to campus and speak once a week on stress and anxiety and so that’s i feel like there’s a balance between what you should be doing and who can help you to do.’ (focus group, response 130) students take ownership of their own well-being when they purposefully engage in leisure activities, invest in healthy relationships and pro-actively manage their stress levels. this form of personal agency bodes well for the future career agility. correia et al. (2017) have shown similar findings with students who actively engage in activities that reduce stress and depression. presence of animals in the social and personal lives of students perhaps, not surprisingly, the presence of animals is integral to the well-being of the participants in this study, as illustrated below: ‘i live off campus with my dog. i exercise at least four times a week. i have a society at the university focused on wildlife. i have three close friends who study with me and we rely on each other. i have a good support structure when life gets hard. i have a good relationship with my parents, boyfriend.’ (interview 8, female, 22 years) ‘daily exercise, weekly training in jiu-jitsu. being allowed to walk the campus beagles. campus being so close to res, no stress about transport. being given free medical and psychological care. being given the schedule for the whole year, allowing myself to plan ahead of time.’ (interview 13, female, 20 years) ‘walking the beagles, housemates, staying in south africa.’ (interview 18, male, 22 years) ‘housemates. international friendships. walking the beagles at op. being a part of multiple clubs. south african culture. understanding and helpful student peers. ability to travel on the weekends and explore south africa.’ (interview 19, female, 23 years) ‘being able to be constantly around animals and like-minded people.’ (interview 60, female, 24 years) ‘i am a depressive person, small things get me down. sleeping makes me feel best. ultimately, i would go horse riding every day. i see a psychiatrist, a psychologist to help with my issues. my dogs living with me is probably what keeps me going the best.’ (interview 61, female, 26 years) a sense of isolation while the presence of animals in their lives and actively taking ownership seems to support the well-being of the participants of this study, a sense of isolation seems to be hindering their well-being. the sense of isolation emanates from both geographical isolation from the rest of the university and a psychological sense of isolation for some students, as illustrated below: ‘the campus is too isolated from the rest of the university and the academic stress is high, this can decrease well-being, which is why i live off campus. since moving out, my well-being has improved.’ (interview 8, female, 22 years) ‘… they feel isolated right, everyone seems like they coping and they’re fine and they having to hide, the ones who can’t cope with it – am i even meant to be here, is this where i am supposed to be?’ (focus group, response 9) ‘… and then just the isolation is the environment at op … because you’re isolated you’re almost forced to stay in this environment, so if you stay in res, you constantly surrounded by op you’re constantly by the pressure the competitiveness.’ (focus group, response 19) ‘… and then if i can add on like the isolation not on the friends but family as well there’s a lot of people are not from here.’ (focus group, response 15) ‘in terms of facilities also we don’t have … main campus has bookmark has the store for books and stationary and all that our campus doesn’t have that.’ (focus group, response 50) ‘… they’ve kind of been like … you’re a far campus this is gonna be hard …’ (focus group, response 105) conclusion tailored-support strategies for students studying in veterinary sciences seem to be advisable. findings from this qualitative case study indicate that the integration of animals at social and personal levels could potentially enhance the well-being of students studying in veterinary sciences. the study also indicates that increased awareness of personal agency in supporting well-being could be leveraged to optimise their well-being. developing personal agency in improving well-being at individual level also holds the possibility of contributing to career agility over a lifetime. in addition to developing tailored support for students of veterinary sciences during the years of study, active strategies to counter isolation, geographical and personal, also seem to have the potential to improve their well-being. acknowledgements the fieldwork for the interviews was conducted by students in the helping professions from the university of pretoria. the focus group was conducted by a researcher from the department of social work at the university of pretoria, leanne jordaan. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research was funded by the university of pretoria. data availability statement data from interviews and the focus group are available upon request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references correia, h.m., smith, a.d., murray, s., polak, l.s., williams, b., & cake, m.a. (2017). the impact of a brief embedded mindfulness-based program for veterinary students. journal of veterinary medical education, 44(1), 125–133. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0116-026r hafen, m., jr., ratcliffe, g.c., & rush, b.r. (2013). veterinary medical student well-being: depression, stress, and personal relationships. journal of veterinary medical education, 40(3), 296–302. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.1112-101r hafen, m., jr., reisbig, a.m., white, m.b., & rush, b.r. (2008). the first-year veterinary student and mental health: the role of common stressors. journal of veterinary medical education, 35(1), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.35.1.102 killinger, s.l., flanagan, s., castine, e., & howard, k.a. (2017). stress and depression among veterinary medical students. journal of veterinary medical education, 44(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0116-018r1 reisbig, a.m., danielson, j.a., wu, t.-f., hafen, m., jr., krienert, a., girard, d. et al. (2012). a study of depression and anxiety, general health, and academic performance in three cohorts of veterinary medical students across the first three semesters of veterinary school. journal of veterinary medical education, 39(4), 341–358. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0712-065r siqueira drake, a.a., hafen, m., jr., rush, b.r., & reisbig, a.m. (2012). predictors of anxiety and depression in veterinary medicine students: a four-year cohort examination. journal of veterinary medical education, 39(4), 322–330. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0112-006r abstract introduction research methods and design discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation brown, a. (2024). out in the classroom: self-disclosure as a ‘pedagogical tool’. african journal of career development, 6(2), a142. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.142 note: special collection: queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research out in the classroom: self-disclosure as a ‘pedagogical tool’ anthony brown received: 13 may 2024; accepted: 16 july 2024; published: 11 sept. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in south african higher education, lgbtq+-identifying educators often navigate heteronormative and cisnormative spaces that marginalise their identities. self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators have the potential to disrupt these norms and foster inclusivity, but it also carries personal and professional risks. objectives: this autoethnographic study explores the transformative potential and challenges of self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators in south african higher education, focusing on my experiences as a gay professor. methods: the study employs an autoethnographic approach, drawing on my personal narratives, reflections and artefacts related to my experiences of self-disclosure in the classroom. the data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach, informed by critical and transgressive pedagogies and queer theory. results: disclosure about my sexual orientation confused students’ assumptions that i am heterosexual. it challenged their prejudices about lgbtq+ identities. it also created opportunities for critical dialogue and fostered a more inclusive classroom environment. however, this article also reveals the institutional and social barriers that continue to marginalise lgbtq+ voices in south african education. conclusions: self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators can be a transformative pedagogical tool for challenging oppressive norms and fostering social justice in education. however, it is a complex and risky process that requires institutional support and personal resilience. contribution: the study highlights the need for further research on lgbtq+ educators’ experiences and pedagogical practices in south africa and beyond. keywords: lgbtq+ educators; self-disclosure; heteronormativity; autoethnography; south african higher education; cisnormativity. introduction the complex interplay between personal identity, professional roles and pedagogical practices has been a subject of increasing interest in educational research, particularly in relation to the experiences of lgbtq+ educators (connell, 2014; ferfolja & hopkins, 2013; russell, 2021; toledo & maher, 2021). in the south african context, where the post-apartheid constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation (republic of south africa, 1996), the question of how lgbtq+-identifying educators negotiate their identities within heteronormative and cisnormative educational spaces remains a critical concern (francis, 2022; msibi, 2019). this autoethnographic study explores the transformative potential of self-disclosure by lgbtq+-identifying educators in south african higher education, focusing on my experiences as a gay professor. self-disclosure, the sharing of personal information about oneself to others, has been recognised as a powerful pedagogical tool that can foster student engagement, build trust and create a more inclusive classroom environment (beagan et al., 2023; cayanus, 2004; miller et al., 2014). however, for lgbtq+-identifying educators, the decision to disclose their sexual orientation in the classroom is a complex and risky one, fraught with personal and professional challenges (grace & benson, 2000; harbeck, 1997; liddle, 1997). while this study focuses on my experiences as a gay man, it is important to acknowledge that self-disclosure encompasses a wide range of gender identities and expressions. future research should explore the unique challenges and opportunities for self-disclosure among transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming educators (nicolazzo, 2016). drawing on critical pedagogies (freire, 1970; giroux, 2016), this study interrogates the ways in which self-disclosure by lgbtq+ identifying educators can disrupt heteronormative assumptions, challenge student prejudices and contribute to the creation of more inclusive and equitable educational spaces (britzman, 2013; kumashiro, 2002). at the same time, it acknowledges the institutional and social barriers that continue to marginalise and silence lgbtq+ voices in south african education (francis, 2022). through a critical analysis of personal narratives, reflections and artefacts, this study aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on lgbtq+-identifying educators’ experiences and pedagogical practices in south africa and beyond (breshears & braithwaite, 2014; mavhandu-mudzusi & sandy, 2015). in so doing, it seeks to illuminate the transformative potential of self-disclosure as a pedagogical tool for challenging oppressive norms and fostering social justice in education while also acknowledging the complex negotiations and risks involved in this process. self-disclosure as a pedagogical tool self-disclosure, defined as the conscious and deliberate sharing of personal information, experiences, views and responses with others (rasmussen & mishna, 2008), has been widely recognised as a powerful pedagogical tool that can enhance student engagement, foster trust and build rapport in educational settings (cayanus, 2004; goldstein & benassi, 1994). when employed thoughtfully and strategically, educator self-disclosure has the potential to humanise educators, model appropriate disclosure and cultivate a more comfortable and inclusive classroom environment (miller et al., 2014). however, the decision to self-disclose is a complex and multifaceted one, particularly for educators who belong to marginalised or stigmatised identity groups, such as those who identify as lgbtq+ (holman et al., 2023). for lgbtq+-identifying educators, the choice to disclose their sexual orientation in the classroom is a high-stake decision fraught with personal and professional risks (hardie, 2012; liddle, 1997). the author firstly wishes to clarify the use of two terms, lgbtq+ and queer in this study. as jagose (1996) observes, ‘queer’ has evolved from a pejorative term to an academic concept challenging fixed notions of identity. in this autoethnographic study, ‘queer’ is employed as an umbrella term for lgbtq+ identities (callis, 2014) and as a theoretical framework for critiquing heteronormativity in educational settings (warner, 1993). when referring to queer educators or queer identities, i use the term as a reclaimed, positive self-identifier for individuals outside heteronormative and cisnormative categories. simultaneously, in discussing queer liberation or queer inclusivity, the author invokes the theoretical and political dimensions of queer theory, which seeks to destabilise normative categories and challenge systems of power (butler, 2002). this dual usage reflects the complex interplay between personal identity, professional role and theoretical perspective in navigating self-disclosure as an educator. so, queer educators who come out to their students may face discrimination, harassment and even job loss (mckenna-buchanan et al., 2015). they may be subjected to accusations of pushing a ‘gay agenda’, attempting to recruit students or being sexually predatory (ferfolja & hopkins, 2013; wright, 2010). these risks are particularly acute in contexts where heteronormativity and cisnormativity are deeply entrenched and lgbtq+ identities are marginalised. as a result, many lgbtq+-identifying educators choose to conceal their sexual identities in the workplace, a decision that can have significant psychological and professional costs. it is important to notice that the decision to disclose or conceal one’s lgbtq+ identity is not always binary. many educators navigate a middle ground, engaging in what orne (2011) calls ‘strategic outness’, where they selectively disclose their identity based on context and perceived risks and benefits. this nuanced approach allows for greater flexibility in navigating heteronormative educational spaces. despite these challenges, a growing body of research points to the significant pedagogical benefits of lgbtq+ identifying educator outness. when queer educators disclose their sexual orientation, they have the opportunity to provide students with positive role models, challenge stereotypes about lgbtq+ identities and prompt critical reflections on heteronormativity and cisnormativity (martino, 2008; staley & leonardi, 2016). holman et al. (2023) found that educators teaching diversity courses consciously shared aspects of their identity to: (1) promote transparency and reflexivity, (2) increase awareness and visibility of diverse identities, (3) enhance dialogue and (4) challenge biases. these findings illustrate how intentional educator self-disclosure can be a form of critical pedagogy that challenges dominant power structures and ideologies (freire, 1970). the extent to which lgbtq+ educators can engage in this transformative work is heavily dependent on the broader social and political contexts in which they operate. as frizelle (2020) discusses, universities can be spaces where the ‘heterosexual matrix is alive and well’ (p. 21), regulating sexual and gendered relations in ways that produce ‘normative violence’ for those who transgress heteronormative expectations (chambers & carver, 2008). within such hostile climates, self-disclosure is an especially risky proposition for lgbtq+-identifying educators, who may face severe personal and professional consequences for coming out. at the same time, there are glimmers of hope and resistance within educational landscapes. a small but growing body of research documents the experiences of out queer educators actively challenging the heterosexist status quo in learning institutions (francis, 2014; nzimande, 2015). these educators report using their visibility strategically to disrupt heteronormative assumptions, create more inclusive learning spaces and support queer students (rothmann & simmonds, 2015). by embodying alternative ways of being and knowing, they lay the groundwork for a more just and equitable future. ultimately, the transformative potential of lgbtq+-identifying educator outness will depend on the extent to which it is supported by broader movements for social justice and educational equity. as brockenbrough (2015) notes: [q]ueer educators’ efforts to create more liberatory and inclusive classrooms are not separate from, but rather deeply connected to, the larger project of dismantling oppressive systems and structures in education and society. (p. 31) critical pedagogy theory critical pedagogy, a theoretical framework that emerged from the seminal work of brazilian educator paulo freire (1970), offers a powerful lens through which to understand the transformative potential of lgbtq+ educator self-disclosure in educational settings. at its core, critical pedagogy seeks to challenge oppressive power structures and promote social justice through teaching and learning (giroux, 2016). it emphasises the importance of critical consciousness-raising, empowerment and transformative action in educational practices (mclaren, 2015). one of the key tenets of critical pedagogy is the notion of education as a political act (freire, 1970). according to this view, teaching and learning are never neutral processes; rather, they are always embedded within specific social, cultural and historical contexts that shape their meaning and impact (apple, 2004). critical pedagogy also recognises that the work of social transformation cannot be carried out by individual educators alone (freire, 1970). rather, it requires collective action and solidarity across differences in order to build a more just and equitable society (darder et al., 2017). in the context of lgbtq+-identifying educator self-disclosure, this means acknowledging the ways in which the risks and benefits of this practice are shaped by educators’ multiple, intersecting identities and the specific contexts in which they work (few-demo et al., 2016). critical pedagogical lens invites educators, researchers and advocates to approach the question of lgbtq+ identifying educator self-disclosure with a sense of both urgency and humility. it calls on us to recognise the courageous and transformative work that lgbtq+-identifying educators are already doing in their classrooms and communities while also acknowledging the systemic barriers and challenges they face. and it challenges us to imagine and enact new forms of solidarity, resistance and possibility in the struggle for queer liberation and educational justice (mayo, 2014). research methods and design through self-reflection and analysis of my personal narratives and artefacts, i explore the transformative potential and challenges of disclosing my sexual orientation in the context of teaching about gender and sexuality. research design this study employs an autoethnographic research design, a qualitative approach that combines elements of autobiography and ethnography (ellis et al., 2011). this design is particularly suitable for this study, as it allows me, a gay professor at a south african university, to critically examine my own experiences of self-disclosure in the classroom and situate these experiences within the broader context of lgbtq+ visibility and inclusion in educational spaces (drechsler sharp et al., 2012). participant in autoethnographic research, the researcher is the primary participant (chang, 2016). in this study, i as a gay professor at a south african university is the sole participant. my personal experiences, reflections and observations serve as the primary data for the study (bochner & ellis, 2016). my journey towards self-disclosure was influenced by several factors, including a supportive university environment and personal growth (rand et al., 2021). i first came out to selected colleagues before discussing my sexuality with students, a common progression for many lgbtq+ educators (palkki, 2016). the decision to wear a shawl during the gender and society discussion in my fourth-year life orientation methodology course was intentional, although not explicitly announced beforehand. this choice was part of an ongoing dialogue about gender norms and diversity that had been woven throughout the semester (cashmere, 2018). data collection and analysis data collection in this autoethnographic study involved my self-observation and reflection on my experiences of self-disclosure in the classroom, as well as the collection of relevant artefacts and documents (chang, 2016). i engaged in a process of critical self-reflection, drawing on my personal memories, journal entries and teaching materials related to specific instances of self-disclosure during my lectures on gender and sexuality (drechsler sharp et al., 2012). one key incident that served as a focus for my documented reflections occurred during a class discussion on gender norms and socialisation. i had worn a shawl, a garment typically associated with women in south african culture, to class. my decision to wear a shawl was a deliberate pedagogical choice. by challenging gender norms through my attire, i aimed to provoke discussion and create an opportunity for critical reflection on gender expression and societal expectations (cashmere, 2018). this sartorial choice sparked a conversation among students about gendered clothing norms and expectations. these comments served as the basis for my critical reflections on the impact of my self-disclosure on students’ perceptions and understanding of lgbtq+ identities. the data analysis process involved my iterative engagement with my own experiences and reflections, as well as the identification of key themes and patterns that emerged from the data (holman jones et al., 2016). i employed a thematic analysis approach, which involved carefully reading and re-reading his personal reflections coding the data for significant themes and organising these themes into a coherent narrative structure (ellis et al., 2011). ethical considerations in autoethnographic research, ethical considerations primarily concern the researcher’s self-care and the protection of any individuals who may be implicated in the researcher’s personal narratives (tolich, 2010). in this study, i am the sole participant and the focus of the research is on my own experiences and reflections. this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects (bochner & ellis, 2016). discussion through two interconnected themes, i examine how my own experiences of disclosing my sexual orientation as a gay professor disrupted and challenged students’ constructions of gay identities while also humanising queer experiences and fostering a more inclusive learning environment. the discussion highlights the pedagogical power of self-disclosure in promoting queer inclusivity, while also acknowledging the personal and contextual complexities that shape lgbtq+ educators’ decisions around visibility and authenticity in educational settings. this was in a class where we discussed gender and society. a student wanted to know what i was wearing, and i responded that it was a shawl. the student then asked if shawls were not clothing for women, which sparked a conversation about demarcated clothing for males and females, how that is determined and how it shapes and constructs the binary gender. i then asked if it is for women and i wear it, what the issue is. the student responded that men wearing women’s clothes are normally perceived as gay. i followed up with the question of what the issue is with me being gay and various comments were made: that i am too straight-looking, too straight-acting, and that gay men are more feminine, among others. the most outstanding comment was that they had never seen a gay professor. disrupting and transforming students’ constructions of gay identities self-disclosure by lgbtq+-identifying educators has the potential to disrupt and transform students’ constructions of gay identities, particularly in the south african context where heteronormativity and cisnormativity remain dominant (msibi, 2019). when i, as a gay professor, chose to disclose my sexual orientation during a class discussion on gender norms, i challenged students’ preconceived notions of what it means to be gay in south africa. the students’ reactions reveal how deeply ingrained societal norms and expectations shape perceptions of lgbtq+ identities. as bhana (2014) notes, these views are often the result of limited exposure to diverse lgbtq+ experiences and the pervasive influence of heteronormative socialisation in south african society. this underscores the importance of challenging these narrow constructions through increased visibility and education. by disclosing my sexual orientation and embodying a gay identity that defies these stereotypes, i created a ‘disorienting dilemma’ (mezirow, 1991) for my students, challenging them to confront and reassess their assumptions about what it means to be gay. this aligns with the concept of ‘teaching queerly’ (britzman, 2013), which involves disrupting normative ways of thinking and being in the classroom. my self-disclosure also provided an opportunity for students to engage in critical reflection and dialogue about the diversity and complexity of lgbtq+ identities. as reygan (2019) argues, such discussions are essential for challenging the heteronormative ‘hidden curriculum’ in south african education settings and promoting more inclusive and affirming educational spaces for all students. moreover, by sharing my own experiences and perspectives as a gay man, i modelled the importance of authenticity and self-acceptance, which can be particularly impactful for lgbtq+ students who may be struggling with their own identities (staley & leonardi, 2016). as francis (2022) notes, the presence of visible lgbtq+ role models in educational settings can contribute to a more positive and supportive school climate for queer youth. this generated a further conversation about whether queer identities could be out in the workplace. as student teachers, they were concerned that if you are out as a gay teacher, the learners in school will not respect you. i followed up with a question of whether they disrespect me. some responded that they do respect me as a professor and that my teaching is of a high standard and challenges them to think outside of the norm. this brought into question the notion that being gay and professionalism cannot be linked. they explained that being gay is something social, a lifestyle and separate from professional identity. one student said he now looks differently at me and gay people because all the gay people he knows are those who dropped out of school, are attention seekers and work in the retail industry. another student thought that gayness ends at a particular age because he had not seen older black gay men. this illustrates the intersectionality of queer life in south africa and the nuanced conversations required. bringing the reality of queerness to the classroom my self-disclosure also served to bring the reality of queerness into the classroom, humanising lgbtq+ identities and experiences for students who may have had limited personal exposure to queer individuals. in a heteronormative society, lgbtq+ identities are often marginalised, stereotyped or rendered invisible (francis, 2022). this can lead to a lack of understanding and empathy for the lived experiences of queer individuals. by disclosing my sexual orientation, i made my queerness visible and tangible for my students. this visibility is crucial for challenging the abstract and often negative ways in which lgbtq+ identities are represented in popular media and discourse (msibi, 2013). when students are able to interact with a real, complex and multifaceted queer individual, it becomes more difficult to maintain simplistic or stereotypical views of lgbtq+ people. moreover, my self-disclosure created a space for students to ask questions and engage in dialogue about lgbtq+ experiences. this kind of personal engagement can be transformative for students, as it allows them to develop a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of the challenges and joys of queer lives (meyer, 2007). as hooks (2014) argues, such engaged pedagogy can foster a sense of community and connection in the classroom, breaking down barriers between students and teachers. these conversations in class clearly had implications for those students who may identify as non-heterosexual. moreover, it will allow students to be more considerate, because sexuality is not something that you see, and the pervasive markers of sexuality have the potential to inadequately care for and support diverse student identities. as sears (1999) notes, the decision to come out in the classroom is shaped by a range of factors, including institutional context, personal safety and professional risks. while self-disclosure can be a powerful tool for some educators, it is crucial to recognise that not all lgbtq+-identifying teachers may feel comfortable or safe in sharing their identities. educational institutions must provide comprehensive support systems, including anti-discrimination policies, mental health resources and professional development opportunities to ensure that all educators, regardless of their decision to disclose, can thrive in their roles (jennings, 2015). for teacher-education students who may work with lgbtq+-identifying learners and communities, it is essential to develop cultural competence and inclusive practices, even if they choose not to disclose their own identities (clark, 2010). as kumashiro (2002) argues, creating truly inclusive and transformative educational spaces requires a systemic and multifaceted approach that goes beyond individual acts of self-disclosure. when lgbtq+-identifying educators choose to disclose their sexual orientations in the classroom, it can have a profound impact on students’ learning and development. as rofes (2005) argues, queer-identifying educators who are open about their identities can serve as powerful role models and mentors for lgbtq+ students, providing them with a sense of validation and support that they may not find elsewhere. moreover, self-disclosure can enhance the authenticity and credibility of lgbtq+ educators when teaching about sexual and gender diversity. as mayo (2007) observes, students are more likely to engage with and learn from educators who are perceived as genuine and trustworthy. by sharing their own experiences and perspectives, lgbtq+-identifying educators can create a more meaningful and impactful learning experience for all students. in the south african context, where lgbtq+ identities remain marginalised and stigmatised (msibi, 2019), the pedagogical power of self-disclosure by queer educators takes on particular significance. francis (2022) argues the presence of visible and vocal lgbtq+ educators in south african schools can challenge the pervasive culture of silence around queer identities and contribute to the transformation of educational spaces. as francis (2022) observes, queer educators in south africa may experience discrimination, harassment or even violence as a result of their visibility. it is therefore essential that educational institutions provide support, protection and resources for lgbtq+ educators who choose to be open about their identities. ultimately, the decision to disclose one’s sexual orientation in the classroom should remain a personal choice for lgbtq+ educators. while self-disclosure can be a powerful pedagogical tool for promoting queer inclusivity and transforming students’ understanding of lgbtq+ identities, it should not be seen as a mandatory or expected practice. conclusion this autoethnographic study has explored the transformative potential and challenges of self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators in south african higher education, focusing on my experiences as a gay professor. through a critical analysis of personal narratives, reflections and artefacts, the study has illuminated the ways in which self-disclosure can disrupt heteronormative assumptions, challenge student prejudices and contribute to the creation of more inclusive and equitable educational spaces. the findings in this article suggest that self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators can be a powerful pedagogical tool for fostering student engagement, promoting critical dialogue and challenging oppressive norms in the classroom. by sharing my own experiences and perspectives as a gay man, i was able to create a space for students to confront their own biases, engage with diverse perspectives and develop a more nuanced understanding of lgbtq+ identities and experiences. rather, it argues for a more comprehensive and intersectional approach to social justice education, one that recognises the complex ways in which multiple forms of oppression intersect and shape the experiences of lgbtq+ students and educators. based on these findings, the study offers several tangible recommendations for educators, researchers and policymakers. firstly, it calls for the development of more inclusive and affirming educational policies and practices that recognise and support the diverse identities and experiences of lgbtq+ individuals in south african higher education. this may include the incorporation of lgbtq+ perspectives and histories into curricula, the provision of sensitisation training for faculty and staff and the creation of safe spaces and support networks for lgbtq+ students and educators. secondly, the study highlights the need for further research on the experiences and pedagogical practices of lgbtq+ educators in south africa and beyond. further research is needed to explore the diverse ways in which lgbtq+ educators navigate heteronormative and cisnormative educational spaces and to identify best practices for promoting social justice and inclusivity in the classroom. in conclusion, this study has demonstrated the transformative potential of self-disclosure by lgbtq+ educators in south african higher education while also highlighting the complex negotiations and risks involved in this process. it calls for a more comprehensive and intersectional approach to social justice education, one that recognises the systemic nature of oppression and works towards the creation of more inclusive and equitable educational spaces for all individuals. by embracing the power of personal narratives, critical reflection and collective action, we can work towards a future in which all individuals are able to bring their whole selves to the classroom and beyond. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author’s contributions a.b. declares that they are the sole author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data will be made available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for 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(2010). lgbt educators’ perceptions of school climate. phi delta kappan, 91(8), 49–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171009100810 abstract introduction theoretical framework research methods and design findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) siphesihle n. maseko student support services division, department of student counselling and support, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation maseko, s.n. (2024). to advocate or assimilate: lessons of queer educators navigating their high school space. african journal of career development, 6(2), a134. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.134 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research to advocate or assimilate: lessons of queer educators navigating their high school space siphesihle n. maseko received: 04 may 2024; accepted: 21 july 2024; published: 11 sept. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in south african high schools, queer educators face a unique set of challenges as they navigate the delicate balance between advocating for queer identities and assimilating into institutional norms. objectives: this article delves into the experiences of three queer educators, examining the complex dynamics of performing their professional roles as educators, advocating for queer identities while navigating institutional, cultural, and personal constraints. this article endeavours to address this gap by delving into the lived experiences of queer educators navigating their roles within the high school landscape of south africa. methods: the method of the study involved in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. the study employed a qualitative exploratory multiple-case study. this article is based on data that were collected from a broader study that looked at the care and support of queer learners in a variety of high schools. results: this article helps uncover the complexities of advocacy, assimilation, and the intersectionality of identity. conclusion: queer educators understand that their visibility in schools benefits lgbt school youth. queer educators desire true acceptance and inclusion amongst their colleagues. contribution: building on the insights shared by the three educators, the study offers recommendations to enhance the care and support of queer educators in high school settings. keywords: advocacy; assimilation; moral dilemmas; support; care. introduction in the post-apartheid south africa of 1994, the promise of a new era brought with it the hope for equality and inclusion across all facets of society (msibi, 2019). yet, the echoes of the apartheid regime continue to reverberate through the socio-cultural fabric, manifesting in nuanced forms of discrimination and marginalisation that can play out in schools (rothmann & simmonds, 2015). while extensive research has illuminated the experiences of lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) school youth within educational settings (bhana, 2014; brown & buthelezi, 2020; francis, 2018; francis & reygan, 2016; mostert et al., 2015), the narratives of queer educators have not experienced a similar amount of attention. this oversight is striking, given that educators play a pivotal role in shaping the learning environment and influencing school social dynamics. by neglecting the voices of queer educators, we risk overlooking crucial insights into the complexities of identity negotiation and advocacy within educational spaces. this journal article endeavours to address this gap by delving into the lived experiences of queer educators navigating their roles within the high school landscape of south africa. central to our exploration is the moral dilemma faced by these educators: the tension between advocating for the rights and visibility of queer individuals and assimilating into a hyper-professional ethos that often demands conformity and neutrality. theoretical framework queer theory critiques the norms and assumptions surrounding heterosexuality and binary gender constructions and aims to deconstruct and destabilise these power structures (calvard et al., 2020; dilley, 1999; green, 2007). the queer theory emphasises fluidity, diversity, and the intersectionality of identities, rejecting fixed categories and advocating for social justice and equality for all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity (msibi, 2019). queer theory provided a lens through which i could understand the experiences of queer educators navigating high school environments. these educators must negotiate between advocating for queer students’ rights and assimilating into heteronormative school cultures. queer theory assists in understanding the complexities of this navigation by highlighting the fluidity of identities and the power dynamics at play within educational institutions (francis, 2019; msibi, 2019). intersectionality pairs well with queer theory, as it highlights the interconnected nature of social identities such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability, and how they intersect to shape individuals’ experiences of oppression and privilege (mccall, 2005; moradi, 2017; simon et al., 2022). it recognises that these identities are not experienced in isolation but rather influence and compound each other, leading to unique and complex forms of discrimination and marginalisation (mccall, 2005; moradi, 2017; msibi, 2019). intersectionality provided insights into how the experiences of queer educators were shaped by intersecting identities such as race, age, gender, role, and professional experience (ahmad & gomez, 2023; butler et al., 2016). research methods and design research design the study employed a qualitative exploratory multiple-case study. a case study is described as the study of a phenomenon without the researcher influencing or impacting the subject that is being studied (gustafsson, 2017). creswell (2013) explains case studies as a research method that: [e]xplores a real-life, contemporary bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information … and reports a case description and case themes. (p. 97) the study aimed to provide queer educators with a platform to share their experiences in navigating the high school space. the choice to conduct multiple case studies instead of one was to vary the diversity of culture, age, race, and professional experience to provide rich data to analyse and bring to the fore how intersectionality plays a role in how queer educators navigate the high school environment. sampling convenience purposive sampling was used for the study. this article is based on data that were collected from a broader study which looked at the care and support of queer learners in a variety of high schools. convenience purposive sampling was appropriate for this study because of its ability to focus on knowledgeable participants about an issue that is under investigation (campbell et al., 2020). in the case of this study, it required queer educators, and in the broader study, the three participants worked in the same school and provided key insight that inspired this article. participants this article focuses on the experiences of three participants who work at jozi high school. it is a state-run school, with a learner and staff cohort rich in diversity (race, gender, sexuality, religion, culture, class) in a suburb south of gauteng, south africa. the three participants were sipho, mandla, and greg. pseudonyms were used to maintain anonymity, as per the agreements made when receiving their informed consent. the following brief descriptors provide the necessary context that explains their positionality when completing their day-to-day responsibilities at jozi high school. mandla mandla is a black queer teacher in his mid-twenties, working in his first school since graduating with his teaching degree. mandla lives alone and remains connected to his family who have grown to accept his sexual orientation since disclosing it to them in his teens. mandla self-identifies as non-binary, and his pronouns are he and/or him. mandla teaches english to grades 8–9. sipho sipho is a black gay male teacher in his early thirties and is part of the school management team at jozi high school. sipho has managerial responsibilities and a teaching load, where he teaches life orientation to grades 10–12. sipho disclosed his sexual orientation to his family while in high school and they have accepted him and fully support him. greg greg is a white gay male teacher in his late forties. he is a father of one child, who has completed his university education. greg is a qualified medical doctor and practised as a medical doctor before later pursuing and completing his teaching qualifications. he has worked as a teacher for more than 10 years and teaches mathematics and afrikaans across grades 8–12. data collection and analysis the primary data for this study were collected through in-depth interviews. the participants all work at jozi high school, which is located in the south of gauteng, south africa. the interviews formed part of a broader study that examined the care and support of lgbt school youth. the interviews with sipho and mandla were conducted virtually on microsoft teams at their request, and greg’s interview was conducted face-to-face. all interviews adhered to ethical considerations, and informed consent was obtained from all three participants. jozi high school is a state-run school, rich in diversity (race, gender, sexuality, religion, culture, and class) and situated in a typical gauteng suburb. thematic analysis was employed to identify the key themes that will form the basis of this article’s discussion. i used an inductive approach to data collection by allowing the content of the data to drive the codes and themes, thus creating new knowledge emanating from the raw, unordered data (braun & clarke, 2012; creswell, 2013; forman & damschroder, 2008). i started by familiarising myself with the data, generating initial codes to label meaningful segments, and then i organised these codes into overarching themes based on patterns and relationships. in this process, i ensured that i reflected on my thoughts, biases, and subjectivity, with the express aim of ensuring that i am accurately capturing the essence of the data and not my own prescribed thoughts. ethical considerations this article is based on interview data with sipho, mandla, and greg (confidentiality was ensured with these pseudonyms), which formed part of a more comprehensive study. ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, faculty of education research ethics committee (no. 1-2022-043). this approval indicates that the study underwent rigorous scrutiny, ensuring compliance with ethical guidelines and safeguarding human rights and dignity. findings and discussion the thematic analysis produced the following themes for discussion: intentional visibility despite the cost, hyper-professionalism versus advocacy, and going beyond tolerance. intentional visibility despite the cost in the broader study, jozi high school proved to be an interesting school for the study. the school had a diverse learner and school staff population in terms of race, ethnicity, language, culture, religion, class, gender, and sexual orientation. i asked greg if jozi high school, in terms of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, was the most diverse staff room that he has ever experienced in his teaching career; he shared: ‘it is the most diverse absolutely. not sure if it was intentional. the people who have been there have been there for years. they were hired by the previous regime almost, so it was not intentional, just to say, “we are inclusive”. i think people were hired due to.’ (greg, male, teacher) greg speculates how jozi high school became the most diverse staff room that he has ever worked with. he was still relatively new to the school and did not have the institutional knowledge to give an accurate historical account. however, studies suggest that it is possible that some staff members may have withheld their sexual orientation or were able to pass as heterosexual, only to disclose it later. withholding your sexual orientation was seen as a preventative measure against workplace discrimination, ensuring that one was not a victim of unfounded stereotypes that are imbued in homophobic belief systems and as a decision to have job security (govender, 2017; lineback et al., 2016; msibi, 2019; russell, 2010). increased visibility of queer educators in a school can provide lgbt school youth with relatable role models and fosters a sense of belonging and acceptance (msibi, 2019; vega et al., 2012). this visibility challenges stereotypes and stigma, creating a safer environment for students to express their identities authentically (brown, 2020). greg and mandla affirm this observation: ‘i think it is the example we set for them that it is okay to be gay.’ (greg, male, teacher) ‘i think there is a group of learners, the seniors especially, who have a sense of openness. i know the kids who are seniors that i teach know that it is a privilege to have me standing in front of them.’ (mandla, male, teacher) mandla, sipho, and greg’s determination to openly embrace their queer identities in the school environment exemplifies the core tenets of queer theory and intersectionality. by refusing to conform to heteronormative expectations, they challenge the systemic structures that seek to enforce heterosexuality by marginalising queer individuals. their visible presence serves as a political statement (msibi, 2019), underscoring the importance of diverse identities in school settings and providing a powerful affirmation for lgbt school youth. this intersection of queer theory and intersectionality highlights how the visibility of marginalised identities can disrupt dominant narratives and foster inclusivity, empowering students to embrace their authentic selves (lineback et al., 2016): ‘i think schools need queer teachers to be themselves entirely so that kids can see queer people as role models and as people who are valuable enough to contribute into their lives in a meaningful way.’ (mandla, male, teacher) ‘i have nothing to hide about my sexuality, but i do understand that there are some people who might find it a bit odd or may disagree, but i am protected legally by legislation to sort of be accepted and be included within this system.’ (sipho, male, teacher) the data showed that queer educators at jozi high school who were being intentionally visible did this at a cost. sipho’s reflection suggests that he is aware of opposition to his sexual orientation. he is not under the illusion that his role in management precludes him from being judged for his sexual orientation. there was resistance to their intentional visibility through varied levels of homophobic rhetoric and behaviour: ‘bullying, not amongst the classes or in the school itself, but cyberbullying. especially gay kids. they have shown me posts where kids have said horrible things, “you are going to hell,” that sort of things because they live openly. these are matric learners. i support them and tell them to forget the haters.’ (greg, male, teacher) ‘i know there are kids who i taught who, for example, there was a time where they had to discuss sexuality and a lot of those responses were so scary for me as a queer person and i had to be objective.’ (mandla, male, teacher) in all three interviews, the participants did not report any instances where a learner expressed homophobic language or violence towards them. these educators were shielded from explicit homophobia by their learners because of the power dynamics inherent in the educator–learner relationship. this power dynamic, alongside their ability to build a strong rapport with their learners, dissuaded learners from expressing hateful words towards them, as doing so would likely render them unpopular and they would undergo disciplinary measures. however, this protective dynamic does not extend to lgbt school youth. the intersection of queer theory and intersectionality highlights how systems of power and privilege create varying experiences of homophobia and discrimination (francis, 2019). for queer educators, their authoritative role and adult status provide a buffer against direct homophobia. in contrast, lgbt school youth, lacking this power, become easy targets for homophobic rhetoric and violence, as the power differential exacerbates their vulnerability to marginalisation and othering (bhana, 2012; depalma & francis, 2014). hyper-professionalism versus advocacy msibi (2019) explains how queer educators may adopt hyper-professionalism as a means of gaining power and protecting themselves from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. in environments where queer individuals may face prejudice or discrimination, hyper-professionalism can serve as a shield, allowing them to focus on their work without fear of being judged or marginalised because of their identity (msibi, 2019; russell, 2010). mandla shared the desire to be seen beyond his non-binary identification, especially as he begins his career as a teacher: ‘we are definitely queer people, but my sexuality does not define me when i’m doing my job. and not that i intentionally separate the two but at the end of the day, i want those kids to say, this person is really good at their job, and you need to see me for my job and how well i’m able to support your time … when i first started working this job, i was hiding so many parts of myself, not just my sexuality. i kind of had to filter myself in the beginning, always maintaining professionalism and that i am viewed as an adult and that i am viewed in a specific way.’ (mandla, male, teacher) schools privilege heterosexuality by normalising it at the expense of homosexuality (francis & kuhl, 2022; msibi, 2019). it is not surprising that mandla would equate professionalism with denying parts of himself, including his sexuality. newly employed queer educators may grapple with the fear of jeopardising their employment or facing discrimination if they present themselves fully, thus indirectly advocating for diverse sexual orientations and gender identities by normalising them and aligning them with excellence (lineback et al., 2016). it is as if being non-binary serves as a distraction to his professional identity and thus excelling ‘professionally’ will redirect attention away from his personal life (nichols & brown, 2021). sipho, too, has to perform hyper-professionalism in his role within the school management team. his positionality and power place him in the best position to advocate for improved conditions for lgbt school youth; yet when he was asked about lgbt school youth and their inclusion in the school, he stated: ‘with that, we need to look at the demographics of our school. our school is majority indian muslim, which already has ideas behind it. so, we can’t have an aggressive approach to accommodating those learners, but what we have done is to slowly integrate it.’ (sipho, male, teacher) sipho responded by sharing the school’s position rather than his own, reflecting hyper-professionalism. this behaviour illustrates the pressure on him to appear ‘fair’ and ‘considerate’ to avoid using his power to advocate for lgbt school youth, a community with which he identifies. this expectation is not imposed on heterosexual educators, highlighting the pervasive influence of heteronormativity in educational institutions (francis & kuhl, 2022; msibi, 2019). queer theory and intersectionality reveal how the experiences of queer educators, such as sipho and mandla, are shaped by the intersecting oppressions of sexuality, race, and professional expectations. these educators often feel compelled to prove their competence and professionalism more than their heterosexual peers (calvard et al., 2020; lineback et al., 2016). for black and white queer educators, the intersection of race and sexual orientation adds layers of vulnerability, making them more cautious in their advocacy efforts to protect their jobs and maintain their professional standing. greg is acutely aware of the need to be an excellent educator, but this has not prevented him from actively positioning himself as an advocate for lgbt school youth by wishing that the school would acknowledge and publicly affirm diverse sexual orientations and gender identities: ‘we had a discussion about it and she said that if a parent asks “do you support lgbtq whatever” we have to say we support all learners. we are not allowed to say yes directly, which pisses me off quite frankly. because if a gay kid comes to school and he knows he is gay and wants to express that, you have to be accepting of that and open, even if the parents hate it. this should be a safe space for them … the first time i walked into class i said that i am a gay guy. so, no funny things, i don’t wanna be your friend, i am here as your teacher, but i am also here as your companion.’ (greg, male, teacher) greg has more experience than sipho and mandla and has confidence, allowing him to be free and open to positioning himself as an ally to lgbt school youth. although he may face judgement for his sexual orientation, the context of jozi high school affords him the privilege of whiteness, which shields him from the compounded marginalisation faced by black queer educators. queer theory illuminates these power dynamics by highlighting how intersecting identities, such as race and sexuality, create different experiences of privilege and oppression. while greg’s whiteness mitigates some of the stigma attached to his queerness, sipho and mandla must navigate both racial and sexual marginalisation, illustrating the complex layers of power and privilege within their school environment (francis, 2019; moradi, 2017; simon et al., 2022). going beyond tolerance jozi high school is making strides towards being an inclusive and safe school for lgbt school youth and educators. all three participants acknowledge that the school is not working towards discriminating against those who do not conform to heteronormative standards of identity. they acknowledge the attempts made to be inclusive and progressive of the complex ways that identity is lived out by learners and staff. however, a common theme showed itself when it came to discussion about their relationship with colleagues: ‘i would say tolerance. there is no acceptance amongst colleagues. that is not what i have experienced … i find that people kind of avoid me from time to time. not time to time, they avoid me mostly. the only way i socialize with them is when i go to the smoking area and there is a discussion going on there. but no one comes up to me and says you wanna have coffee?’ (greg, male, teacher) ‘i think the school is better because of the number of queer teachers, and perhaps if we left, maybe it might not change, but it won’t be as progressive. i know we have staff who feel we are too progressive and that they are tolerating enough. we still need to bridge that gap between us as colleagues and figure out how to broach the subject of sexuality with one another.’ (sipho, male, teacher) unsurprisingly, most staff at jozi high school would believe that tolerance of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities is sufficient. it is a commonly held belief because it at least means ‘no one is homophobic’. however, berg and kokkonen (2022) state that: tolerance contains an assumption that there exist those who differ from the norm – that something ‘different’ exists that is tolerated. this has to do with power: those who are defined as belonging to the ‘majority’ define what/who should be tolerated and what criteria for tolerance ‘minority groups’ should fulfil. (p. 373) tolerance allows distance to remain, an elephant in the room that needs to be avoided, yet the person being avoided notes it, feels it, and can be hurt by it. conclusion this article demonstrates the experiences of mandla, sipho, and greg, three queer educators navigating jozi high school. it highlighted the significant benefits of having queer educators in schools, as their visibility helps affirm the identities of lgbt school youth and dismantle stereotypes. however, it also revealed that queer educators often feel compelled to define their professionalism in ways that exclude their sexual orientation. while heterosexual educators do not typically deny aspects of their identities to be seen as competent professionals, queer educators face this expectation, which indirectly privileges heterosexuality. consequently, the progress in supporting lgbt school youth is hindered despite the increased visibility of queer educators. the study found that queer educators feel tolerated rather than accepted by their peers, affecting their sense of equality and belonging. what does this mean for those involved in education? hiring queer educators does not equate to transforming a school. it is crucial to integrate and normalise queer educators into the fabric of school life. school leaders must engage in conversations with queer educators to understand their experiences, identify their support needs, and affirm their value to the school community. this shift from tolerance to acceptance and celebration requires comprehensive and actionable recommendations. the first recommendation starts with school leaders and the school governing body, challenging them to receive comprehensive diversity training and support. comprehensive training equips school leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to create supportive environments for queer educators and challenge existing biases. this recommendation is motivated by the need to move beyond mere tolerance to genuine acceptance and celebration of queer staff. they will set the tone for staff to follow and allows school leadership to have the necessary empathy and compassion towards the journey their staff take from forced tolerance towards genuine acceptance of their queer colleagues and lgbt school youth. having undergone diversity training, school leaders and school governing bodies should extend this training towards staff. this training should include components on recognising and addressing implicit biases, creating inclusive environments, and supporting queer staff. the second recommendation gives attention to policies. schools should develop and enforce anti-discriminatory policies that specifically address the needs of queer educators. these policies should include procedures for reporting discrimination, support mechanisms for affected staff, and consequences for discriminatory behaviour. structured and formal policies ensure that issues are handled consistently and fairly. the third recommendation is that, schools like jozi high school should assist in establishing mentorship and support networks for queer educators. these networks would offer queer educators working in schools the support and resources needed to navigate their professional challenges. these networks help reduce isolation and enhance professional development. queer educators who are working in challenging schools that do privilege heterosexuality can benefit from mentorship and support networks like these. lastly, this article zeroed in on a specific school, with a small group of participants. there is a need for larger-scale research to deepen the understanding of queer educator experiences in schools. researching queer educator experiences in rural school contexts, schools in homophobic communities, and schools that publicly and privately embrace the queer community would provide a holistic understanding of queer educator experiences. these recommendations aim to create a more caring and supportive environment for queer educators and provide actionable steps for stakeholders to follow. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions s.n.m. declares that they are the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references ahmad, r., & gomez, c. 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(2012). safe schools for lgbtqi students: how do teachers view their role in promoting safe schools? equity & excellence in education, 45(2), 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2012.671095 abstract introduction dual career agility types psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m. (2021). psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types. african journal of career development, 3(1), a47. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.47 original research psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types melinde coetzee received: 14 oct. 2021; accepted: 04 nov. 2021; published: 17 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the construct of career agility and the relevance of dual career agility types in the technological-driven workplace. objective: this study aimed to adopt a person-centred approach in assessing the link between dual career agility types and individuals’ psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. method: the cross-sectional survey involved a sample of (n = 298) managers (71%) and staff (29%) employed in the human resource and financial services industry. the sample comprised of men (54%), women (46%), including black people (62%) and white people (38%) with a mean age of 38.58 years. results: the results provided deeper insight into the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment that accounted for the personally-autonomous motives that are embedded in the three dual career agility types. conclusion: the findings brought a more holistic understanding of the nature of person-centred career agility motives and the psychological states that elucidate these motives. the findings bring new insights that might foster optimal career development and employees’ adaptation to the post-covid pandemic digital era workplace. keywords: career agility; dual career agility types; career wellbeing; affective commitment; autonomous motives. introduction people’s career agility matters in today’s more turbulent world of work. career agility denotes individuals’ appropriate and speedy responsiveness to technological-driven change (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020; paulino, 2020). career agility matters because individuals strive for career satisfaction and success that are engendered when they sustain their employability and are able to autonomously craft meaningful careers that support a sustainable livelihood (coetzee & schreuder, 2021; konstant, 2020). despite the disruption that the covid-19 pandemic brought to people’s career trajectories, the pandemic also gave rise to new opportunities for career exploration, change and development because of changing work arrangements and skills upgrades made possible by new technological developments (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; alisic & wiese, 2020; nilforooshan, 2020). career agility enables individuals to embrace and capitalise on the new work and career opportunities offered by the digital era employment market (coetzee et al., 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020). however, along with changes in the work environment, the relationships between individuals and organisations as spaces offering work and career development opportunities are becoming more complex (mcelroy & weng, 2016). whilst individuals are becoming more career agile in the autonomous pursuit of career goals for continued career growth and success, organisations also recognise the need for providing career development support that will facilitate commitment and career wellbeing for optimal employee and sustainable business performance in a technological competitive global market (coetzee & bester, 2021; mcelroy & weng, 2016; sungu, weng, & kitule, 2019). relationship motivation theory, a mini-theory of self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore, bowman, grosse, & justice, 2016) explains the tension between individuals’ personally-autonomous reasons (or motives) for career agility and their relationally autonomous reasons for remaining committed to an organisation’s goals. individuals’ career agility is promoted by the social context as a mechanism for the satisfaction of their basic psychological need for autonomy (gore et al., 2016). autonomy is fundamental to individuals’ sense of self and wellbeing because it denotes the degree to which individuals perceive themselves as agents of their own actions and goal attainment successes (deci & ryan, 1991). organisations are important relational career development spaces that help individuals feel connected, competent and engaged in self-endorsing autonomous activities (coetzee & engelbrecht, 2020). coetzee (2021) found that certain states of career wellbeing predict facets of career agility. however, it is unclear to which degree the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment jointly (as relationally-autonomous motives for career development) predict dual career agility types (i.e. unique personally-autonomous motives for career development). the present study fills this gap in research. the aim of the study was to firstly adopt a person-centred approach by using coetzee’s (2021) theoretical combinations of three dual career agility types as outcome variables denoting individuals’ personally-autonomous motives for career development. however, empirical research on the three dual career agility types has not yet been conducted. secondly, the study goes one step further by exploring the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as joint relationally-autonomous motivational antecedents of the dual career agility types (i.e. personally-autonomous motivational outcomes of career development) on a different sample of employees. taking a person-centred approach to psychological constructs has been advocated by scholars because it allows for ‘a more holistic understanding of how combinations’ of psychological variables relate to other variables of a psychological nature (meyer, morin, rousseau, boudrias, & brunelle, 2021, p. 2). this approach enriches career development research and gives a better understanding of the psychological motives that drive career agile states and behaviour. the anticipated new knowledge is deemed essential for enhancing organisational career development support practices in the technological-driven world of work. dual career agility types career agility is a contemporary construct that denotes individuals’ career adaptivity readiness or willingness to adapt to and proactively respond to technological-driven changes for sustainable career growth, success and employability (coetzee et al., 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020; paulino, 2020). coetzee et al. (2021a) describe three facets of career agility, namely technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation. technological adaptivity denotes an optimism towards technological advancement and change, including an eagerness to update one’s skills and knowledge to adapt to, capitalise on, and search out the new job and career opportunities made possible by technological advancement. agile learning refers to the intrinsic motivational drive to set and manage the achievement of career goals, including goals for continuous upskilling and development opportunities. career navigation describes personal confidence in one’s ability to adapt to change, and to navigate and search out new job and career opportunities in a changing work and career environment (coetzee et al., 2021a, p. 356). based on the arguments of menatta, consiglio, borgogni and moschera (2021) and meyer et al. (2021), the notion of dual career agility types is based on the theoretical assumption that individuals simultaneously experience different forms of the three career agility facet motives to varying degrees. coetzee (2021) argued that the three career agility facets can be combined into three meaningful combinations that denote certain shared motivational commonalities. these shared motivational commonalities describe unique specificities associated with psychological states of career adaptivity readiness. coetzee (2021) differentiates between the dual career agility types of the future-fit career adapter (combination of technological adaptivity and agile learning motives), the agentic adapter (a combination of technological adaptivity and career navigation motives), and the open-minded career adapter (a combination of agile learning and career navigation motives). future-fit career adapters exhibit agency in career adaptivity. they actively respond to changing technology-driven career/socioeconomic changes; search out new career/job opportunities; actively market their personal brand/portfolio of skills across digital networks; and energetically set and manage career goals for continuous learning and growth in the changing employment and socioeconomic market (coetzee, 2021). agentic career adapters are in a state of activating their career adaptivity; they actively respond and adapt to taking advantage of technological change for upskilling, and optimising personal creativity, growth and happiness; they are confident in navigating and looking out for technological-driven new job roles and career opportunities for growth and creative self-expression (coetzee, 2021). open-minded career adapters are in a state of career adaptivity ideation; they are energetic and positive about searching for new and better growth opportunities; they also feel confident in their ability to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in the career environment (coetzee, 2021). drawing from relationship motivation theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore et al., 2016), it is argued that the dual career agility types represent personally-autonomous motives. such motives reflect core self-endorsed traits, goals and life narratives that facilitate the self-regulated (autonomous) long-term and satisfying attainment of goals which are personally important to the individual. personally-autonomous motives are associated with positive outcomes such as creative learning and engagement, greater energy and vitality, higher wellbeing and rewarding socialisation and relationships (weinstein, przybylski, & ryan, 2012). personally-autonomous individuals are open to and interested in self-exploration and able to utilise awareness of their needs, values, interests, and feelings to act in a self-regulated, congruent fashion (weinstein et al., 2012). in the career agility context, personally-autonomous motives promote reasons for exhibiting career adaptivity (i.e. a readiness to adapt to the changing work and career environments). research further shows that personally-autonomous motives produce better outcomes when integrated with relationally-autonomous motives (gore et al., 2016). according to the relationship motivation theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore et al., 2016), relationally-autonomous motives provide reasons for goals based on the needs, desires and commitments within a social relational context. in the career development context, relationally-autonomous motivational states provide reasons for why individuals join and stay committed to an organisation. scholars agree that organisations provide an important supportive and instrumental context for career goal attainment, career growth and development, and career satisfaction. organisational career development supportive conditions have also been associated with wellbeing and commitment (coetzee & bester, 2021; dahling & lairicella, 2017; sungu et al., 2019). in the present study, the constructs of career wellbeing and affective commitment are treated as relationally-autonomous motivational states that support and enable the personally-autonomous motives embedded in individuals’ career agility type. psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment career wellbeing alludes to an ongoing state of positive experiences of, and feelings about the career in the career-situated context (coetzee, 2021; coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; kidd, 2008). career wellbeing often reflects affective judgments about the state of relationship between the employee and the organisation. evaluations of the state of the relationship include emotional judgments about the meaningfulness of the organisational career, the nature of the career, the resources and opportunities for career development support and growth, and the availability of personal networks for career development support (coetzee, 2021; kidd, 2008). research by coetzee (2021) shows that positive evaluations of the state of career networking and social support in the organisation, and the meaningfulness of the organisational career explain the motives of technological adaptivity. positive feelings about the meaningfulness of the organisational career and the resources and opportunities for career growth and development are associated with agile learning motives. positive feelings about the state of the career networking and social support in the organisation also explain career navigation motives (coetzee, 2021). affective commitment elucidates a psychological motivational state of being emotionally attached to an organisation (meyer et al., 2021). the emotional bond with the organisation denotes relationally-autonomous motives whereby employees generally strongly identify with the organisation, feel that the organisation has personally meaning to them, and that they would be content to spend the rest of their career in the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). previous research showed that the relationallyautonomous motivational state that underpins affective commitment positively explains individuals’ general wellbeing and satisfaction (meyer & maltin, 2010; meyer et al., 2021). the question remains whether there are significant associations between the psychological relationally-autonomous motivational states of career wellbeing and affective commitment, and the personally-autonomous motives represented by the three dual career agility types described by coetzee (2021). the next section outlines the research method employed to answer this research question. method participants a convenience sample of (n = 298) managers (71%) and staff (29%) level employees in the south african (70%), zimbabwean/nigerian (15%) and elsewhere in europe’s (15%) financial and human resource services industry participated in the cross-sectional survey. the mean age of the sample was 38.58 years (s.d. = 9.34). the sample comprised of men (54%) and women (46%), including 62% black people (african: 42%; coloured/mixed race: 6%; indian: 14%) and 38% white people. measuring instruments dual career agility types. the career agility scale (cas) (coetzee et al., 2021a, p. 356) measures three facets of career agility (technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation) on a 7-point likert-type scale (1: strongly disagree; 7: strongly agree). coetzee et al (2021a) reported construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the cas. the present research used participants’ scores on combinations of the three facets of career agility as described by coetzee (2021, p. 38). each of these combinations represents a specific psychological state of career adaptive readiness (coetzee, 2021): (1) future-fit career adapter (a combination of scores on agile learning and technological adaptivity); (2) agentic career adapter (a combination of scores on technological adaptivity and career navigation); and (3) open-minded career adapter (a combination of scores on agile learning and career navigation). examples of items represented by each of the three psychological states include the following: future-fit career adapter (e.g. ‘i continually search for new opportunities to learn new skills that will improve my career and job success’/‘i feel being responsive to change is important for my career success’); agentic career adapter (e.g. ‘i feel that evolving job roles as a result of new technologies optimise my creativity, growth and happiness’/‘i take advantage of changes in my job and career environment’); and open-minded career adapter (e.g. ‘i feel alive and full of energy’/‘i am able to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in my job and career environment’). the results section of this article reported good internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity for these combinations of the career agility facets. career wellbeing. the cws(coetzee et al., 2021b, p. 5) measures three states of career wellbeing on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree): positive affective career state (6 items: e.g. ‘i feel satisfied with my career progress and growth’); state of career meaningfulness (4 items: e.g. ‘my job and career contribute to a bigger picture’), and career networking/social support state (4 items: e.g. ‘i have a network of people that support me in my career’). coetzee et al. (2021b) reported high internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the cws. affective commitment: the affective commitment subscale of the organisational commitment scale (ocs: meyer & allen, 1997) measures the construct on a 7-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). four items of the affective commitment subscale were included in the measurement model (e.g. ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organisation’). the ocs has good reported internal consistency reliability and construct validity (meyer & allen, 1991). procedure the participants were invited via the professional linkedin online platform to complete the research questionnaire. a url link to the research questionnaire was included in the invitation. considerations of ethics the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014) provided ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research. the research questionnaire included a cover page that ensured the voluntary participation, privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants. informed consent for the group-based data to be used solely for research purposes was obtained from all participants. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and multiple regressions were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). results descriptive results table 1 shows that the mean scores ranged from 5.07 (agree slightly: career networking/social support state) to 6.04 (generally agree: future-fit career adapter). the internal consistency reliability coefficients of the scale variables were acceptable to high (≥ 0.69 to ≥ 0.91). the bi-variate correlations between the three psychological states of career adaptive readiness (i.e. career agility facet combinations) and the career wellbeing constructs were positive and ranged between r ≥ 0.29 and r ≤ 0.51 (p = 0.000; small to large practical effect). the career wellbeing constructs had positive correlations with affective commitment (r ≥ 0.47 to r ≤ 0.52; p = 0.000; moderate practical effect). affective commitment had small practical effect positive correlations with the future-fit career adapter (r = 0.14; p = 0.01), the agentic career adapter (r = 0.19; p = 0.01), and the open-minded career adapter (r = 0.29; p = 0.01) career agility facet combination constructs. table 1: descriptive statistics and bi-variate correlations (n = 298). discriminant validity of the measurement model table 2 shows that the career agility facet combinations cfa model had an acceptable fit with the data suggesting evidence of discriminant validity amongst the three psychological states of career adaptivity readiness (i.e. career agility facet combinations): chi-square/df = 3.66 (p = 0.0001); rmsea = 0.09 and srmr = 0.06; cfi = 0.87 (close to 0.90). to test discriminant validity of the measurement model, a one factor cfa was first tested to assess whether the three career agility facet combinations, three career wellbeing constructs and the affective commitment construct loaded onto an overall factor. table 2 shows that the one-factor cfa did not have good model fit. a multifactor cfa was then tested with the best fit items of the career agility facet combinations, the items of the three career wellbeing constructs, and the items of the affective commitment construct loading each onto their respective constructs. table 2 shows that the overall measurement model had a good fit with the data and that discriminant validity was thus evident: chi-square/df = 2.39 (p = 0.000); rmsea = 0.07; srmr = 0.07; cfi = 0.90. table 2: discriminant validity of the measurement model (n = 298). the final cfa overall measurement model for the career agility facet combinations showed a specific combination of the facets’ items that specify the unique personally autonomous motives of the relevant dual career agility type: future-fit career adapter: included the facet combination construct of technological adaptivity (actively respond to change for career success) and three items of the agile learning construct (actively sets and manages career goals, sees oneself as continually learning, growing, improving, and continually searches for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve career and job success). agentic career adapter: included two items of the technological adaptivity construct (feels that evolving job roles as a result of new technologies optimise one’s creativity, growth and happiness, and that the acceleration of technology brings new, exciting job and career opportunities), and one item of the career navigation construct (is confident in taking advantage of changes in one’s job and career environment). open-minded career adapter: included one item of the agile learning construct (feels alive and full of energy to learn and grow for career success), and three items of the career navigation construct (is comfortable with change, and is confident in one’s ability to easily adapt to, and navigate changes and uncertainty in one’s job and career environment, and one’s career situation). multiple regression analysis table 3 shows that the three analysis of variance (anova) models were significant (p = 0.001). the anova of the future-fit career adapter explained 25% (r² = 0.25; moderate practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the anova of the agentic career adapter explained 20% (r² = 0.20; moderate practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the anova of the open-minded career adapter explained 27% (r² = 0.27; large practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the tolerance values for all three anova models ranged between 0.38 and 0.69 whilst the variance inflation factor (vif) values ranged between 1.45 and 2.63. these values indicated that multicollinearity was not a major concern in the interpretation of the findings. table 3: regression of career wellbeing and affective commitment upon the career agility facet combinations. across all three regression models, the positive affective career state (career wellbeing) contributed the most in explaining a significant positive variance in the three career agility facet combinations: future-fit career adapter (β = 0.35; p ≤ 0.001), agentic career adapter (β = 0.31; p ≤ 0.001), and open-minded career adapter (β = 0.33; p ≤ 0.001). affective commitment showed a significant negative prediction of the three career agility facet combinations: future-fit career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01), agentic career adapter (β = −0.21; p ≤ 0.001), and open-minded career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01). state of career meaningfulness (β = 0.22; p ≤ 0.01) had a stronger prediction effect on the open-ended career adapter mindset than affective commitment (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01). state of career meaningfulness was not a significant predictor of the agentic career adapter. affective commitment had a stronger prediction effect on the future-fit career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01) and agentic career adapter (β = −0.21; p ≤ 0.001) than the career networking/social support state: future-fit adapter (β = 0.16; p ≤ 0.01); agentic career adapter (β = 0.17; p ≤ 0.05). discussion the results provided deeper insight into the psychological states that accounted for the personally-autonomous motives that are embedded in the three dual career agility types. table 4 summarises the core findings in answering the research question whether there are significant associations between the psychological relationally-autonomous motivational states of career wellbeing and affective commitment, and the personally-autonomous motives represented by the three dual career agility types described by coetzee (2021). table 4: dual career agility types and their psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. table 4 shows that a positive affective career state and low identification with the organisation explained the personally-autonomous motives that are exhibited by the three dual career agility types. the findings suggest that positive feelings about career development support and resources for achieving career goals, making career progress and having upskilling opportunities to find new employment easily (coetzee et al., 2021b), are important relationally-motivational-states that translate into activated self-regulated, autonomous career agility motives. it further appears from the findings that the career agility motives are strengthened when individuals feel less emotionally attached to the organisation, that is, they become more willing to explore new job and career opportunities that the external employment market offers as a result of technological advancement. this mindset seems especially true of the future-fit career adapter and the agentic career adapter and to a lesser extent the open-minded career adapter. the finding can be attributed to the notion that motives of autonomy relate to the centrality of the self-regulated career in the individual’s life. autonomous individuals experience themselves as the authors of their career behaviour, values, needs and interests, not the organisation (weinstein et al., 2012). the organisation only provides the social context for opportunities for self-expression, growth and upskilling (coetzee & bester, 2021). self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2014; janssen, van vuuren, & de jong, 2013) explains in this regard that both contextual (career supportive work environment) and intrapersonal factors facilitate the internalisation of external requirements (i.e. technological-driven employment market) into autonomous motivations, which explains the positive association between states of career wellbeing and the dual career agility types. a positive state of career networking/social support seems also an important enabler of the three sets of dual career agility motives. this finding is in agreement with research that shows positive associations between networking and career optimism. networking is generally seen as an essential career self-management strategy that enhances people’s access to supportive resources and career success (janasz & forret, 2008; volmer, shulte, handke, rodenbücher, & tröger, 2021). positive feelings about social support were also shown to improve adaptivity, self-efficacy and social adaptation capabilities (wang & fu, 2015). a positive state of career meaningfulness was positively associated with the future-fit career adapter and open-minded career adapter but not the agentic career adapter. the finding could be attributed to the relationally-autonomous motivational need for the career to be a personal choice, and experiencing the career as interesting, worthwhile and contributing to a larger purpose in a particular social context (coetzee, 2021). both the future-fit career adapter and open-minded career adapter are associated with motives of agile learning. research by coetzee (2021) also shows positive associations between a state of career meaningfulness and agile learning. a sense of the job and career being meaningful is also associated with positive career outcomes such as satisfaction with career development (lysova, allan, dik, duffy, & steger, 2019). practically, career counsellors and human resource practitioners should recognise the importance of autonomy motives in self-regulated career development. the findings suggest that the satisfaction of employees’ career wellbeing needs through supportive organisational career development practices will facilitate important self-regulated career agility motives that enhance employees’ readiness to adapt to the rapidly changing work contexts. individuals should learn that although the organisation provides an important space for career development, they need to discover the personal meaning of their careers beyond the organisation. career development practices could include support in the form of career discussions on employees’ feelings about the nature of their careers, their need for career growth and upskilling, including the resources they need to become more agile in their career. these career supportive practices foster positive affective career states that enhance individuals’ career agility. the results of the study suggest that career development support could focus on assessing the current state of career adaptivity readiness as exhibited by individuals’ dominant dual career agility type. for example, individuals with a dominant open-minded career adapter attribute express their career adaptivity readiness as being open to change and being confident in their ability to navigate and adapt to changes in their career and job environment; that is, they are still in a state of ideation. individuals with a dominant agentic career adapter attribute are in a state of activating their agency in self-regulated career management. they express their career adaptivity readiness as agentic (self-regulated) confidence in their ability to take advantage of changes in the job and career environment. they are optimistic that technological-driven evolving job roles bring new exciting job and career opportunities that will promote their creativity, growth and happiness. individuals with a dominant future-fit career adapter attribute are in an active state of agency. they express their career adaptivity readiness as self-regulated responsiveness to change for career success; they actively set and manage career goals and search out opportunities to learn new skills that will enhance their chances for career and job success. their career agency is supported by a strong drive for continual learning, growing and improving themselves. although all three states of technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation are important attributes of career agility that individuals need to cultivate in today’s world of work, the assessment of dual career agility types provides deeper insight into the current state of readiness to be actively career agile. in this regard, the study findings provide deeper insight into the extent to which the relationally-autonomous motives of career wellbeing and affective commitment influence individuals’ dominant state of career agility. the study findings should be interpreted in the light of the limitations of the research design. the study was a cross-sectional survey involving staff and managers in the human resources and financial industry. this may limit the generalisability of the study findings to other occupational contexts. cause-effect associations could also not be established. notwithstanding the limitations, the research provides a new direction for research on the modern-day construct of career agility. future studies may adopt a longitudinal research design and consider further investigating the presence of dual career agility types in relation to other career constructs in different occupational contexts. such studies may help to further illustrate the benefits of a person-centred approach in the career development context. conclusion in sum, the findings allowed for a more holistic understanding of the nature of career agility motives in relation to the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. career counsellors and human resource practitioners should recognise that people’s career agility can vary in autonomous motives and consider carefully how they might foster optimal career development and employees’ readiness for agency in adapting to the post-covid pandemic digital era workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions m.c. is the sole author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data availability only upon approval of the unisa research ethics committee upon formal request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, a. 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(2012). the index of autonomous functioning: development of a scale of human autonomy. journal of research in personality, 46, 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.03.007 acknowledgements references about the author(s) jean guichard national institute for the study of work and career counselling, national conservatory for applied technologies, paris, france citation guichard, j. (2020). editorial: ‘ecological crisis–anthropological crisis’. african journal of career development, 2(1), a14. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.14 editorial editorial: ‘ecological crisis–anthropological crisis’ jean guichard copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) chair of the university of wroclaw (poland) and the university twinning and networking program (unitwin) project that it has developed (in which the university of pretoria is involved) emphasise the theme of an orientation towards sustainable human development. the death of lucien sève a few days ago (from covid-19) – author of marxism and the theory of human personality and of texts linking ‘ecological crisis’ and ‘anthropological crisis’ – made me come back to this issue. in my view, the question of sustainable development could not be tackled independently without taking into consideration the possibility offered to all human beings to develop the talents that participate in their humanity. to put it in a less abstract way, the destruction of the environment (devastation of natural resources, accumulation of waste, massive pollution, global warming, etc.) and the development of forms of indecent work (sweat shops, precariat, etc.), of subhuman living conditions (e.g. children from poor countries surviving on the rubbish sent by rich countries, forced migration of people who can no longer live where they came into being, etc.), are two aspects of the same crisis. many economists explain that this crisis originated in the emergence of a new form of capitalism – that is, financial capitalism – whose objective is to produce the highest possible dividends as quickly as possible. this race for profit leads to an exploitation of natural resources without wondering about neither the conditions of their reproduction nor the workers’ labor conditions, which are sometimes worse than slavery (because slaves constituted a capital whose value on the market depended notably on the care of their masters) in those of the poor countries that have become the world factories. in europe, this development of financial capitalism has resulted, as alain supiot (2012) has shown, in a rewriting of the european treaties establishing competition between member states, particularly in the area of labour law: maintaining a professional activity involves to gradually liquidate the regulations which were painfully instituted in each state during the 20th century, following the creation of the international labour organization by the treaty of versailles. with the covid-19 epidemic, this interstate competition became manifest. the various european countries engaged in a fierce competition – in which the united states also participated – for purchasing masks, gowns for caregivers and respirators (as described in an article on the france-info s ite [francetvinfo 2020]). as it is more and more likely that this pandemic will last for many months (or even years), i believe that we will soon observe a similar interstate competition in terms of getting back to work larger and larger parts of their populations. in the time of this pandemic, the dividends paid to the great fortunes continue to peak. the weekly newspaper le canard enchaîné of 01 april 2020 (no. 5186) recalls (an example amongst others) that the board of directors (which was scheduled for april 21) of a major multinational in cosmetic industry has planned to pay €785.8 million to the family which holds 33.3% of the shares (a swiss multinational in the food industry holding 23.3%). these staggering sums regularly paid to the wealthiest are behind the widening wealth gap between the wealthy and the excluded that the oxford committee for famine relief (oxfam) report describes each year. at the same time, parts of the shares of these larger companies (a very small one in the case of this multinational in cosmetics) are held by pension funds. indeed, the development of financial capitalism has, in particular, consisted – and consists – in a substitution of the pension fund system for previous systems based on intergenerational solidarity: a levy on the incomes of working people funding pensions for retirees. therefore, modest retirees must now pray for the above-mentioned family earning large dividends so that their own pensions do not collapse. this has a consequence: the increase in the crisis of sustainable and human development that i have just outlined. so this is a very serious systemic crisis. systemic, i emphasise. i do not know if we will be able to cope with it either from above (a fundamental reform of our production and exchange systems based on industry resettlements and short circuits, as, with many others, i have advocated in recent years in various writings) or from below (decimation of a crowd of old people in the northern countries and young ones in those of the south, with the subsequent human regressions). lucien sève’s (2011) analyses of the link between ‘ecological crisis’ and ‘anthropological crisis’ are much more elaborate than what i have just sketched about the double aspect of our systemic crisis. an article he published in french, spanish and german in le monde diplomatique provides a more complete view of his analyses. i don’t know if there is any english translation. it opens a path that, in my view, the unesco chair and the unitwin network should explore. acknowledgements the author wishes to acknowledge that a slightly different version of this editorial also appears on the website of ‘career guidance for social justice’ (https://careerguidancesocialjustice.wordpress.com/?s=guichard) as a letter entitled ‘an open letter from jean guichard following the death of lucien sève’. references francetvinfo. (2020). in intermédiaires douteux, concurrence entre états : comment le coronavirus a transformé l’europe en far west de l’équipement médical [questionable intermediaries, state competition: how the coronavirus turned europe into the wild west of medical equipment]. retrieved april 06, 2020 from https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/intermediaires-douteux-concurrence-entre-etats-le-coronavirus-a-transforme-leurope-en-far-west-de-lequipement-medical_3901029.html sève, l. (2011). sauver le genre humain, pas seulement la planète. le monde diplomatique (pp. 22–23). retrieved november 2011, from https://www.mondediplomatique.fr/2011/11/seve/46912 supiot, a. (2012). the spirit of philadelphia: social justice vs. the total market. london: verso books. abstract introduction conceptual framework for measuring career wellbeing application of the career well-being scale as a career development tool method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i.l. (2021). exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space. african journal of career development, 3(1), a39. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.39 original research exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 24 may 2021; accepted: 20 july 2021; published: 08 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the construct and measurement of career well-being. individuals’ career well-being is of great relevance in counteracting the unsettling effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, and the concomitant shift into increasing remote and digital means of working. objective: the aim of the study was to explore the construct validity of the career well-being scale (cws) and its usefulness as a career development tool in challenging circumstances such as the covid-19 pandemic. method: the cws was administered to (n = 290) managers (71%) and staff (29%) employed in the services industry across south africa (70%), europe (15%) and africa (15%). the construct validity of the cws was explored by means of confirmatory factor analysis. results: the results corroborated the three-factor multidimensionality of the cws and that the scale has a hierarchical structure (i.e. the three sub-scale factors can be represented by a higher level factor of career well-being). conclusion: this study contributed to the career development research literature by validating the usefulness and multidimensionality of the cws for the study sample. the cws may potentially be useful in career development interventions focused on restoring clients’ perceived loss of autonomy and work volition when facing adversity and career distress. keywords: autonomous career motives; career meaningfulness; career well-being scale; networking/social support; work volition. introduction individuals’ career well-being is of great relevance in counteracting the unsettling effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, and the concomitant shift into increasing remote and digital means of working. in the context of the present research, career well-being is seen as positive intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that reflect individuals’ long-term contentment with their career outcomes, career achievements, career changes, and the sustainability thereof amidst the complexities of the contemporary work environment (bester, coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019). scholars have pointed out the detrimental effect of the covid-19 pandemic on individuals’ subjective well-being as a consequence of the physical and mental health-, employment-, and financial-related anxieties that arose from the pandemic circumstances (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; restubog, ocampo, & wang, 2020). in the career space, the coronavirus and its concomitant lockdown and health issues have been an unsettling shock for many people and presented them with real, complex, and serious social and economic challenges for which they desperately needed career-life counselling and guidance. people were bound to think deeply about their values and the way they approach their lives, careers and work (canadian career development foundation, 2020; coetzee, roythorne-jacobs, & tebele, 2021; hooley, 2020). some of the career development challenges that predominated as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic seem to be people’s anxiety and fear about the future of their jobs, and uncertainty about career options and opportunities in a digitally enhanced virtual workplace and a drastically changing employment market (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). in this article, we present the construct and measurement of career well-being as a potential mechanism to support people’s career development not only in general, but also especially in challenging times such as the covid-19 pandemic. the career development of people is a deep-seated psychological need for personal growth and development along with the basic need for decent work to make a meaningful contribution to society at large and to improve the basic economic living conditions of one’s life and family (coetzee & schreuder, 2021). the challenge and opportunity for professional career practitioners are to help clients to cultivate a sense of career well-being amidst stressful anxiety-provoking circumstances that affect the perceived future of their careers and livelihood (coetzee et al., 2021a). a review of the research literature reveals a plethora of research on the construct and measurement of general well-being, but a paucity of research on the construct and measurement of career well-being. scholars generally agree that more research is needed on individuals’ psychological state of career well-being amidst changing employment conditions that blur their future career prospects, and that engender more frequent career transitions and career shocks (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). we argue that the measurement and cultivation of the intrinsic conditions of career well-being through career development intervention may potentially offer an approach to help clients sustain work volition, and hope and optimism about their career development in the face of adversity. this article therefore intends to add to the larger call for research on career well-being through its evaluation of the construct validity of the career well-being scale (cws) developed by coetzee, ferreira and potgieter (2020). research on the construct and measurement of career well-being seems generally associated with subjective and psychological well-being outcomes such as career and life satisfaction, work satisfaction, employability, and career-self-management capability (coetzee, 2019; engelbrecht, 2019; lee & flores, 2019; lent & brown, 2008; steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). coetzee et al. (2020) developed a cws with preliminary evidence of its factor structure and internal consistency reliability. coetzee (2021a) further found initial evidence of the cws’s usefulness in the coping context by showing the extent to which the construct of career well-being predicted individuals’ career agility. however, more research on the cws (coetzee et al., 2020) is needed. the present study fills an important gap in research with its aim to explore the construct validity of the cws and its potential usefulness as a career development tool in challenging circumstances such as the covid-19 pandemic. the ramifications of the economic and social shock of the covid-19 pandemic are seen to reshape people’s perceptions about their lives, work and careers with dire consequences for clients’ career well-being (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). the present research is seen as timely in its response to the search for new approaches to support the career development of clients in the 2020s world of work. conceptual framework for measuring career wellbeing as shown in figure 1, coetzee et al. (2020) developed the cws as a domain-specific multidimensional measure of career well-being comprising three facets: positive affective career state, state of career meaningfulness, and career networking/social support state (coetzee, 2021a). the cws is seen to measure state-like aspects of career well-being that may be relatively susceptible to change or modification through career development intervention (coetzee, 2021a). the multidimensional feature of the cws captures both the hedonic (i.e. positive emotions of happiness and life satisfaction) and eudemonic (i.e. fulfilment of broader life goals, meaning, purpose and self-realisation) views of well-being (lent & brown, 2008; marsh, huppert, donald, horwood, & sahdra, 2020). figure 1: multidimensional facets of the career well-being scale. as illustrated in figure 1, the cws measures clients’ positive affective career state as a hedonic subjective facet of career well-being. the cws also measures eudaimonic facets of well-being relating to clients’ psychological feelings of career meaningfulness and self-efficacy in receiving social support in their careers (coetzee, 2021a). well-being scholars advocate the combination of hedonic and eudaimonic facets in a measure of well-being (lent & brown, 2008; marsh et al., 2020). eudaimonic processes are seen to serve as key routes by means of which people achieve and sustain hedonic well-being (lent, 2004; lent & brown, 2008). in agreement with the arguments of lent and brown (2008), the cws’s basic proposition is that by feeling supported in achieving goals and making career progress, and feeling that one has the social networks, resources, skills and experience needed to find new employment, accompany feelings that the chosen career is interesting, valuable and meaningful, and that it contributes to a bigger life purpose. these intrinsic positive socio-emotional psychological states represent self-concordant autonomous career motives that engender feelings of general career well-being (coetzee, 2021a). in this regard, general career well-being alludes to a long-term psychological state of subjective well-being generated by individuals’ current career situation in lieu of the anticipated future career context (coetzee, 2021a). research shows that individuals’ positive perceptions of, and feelings of contentment or satisfaction with their current career-life serve as positive socio-emotional psychological conditions that engender certain self-regulatory behaviours in career adaptation processes (steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). research by coetzee (2021a) further shows that career well-being activates adaptive readiness in clients even when faced with adversity. accordingly, it appears that the cws may be a useful tool in career development intervention that focuses on helping clients cope with the challenges of the 2020s digital-era covid-19 pandemic world of work. application of the career well-being scale as a career development tool as a career development intervention tool, the cws may potentially function as a motivational mechanism to engender a sense of work volition or autonomy. that is, the cws may help to facilitate a sense of agency and freedom to realistically set and enact desirable, self-concordant career goals despite the barriers and constraints on careers and decent work resulting from the impact of the covid pandemic. work volition is an important source of well-being and has been associated with positive affect and job satisfaction (kwon, 2019). a basic premise of career well-being is that career behaviour is autonomous or volitional, and regulated by the self rather than external contingencies. high levels of autonomous, self-regulated behaviour are positively associated with greater energy and vitality, creative learning and engagement, lower stress and well-being, and rewarding social connections (weinstein, przybylski, & ryan, 2012). self-concordance theory (sct: sheldon & elliot, 1998) offers an explanation of the extent to which the measurement of career well-being by means of the cws may help engender autonomous career behaviour and by implication work volition. self-concordance theory posits that goals driven by autonomous versus controlled motives result in higher levels of goal accomplishment. self-concordant goals stem from individuals’ core values and interests; the goals are based on autonomous (intrinsic) motives and are pursued because the individual regards the goals as personally important and interesting which generally contributes to feelings of greater satisfaction and well-being (downes, kristof-brown, & judge, 2017). on the other spectrum, controlled motives involve goals that are driven by extrinsic-driven motives that often include feelings of anxiety and obligation (downes et al., 2017). in the career context, the turbulence and uncertainty of employment and decent work caused by the covid-19 pandemic may derail the pursuit of personal values-driven career goals (high work volition; self-concordant intrinsic motivation). individuals may focus on having employment for basic needs satisfaction and economic survival purposes (low work volition; non-self-concordant extrinsic motivation). people pursuing goals with controlled motives generally tend to feel themselves in the grip of forces to which they do not give full assent, with low career well-being and low work volition as a consequence (downes et al., 2017). research shows that autonomous goals are more likely to be achieved than controlled goals because they flow from the intrinsic alignment with personal values and interests (judge, bono, erez, & locke, 2005). in this regard, the measurement of clients’ career well-being may help to identify enabling and derailing intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that negatively impact the client’s sense of work volition and autonomous career goal motivation. the cws facet of positive affective career state alludes to positive hedonic emotions flowing from psychological states characteristic to feeling satisfied with conditions instrumental to the achievement of autonomous career goals (coetzee, 2021a). high scores on the cws point to important enabling psychological conditions of career well-being such as feeling positive that one is making progress towards achieving self-concordant career goals. high scores on the positive affective career state subscale signal that the client is feeling supported in and satisfied with their career progress and growth. the client also feels that they have the necessary resources, skills, and experience to achieve autonomous, self-concordant career goals. low scores on this facet of career well-being point to potential intrinsic motivational derailing conditions such as feeling that one’s career growth is stifled; that one may be in need of greater support and resources to become motivated to learn new skills for achieving career goals. adaptive readiness, work volition, and autonomous career motives may be stifled because of the emotional strain engendered by the perceived lack of resources, skills, and support (coetzee, 2021b). in career development intervention, coetzee (2021b) recommends narrative reframing of negative perceptions about the career to counteract low levels of work volition. states of positive mood and feelings help to decrease the autonomic arousal produced by negative emotions by increasing flexibility of thinking and problem-solving (coetzee, 2021a; reich, zautra, & hall, 2010; tugade & fredrickson, 2004). the cws facet of state of career meaningfulness relates to psychological eudaimonic conditions that facilitate work volition and self-concordant autonomous career motives. high scores on this subscale of the cws signals a positive identification with the career; the client feels that the career is a personal choice, interesting and personally meaningful and worthwhile, and that it contributes to a bigger life purpose (coetzee, 2021a). low scores may point to work volition derailers such as non-self-concordant controlled motives; the client may not personally identify with the career; may feel stuck and that the job or career is not meaningful. low scores may also indicate that the client’s adaptive readiness and work volition is stifled because of the emotional strain about the perceived lack of meaningfulness of the career (coetzee, 2021b). the notion of career meaningfulness is important in experiencing career well-being. research provides evidence that meaningfulness and sense of purpose in life predict psychological resilience in the face of adversity, greater life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing (coetzee, 2021a; lee, cohen, edgar, laizner, & gagnon, 2004; reich et al., 2010). the cws facet of career networking/social support is a eudaimonic state that reflects intrinsic career-enabling socio-emotional conditions that support self-concordant autonomous career motives (coetzee, 2021a). high scores on this facet of the cws indicates confidence in having a network of people that supports one in one’s career, and the self-efficacy to easily reach out to others to help and support one in achieving autonomous, self-concordant career goals. the individual feels confident that receiving feedback from such a network of social support helps them to stay in touch with their personal strengths and areas for enrichment (coetzee, 2021a). low scores may point to the presence of work volition derailers such as a lack of confidence in connecting socially with others to form social networks for career support. the client’s lack of self-efficacy in their networking capability may stifle adaptive readiness, work volition, and the prominence of controlled career motives (coetzee, 2021b). social support is seen as a protective mechanism in coping with stressful conditions (charuvastra & cloitre, 2008; mikulincer, shaver, & pereg, 2003; reich et al., 2010). in the career development space, self-efficacy in reaching out to social networks and support is seen to foster career decision self-efficacy, perceived employability and positive career self-management attitudes and perceptions. research shows that social support promotes the development of optimistic career attitudes that help reduce psychological difficulties in resolving career issues (di fabio & kenny, 2012; jiang, 2017). as a potential career development intervention tool, professional career practitioners could engage with distressed clients in a conversational partnership concerning their anxieties and fears about their careers and employment situation. the cws can be utilised as a supportive diagnostics tool by assessing the client’s career well-being in terms of the three facets (see figure 1). the cws can then serve as a mechanism to help the client make meaning of the career distress. shefer (2018) recommends a narrative career therapy approach when treating issues affecting the well-being of clients. such approach treats the career distress story as a problem-saturated story, that is, an experience that undermines the well-being of the client and that prevents them from living their lives in a manner that fosters the achievement of self-concordant career goals and self-realisation. the problem-saturated story is generally expressed by clients through thoughts, perceptions, and feelings concerning inter alia fears and anxieties about issues such as financial security, job availability and stability, underemployment, unemployment, and conflict about the preferred career path. the client is then guided through therapeutic counselling techniques to re-story the career distress narrative to a preferred story that elicits the self-concordant autonomous career motives and work volition of the client (shefer, 2018). once the preferred story of the preferred career path is clearly defined (and the problem-saturated story diminished in prominence: shefer, 2018), clients’ scores on the cws can be reviewed to identify enablers and derailers of their work volition and career well-being. in-depth exploration of the career well-being facets, measured by the cws, can contribute to the narrative career therapy process by helping to crystallise the preferred career story, and engaging the client in problem-solving and career self-management strategies for decent work and meaningful employment. generally, we suggest that the inclusion of the cws in a career narrative therapy process may help restore clients’ sense of autonomy in facing adversity. a sense of autonomy and work volition is essential for psychological well-being and optimal functioning (radel, pelletier, & sarrazin, 2013). perceived loss of autonomous motivation because of the challenges posed by the post-covid-19 pandemic world of work may be restored through career development intervention such as narrative career therapy and the cws. career development intervention involves conscious guidance toward perceived self-efficacy and competency in solving the autonomy threatening problem (radel et al., 2013). in conclusion, the multidimensional feature of the cws allows for the measurement of three different, and supporting facets of career wellbeing. however, the construct validity of the cws has to date not yet been confirmed. the aim of the present study was therefore to explore the construct validity of the multidimensionality of the cws. should the construct validity of the cws be confirmed, professional career practitioners would potentially be able to confidently apply the cws as a valid and reliable career development tool in various employment contexts. method participants the participants (n = 290) were employed adults in managerial (71%) and staff (29%) level positions. the participants were predominantly employed in the financial and human resources services industry and originated from south africa (70%), europe (15%), and africa (15%). they had tenure of 1 to 5 years (40%) and more than 5 years (60%). the participants included individuals in the exploration phase of their careers (25 to 30 years: 23%) and establishment/maintenance phases of their careers (> 31 to 65 years: 74%). the mean age of the sample was 38.58 years (standard deviation (sd) = 9.34). the participants consisted out of 54% men and 46% women, of which 63% were from a black ethnic origin (including indian, asian and coloured people) and 37% from a white ethnic origin. measuring instrument the cws developed by coetzee et al. (2020) measures three states of career well-being: positive affective career state (6 items: e.g. ‘i feel my career provides me with the skills and experience i need to easily find new employment’); state of career meaningfulness (4 items: e.g. ‘i feel that what i do in my career is valuable and worthwhile’), and career networking/social support state (4 items: e.g. ‘i find it easy to reach out to others to help and support me in achieving my career goals’). the 14 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary exploratory factor analysis by coetzee et al. (2020) identified a three-factor structure and high internal consistency reliability of the cws. procedure the professional linkedin online platform was used to collect the data during 2020. participants received an electronic link to the limesurvey 2020 version of the questionnaire via the linkedin platform. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss file for data analysis purposes. ethical considerations ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014). the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured, and participation was voluntary. the participants gave informed consent for the group-based data to be used for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). results were interpreted at the 95% confidence level interval. results descriptive results as shown in table 1, mean levels of the cws ranged from 5.08 to 5.32 (slightly agree; relatively high). the cronbach alpha coefficients and the composite reliability (cr) coefficients for the overall scale (α = 0.94; cr = 0.94) and subscales were high: positive affective career state (α = 0.91; cr = 0.91), state of career meaningfulness (α = 0.86; cr = 0.85) and career networking/social support state (α = 0.89; cr = 0.89). these results suggested good construct reliability for the cws in the present sample group. table 1: descriptive statistics and bi-variate correlations of the career wellbeing scale. the bi-variate correlations between the three subscales ranged from r = 0.50 to r = 0.66 (p = 0.0001; large practical effect), suggesting lack of multicollinearity among the subscales. rekha (2019) points to correlation coefficients of r ≥ 0.70 among sub-construct variables as indicating the presence of multicollinearity and possible issues of redundancy among scale subdimensions. the three subscales had high correlations with the overall scale (r ≥ 0.78; p = 0.0001; large practical effect), suggesting convergent validity. construct validity of the career wellbeing scale based on the guidelines provided by alarcòn and sánchez (2015), table 2 shows that the ave (average variance extracted) values for the three subscales were above > 0.50 and at an acceptable level. average variance extracted measures the level of variance captured by a construct versus the level because of measurement error. combined, as guided by the fornell and larcker (1981) criterion, the ave values of > 0.50 and the cr values of > 0.70 (shown in table 1) indicates convergent validity of the cws in the present sample. table 2: average variance extracted and squared inter-construct correlations. the discriminant validity among the three subscales was inspected in terms of the ave and sic (squared inter-construct correlations). as shown in table 2, the ave estimates for career networking/social support state subscale was higher than the sic estimates. the results for this subscale suggest good discriminant validity of the career networking/social support state subscale with the other two subscales. the ave estimates for the affective career state subscale was close to the sic estimate of the state of meaningfulness subscale and higher than the sic estimate of the career networking/social support state subscale. these results suggest good discriminant validity of the affective career state subscale in terms of the career networking/social support state subscale. the ave estimate for the state of career meaningfulness subscale was lower than the sic estimate for the subscale in terms of affective career state which suggests some measure of lack of discriminant validity between these two subscales. we tested the discriminant validity among the three subscales further by inspecting the heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) ratio of correlations. the r-studio version 1.2.5019 (© 2009–2019 rstudio, inc) was used to run the htmt ratio of correlations (i.e. to test whether the true correlation between the three subscale constructs differ). table 3 shows that the htmt values were all smaller than 1.00 and below the threshold value of 0.85, and thus provided evidence of discriminant validity (alarcòn & sánchez, 2015; kline, 2011). table 3: career well-being scale – heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations. we first inspected the cws for common method bias because of the self-report, cross-sectional nature of the research design. harman’s one factor test and a one factor cfa was applied to assess for possible common method bias. the harman’s one factor solution of the cws revealed that the cws as a single factor explains only 7.65% of the variance. the one factor cfa, reported in table 4, also indicated lack of model fit with the data. these results indicated that common method bias was not a serious threat to the validity of the findings. table 4: confirmatory factor analysis fit statistics for the career well-being scale. the construct and discriminant validity of the cws was further inspected by means of three cfa models with maximum likelihood estimation: model 1: a one factor cfa was performed, with all items of the scale loading onto one factor. model 2: a second-order cfa was performed, with the items loading onto each of their respective subscales. model 3: a second-order cfa was performed, with items loading onto each of their respective subscales, and the three subscale factors then loading onto the overall career wellbeing factor. the model fit indices are reported in table 4. the fit indices for the one-factor cfa indicated poor model fit: χ2/df = 9.58; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = 0.18; standardised root mean square residual (srmr) = 0.09; comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.77. the second and third second-order cfa models had acceptable model fit with the data: model 2: χ2/df = 2.82; rmsea = 0.11; srmr = 0.07; cfi = 0.90; model 3: χ2/df = 2.65; rmsea = 0.09; srmr = 0.05; cfi = 0.96. the aic (akaike information criterion) values indicated lowest estimates for model 3, while the bic (bayesian information criterion) values indicate lowest values for model 2. however, cfa of model 3 was regarded as having acceptable model fit with the data set for the present sample. the path estimates for cfa of model 3 were further inspected to assess convergent validity of the cws. table 5 shows that all the standardised path estimates were significant and above 0.70 (with the exception of item 10 of the state of career meaningfulness factor: 0.57). taken together with the ave estimates that were above 0.50, the results provided evidence of convergent validity of the cws. the three subscale factors had also strong loadings on the overall career well-being construct (> 0.70). table 5: standardised path coefficients of the career well-being scale. discussion the study provided support for the construct validity of the cws as a measure of individuals’ state of career well-being in the present sample. the results corroborated the multidimensionality (i.e. three factors) of the cws, and that the scale has a hierarchical structure (i.e. the three subscale factors can be represented by a higher level factor of career wellbeing). consistent with this observation, the internal reliability for all the subscales and the total scale were high. researchers, thus, can use the measure to obtain a total score complemented with explanatory subscale scores of the overall construct of career well-being. the cws seems to be a useful scale when different facets of career well-being need to be assessed and contrasted for career development purposes. each of the three facets of career well-being, provide specific value for the development of career-related intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that foster career well-being. our results provided support for the theory of career wellbeing postulated by coetzee et al. (2020) and coetzee (2021a). the results suggest that individuals’ career wellbeing can be described by a multidimensional approach which in practice gives more career development information for helping clients restore their work volition and autonomy in career self-management. using the three facets of career well-being in career development intervention provides opportunity for engagement in a narrative career therapy conversation (see shefer, 2018) that helps to determine points of intervention for the crafting of a preferred career story and overcoming perceived barriers to the pursuit of self-concordant career motives and interests. however, the cws may also be useful as a general career development tool in situations where clients require the teaching of effective employment strategies that may be important to help them gain work volition and self-efficacy in finding decent work and employment opportunities (allan, rolniak, & bouchard, 2020). the study contributes to the understanding of career well-being as measure of three intrinsic socio-emotional psychological states relevant to career development by showing that the construct and its sub-facets are manifested in a sample of working adults in the south african, european and african work contexts. this finding alludes to the potential international application of the cws in broad career development contexts across the globe. moreover, the findings indicate the potential for further replication studies by scholars across the globe for further refinement of the construct validity and the testing of the predictive validity of the cws in relation to other career constructs. the multidimensionality of well-being scales as opposed to a single construct has been advocated by scholars (marsh et al., 2020). research shows that groups or countries can obtain identical scores on a single measure of a construct, but display completely different profiles on well-being subdimensions (marsh et al., 2020, p. 3). the multidimensionality feature of the cws is therefore also useful for large scale research on groups in different population, occupational and country contexts. limitations and directions for future research the construct validity of the cws has been supported for the present sample. generalisation to a larger population is beyond the scope of this study. we used self-reported cross-sectional data in our study and causal inferences cannot therefore be made. future longitudinal studies are recommended to test the test-retest reliability and construct validity of the cws in different population, occupational and country contexts. our sample included employed adults. future studies could replicate the research in samples of unemployed or marginalised settings. the construct of career well-being is generally under-researched with the predominant focus of scales being on the construct of general wellbeing (lent & brown, 2008; marsh et al., 2020; steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). the study positions career well-being as a construct that needs to be uniquely studied in the contemporary career development space. the study provided evidence of the cws as a potential reliable and valid tool for researchers interested in understanding individuals’ career well-being. a better understanding of the extent to which the career-relevant socio-emotional psychological states of affect, meaningfulness and networking/social support influence individuals’ perceptions about their career-related well-being may be useful in career development intervention aimed at helping clients restore their sense of autonomy and work volition in times of adversity. the multidimensional feature of the cws can help advance research related to career well-being by facilitating an understanding of how multidimensional career well-being profiles vary between individuals and groups. further longitudinal research may also help to track change in career well-being dimensions as a result of career development intervention or employment context change over time. conclusion this study contributed to the career development research literature by validating the usefulness and multidimensionality of the cws. notwithstanding the study’s limitations, the findings indicate that the cws has good psychometric qualities, is brief, and can be easily administered to small and large groups of people. although, further research is needed to support the application of the cws in career development intervention, we expect that the cws will be useful to clients in career counselling situations that deal with career distress. future research on the cws will also allow researchers to contribute to the debate on the nature of career well-being in the post-covid 2020s turbulent world of work. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed to the conceptualisation and writing of the research article. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [m.c.], upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, a. 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(2019). career self-management as a key factor for career wellbeing. in i.l. potgieter, n. ferreira, & m. coetzee (eds.), theory, research and dynamics of career wellbeing (pp. 117–138). cham: springer nature. abstract introduction conceptual framework methodology results data from key informant’s interview discussion implications for research and practice study limitations conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) goodness j. okon department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria ekwuore m. ushie department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria judith e. otu department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria citation okon, g.j., ushie, e.m., & otu, j.e. (2020). socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children in orphanages within cross river state, nigeria. african journal of career development, 2(1), a13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.13 original research socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children in orphanages within cross river state, nigeria goodness j. okon, ekwuore m. ushie, judith e. otu received: 11 mar. 2020; accepted: 29 sept. 2020; published: 20 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the social and economic needs of a growing child are paramount to his or her entire well-being. as the number of orphans and vulnerable children in the country keep increasing, their socioeconomic challenges are also expanding. this research work investigated the socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children (ovc) in two orphanages within calabar south local government area, cross river state, nigeria. objectives: four objectives were highlighted to include unearthing the level of ovc school enrolment: school attendance, vocational training, educational challenges and possible solutions. method: the study adopted a descriptive research design and used simple random sampling technique to select respondents for the survey. a sample size of 64 was obtained using taro yamane’s formula. the respondents comprised 26 males and 38 females, within the age range of 2–18 years. instruments for primary data collection were structured questionnaire for the children and key informant interview for the caregivers. data were analysed with statistical package for social sciences computer software and presented thematically, using simple percentages, frequencies, frequency polygon, bar chart and pie chart. results: the study revealed that a greater number of ovc were enrolled in school, more than average maintained regular school attendance, few children obtained vocational training and many experienced educational challenges. conclusion: it was recommended amongst others that the government should provide adequate educational materials to ovc in orphanages, vocational education should be considered as basic education for all children, and individuals and private or public organisations should also provide the ovc with basic support to ameliorate their educational challenges. keywords: school enrolment; school attendance; academic performance; orphans and vulnerable children; educational challenge; vocational training. introduction there has been escalating rate of orphans and vulnerable children (ovc) since early 21st century. it was reported in 2008 that about 145 million children globally have lost at least one parent (who & unaid, 2008). in nigeria, the federal ministry of women affairs and social development reported that nigeria has approximately 17.5 million ovc (federal ministry of women affairs and social development, 2012). the united nations agency for international development (unaid) defines an orphan as a child, under 18 years of age, who has lost one or both parents. those children experiencing unfavourable conditions such as malnutrition, morbidity, loss of education, chronic illness and disability are known as vulnerable children (the joint united nations programme on hiv and aids [unaids], 2011). socioeconomic indices such as education and career development are seen as basic human right for all children. these are catalyst for national development and also set foundation for individuals’ productive and healthy living (unesco, 2019). a child who can access quality primary education has the basic foundation for continued learning in lifetime. educational well-being in this context implies the school enrolment, attendance and performance of a child. vocational training is such training that endows children with various skills so they can work as artisans, technicians or tradesmen. pepfar (2006) noted that schools not only benefit the children but can also serve as a powerful tool for meeting the developmental needs of the community. it is also observed that school attendance enables children who are traumatised to recover from psychosocial effect of their experiences and regain a sense of normalcy (usaid & crs, 2008). miller (2019) assumed that vocational education prepares learners to be useful to themselves and their community by equipping them with both practical and manual skills. it is a training ground that gives people assurance concerning their lifetime career. orphans and vulnerable children encounter several challenges that impact negatively on their socioeconomic well-being. studies conducted by crs and csn (2008) revealed that orphans have lower school attendance than non-orphans. fleming (2015), who carried out a study on education for orphans or vulnerable children affected by human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), discovered that paternal orphans are less discriminated against in accessing education than maternal or double orphan. orphans experience financial constraints and as such cannot afford the cost of education. the study conducted in kenya by subbarao, maltimore and plangemann (2010) disclosed some inhibiting factors to ovc’s accessibility to quality education are lack of educational capacity, additional cost of education, low quality of education and inability to attend school on full time basis. in addition, richter (2004) demonstrated that some orphans are deprived of their education in event of parental death, whilst some live in households with food insecurity. despite the execution of free primary education policy in nigeria and donations made to orphanages by non-governmental organisations (ngos), individuals, private and public organisations, ovc are at higher risk of being dropped out of school. this poses short-term, medium-term and long-term socioeconomic threat to national development. most ovc are seen hawking or playing on the streets during school hours. this study became necessary after a careful observation of alarming rate of street children in calabar south local government area. some of these children were seen on uniforms still parading the streets instead of being in school. several studies have been carried out on the needs and psychosocial support given to ovc in nigeria. however, no research work has been carried out on the assessment of educational well-being of ovc in calabar south local government area. paucity of this knowledge has inhibited the development of adequate strategy to ameliorate educational challenges encountered by the ovc. this study aimed at unearthing the socioeconomic situation of ovc in calabar south local government area, cross river state, nigeria. the study sought to answer the following research questions: what is the level of ovc’s school enrolment in calabar south local government area? what is the level of ovc’s school attendance in calabar south local government area? what is the academic performance of ovc’ in calabar south local government area? what is the height of ovc’s vocational training in calabar south local government area? what are the educational challenges experienced by the ovc in calabar south local government area? what strategies can be used to mitigate these challenges? conceptual framework amartya sen’s capability approach the capability approach is associated with amartya sen, an indian economist and a philosopher. it focuses on the capability of individuals to achieve the kind of lives they can value. ‘poverty’ here is seen as a deprivation in individuals’ capability to live a good life. in his capability approach, sen (1999) argues that it is imperative whilst evaluating well-being to consider what people are really able to be and do. according to sen, the well-being of people is about expansion of capabilities. his capability approach is concerned with expanding the real freedoms people enjoy. his core concepts are functioning, capabilities and agency. those things people value being and doing are known as functioning; capabilities are the opportunities exposed to individuals and ability to achieve the desired results, whilst agency entails the interactive role played by individuals in the society, such as political, social and economic roles. in sen’s perspective, ‘poverty’ which is seen as deprivation should be taken away from the ovc. their capabilities should be developed to enable them access various opportunities and make choices. as observed by hossain (2013), most ovc live in abject poverty, and consequently, they are dropped out of school because of their inability to pay fees and purchase educational materials, and they are also bereft of the vocational skills, which could provide them with manual jobs. this situation compromises the ovc’s access to the necessary opportunities for improvement of their life chances. it, therefore, becomes necessary for possible interventions to emerge to reduce ovc’s educational challenges because education provides a child with hope for work and life, and also serve as a strong protection against sexual abuse and exploitation. through quality education, the capabilities of ovc can be expanded, exposing them to various alternatives they can choose from, thereby, enabling them to live valuable lives and also achieve their goals. sen’s capability approach has been criticised for laying much emphasis on individuals’ freedom without considering communal values and life patterns (gore, 2007). it is also noted that sen’s concept of individuals’ freedom is vague and cannot explain how a person’s freedom affects others (nussbaum, 2003). notwithstanding, this approach is still very relevant to the understanding of people’s well-being. methodology research design and study area this study adopted a descriptive research design. the choice of this design was based on the researcher’s intention to analytically describe the educational and vocational situation of ovc in orphanages. it was conducted in two orphanages within calabar south local government area, namely uwanse motherless babies home and infant jesus orphanage home. calabar is the capital of cross river state, southern nigeria, and lies along the calabar river and cross river delta. calabar is divided into calabar south and calabar municipal local government areas with an area of 406 square kilometers and a population of 3 71 022 at 2006 census. respondents and setting the study population is made up of children within school age (2–18 years) living in the two orphanages. uwanse motherless babies home had 40 children and infant jesus orphanage home had 36 children, making it a total of 76 children. simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents for the survey whilst the sample size of 64 was obtained using taro yamane’s formula. sociodemographic characteristics of respondents table 1 and figures 1–4 demonstrate the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. as shown in figure 1, 21 (32.8%) respondents belonged to the age range of 2–6 years, 10 (15.6%) respondents belonged to the range of 7–11 years and 33 (51.6%) respondents belonged to the age range of 12–18 years. distribution of respondents by sex reveals a greater number of female respondents 38 (59.4%) as compared with male respondents 26 (40.6%) (see figure 2). responses on educational level specify that 18 respondents representing 28.1% were in nursery schools, 17 respondents representing 26.5% were in primary schools, 21 respondents representing 32.8% attended secondary schools and four respondents representing 6.3% were in tertiary institutions whereas the remaining four respondents representing 6.3% were not in any school (see figuer 3). figure 4 indicates that five (7.8%) respondents were living with disability, 25 (39.1%) respondents were paternal orphans and eight (12.5%) respondents were maternal orphans, whilst 26 (40.6%) respondents were double orphans. figure 1: distribution of respondents’ responses on age. figure 2: distribution of respondents’ responses on sex (female respondents 38 [59.4%] as compared with male respondents 26 [40.6%]). figure 3: distribution of respondents’ responses on educational level. figure 4: distribution of respondents’ responses on orphans and vulnerable children status. table 1: socio demographic characteristics of respondents. instrumentation instruments used for data collection were structured questionnaire for the children and key informant interview (kii) for the caregivers. the caregivers assisted in filling questionnaire for children between 2 and 8 years old. the questionnaire was divided into two segments: the first segment was made up of sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, whilst the second segment was designed to divulge information on the study variables, such as school enrolment, school attendance, academic performance, vocational training and educational challenge. a nominal scale with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ options was used to design the questionnaire. whilst developing a coding key, ‘yes’ option was assigned with a nominal value of 1, and ‘no’ option was assigned with 2. key informant interview schedule for caregivers was designed based on the five variables under study. the qualitative data obtained were tape-recorded to enhance proper analysis. the fieldwork was carried out with the help of two research assistants who guided the children in the process of filling questionnaire. data analysis quantitative data from questionnaires were coded and analysed through descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 22.0; qualitative data from the interviews were thematically analysed using a procedure by braun and clarke (2019). ethical consideration ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the ministry of health, cross river state. the research team went through all the necessary criteria to fulfil ethical requirements such as obtaining ethical clearance from the ministry of health ethical committee, seeking informed consent of the respondents, ensuring voluntary participation and anonymity. results participants’ responses on school enrolment, school attendance and academic performance table 2 shows the distribution of respondents’ responses on school enrolment, attendance and performance. responses on ‘are you enrolled in school?’ point out that 60 (93.8%) respondents maintained being enrolled in school, whilst only four (6.3%) respondents were of negative response. on the question ‘how many days do you attend school in a week?’, more respondents 40 (62.4%) claimed attending school for all the 5 days in a week, four (6.3%) respondents attended 4 days in a week, another four (6.3%) respondents attended 3 days in a week and 12 (18.7%) respondents attended 2 days in a week, whereas the remaining four (6.3%) respondents had not been to school. responses on ‘what was your academic performance in the last examinations?’ revealed that 14 respondents representing 21.8% reported having a very good performance, 34 respondents representing 53.1% maintained having good performance, nine respondents representing 14.1% reported fair performance and three respondents representing 4.7% maintained poor performance. a total of four (6.3%) respondents were those who had no school enrolment. table 2: distribution of respondents’ responses on school enrolment, attendance and performance. participants’ responses on vocational training table 3 describes the distribution of respondents’ responses on vocational training obtained. as displayed in the table, 27 respondents representing 42.2% reported obtaining vocational training, whilst 37 (57.8%) respondents had no such training. on the question ‘what type of vocational training have you obtained?’, two (3.1%) respondents learned carpentry, three (4.7%) learned hairdressing, five (7.8%) tailoring, another five (7.8%) artwork, three (4.7%) masonry, five (7.8%) practical nursing and four (6.3%) respondents learned other skills, which were not listed by the researcher. table 3: distribution of respondents’ responses on vocational training. participants’ responses on educational challenge table 4 illustrates respondents’ responses on educational challenge experienced. on the question ‘have you encountered any educational challenge?’ a total of 47(73.4%) respondents reported going through educational challenge, whilst 17(26.6%) respondents reported not having any challenge. on ‘what is the nature of educational challenge?’, it can be observed in table 4 that out of the 64 respondents, five representing 7.8% reported non-payment of school fees as their educational challenge, 33 respondents representing 51.5% reported lack of educational materials, four respondents representing 6.3% reported hunger as their challenge, another four respondents representing 6.3% reported illness as their challenge and one (1.6%) respondent reported emotional abuse, whereas 17 respondents representing 26.5% reported no educational challenge. table 4: distribution of respondents’ responses on educational challenge. data from key informant’s interview two senior caregivers were interviewed in the two orphanages, one from each orphanage; the results are presented below, according to the major themes in the study. orphans and vulnerable children’s school enrolment the study participants reported that the ovc within school age were all registered in school, except those with disabilities. below are statements from the interviewees: ‘all the children within school age have been enrolled except those with disability, we need more support to enable us send them to a school which takes care of children with disabilities.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘they are all registered in school, only those ones who cannot talk are yet to be registered.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) orphans and vulnerable children’s school attendance the interviewees generally reported that the ovc attend school on regular basis. illustrative statements from the participants are given below: ‘they all attend school on regular basis, some are boarders, and they just came back because of mid-term break.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘they attend school regularly except when they are ill or have some minor challenges. although there are some who don’t like going to school on daily basis, we do our best to make sure they attend school.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) orphans and vulnerable children’s academic performance some of the ovc brought their examination results that were used to rate their performance; a greater number of the children had excellent performance. also, the interviewees reported that most ovc’s academic performance were good. illustrative statements from the caregivers are given below: ‘most of these children are very brilliant; two of them who performed excellently got admission into the university of calabar.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1). ‘some of them are very good academically; others are still coming up.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2). vocational training the participants reported that those children who were of age to learn skills were trained, but their major problem was the inability to establish these children after vocational trainings. below are statements from the participants: ‘it is only the older ones that are allowed to learn handwork, mostly when they are on long-break; these skills can help them to earn income even without ‘white-collar job.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1). ‘some of them have learnt vocational skills, but there is no money to buy the necessary equipments or machines for them, only few have been established after vocational training.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2). educational challenge the participants reported insufficient educational materials as the ovc’s major educational challenge. the interviewees’ illustrative statements are given below: ‘though the church takes care of their school fees, we need supports to enable us provide the necessary educational materials to them.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘some well-minded individuals, organizations, and the government do take care of their school fees. yet there are some serious educational demands that must be addressed such as uniforms, shoes, books, etc.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) discussion from the given results, it can be deduced that a greater number of ovc in orphanages are enrolled in various schools ranging from nursery to higher institution. only four out of 64 children were not enrolled in school and these four children were either disable or sick. this finding is contrary to the erroneous belief that ovc in orphanages lack educational background. the study lends credence to the work of mutiso and mutie (2018) who studied the challenges affecting ovc in embu county and found that 74.9% of orphans were schooling, whereas 21.1% were not schooling. it is further supported by the work of okon and ojua (2018) on psychosocial support and well-being for ovc as a strategy for poverty reduction in cross river and ebonyi states. this study revealed the percentage of ovc enrolled in school within cross river and ebonyi states to be 89.2% and 76%, respectively. as it relates to school attendance, majority of the children attended school regularly. only 31.3% maintained irregular school attendance. as explained by the caregivers, such irregular attendance is because of educational challenges experienced by the children. in consonance with this finding, olanrewaju, jeffery, crossland and valadez (2015), who carried out a study on access to education for ovc in uganda, observed that 79.1% of ovc attended school within 3-year period. this particular result contradicts the finding of okon and ojua (2018) who maintained the percentage of ovc with regular school attendance to be a little above average (56.8%) in cross river state and less than average (39.9%) in ebonyi state. with regard to the children’s academic performance, a lesser number of the ovc (18.8%) did not perform well, whereas a greater part of them (74.9%) had better performance. this demonstrates that most ovc in orphanages perform well academically. to buttress this point, okon and ojua (2018) exposed in their work that 58.6% and 66.7% of the children aged 0–9 years progressed in school over time, in cross river and ebonyi states, respectively, whilst 83.3% and 66.7% of children aged 10–17 years progressed in school correspondingly in cross river and ebonyi states. this finding contradicts the outcome of the study carried out by pillay and nesengani (2006) on educational challenges facing ovc. their study found that most ovc experienced poor academic performance because of the inability to complete their school tasks and poor academic performance. with reference to vocational training, only 27 respondents representing 42.2% reported learning some vocational skills. this set of respondents belonged to the 12–18 age group, as confirmed by united nations children’s fund (unicef, 2009), which positioned that 90% of the beneficiaries of community harnessed initiatives for children’s learning and development (child) programme in rwanda were ovc between 15 years old and above. the 27 respondents learnt skills such as carpentry, hairdressing, tailoring, masonry, nursing, arts and others. this finding agrees with that of benjamin (2015) on ‘provision of vocational skills education to orphans’; his study revealed that 21 (52.5%) ovc learnt tailoring, nine (22.5%) computer, one (2.5%) welding, four (10.0%) driving, one (2.5%) arts, three (7.5%) carpentry and one (2.5%) gardening. most of the ovc who were school dropped out had another chance of improving their lives through these skills acquisition trainings. in terms of educational challenges, table 2 reveals that more children (73.4%) experienced educational challenges. few of them experienced non-payment of school fees, whilst a greater part lacked basic educational materials. as explained by the caregivers, some of these challenges include inability to meet daily school (financial) demands, buy books, uniforms, shoes, etc. it was observed by mwoma and pillay (2016) in a work titled ‘educational support for ovc in primary schools: challenges and interventions’, that factors such as low self-esteem, hunger, lack of concentration amongst ovc, absenteeism or lateness to school and poor hygiene are the challenges, which can have a negative impact on ovc academic performance. pillay (2012) noted that most ovc find it difficult to read or do their homework when it gets dark because of poor power supply and inability to acquire alternatives. this situation has an adverse effect on the children’s academic achievement. implications for research and practice the socioeconomic well-being of ovc is a topical issue that necessitates a lot of research; the results of this study, therefore, add to the existing literature on this topic and as such expand knowledge. practically, this study unearths the educational and vocational situation of ovc in orphanages. this will send alarming signal to the government organisations and ngos and the general public on ovc educational and vocational challenges, thereby opening more doors for vocational and educational support. moreover, the recommendations of this study, when implemented, will contribute to the formulation and implementation of policies, which will improve the socioeconomic well-being of ovc in nigeria. study limitations few respondents’ academic report sheets/booklets were not accessible at the time of carrying out this study. also, it was difficult to obtain full concentration from the children whilst filling research questionnaire, as such the process was not void of mistakes. those children living with disability could not report accurately. it is also worthy to state that the response from kii may not be completely free from bias because of the fact that the two key informants were caregivers and are bound to project a good image of the organisations (orphanages) they belong to. conclusion and recommendations most ovc in orphanages are enrolled in school and also maintain regular school attendance. this could be because of the close monitoring and guidance of their caregivers. a small number of the children obtained vocational training. the respondents maintained high and encouraging academic performance, although very few had poor performance in school. according to the caregivers, this poor performance is attributed to educational challenges experienced by the children in terms of lack of funds to acquire the necessary educational materials and also offer other school-related provisions. the study, therefore, recommends that: the government should provide adequate educational materials to ovc in orphanages. individuals, private and public organisations should help in providing the basic support to ovc in order to ameliorate their educational challenges. non-governmental organisations, as well as the government should create a conducive environment with frequent power supply for the ovc in orphanages. orphans and vulnerable children living with disability should be assisted by both private and public individuals/organisations to be enrolled in school of the disability children as well as monitor and encourage their sustained school attendance. vocational education should be seen and treated as basic education for all children, especially the ovc, who may not have the opportunity to go higher in academics. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank reverend joseph okon ibok for financial, moral, spiritual and physical support; assoc. prof. agba for moral and academic support; and dr e. etobe for moral, spiritual and academic support. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions the corresponding author did the whole work through the guidance of other authors. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references benjamin, m.m. 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(2008). children and aids: third stocktaking report. new york, ny: united nations children fund. abstract background research objective method results discussion research limitations and directions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa marais s. bester department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., bester, m.s., ferreira, n., & potgieter, h. (2020). facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability. african journal of career development, 2(1), a11. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.11 original research facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability melinde coetzee, marais s. bester, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 20 feb. 2020; accepted: 16 apr. 2020; published: 28 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the fast-changing industry 4.0 employment conditions require employees to be highly adaptable and resilient in their career self-management. more insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability (as an indicator of self-regulated career management resources that help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context). objectives: the study explored the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals’ career adaptability. method: the study utilised a cross-sectional research design which involved a convenience sample (n = 177) of employees (mean age = 34 years; sd = 10.14) from various industries on managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe. the sample was mostly represented by individuals employed in the south african organisational context (72%). results: multiple regression analyses revealed that technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation function as facets of adaptive readiness that explain higher levels of the career adaptability resources embedded in individuals’ career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence. conclusion: the findings contribute new insights into the construct of career agility and extends research on antecedents of career adaptability. modern-day career counselling practice may find the results useful in helping clients be nimble in their adaptation to the changing career and job conditions of the digital era. keywords: adaptivity; adaptive readiness; career adaptability; career agility; technological adaptivity; agile learning; career navigation; broaden-and-build theory. background employees’ career adaptability is an important self-regulative personal resource that aids in the proactive adaptation to changing work situations. modern-day work conditions involve, inter alia, more frequent transitions between jobs, organisations, and occupations which require enhanced career adaptation capabilities (rudolph, lavigne, katz, & zacher, 2017). the capacity to adjust and display adaptability has become desirable to deal nimbly with the digital era’s unprecedented economic and technological forces that are reshaping work opportunities and conditions (johnston, 2018; lent, 2018). career adaptability reflects four transactional psychosocial strengths or capacities (i.e. career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence) that function as career self-management resources in the adaptation process. these resources facilitate successful alignment with, and proactive adaptation to shifting environmental conditions (hirschi, herrmann, & keller, 2015; rudolph et al., 2017). adapting responses, enabled by individuals’ career adaptability, is reflected in proactive career behaviours such as, career planning and decision-making. proactive career behaviours generally lead to positive outcomes such as career satisfaction, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction (johnston, 2018; rudolph et al., 2017). career agility has emerged as an important construct in popular media to assess individuals’ adaptive readiness or willingness to adapt and proactively respond to change (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). the career construction theory (savickas, 2013) postulates that adaptation starts with adaptive readiness, moves to the use of adaptability resources, then to adapting responses which result in outcomes of adaptation. the extant research on antecedents of career adaptability explored career optimism, future work self, learning goal orientation, goal pursuit and personality traits in the form of core self-evaluations and proactivity as indicators of adaptive readiness (hirschi et al., 2015; johnston, 2018). however, more empirical insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability. research (see, for example, hirschi et al., 2015; johnston, 2018; perera & mcilveen, 2017) indicates adaptive readiness as an important antecedent of individuals’ career adaptability. adaptive readiness appears to activate the self-regulated career management resources of career adaptability. these resources were shown to help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career agility denotes the willingness or adaptive readiness to proactively adapt to technological change and to engage in continuous learning which may help to trigger the use of career-adaptability resources. research objective the aim of this research is to explore career agility as a potential antecedent or explanatory mechanism of individuals’ career adaptability. popular media (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020) have started to discuss the importance of career agility in career self-management. however, empirical studies on the construct are lacking. to our knowledge, the present study is the first empirical study that provides more insight into the construct of career agility and its link with the well-researched construct of career adaptability. it is postulated that the adaptive readiness to change, reflected in the three facets of career agility (i.e. technological adaptivity, agile learning, career navigation), positively explain individuals’ adaptability resources of career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence. career agility in the career development and employment space, career agility refers to the adaptive readiness or willingness to adapt to, and proactively respond to changes that influence one’s future career wellbeing and satisfaction (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). the capacity for career agility is deemed important in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). industry 4.0 is argued to bring new occupations, new industries and fundamentally new ways of work because of technological innovation (hirschi, 2018). coetzee, ferreira and potgieter (2020) identified three facets of career agility (i.e. technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation) that describe individuals’ adaptive readiness for proactive career self-management in the technological-driven digital era. these three facets stemmed from a comprehensive review of the research literature on career adaptive behaviours (which informed the development of the career agility scale), and a preliminary exploratory factor analysis on a south african-based pilot study (coetzee et al., 2020): technological adaptivity denotes a sense of optimism and positive affect toward accelerated technological development and the possibility of new and exciting job and career opportunities these bring. generally, such individuals feel that technologically evolving job roles optimise their creativity, growth and happiness. they generally seem eager to search for job roles that evolve with the changing technological conditions because of the growth opportunities these offer. individuals who display high levels of technological adaptivity generally deem it important to update their knowledge and skills in order to capitalise on the new job opportunities created by technological developments. they are confident in marketing their unique brand of values and portfolio of skills across digital networks (coetzee et al., 2020). popular media suggest that career agility is built on the coordination of personal strengths and resources that can be leveraged for career success. creating a diverse network of professional relationships often help to create meaningful new career pathways in uncertain, changing contexts (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). agile learning alludes to the willingness to set and manage the achievement of career goals. individuals who display high levels of agile learning generally feel alive and full of energy; they are eager to search for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve their career and job success (coetzee et al., 2020). popular media regards the investment in learning as an important facet of career self-management which helps people to acquire an intelligent know-how that accelerates their career development. an agile learning mindset encourages people to consider projects and opportunities that build, leverage and maximise their knowledge, skills and style preferences (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). career navigation reflects individuals’ willingness to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in their job and career environment. individuals with high levels of career navigation are willing to scan the environment for new career opportunities and to take advantage of changes in the job and career environment. such individuals are highly flexible in their capacity to adapt to change (coetzee et al., 2020). andersen (2020) regards career navigation as an important mindset to remain informed of changes and opportunities in the market. career navigation fosters environmental awareness which helps individuals leverage and apply changes with confidence to their own careers and jobs. the three facets of career agility denote positive affective states which function as internal adaptivity signals to approach or continue in the advent of technological change. the career construction theory posits in this regard that adaptivity fosters the development and activation of adaptability resources that facilitate the approach to the adaptation process (perera & mcilveen, 2017; savickas, 2013). the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) explains that individuals have the capacity for broadening their mindsets which carry the indirect and long-term adaptive benefit of facilitating the building of enduring psychosocial resources for adaptation purposes. theoretically, it is argued that the facets of career agility function as motivational energisers of adaptivity that promote the building of personal resources needed to achieve career goals. the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) posits that experiences of positive emotions prompt engagement with the environment and the intrinsic motivational drive to actively partake in activities that may often be adaptive for the individual in an evolutionary sense. the positive affective states embedded in adaptive readiness provide the offset to willingly exhibit the adaptive bias to approach and explore novel objects, people or situations (frederickson, 2004). research shows that individuals with high adaptability profiles generally demonstrate high levels of adaptivity, that is, flexibility, willingness and readiness to change (hirschi & valero, 2015; perera & mcilveen, 2017). generally, popular media argue that the positive affective states inherent to career agility enhance individuals’ career fitness and motivation to succeed (andersen, 2020). in this regard, popular media further suggest that the capacity for career agility increases motivation, confidence and resilience. individuals with high levels of career agility seem more confident in their career decision-making; they are eager to develop career action plans, develop new perspectives on the job search process, and are able to identify a wide range of professional options and possibilities that they are eager to pursue (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). it therefore stands to reason that the dispositional flexibility and positivity inherent to the three facets of career agility may function as formative adaptive readiness contributors to the process of adaptation by activating the drive to use career adaptability resources. career adaptability career adaptability involves a set of four psychosocial career self-management resources (i.e. career concern, career control, career curiosity, career confidence) that help individuals adapt to changes in the job market and job conditions (ginevra, pallini vecchio, nota, & soresi, 2016; savickas & porfeli, 2012). career adaptability and its set of resources are deemed important for people’s interaction with the world of work (johnston, 2018). mcmahon, watson and brimrose (2012) found that the four career adaptability resources emerge in the evaluation of the career self in relation to external circumstances and internal subjective experiences of the world of work. career concern reflects career-related forethought and preparation to respond to the demands, challenges and changes of the future work environment. career control refers to the degree of responsibility that an individual assumes for their vocational future; it further implies the use of self-regulation strategies to adjust to the needs of different settings. career curiosity implies the intrinsic motivation to explore possible future selves and associated vocational prospects and options. career confidence relates to the belief in one’s ability to attain career goals; one feels confident to stand by one’s own aspirations and goals despite difficulties (ginevra et al., 2016; rudolph et al., 2017). these four career adaptability resources appear to be activated by a predisposition to positively and proactively approach new stimuli (savickas, 2013; savickas & porfeli, 2012). adaptive-ready individuals generally report significantly higher levels of career adaptability than those who are more rigid toward change (perera & mcilveen, 2017). research shows that positive emotional dispositions, career concerns, learning orientation and hope do predict adaptability (johnston, 2018). it therefore stands to reason that the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation will positively predict the activation of individuals’ career adaptability, embedded in the resources of career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence. whereas career agility denotes adaptive readiness and a dispositional willingness to adapt and change, the activation of the career adaptability resources actually connects them to the environment (see hirschi et al., 2015). taking theory and empirical research together, we formulated the following research hypothesis: h1: scores on facets of career agility positively predict scores on facets of career adaptability. method participants the sample involved a cross-sectional, convenience sample (n = 177) of adult workers (mean age = 34 years; sd = 10.14) employed in various industries in managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe (south africa: 72%; western europe: 12%; eastern europe: 6%; africa: 6%; australia/new zealand: 2%; usa: 2%). in terms of ethnic origin, white/caucasian people represented 67% of the sample. people from african origin comprised 18% of the sample. the sample was also represented by people from asian origin (5%) and of mixed race (3%) origin. male participants represented 46% and females 54% of the sample. measuring instruments career agility the career agility scale developed by coetzee et al. (2020) was used to measure the following three constructs of career agility: technological adaptivity (seven items; e.g. ‘i search for job roles that evolve with changing technological conditions because they offer opportunities for growth and creativity’); agile learning (five items; e.g. ‘i continually search for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve my career and job success’); and career navigation (six items; e.g. ‘i am able to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in my job and career environment’). respondents rated each item on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.90) on the career agility scale. the internal consistency reliability for the subscales ranged between 0.73 and 0.89 (coetzee et al., 2020). career adaptability the well-established career adapt-ability scale of savickas and porfeli (2012) was applied to measure respondents’ overall career adaptability and their career concern (six items; e.g. ‘thinking about what my future will be like’) ; career control (six items; e.g. ‘keeping up to date with the latest developments in my occupational field’), career curiosity (six items; e.g. ‘becoming curious about new opportunities’), and career confidence (five items: e.g. ‘working up to my ability’). respondents rate each item on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). the career adapt-ability scale has proven construct validity and internal consistency reliability (savickas & porfeli, 2012; uy, chan, sam, ho, & chernyshenko, 2015). procedure data were collected via the professional, online social media platform, namely linkedin. the invitation to participate in the study targeted (n = 1000) individuals with an electronic link to the questionnaire. a total of (n = 177) usable questionnaires were returned and thus a response rate of 18% was achieved. the participants received an electronic link via email. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss file for data analysis purposes. ethical consideration ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2019_cems/iop_010). the participants were invited to voluntarily engage in the research study. the online questionnaire included an informed consent form. the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured. the participants gave informed consent that the data could be used for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). tolerance (< 0.1) and the variance inflation factor (vif above 2.5) were utilised to assess any concerns about multicollinearity. results were interpreted at the 95% confidence level interval. results table 1 shows that the internal consistency reliability coefficients for all the constructs were acceptable (≥ 0.75 to ≤ 0.92). the correlations between the three career agility constructs and the career adaptability constructs were all positive and significant (r ≥ 0.39 to r ≤ 0.59; p = 0.0001; moderate to large practical effect). table 1: descriptive statistics, internal consistency reliability, and bivariate correlations (n = 177). as shown in table 2, all five the anova models were significant: model 1 (career adaptability): f = 16.34; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.43 (large practical effect); model 2 (career concern): f = 8.28; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.30 (large practical effect); model 3 (career control): f = 12.91; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.37 (large practical effect); model 4 (career curiosity): f = 15.54; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.41 (large practical effect); model 5 (career confidence): f = 9.75; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.30 (large practical effect). the tolerance values for all the models were greater than 0.20 and the vif values were lower than 0.20, which showed that multicollinearity was not a threat to the findings. table 2: results of multiple regression analysis (n = 177). table 2 shows that the three career agility constructs (technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation) were all statistically significant positive predictors and explained a large amount of the variance in overall career adaptability, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence. career navigation was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.29; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.28; p = 0.01), career curiosity (β = 0.31; p = 0.001) and career confidence (β = 0.25; p = 0.01). technological adaptivity was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.28; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.25; p = 0.01), career curiosity (β = 0.23; p £ 0.01) and career confidence (β = 0.24; p = 0.01). agile learning was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.24; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.18; p = 0.05), career curiosity (β = 0.26; p = 0.001) and career confidence (β = 0.20; p = 0.01). technological adaptivity (β = 0.26; p = 0.01), and agile learning (β = 0.18; p = 0.05) were also both statistically significant predictors of career concern. the results provided supportive evidence for our research hypothesis h1: scores on facets of career agility positively predict scores on facets of career adaptability. discussion the present study explored career agility as an antecedent of career adaptability. the results confirmed our hypothesis that the three facets of career agility, namely technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation would positively predict individuals’ career adaptability. it was evident that the facets of career agility explained individuals’ cognitive awareness of the career self-management resources inherent to their career adaptability. the findings corroborate savickas’s (2013) view that the four resources of career adaptability (i.e. career concern, career curiosity, career control, and career confidence) are activated by individuals’ adaptive readiness. generally, our findings highlighted technological adaptivity, career navigation and agile learning as important facets of adaptive readiness that seem to positively activate the resources of career adaptability. technological adaptivity implies a cognitive openness and positive affective state toward technological change. agile learning denotes an eagerness to expand one’s skills and knowledge through new job and career opportunities. career navigation reflects the willingness to proactively navigate and adapt to change (coetzee et al., 2020). it appears from the findings that the sense of optimism and positive affect toward accelerated technological development, as well as the energy and positive affect underpinning agile learning, activated the career adaptability resources needed for proactive career planning (concern), career decidedness (control), career exploration (curiosity) and career self-efficacy beliefs (confidence). the findings are in agreement with research showing that positive emotional dispositions and learning orientation positively predict adaptability (johnston, 2018). the strong explanatory power of especially technological adaptivity and career navigation regarding all the career adaptability resources could be attributed to the basic premise of the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) that positively affect generally broadens individuals’ thought-action repertoires or mindsets, and calls forth specific personal resources and strengths that facilitate adaptation to changing and challenging circumstances (frederickson & branigan, 2005). the willingness to scan the environment and adapt to career changes (career navigation) was especially relevant to activating the resources of career control (i.e. taking responsibility for one’s future and keeping up to date with new developments in their occupational field), career curiosity (i.e. displaying the intrinsic motivation to explore alternative futures and actions that may lead to new futures), and career confidence (i.e. belief in one’s ability to attain their career goals and overcome obstacles). the findings support previous research showing that highly career-adaptive ready individuals characteristically display important proactive career self-management capabilities, such as those embedded in their career adaptability resources (see johnston, 2018; rudolph et al., 2017; savickas & porfeli, 2012). the study findings have noteworthy implications for theory and practice. the study extends current theory on the antecedents of career adaptability by its exploration of the construct of career agility. drawing from the reasoning of johnston (2018), the career agility facets denote individuals’ adaptive readiness (i.e. willingness to change and adapt), which, in turn, seemingly triggers the intrinsic motivation to draw on career adaptability resources (i.e. self-regulated career management strengths and capabilities) to deal nimbly with current and anticipated changes in the industry 4.0 employment environment. popular media argue that people with high levels of career agility are resourceful in identifying and pursuing professional options and possibilities; they succeed in the job search process, and are able to design careers that are meaningful and fulfilling (andersen, 2020; ubc, 2020). the present study’s findings empirically corroborate arguments made by popular media that individuals’ capacity for career agility increases their motivation and confidence, and helps them to be more confident in their decision-making and develop better career action plans (ubc, 2020). the findings may be used to inform contemporary career counselling practice concerned with raising individuals’ career self-management capability and adaptive career response-ability. an initial assessment of clients’ career agility may prove useful in evaluating their cognitive openness and positive affective state toward technological change, their eagerness to engage in learning new skills, and to navigate the career environment of industry 4.0 for new opportunities to craft meaningful professional lives. an assessment of career agility may help trigger the use of career adaptability resources which are essential for proactive career self-management and successful career outcomes. research limitations and directions for future research our study employed cross-sectional data to test the research hypothesis. no causal claims can therefore be made. the research design was appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research, because little is known about the link between the three career agility and the career adaptability constructs. future research should replicate the study and include a wider range of career constructs in order to assess the construct and predictive validity of the career agility scale. longitudinal designs and intervention studies could be conducted to test whether training individuals to be more career agile can, in turn, raise career adaptability and contribute to career satisfaction across the lifespan. the sample also scored very high on all the career agility scale constructs; there was also little variability on the career adaptability scale scores. the mean scores could have been attributed to the sample being predominantly recruited from a professional social media platform. future research should replicate the study in more diverse samples from various job levels and occupational groups. conclusion the study contributed to research on the relatively new construct of career agility. the study showed that the positive affect and career-related thought-action repertoires embedded in the construct of career agility positively explained the use of career self-management resources inherent to individuals’ career adaptability. the study advances research on antecedents of career adaptability and the findings can help inform modern-day career counselling. acknowledgements all authors contributed to the data collection. m.c. assisted with the data analysis and interpretation. all authors contributed to the conceptual framework and writing up of the research article. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references andersen, m. 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(2015). proactivity, adaptability and boundaryless career attitudes: the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness. journal of vocational behavior, 86, 115–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.11.005 abstract introduction theoretical framework research methodology results discussion limitations and future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) refiloe majake department of sport, rehabilitation and dental sciences, faculty of science, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa alliance kubayi department of sport, rehabilitation and dental sciences, faculty of science, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation majake, r., & kubayi, a. (2024). where does it all start? gender-differences in athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career. african journal of career development, 6(1), a155. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.155 original research where does it all start? gender-differences in athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career refiloe majake, alliance kubayi received: 13 oct. 2024; accepted: 18 nov. 2024; published: 13 dec. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: while studies have addressed the reasons why coaches choose or leave the coaching profession, an initial inquiry into coaching should focus on the level of interest among athletes in becoming coaches. objectives: the study investigated differences between male and female athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career in south africa. methods: this study adopted a cross-sectional research design involving 200 (152 male and 48 female; mage = 29.21, standard deviation [s.d.] = 4.75) athletes. participation in the study was voluntary. data were collected through various scales assessing athletes’ self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers and supports, choice goals and intention to coach. results: the findings showed that male athletes recorded significantly (p < 0.05) higher mean values for self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, choice goals and intention to coach than female athletes. two factors were shown to be independently predictive of the intention to coach: self-efficacy (β = -0.21, p < 0.01) and barriers (β = 0.19, p < 0.01). conclusion: this study provides novel information to sports federations on the factors influencing athletes’ career aspirations. contribution: this study adds to the body of knowledge on interest in coaching after an athlete’s playing career is over and offers baseline data for encouraging and enlisting athletes as coaches. keywords: self-efficacy; barriers; athletes; choice goals; outcome expectations. introduction coaching is a visible profession that has been studied from a variety of perspectives (al-emadi et al., 2018; jowett, 2008). for example, sports coaching research has been conducted in south africa on topics such as educational needs (kubayi et al., 2016), gender issues (surujlal & vyas-doorgapersad, 2015), talent identification and development (lethole et al., 2024) and sources of stress (kubayi et al., 2018). research has also investigated factors that influence coaches’ decisions to enter or exit the coaching profession. these factors include the impact of a role model, an interest in working with children, a desire to develop athletes’ skills, a desire to win and a sense of fulfilment (kubayi, 2015). other studies have offered compelling evidence that coaches leave the profession because of discrimination, a lack of organisational support, low compensation, job conflict with family and social life and pressure to win (kubayi et al., 2017a; surujlal & vyas-doorgapersad, 2015). while the above-mentioned studies have advanced our knowledge about coaching (al-emadi et al., 2018), a preliminary investigation into the coaching profession should focus on the level of interest among athletes in becoming coaches. kamphoff and gill (2008) sampled 201 college athletes on their perceptions of entering the coaching profession and the barriers and discrimination they face as coaches. their findings showed that male athletes were more likely to become coaches than their female counterparts. clopton (2015) indicated that gender differences within the coaching profession may be partly because of perceptions formed before entry. although choosing a career can be a complicated process, there are factors (e.g., barriers, goals, outcome expectations, support and self-efficacy) that play an important role in the decision. the social cognitive career theory (scct) investigates these factors, making it a useful framework for examining the factors that may influence athletes’ interest in pursuing a career in sports coaching (bernhard, 2010). theoretical framework this study is based on the scct (lent et al., 1994), which is aimed at understanding how individuals make decisions and take actions (clopton, 2015). the scct considers self-efficacy and other personal variables, including choice goals, as key factors in assisting individuals in directing their own behaviour (bandura, 1986). according to the scct, people form their job interests during key stages of their educational and professional journey. different learning opportunities and rewards are offered at these stages, creating expectations regarding the outcomes of their endeavours and a level of interest or disinterest in further opportunities linked to career pathways (clopton, 2015). people are likely to develop interests based on their perceptions of their performance (self-efficacy) and the potential results of their efforts (outcome expectations) (lent et al., 2010). contextual elements also influence the decision-making process (clopton, 2015) as contextual supports and barriers moderate the ways in which people translate their career interests into objectives and goals (lent et al., 2001). only a few studies have used the scct framework to investigate athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career. one such study, carried out by clopton (2015), used scct to examine gender differences in student-athletes’ perceptions of entering the coaching profession. the findings showed no differences between male and female student-athletes in their perceptions of prospective social support and potential unfavourable outcomes should they decide to pursue a career as a coach. male student-athletes showed significantly higher levels of perceived barriers to entering the coaching profession, but they also reported higher levels of positive expectations and higher perceptions of their own coaching efficacy (clopton, 2015). aside from the abovementioned study, not much research has been carried out from the athletes’ point of view. instead, the majority of published studies have focussed on coaches (kubayi & coopoo, 2018). in south africa, very little research has even explored athletes’ desire to become coaches. as schull (2017, p. 99) noticed, the interests of a ‘large … pool of qualified candidates’ for coaching are being ‘overlooked’. this study aims to fill this gap by examining the interests of south african athletes in pursuing a coaching career once they finish their playing careers. more specifically, it investigates the differences between male and female athletes’ intentions to pursue a coaching career. by gaining insight into the factors influencing student athletes’ career aspirations, the south african sports coaching association and sports federations can enhance their efforts to recruit them as future coaches. research methodology research design and participants this study adopted a cross-sectional research design. a total of 200 (152 male and 48 female; mage = 29.21, standard deviation [sd] = 4.75) athletes from various teams participated in the study. their participation was voluntary. most participants were involved in cricket (33%), which was followed by hockey (25%), rugby (14%), athletics (12%), netball (10%) and soccer (6%). measures the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire with demographic information and respond on different scales to items purporting to assess self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers and supports, choice goals and intention to coach. for each questionnaire, the final score was calculated using the mean. self-efficacy self-efficacy was measured using nine items adapted from everhart and chelladurai (1998) (cronbach’s α = 0.914). participants were required to provide answers to questions focussing on actions coaches would perform (e.g., ‘resist interference by parents, alumni and other groups’). each item was scored on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (no confidence) to 7 (complete confidence). outcome expectations participants were required to provide answers to questions on the results they might anticipate from working as a coach (e.g., ‘i will earn a high salary by becoming a coach’). nine items adapted from cunningham et al. (2005) were utilised (cronbach’s α = 0.879). these items reflected physical, social and self-evaluative outcomes (bandura, 1986). each item was measured on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). barriers and supports to assess factors that might negatively influence the decision to become a coach, the study included six barrier questions (e.g., ‘there is a lack of opportunities to become a coach’) taken from lent et al. (2000) and cunningham et al. (2007) (cronbach’s α = 0.849). each item was anchored on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). questions assessing support participants received (e.g., ‘i have all the training needed to become a coach’) were also included. this assessment used six items taken from lent et al. (2000) and cunningham et al. (2007) (cronbach’s α = 0.903). each item was answered on a seven-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). choice goals career goals were measured by asking participants about their level of interest in becoming a coach after graduation (cunningham et al., 2007) (cronbach’s α = 0.76). three questions (e.g., ‘becoming a coach is something that really interests me’) were asked (bernhard, 2010). each item was anchored on a seven-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). intention to coach intent was measured based on hagger et al. (2002) formulation of behavioural intentions, which includes three items. each item was assessed on a seven-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). the study cross-checked the participants’ responses using two sets of three questions, each set containing two positive statements and one negative statement. it should be observed that six sets of questions were needed to assess the five scct elements because choice goals was assessed with two measurements (bernhard, 2010). data collection the lead investigator oversaw the data collection process, which involved distributing questionnaires to each team member before and after training sessions. after being given instructions, each participant completed the questionnaire on their own, taking around 10 min in total. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct the study was received from the university’s research ethics committee (no fcre 2023/02/016). all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the helsinki declaration ethical standards. informed consent was obtained from all athletes involved in the study. data analysis descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse data. an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare significant differences between male and female athletes’ scores for self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support, choice goals and intention to coach. the effect size (es) using cohen’s d was used to ascertain the magnitude of the differences and was categorised and interpreted as small (< 0.20), medium (< 0.50) and large (≥ 0.80) (cohen, 1988). pearson correlations were used to examine relationships among the studied variables (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support, choice goals and intention to coach). the strength of relationships was interpreted as small (0.10–0.29), medium (0.30–0.49) and large (0.50–1) (cohen, 1988). a multiple regression analysis was also applied to predict intention to coach based on self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support and choice goals. the variance inflation factor (vif) and tolerance analyses were used to assess the multiple regression model’s goodness of fit and check for multicollinearity among the variables (field, 2018). the significance level was set at ≤ 0.05. all statistical analyses were computed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss inc., chicago, il, usa) software version 28. results table 1 shows the results for self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support, choice goals and intention to coach, based on gender. the findings show that male athletes recorded significantly higher mean values for self-efficacy (t(198) = 2.36, p = 0.02), outcome expectations (t(198) = 2.72, p = 0.01), barriers (t(198) = 2.01, p = 0.05), choice goals (t(198) = 2.18, p = 0.03) and intention to coach (t(198) = 2.10, p = 0.04) than female athletes. however, it should be observed that all the effect sizes between male and female athletes were small in all the variables. table 1: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support, career goals and intention to coach between male and female athletes. table 2 shows the bivariate correlations among the studied variables, including self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support, choice goals and intention to coach. the results show that outcome expectations was strongly correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.46, p < 0.01) and support (r = 0.39, p < 0.01). however, the relationship between outcome expectations and the two variables of self-efficacy and support was moderate. table 2: bivariate correlations among studied variables. a multiple regression analysis was performed to predict intention to coach based on self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support and choice goals. table 3 presents the results. as shown, for all the variables examined, the assumption of no multicollinearity was met (vif values < 10 and tolerance > 0.1). as a whole, these five factors significantly predicted the intention to coach (f(5, 195) = 3.004, p < 0.012, r2 = 0.072). however, only two factors were shown to be independently predictive: self-efficacy (β = -0.21, p < 0.01) and barriers (β = 0.19, p < 0.01). table 3: prediction of intention to coach based on self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, support and choice goals. discussion this study aimed to investigate the comparative interest of male and female athletes in entering the coaching profession. the findings support the extant literature on the scct and provide new insights for further studies on gender differences in coaching. multiple regression analysis results showed that self-efficacy predicted an athlete’s intention to coach, regardless of gender. individuals who possess a high level of self-efficacy are better able to cultivate career-sustaining behaviour, and they frequently maintain positive attitudes towards the challenges they face in their career development (chan, 2013). however, the self-efficacy means for male athletes was significantly higher than for female athletes, which might be explained by the widespread prejudice against female coaches, even among athletes who have been exposed to female coaches. instead, the ‘role model effect’ might be limited to situations in which an athlete has a high-quality relationship with a coach (wasend & lavoi, 2019). in their study, moran-miller and flores (2011) reported that athletes who had high quality relationships with their female coaches had higher coaching self-efficacy. madsen and mcgarry (2016) argued that being exposed to female coaches is not as important as being mentored. female athletes are more likely to become coaches if they receive active mentoring from coaches, whether male or female. while coaching increases self-efficacy, which is predictive of intention to coach, positive outcome expectations, according to scct, might also increase a person’s interest in a particular profession and their decision to pursue professional growth (chan, 2020). in this study, male student-athletes recorded significantly higher means on outcome expectations than their female counterparts. unexpectedly, however, they also identified considerably more barriers to becoming a coach. these findings appear to support clopton and sagas’ (2009) contention that potential coaching candidates are more disillusioned by low self-efficacy and outcome expectations than by perceived barriers. an individual will typically choose a particular activity (e.g., coaching) if they believe they are capable of it and their performance will yield worthwhile outcomes (chan et al., 2016). regarding perceptions of social support for pursuing a career in coaching, the findings showed no significant differences between male and female student-athletes. this is a positive finding considering that previous research showed a lack of support programmes for south african female coaches (kubayi et al., 2017b). the current result might point to a paradigm shift in the level of encouragement given to female athletes seeking coaching careers. at the same time, it is important to emphasise that the most persuasive sources and forms of support may lie in variables that this study did not address. according to scct, there are many personal and environmental factors that affect career choice, and these could not all be included in this study (wasend & lavoi, 2019). previous studies (cunningham et al., 2005; wasend & lavoi, 2019) have demonstrated that students’ interest in athletic occupations may not always translate into those careers if they do not receive outside support from coaches or other similar figures. the findings showed significant differences between male and female athletes with respect to choice goals, with male athletes scoring higher on this item than female athletes. male athletes also scored higher on intention to coach. these results corroborate those of a previous investigation in which female student-athletes stated that they had fewer intentions to pursue a coaching career (kamphoff & gill, 2008). it is possible that female athletes decide not to enter the coaching profession long before they feel the full force of the ‘glass ceiling’ (clopton, 2015). this assumption would seem corroborated by the multiple regression results, which showed that intention to coach was predicted by perceived barriers. it follows that gender alone may not be the most significant factor influencing athletes’ intention to coach. other factors including relationships with coaches, overall collegiate experience and attitudes towards sport may be more important. female athletes who aspire to become coaches may be negatively influenced by the established network connections held by their coaches, with male coaches being more likely to be associated with robust, cohesive and strong professional networks (wasend & lavoi, 2019). in this study, five factors – self-efficacy, outcome expectation, barriers, support and choice goals – accounted for 7% of the variance on athletes’ intention to coach, leaving 93% of the variance unexplained. this large percentage of unexplained variance could indicate that factors other than those investigated in this study have an impact on intention to coach. therefore, it is recommended that future studies continue to investigate the social psychological processes that athletes undergo when making decisions about their coaching pathways, and that these processes be examined in the context of team environments. this will require the addition of variables addressing social identities (e.g., athlete, student and career identities). in sum, to improve understanding of why athletes choose to follow a coaching career, future studies are advised to include more variables in order to expand the context in which conclusions are made (clopton, 2015). limitations and future research while this study offers new insights into gender differences in athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career, it is not without limitations. one limitation was the sample size. because the study was restricted to a single south african region, the results cannot be broadly generalised to the whole population. another limitation was the cross-sectional research approach, which relied on a questionnaire to analyse the relationship between the scct variables and investigate the role that gender plays in the athletes’ interest in becoming coaches. while a questionnaire can facilitate the collection of a great deal of participant data, it may be unable to capture in-depth information about athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career. future research should consider other qualitative research techniques, such focus groups and in-person interviews, to expand the scope and depth of the investigation and better understand the relationships between latent variables. conclusion in this study, male athletes scored significantly higher than female athletes on self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, career goals and intention to coach. these results show that considerable efforts must be taken to close the gender gap in coaching roles. it is suggested that sports federations offer female athletes greater educational opportunities, such as workshops and seminars, in order to support their quest for ongoing development in coaching as a career goal. equally important is including courses in coach education that are geared towards increasing positive outcome expectations and self-efficacy among female athletes to enhance their desire to pursue a coaching career. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank all athletes who participated in this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.m. and a.k. conceived and planned the study. r.m. collected the data and took the lead in writing the article. r.m. and a.k. contributed to the interpretation of the results. both the authors provided critical feedback and helped to shape the research and analysis of the article. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, a.k. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references al-emadi, a., theodorakis, 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(2019). are women coached by women more likely to become sport coaches? head coach gender and female collegiate athletes’ entry into the coaching profession. women in sport and physical activity journal, 27(2), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2018-0043 https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of african journal of career development. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. anlia pretorius ann-kathrin dittrich anthony naidoo brandon morgan brian j. taber chris beukes chris myburgh cristina ginevra donna m. san antonio emilie carosin erna gerryts gerry swan henriëtte janse van rensburg kayi ntinda kobus maree louise michelle vital maximus m. sefotho meenakshi chhabra melinde coetzee nicola taylor paul g. west petro erasmus ronald g. sultana ronel kleynhans sonja brink https://ajcd.africa� https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m. (2022). career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness. african journal of career development, 4(1), a54. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.54 original research career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness melinde coetzee received: 04 jan. 2022; accepted: 28 apr. 2022; published: 30 may 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the role of individuals’ career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility mindset in purposive career exploration. objectives: the objective of this study was to assess the extent to which career orientations and awareness of the digital-era world of work contribute to a career agility mindset. method: the cross-sectional quantitative survey involved a sample of 486 adult learners (65% women; 35% men; 85% black learners; 15% white learners; and mean age 34 years) in the economic and management sciences field. results: regression analysis revealed the protean-type career orientations of technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence, and pure challenge career orientations as significant predictors of digital-era world of work awareness. digital-era world of work awareness and the technical and functional competence, pure challenge and general management career orientations acted as significant antecedents of the career agility mindset. conclusion: the associations between the study constructs offer promising support for applying principles of career exploration theory in digital-era purposive career exploration counselling. keywords: protean-like career agility mindset; career exploration; career orientations; purpose-enhancing career development; digital-era world of work awareness. introduction the digital-era world of work offers increased opportunities for exploring new and alternative forms of careers, jobs and occupations made possible by technological innovation (brown et al., 2018; coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a; deloitte, 2021; lent, 2018). modern conceptualisations of career exploration (jiang, newman, le, presbitero, & zheng, 2019) explain intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration as a hallmark of self-regulatory career adaptive functioning throughout all stages of the modern-day more uncertain and turbulent career. as an adaptive mechanism of personal agency, intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration enable individuals to purposefully cultivate their career agility and adaptability for career adaptation and renewal in their vocational development (jiang et al., 2019; rudolph, lavigne, & zacher, 2017). career exploration fosters individuals’ confidence in the intentional crafting of a meaningful, life-enhancing career future aligned to intrinsic career values, interests and life-career aspirations and goals (bates, rixon, carbone, & pilgrim, 2019). the career exploration process endorses a protean-like career agile mindset that guides agency in the management of a sustainable career in today’s turbulent and complex world of work (bates et al., 2019; coetzee et al., 2021a; hall, yip, & doiron, 2018). thus, career-agile individuals demonstrate adaptive readiness to meet the unfamiliar and unknown career phenomena and options presented by the digital-era work environment (coetzee, 2021a; hirschi, 2018; lent, 2018). a career agile growth mindset is associated with personal resilience in challenging times, job and life satisfaction, self-efficacy in career goal achievement and career well-being (caniels, semeijn, & renders, 2018; coetzee, 2021b; ting & datu, 2020). career exploration involves a purpose-driven exploration and evaluation of internal attributes such as career interests and values and external opportunities and constraints in relation to a career-relevant context (flum & blustein, 2000; jiang et al., 2019). the present study explored the associations between three constructs of career exploration, namely, career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility. career orientations are intrinsic career values that guide career decision-making and satisfaction (abessolo, hirschi, & rossier, 2021; schein & van maanen, 2016). research indicates individuals’ career orientations as an intricate aspect of selfand environmental exploration that contributes to job satisfaction during the initial stages of employment (jiang et al., 2019; werbel, 2000). individuals’ digital-era world of work awareness alludes to purposive extrinsic career exploration behaviour and cognitions that afford access to information about the changing nature of work, and new occupation and job opportunities, and the fit of these with personal career values and interests (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; jiang et al., 2019). digital-era world of work (extrinsic) career exploration facilitates coherent, purpose-enhancing career plans, the pursuit of a personally meaningful work–life career, and the management of career–life transitions and changes (jiang et al., 2019). intrinsic and extrinsic career explorations build career-related capabilities, resources and knowledge, and enhance individuals’ career adaptability (guan et al., 2015; jiang et al., 2019). the objective of this study was twofold. firstly, it explored the extent to which intrinsic career orientations inform individuals’ digital-era world of work awareness. secondly, the study explored whether individuals’ intrinsic career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness contribute to the career agility mindset. research by jiang et al. (2019) shows that intrinsic and extrinsic career explorations assist individuals to develop adaptive positive cognitions, attitudes and behaviours that benefit their careers. however, it is not clear how career exploration in the form of intrinsic career orientations and extrinsic world of work awareness relates to a career agility mindset. research by cai et al. (2015) shows that career exploration explains the process by which intrinsic attributes lead to the development of positive mindsets about the career future and career adaptability. however, there is currently a lack of research on the constructs of digital-era world of work awareness and career agility in the career exploration context. career agility as a mindset of adaptivity anchored in savickas’s (2013) model of psychological career adaptation, career agility denotes a mindset of adaptivity which is the psychological readiness to embrace the complexities and ill-defined occupational and work challenges of the digital-era world of work (coetzee, 2021a; hirschi, herrmann, & keller, 2015; savickas, 2013). career agility (i.e. individuals’ willingness to speedily and proactively adapt and respond to changes that influence their career success) acts as a precondition for the active use of the career adaptability resources needed for agentic career exploration and self-regulatory career management (coetzee et al., 2021a; savickas, 2013). individuals’ career adaptivity is reflected in the mindset states of technological adaptivity (i.e. optimism and problem-solving orientation towards seeking out new occupational and upskilling opportunities made possible by technological advancement), agile learning (i.e. energetic positivity towards searching out continuous learning and growth opportunities) and career navigation (i.e. self-efficacy in adapting to the changing career environment, and identifying gaps in the employment market that one could fill in unique ways; coetzee, bester, ferreira, & potgieter, 2020; coetzee, 2021b). these mindset states allude to the protean-like agentic aspects of openness to new experiences, volition, personal autonomy and control over one’s career that facilitate the use of career adaptability resources such as active career planning, career decidedness, extrinsic career exploration and career self-efficacy beliefs (coetzee et al., 2020; hall et al., 2018; hirschi et al., 2015). research has shown links between openness to new experiences and higher levels of productive career planning and exploration (ting & datu, 2020). theoretically, it appears that the assessment of career agility may be useful as a tool in career exploration counselling to elucidate individuals’ adaptive readiness to confidently and intentionally engage in extrinsic career exploration. however, individuals need a strong internal compass (i.e. a meaningful value-driven passion towards a career domain) to not only guide their career decisions and development, but also to activate their career agency in extrinsic career exploration (hall et al., 2018). in the present study, schein’s (1990) concept of career orientations is explored as a component of intrinsic career exploration that activates individuals’ extrinsic career exploration in the form of digital-era world of work awareness and career agility. career orientations research suggests that individuals’ personal values (i.e. desirable goals and life aspirations) have become essential for career decisions and choices, and lifelong agentic career development in times of uncertain career prospects (abessolo, rossier, & hirschi, 2017). in this regard, individuals’ career orientations provide purpose and meaning to their career choices and behaviour (abessolo et al., 2017; coetzee & schreuder, 2014; rodrigues, guest, & budjanovcanin, 2013; schein & van maanen, 2016). the master motivational values that underpin individuals’ career orientations serve as criteria for subjective career success that act as an internal cognitive compass pulling individuals towards specific career choices and decisions (abessolo et al., 2021). schein’s (1990) eight types of career orientations (anchors) denote four clusters of career-values mindsets (wils, wils, & tremblay, 2010): careerist mindset (associated with the general managerial competence career orientation), protean mindset (associated with the technical and functional competence, entrepreneurial creativity, pure challenge, and autonomy and independence career orientations), social mindset (associated with lifestyle and service and dedication to a cause career orientations) and bureaucratic mindset (associated with the security/stability career orientation). the careerist mindset of the general management competence orientation denotes self-enhancement as basic value (i.e. professional success, influence and power). the protean-mindset-associated career orientations allude to openness to change and agency (self-regulatory) values, a readiness for change and to autonomously pursue new challenging occupational and career challenges for personal growth and development. the social-mindset type of career orientations subscribes to human values of self-transcendence that emphasise social needs and benevolent connections. the bureaucratic mindset of the security and stability career orientation is associated with the basic human value of conservation (i.e. continuity, stability and bureaucratic links with others in the organisation; abessolo et al., 2017; schwartz et al., 2012; wils et al., 2010). career orientations guide intrinsic career exploration which evokes a feeling of curiosity towards the type of job and career that would bring the most fulfilment and career success (schein, 1990; su, 2020). assessment and conversational exploration of career orientation mindsets enliven or activate the epistemic curiosity needed to intentionally (purposefully) engage in extrinsic career exploration to not only gain more information about the digital-era world of work career options that fit one’s career orientations but also to be career agile by proactively adapting and responding to changes that influence one’s career success (coetzee et al., 2021a; grossnickle, 2016; su, 2020). digital-era world of work awareness like career agility, digital-era world of work awareness is a person-in-environment construct of extrinsic career exploration (jiang et al., 2019). in the present study, individuals’ world of work awareness denotes their conscious, purposive cognitions that afford them access to information about the nature of work, occupations and jobs in the digital-era world of employment. such information includes an understanding of the impact of technological advancement on job and employment opportunities, and the changing nature of work (brown et al., 2018: deloitte, 2021; deloitte insights, 2019; mckinsey global institute, 2015, 2016). individuals’ awareness of the changing world of work helps them gain information on potential new digitally driven occupational opportunities in their field of interest, and the new type of skills and knowledge they need to qualify for new forms of jobs and occupations (brown et al., 2018; coetzee et al., 2021b; deloitte, 2021). it stands to reason that individuals’ cognitions and feelings about their preferred career orientations will be positively associated with the extrinsic career exploration cognitions of world of work awareness. schein and van maanen (2016) suggest that the protean-type career orientations technical and functional competence, entrepreneurial creativity, pure challenge and autonomy and independence career orientations may be especially open-minded towards and curious about the new career opportunities proffered by the digital-era world of work. however, research on links between individuals’ career orientations and the construct of digital-era world of work awareness is non-existent. the following research question ensued from this research gap: research question 1: do individuals’ career orientations predict their digital-era world of work awareness? in the present study, it was also assumed that individuals’ world of work awareness will enhance their career agility because of the information and knowledge they have about the world of work. world-of-work-aware individuals recognise the need for rapid upskilling, reskilling and continuous learning for optimal adaptation to, and functioning within the digital-era employment market (coetzee et al., 2021b; kohl & swartz, 2019). digital-era world of work awareness is characteristic of the career agile mindset; individuals are able to rapidly learn, unlearn, relearn and adjust their personal worldviews, beliefs, career goals, interests and behaviour for re-achieving optimal person–environment congruence (brown et al., 2018; kohl & swartz, 2019). it further appears that some of the career orientations, such as the protean mindset type of career orientations, may also show a stronger link to individuals’ career agility than, for example, the careerist, social and bureaucratic type of mindsets because of the underpinning values that direct career cognitions and actions. individuals who ascribe to the protean-type career need for technical and functional competence (i.e. opportunities for continuous upskilling of one’s expertise through challenging work), autonomy and independence (i.e. self-reliant navigation of world of work for self-expression), entrepreneurial creativity (i.e. readiness to discover and pursue new self-expression opportunities) and pure challenge (i.e. the pursuit of new self-challenging career opportunities) generally tend to demonstrate a career-agile interest in and awareness of changes in the world of work (schein & van maanen, 2016). however, research on the associations between individuals’ career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility is non-existent. the following research question was posed: research question 2: do individuals’ career orientations and their digital-era world of work awareness predict their career agility? method participants the participants were a randomly selected sample (n = 486) of south african distance learning undergraduate adult learners in the economic and management sciences field. the participants comprised of women (65%) and men (35%) with a mean age of 34 years (standard deviation [sd] 9.12 years). in line with the south african employment equity act categorisation of race groups, the sample was represented by 85% black learners (african: 73%; coloured: 7%; indian: 5%) and 15% white learners. seventy-two per cent of the participants had full-time employment and 28% were unemployed. measuring instruments career agility the 18-item career agility scale (cas; coetzee et al., 2021a) was utilised to measure the participants’ career agility (e.g. ‘i am updating my knowledge and skills to capitalise on new job opportunities created by accelerated technological developments’). participants’ responses are measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (where 1: strongly disagree and 7: strongly agree). the cas has proven internal consistency reliability (> 0.80) and construct validity (coetzee et al., 2021a). career orientations schein’s (1990) 40-item career orientations inventory (coi) was applied to measure the perceptions of the career self-concept. the coi measures responses on a six-point likert-type scale (where 1: not true at all for me and 6: always true for me). the coi identifies eight types of career orientations (schein, 1990): (1) technical and functional competence (five items; e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i can develop my technical and functional skills to a very high level of competence’); (2) general management competence (five items; e.g. ‘i am most fulfilled in my work when i have been able to integrate and manage the efforts of others’); (3) autonomy and independence (five items; e.g. ‘i dream of having a career that will allow me the freedom to do a job on my own way and on my own schedule’); (4) security and stability (five items; e.g. ‘security and stability are more important to me than freedom and autonomy’); (5) entrepreneurial creativity (five items; e.g. ‘i am always on the lookout for ideas that would permit me to start my own enterprise’); (6) service and dedication to a cause (five items; e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i have a feeling of having made a real contribution to the welfare of society’); (7) pure challenge (five items; e.g. ‘i dream of a career in which i can solve problems or win out in situations that are extremely challenging’); (8) lifestyle (ls: five items; e.g. ‘i would rather leave my organisation than to be put into a job that would compromise my ability to pursue personal and family concerns’). the coi is a well-established instrument with demonstrated construct validity and internal consistency reliability (coetzee, schreuder, & tladinyane, 2014). digital-era world of work awareness the 16-item measure of the digital-era world of work awareness scale (dwwas: coetzee et al., 2021b) was utilised (e.g. ‘i have a clear picture of jobs and occupational opportunities made possible by new technological advancements in my field of study’). responses are measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (where 1: strongly disagree and 7: strongly agree). research by coetzee et al. (2021b) indicates construct validity and internal consistency reliability coefficients of α > 0.78 for the wwas. procedure the university’s internal lime survey facilities were utilised for data collection. the participants were invited via their student emails with a url link to the research questionnaire to voluntarily complete the online survey for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, reliability coefficients and pearson’s product–moment correlations were calculated and analysed using ibm corp. (2020) statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27. linear regression analysis was done by using hayes’s (2018) process procedure for spss version 3.5.3. the bootstrapping stringent lower level confidence interval (llci) and upper level confidence interval (ulci) range not containing zero was used to interpret significant direct (prediction) effects at the 95% confidence interval (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). ethical considerations ethics clearance for the research (erc reference: 2020_cems_iop_031) and permission to conduct the survey among the students (ref #: 2020_rpc_051) were granted by the university. participation was voluntary, anonymous, confidential and with informed consent to use the data for group-based research purposes. results descriptive statistics table 1 shows that all the scale variables had good reliability coefficients (α ≥ 0.74) except for the technical/functional competence (α = 0.60), autonomy/independence (α = 0.65) and lifestyle (α = 0.69) career self-concept orientations. the correlations between career agility, world of work awareness and the career self-concept orientations were significant and positive (r ≥ 0.16 and ≤ 0.53; p ≤ 0.001; small to large practical effect). however, the general management career self-concept orientation had no significant correlation with the career agility variable. table 1: descriptive statistics, reliability estimates and bivariate correlations (n = 486). career orientations as predictor of digital-era world of work awareness the linear regression f-statistic estimate (see witten, hastie, & tibshirani, 2013) reported in table 2 was significant. the f-statistic model explained 32% (r² = 0.32; large practical effect) of the variance in the construct. table 2 shows that the technical and functional competence (β = 0.32; p = 0.000; llci = 0.21; ulci = 0.45), autonomy and independence (β = 0.13; p = 0.01; llci = 0.03; ulci = 0.19) and pure challenge (β = 0.14; p = 0.01; llci = 0.03; ulci = 0.24) career orientations significantly predicted world of work awareness. in terms of research question 1, the results provided evidence that individuals’ career orientations predict their digital-era world of work awareness. table 2: results of prediction effects on digital-era world of work awareness (n = 486). career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness as predictors of career agility the f-statistic in table 3 was significant. the f-statistic model shows that digital-era world of work awareness and eight career orientations as predictor variables explained 34% (r² = 0.34; large practical effect) of the variance in career agility. in terms of research question 2, the results provided evidence that individuals’ career orientations and their digital-era world of work awareness predict their career agility. table 3: results of prediction effects on career agility (n = 486). table 3 shows that the world of work awareness variable (β = 0.42; p = 0.000; llci = 0.31; ulci = 0.48), the technical and functional competence (β = 0.13; p = 0.04; llci = 0.01; ulci = 0.24) and pure challenge (β = 0.20; p = 0.000; llci = 0.09; ulci = 0.28) career orientations significantly predicted career agility. the general management competence career orientation (β = −0.11; p = 0.01; llci = −0.12; ulci = −0.02) had a significant and negative prediction effect on career agility. discussion the study revealed important insights regarding the career orientation types technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence and pure challenge as explanatory antecedents of participants’ digital-era world of work awareness. in addition, the results provided an in-depth understanding of the contributory effect of the technical and functional competence, pure challenge and general management, including digital-era world of work awareness on participants’ career agility. the career values underpinning the technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence and pure challenge career orientations allude to the protean mindset values of openness to change and agency (self-regulatory) values, a readiness for change, and to autonomously pursue new challenging occupational and career challenges for personal growth and development (abessolo et al., 2017; wils et al., 2010). schein and van maanen (2016) argue that in the digital era, work for individuals who endorse the values of the technical and functional competence career orientation will be central to the development of their technical expertise and talents. for the autonomy and independence and pure challenge career orientation types, technological advancement will uncover future jobs that provide more challenging and exciting problem solving, growth and development opportunities than ever (schein & van maanen, 2016). the findings suggest that individuals who attach meaning to the underpinning values of the protean-type career orientations are more prone to engage in extrinsic career exploration (i.e. actively gain knowledge of the impact of the digital era on job and employment opportunities, the need for continuous learning, reskilling and upskilling because of changing job requirements, and the need for career agile adaptation (coetzee et al., 2021b). contrary to the protean-type career orientations of technical and functional competence and pure challenge, the professional success and self-enhancement values of the careerist mindset (general management competence) seemed to explain lower levels of career agile behaviour. this may be attributed to the careerist need for power and responsibility and rapid upward career progress which may be somewhat more diffused and unpredictable in the virtualised, digital-era workplace (reyes, luna, & salas, 2021; schein & van maanen, 2016). participants’ awareness of the digital-era world of work offered additional insight into the career agility mindset. the positive associations elucidated participants’ propensity for epistemic curiosity into the world of work changes, resulting in career agile external career exploration, self-efficacious career goal setting, and intentional and optimistic career navigation of new chance career and development opportunities proffered by technological advancement (coetzee, 2021a). the findings corroborate career exploration research showing an interplay between self-insight into career values and extrinsic exploration of the career environment that may produce positive career and work outcomes (jiang et al., 2019; lent, ireland, penn, morris, & sappington, 2017). self-environment career exploration is viewed as an adaptive behavioural attribute that leads to positive career outcomes (jiang et al., 2019; lent & brown, 2013; savickas, 2013). implications for purpose-enhancing career exploration counselling practice the central implication for purpose-enhancing career exploration counselling from this study is the challenge to help individuals translate the intrinsic exploration of, and insight into, career orientation values into self-regulatory extrinsic career exploration activity. such actions involve gaining knowledge about the changing nature of jobs and careers in the digital-era world of work and the career agility mindsets they need to successfully craft new, unplanned career opportunities for sustainable employability. although individuals who subscribe to protean-mindset career orientations (technical and functional competence, pure challenge and autonomy and independence) may be more susceptible to such activity, career counselling should focus on guiding individuals not acquiescing to protean-like career values to become more world of work aware and career agile. career research suggests that the combination of both career values and self-regulatory agency (e.g. career agility) has a stronger prediction effect on positive responses to change than either attribute alone (briscoe, hoobler, & byle, 2010; hall et al., 2018). inadequate self-regulatory agency with a strong career values drive may result in a rigid career orientation and inhibit career proactivity (briscoe & hall, 2006). individuals may, through purpose-driven intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration techniques, learn to explore apart from a dominant career orientation also their secondary and tertiary career orientations, and how these career values either enable or thwart their world of work awareness and career agility. the new insights and contributions of the current study should be seen in the light of the exploratory, cross-sectional research design. no causal effects could be established between the variables, only the direction and magnitude of associations. the sample was limited to adult learners in the economic and management sciences field. future research may investigate the associations across different occupational fields and in longitudinal studies of true causal processes. future qualitative studies may also investigate the application of the coi, dwwas and cas in career exploration counselling and report on client narratives around the usefulness of these assessments in purpose-driven career development. conclusion the present study introduced three constructs relevant to intrinsic career (career orientations) and extrinsic career (world of work awareness and career agility) exploration in purposive career exploration. the empirical evidence of direct associations between these constructs offers promising support for applying principles of career exploration in today’s digital-era career counselling sphere. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank the adult learners who participated in the study. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data for this study are available only upon approval of the research institution’s research ethics committee, with formal reasonable request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abessolo, m., hirschi, a., & rossier, j. 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(2013). an introduction to statistical learning: with applications in r. new york, ny: springer. abstract introduction study purpose and objectives literature review research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) viwe ngwevu department of industrial psychology, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa willie chinyamurindi department of business management, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa olabanji oni department of business management, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation ngwevu, v., chinyamurindi, w., & oni, o. (2025). working mothers in universities: role of work-to-life enrichment, networking behaviours and career commitment. african journal of career development, 7(1), a168. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.168 original research working mothers in universities: role of work-to-life enrichment, networking behaviours and career commitment viwe ngwevu, willie chinyamurindi, olabanji oni received: 08 mar. 2025; accepted: 06 may 2025; published: 03 sept. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the workplace needs to be responsive not only to the career needs of employees but also to assist in managing aspects on the home front. objectives: the study aims to examine the mediating effect of work-to-life enrichment on the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment among working mothers. methods: the data for the study were collected using a survey distributed to 297 working mothers accessed through a convenience sampling technique. data analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling (sem), with path analysis used to assess the hypothesised relationships, and indirect effect was examined to test for mediation. results: the findings reveal that work-to-life enrichment significantly mediates the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment among working mothers. the favourable effect of networking behaviour on career commitment is reinforced when working mothers have high degrees of work-to-life enrichment. conclusion: the results demonstrated the factors that can influence career commitment among working mothers striving for a balance between the work and home nexus. contribution: the study makes significant recommendations for institutions seeking to assist the professional development and well-being of working mothers, ultimately establishing a more equitable working environment. keywords: work-to-life enrichment; working mothers; networking behaviour; career commitment; south africa; higher education. introduction higher education is changing quickly, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges for its employees, especially working mothers (bender et al., 2022; bower & wolverton, 2023). as higher education institutions strive for excellence, the pressures on employees to perform at high levels are immense (aithal & maiya, 2023). because of the combination of work and family obligations, working mothers face a complex dynamic that necessitates careful balancing of their personal and professional lives (miller, 2022; smedley, 2024). in this context, career commitment is an attitude towards one’s profession or calling (zhu et al., 2021). career commitment also refers to the identification with and active involvement in one’s career progression (van der heijden et al., 2022). high levels of career commitment can be attributed to those who create personal career goals and pursue them with diligence and perseverance (goulet & singh, 2002; zhu et al., 2021). career commitment is an attitude towards one’s profession or calling (zhu et al., 2022). understanding commitment is crucial. it enables organisations to appreciate how and why employees put the effort into their work and how it can be used to improve working conditions for all parties. commitment to one’s career is a vital value for many reasons; for instance, commitment to one’s career promotes growth and skill development. it also builds trust and reliability in the workplace (fantinelli et al., 2023; ferreira et al., 2022). careers take time to build. they consist of discrete but linked jobs that are added to over time through professional advancement (hirschi & koen, 2021). career commitment can often be a challenging endeavour for working mothers within higher education (mason et al., 2023). they often struggle to balance demanding academic and administrative responsibilities with family duties. limited flexibility and institutional support can make sustained career commitment difficult (naseem et al., 2024). networking behaviour is also a critical component of career advancement in higher education (maheshwari & nayak, 2022). women must actively participate in creating a career network that is in line with their professional aspirations, as it is excellent at creating a sense of community, reducing loneliness, providing access to information and possibilities for job advancement, and boosting members’ visibility, leadership abilities and confidence (deanna et al., 2022; dennissen et al., 2019; wickramaratne, 2020; yarberry & sims, 2021). networking behaviours are defined as individuals’ attempts to develop and maintain relationships with others who have the potential to assist them in their work or career (okolie et al., 2021). according to this definition, networking is a proactive action that aids in developing interpersonal relationships (greguletz et al., 2019). work-to-life enrichment refers to an interaction between the roles of work and family that might lead to beneficial results (babic & hansez, 2021). the essential idea is that both work and family activities provide specific resources and that enrichment occurs when those resources can help one of them operate more effectively than the other (chen & fellenz, 2020). working women can find this enrichment in a variety of ways, such as managing home dynamics with leadership abilities acquired at work or addressing personal difficulties with problem-solving techniques acquired from their workplace, which in this context is a higher education institution (schnettler et al., 2022; thomason, 2022). study purpose and objectives the purpose of the study is to determine the mediating effect of work-to-life enrichment on working mothers’ networking behaviour and career commitment. the specific objectives were to ascertain: the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment. the relationship between work-to-life enrichment and career commitment the mediating effect on work-to-life enrichment between networking behaviour and career commitment. literature review theoretical framework the study focuses on two theories in view of the proposed research aims and objectives. clark (2002) proposes the work–family border theory, which asserts that the domains of work and family are separate domains with different rules and responsibilities. according to this theory, people frequently cross the boundaries of these many domains and adjust their behaviours to adapt to the obligations of each. to successfully negotiate the varying demands of both domains, one needs a high degree of expertise and influence to attain balance (karassvidou & glaveli, 2015; schieman et al., 2021). the spheres of work and family are physically separate from each other but also interconnected. one of the basic principles of the theory is that the worlds of work and home vary in terms of tasks and culture (schieman et al., 2021). the borders mentioned in the theory include those of time as well as psychological boundaries of rules and behavioural patterns that may be suitable in one domain but not another (clark, 2000). in addition, flexibility is necessary between the two spheres, as individuals may work from home or be called away from their workplace to address a family emergency (wepfer et al., 2018). this theory helps women recognise the differences between the work and home environments, particularly regarding tasks and cultures. it then offers strategies for them to reconcile their personal and professional lives without having an adverse effect on one another. this theory links to the study by highlighting how working mothers in higher education manage these borders to achieve balance and enrichment. work-to-life enrichment reflects positive spillovers from work to family, while networking can serve as a resource to ease border transitions. career commitment, in turn, is influenced by how effectively these borders are managed and supported. the second theoretical consideration is the ecological career development model proposed by szymanski, turner and hershenson (1992), which recognises that career development is a complex process beginning at birth and continuing throughout the individual’s life. it is considered ecological because it focuses on the individual and the contexts and environments of that person’s life (cook et al., 2002). moreover, they clarify how human behaviour arises from the constant complex relationship between the individual and the environment. thus, the career behaviours of people are the result of the interconnectedness between the four systems: (1) micro-system, (2) meso-system, (3) exo-system, and (4) macro-system. for instance, in african society, which is more patriarchal, there are few opportunities for career development for women (njiru, 2013). this model links to the study by recognising how work-to-life enrichment and networking function as social and environmental supports that influence the career paths of working mothers in higher education. these factors can enhance or hinder career commitment, depending on how well the individual’s environment supports their dual roles in work and family life. empirical literature review networking behaviour and career commitment networking behaviours are defined as individuals’ attempts to develop and maintain relationships with others who have the potential to assist them in their work or career (okolie et al., 2021). according to this definition, networking is a proactive action that aids in developing interpersonal relationships (greguletz et al., 2019). as a result of networking with people inside and outside of one’s organisation, people can increase the number of relationships they have (okolie et al., 2021). according to uzzi (2019), women employ different networking techniques than men. therefore, networking may have different effects on men’s and women’s careers (ehido et al., 2019; ramos et al., 2022). the importance of networking behaviour has been emphasised because it can help women break through the glass ceiling (agarwal et al., 2022; el-fiky, 2023), help them form strong relationships with others, and possibly help them expand their venture into more elite classes of associations (ehido et al., 2019; jackson, 2021). the structure of the working world is changing, as is the rate at which jobs and occupations change in organisations. individuals’ engagement in employment-related issues is linked to their career concerns with ongoing growth, regeneration and employability, contributing to more frequent retraining trends throughout career stages (zikode, 2020). coetzee and engelbrecht (2020) assert that career facilitators such as networking behaviour and career commitment are related. individuals who are more committed to their work tend to achieve higher levels of objective career success compared to those with lower commitment (chanana, 2021). based on the presented literature, it can be expected that: h1: among working mothers in higher education, networking behaviour has a significant positive relationship with career commitment. work-to-life enrichment and career commitment women are more likely than men to experience work–family enrichment because of established gender norms (garg, 2022). men and women integrate work and family life in very different ways, which can impact how successful they are in their careers (akanji et al., 2022). when an employer gives a female employee the chance to affect change within an organisation, she may develop new skills, insights and mental agility that could boost her confidence in herself and her work (garg, 2022). this female employee would then provide these services to her family, enhancing their quality of life. the likelihood that female employees will experience job engagement is high if they do experience work–family enrichment. more specifically, the relationship between work resources and job engagement requires work–family enrichment (susilo & prahara, 2019). this is because it enhances the likelihood of experiencing work engagement (wood et al., 2020). based on the presented literature, it can be expected that: h2: among working mothers in higher education, work-to-life enrichment has a significant positive relationship with career commitment. the mediating effect of work-to-life enrichment on networking behaviour and career commitment work-to-life enrichment has an impact on career commitment among working mothers, especially when they see their networking efforts as advantageous to both their professional and personal lives (sharma & dhir, 2022). the study suggests that work-to-life enrichment serves as a mediator by enhancing the positive effects of networking behaviour on career commitment. when working mothers experience high levels of work–life enrichment, they are more likely to engage in networking and remain devoted to their careers because they regard their work experiences as helpful to their personal lives (ali et al., 2022; zhang et al., 2023). based on the presented literature, it can be expected that: h3: among working mothers in higher education, work-to-life enrichment mediates the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment. the research model can be seen in figure 1. figure 1: research model. research methods and design this study employed a quantitative and descriptive research design to investigate the objective truth regarding scientific relationships. the primary goal of quantitative research is to accurately and thoroughly describe the research problem. it is based on existing knowledge but often necessitates collecting new data to gain deeper insights (wiid & diggines, 2021). descriptive research characterises specific phenomena and their attributes within a population sample (asio et al., 2021). the primary focus in descriptive research is providing an in-depth description of the research problem, often building upon prior knowledge while incorporating new data to gain a deeper understanding (mishra & alok, 2022; wiid & diggines, 2021). measuring instruments three main measures were used for this study. firstly, work-to-family enrichment was measured using a scale developed by carlson et al. (2006). this scale consisted of nine items, which are divided into three dimensions: (1) development, (2) affect, and (3) capital. secondly, networking behaviour was measured using a scale developed by hirschi et al. (2018). this scale consisted of nine items, which are divided into three dimensions: (1) networking, (2) career exploration, and (3) learning. each dimension has three items; for this study, the focus was mainly on the networking dimension. thirdly, career commitment was measured using a 12-item scale developed by carson and bedeian (1994), which has three dimensions: (1) identity, (2) planning, and (3) resilience. all three scales were measured on a 5-point likert scale. concerning reliability, the cronbach alpha coefficients for each of the scales used in the study all met the threshold of 0.7, as suggested (nunnally, 1978). sample the data were collected through a convenience sampling technique relying on a sample of mothers employed at a university in the eastern cape province of south africa. the use of convenience sampling can make it difficult to generalise results to a more significant population; therefore, to reduce the chances of sampling error, a large sample size was used. a total of 298 questionnaires were distributed among mothers employed at a university in the eastern cape of south africa covering all three campuses. a total of 256 questionnaires were returned out of 298, yielding an 86% response rate. statistical analysis the study analysed the data using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27, amos version 22, and the hayes process macro for spss (hayes, 2017). firstly, ensuring the validity and accuracy of the measurement equipment was crucial. this was done with the help of confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) (using amos) and a reliability analysis (using cronbach’s alpha and joreskog rho). secondly, after the validity and reliability of the measuring instruments were confirmed, a simple mediation analysis was performed using the hayes process macro. the underlying premise was that the analyses would be conducted using a regression-based mediation approach. a likert-type scale was used to measure all the variables under consideration (i.e., work-to-family enrichment, career exploration and career commitment). all necessary assumptions (i.e., linearity, homoscedasticity, normality of estimation error and independence of observations) were assessed to see whether the data were suitable for mediation analysis. after evaluating all necessary assumptions, the demographic characteristics and theoretical variables of the study were described using descriptive analysis. the hypothesised frameworks were then addressed using the hayes process macro. following nitzl et al. (2016), the strength of the indirect and the direct effects were used to determine the result of the mediation analysis. the following section presents the results of the study. ethical clearance ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of fort hare research ethics committee (urec) (no. rec-270710-028-ra and project no. chi021sngw01). results descriptive and reliability analysis table 1 shows the results of the descriptive summary. the findings show that the overall mean rating for career commitment was moderate (mean = 2.83; sd = 1.00). in terms of work-to-life enrichment (mean = 3.90; sd = 0.92), it was highly rated, reflecting a general trend of agreeing with this construct. this was also a similar case for the ratings on networking (mean = 3.96; sd = 0.95), which was highly rated, reflecting a general trend of agreeing to this construct. all three variables show acceptable levels of skewness and kurtosis, indicating approximate normality. this suggests that they are suitable for cfa with maximum likelihood estimation, though using robust estimators would still be safer if the sample size is small. table 1: summary of descriptive statistics for variables. the skewness coefficient, the kurtosis coefficient and the shapiro–wilk (sw) test were used to assess the normality of the variables. the skewness is between −1 and +1, which is generally considered acceptable, and the kurtosis is also between −1 and +1, which suggests near-normality. however, sw tests (p < 0.0001) indicate significant deviation from normality. although the sw tests indicated statistically significant deviations from normality (p < 0.0001), the skewness and kurtosis values for all variables fell within the commonly accepted range of ±1. this suggests that the variables are approximately normally distributed in shape, and suitable for methods that are robust to mild non-normality. given the statistical non-normality, the asymptotic distribution free (adf) method was used for cfa to account for potential distributional violations. for the mediation analysis, the hayes process macro was appropriate, as it does not assume normality and relies on bootstrapping for inference. confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) using amos to identify items that load onto specific theoretical constructs within the research instrument. this cfa was followed by a reliability analysis to establish the measurement model for the work-to-life enrichment factor, ensuring its validity and reliability. the items measuring work-to-life enrichment were loaded onto their respective factors guided by the literature. we assessed the fitness of the measurement model using selected model fit indices and relevant criteria. similarly, for networking, we conducted a cfa followed by a reliability analysis to establish their validity and reliability. the cfa for this was performed using an asymptotic distribution-free method in amos. to determine the empirical factors for career commitment, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted collectively on the 12 items in the research tool. in terms of reliability, it refers to the consistent and accurate measurement of a construct, and in this study, it was assessed through internal consistency to determine whether all instrument items yield similar results (almanasreh et al., 2019; bryman, 2021; clark & watson, 2019). a reliability coefficient of 0.70 or above is generally considered acceptable, indicating a reliable instrument, which researchers verify through consistent results and model fit indices to confirm the measurement model’s adequacy (alhamad et al., 2021). firstly, to determine the empirical factor for the measurement model of the work–life enrichment scale, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the 9 items. the most parsimonious model was achieved with 6 items retained with all the factor loadings above 0.60 (see table 2). the value of the average variance extracted (ave) for the established factor (factor 1) is greater than the required minimum of 0.50 (i.e., ave = 0.590). therefore, the construct validity for the factor is deemed adequate. table 2: the work-to-life enrichment confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. the internal consistency reliability for work–life enrichment scale was found to be satisfactory (alpha = 0.896). the value of joreskog rho (for assessing the composite reliability [cr]) was also greater than 0.80 for the work–life enrichment factor (i.e., cr = 0.896), suggesting adequate composite reliability. examining the overall assessment criteria for model fit, the measurement model showed a good fit, as shown in table 3. thus, the standardised root mean square residual (srmr) is 0.053, which is regarded as an acceptable model fit. the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) and its associated adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi) were above 0.95, which is suggestive of a good model fit. the normed fit index (nfi = 0.987) and the relative fit index (rfi = 0.984) are also above 0.95, suggesting a good model fit for the established measurement factor structure for work–life enrichment. table 3: model fitness indices for the established measurement models. secondly, to determine the empirical factor structure for the networking tool, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the 3 items. items with poor loadings were removed to establish a measurement model that has excellent and acceptable model fit indices. the most parsimonious model was achieved with 2 items retained, as shown in table 4. while a 2-item factor model is generally not recommended because of underidentification and limited reliability, it can be acceptable when the items are strongly correlated and conceptually aligned. in this case, the correlation between the items is 0.811, indicating a strong relationship that supports their use as indicators of the same latent construct. table 4: the networking confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. the factor loadings of the established factor structure for networking (factor 2) were above 0.80 (see table 4). the value of the average variance extracted for the established factor is greater than the required minimum of 0.50 (i.e., ave = 0.689). because the minimum cut-off point for ave is 0.50, the convergent validity for the factor is deemed adequate. the internal consistency for the established networking construct was found to be satisfactory (alpha = 0.786) with the value of joreskog rho greater than 0.80 (i.e., cr = 0.816), further suggesting adequate and satisfactory composite reliability. examining the overall goodness-of-fit for the established networking factor, the measurement model showed a good fit. thus, in table 3, the results revealed that the value of srmr = 0.027 is less than 0.05, which suggests a good model fit for the networking measurement model. on the other hand, the gfi is 0.971, and the adjusted goodness of fit index is 0.930, indicating good model fit. consequently, these indicators were complemented with an assessment of the nfi and the rfi. assessing these measures, they were both at least 0.95, which is the minimum recommended for a good fit. in summary, all these fit indices confirm the goodness of fit of the established networking measurement model. lastly, to determine the empirical factor structure for the career commitment tool, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted collectively on the 12 items of the research tool. the results are shown in table 5. table 5: the career commitment confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. the most parsimonious model was achieved, with 7 items retained for the resultant factor. all factor loadings were above 0.60 (see table 5), indicating an acceptable fit of these loadings. the value of the ave for the established factor is 0.519. thus, the convergent validity of the career commitment construct is adequate. the internal consistency for the established career commitment factor was found to be satisfactory (alpha = 0.881). further, the value of joreskog rho was greater than 0.80 (cr = 0.882), suggesting adequate composite reliability. lastly, table 5 shows that the goodness-of-fit measures of all the indices fulfil the required criteria for a satisfactory model fit. thus, srmr is 0.087 < 0.09, which is regarded as an acceptable model fit. the gfi and its associated agfi were all above 0.90. the normed fit index (nfi = 0.955) and the relative fit index (rfi = 0.933) are also above 0.90, suggesting an acceptable model fit for the established career commitment measurement model. thus, the results of the goodness-of-fit assessment for the confirmatory factor analysis of the resultant career commitment measurement model show that the established model is a satisfactory and acceptable fit. thus, based on table 3, all the measurement models have fulfilled all the model fit requirements, and thus are suitable for building linkage between factors and determining the contribution of constructs in measuring work-to-life enrichment, networking and career commitment within the sampled organisation. thus, the results for the goodness-of-fit assessment for the measurement models show that the established measurement models are adequate. these established variables were then used for further analysis. simple mediation analysis a simple mediation analysis was conducted using the hayes process macro to investigate the hypothesis that work-to-life enrichment mediates the relationship between networking and career commitment. table 6 shows the results of the analysis. the established model showed an r2 value of 0.1831, revealing that the predictor variables explained 18.31% of the variation in the outcome or dependent variable. table 6: mediation analysis to determine the mediating role of work-to-life enrichment on the relationship between networking and career commitment. based on hypothesis 1, the networking behaviour to career commitment path was examined in order to determine whether networking has a significant, direct and positive association with career commitment. from table 6, it is evident that, while controlling for work-to-life enrichment (mediator), the results indicate that networking had a significant and direct positive effect on career commitment (β = 0.2857, p < 0.0001). because the direct effect is significant, there exists sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that networking has a significant, direct and positive association with career commitment. further, the total effect of networking on career commitment is positive and statistically significant (β = 0.3538, p < 0.0001). this result suggests that, without controlling for the mediator variable (work-to-life enrichment), networking still has a significant, direct and positive association with career commitment. based on hypothesis 2, to determine whether work-to-life enrichment has a direct and positive association with career commitment, the work-to-life enrichment to career commitment path was examined. based on table 6, the results show that work-to-life enrichment has a statistically significant, direct and positive effect on career commitment (β = 0.1540, p = 0.0367). as our beta estimate is positive and significant, the null hypothesis is therefore rejected, and we can conclude that work-to-life enrichment has a significant, direct and positive association with career commitment. the results also indicate that networking has a significant and positive effect on the mediator variable (β = 0.4419, p < 0.0001). thus, higher levels of reported networking were related to higher mean ratings of work-to-life enrichment. these results further support the mediational hypothesis. lastly, based on hypothesis 3, the indirect effect was examined to establish whether work-to-life enrichment mediates the relationship between networking and career commitment. the results revealed a significant indirect effect (β = 0.0681, bc 95% ci [0.0054, 0.1297]), thereby supporting the hypothesised framework. sufficient evidence exists to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that work-to-life enrichment mediates the relationship between networking and career commitment among working mothers. these findings are consistent with partial mediation. discussion the study aimed to examine the mediating effect of work-to-life enrichment on the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment among working mothers within a higher education context. the results of the study suggest that networking behaviour has a moderate, positive and significant linear relationship with career commitment. increasing the levels of networking behaviours will increase career commitment within the sampled organisation. these results are in line with coetzee and engelbrecht (2020), who assert that career facilitators such as networking behaviour and career commitment are related. according to the study’s findings, which are in line with earlier research (kleine et al., 2021; spurk & straub, 2020; volmer et al., 2022), developing strong career values is crucial for employees’ career development as well as for improving self-efficacious active adaptive career self-management behaviours such as networking in the modern workplace (hirschi & koen, 2021; osei et al., 2023). individuals who are more committed to their work tend to achieve higher levels of objective career success compared to those with lower commitment (chanana, 2021). heffernan (2021) is of the view that networking behaviour has a favourable relationship with several significant career-related constructs, including performance, motivation, career goals, received mentoring, organisational mobility, salary, promotions and career satisfaction (antunes, 2023; heffernan, 2021; volmer et al., 2022). this study found statistical evidence that supports the mediating role of work-to-life enrichment in the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment among working mothers. this aligns with previous research which supports the notion that work-to-life enrichment has a good impact on career commitment among working mothers, especially when they see their networking efforts as advantageous to both their professional and personal lives (zhang et al., 2023). the study suggests that work-to-life enrichment serves as a mediator by enhancing the positive effects of networking behaviour on career commitment. when working mothers experience high levels of work–life enrichment, they are more likely to engage in networking and remain devoted to their careers because they regard their work experiences as beneficial to their personal lives (ali et al., 2022; lee et al., 2023). practical implications the study provides a number of practical implications. firstly, institutions of higher learning must put in place guidelines and initiatives that support balancing work and life, like access to on-campus childcare, professional development opportunities and flexible work schedules. these may minimise stress and boost overall job satisfaction and dedication by assisting working mothers in striking a balance between their personal and professional obligations. secondly, institutions of higher learning should foster an inclusive work environment, encouraging and promoting work–life balance. higher education institutions can improve job satisfaction, reduce turnover and increase career commitment among working mothers by recognising the issues they confront and offering the necessary assistance. thirdly, higher education institutions should develop and promote structured networking opportunities targeted to the needs of working mothers, such as virtual meetups that let working mothers network from home, saving time and easing childcare concerns. family-friendly events with on-site childcare or child-inclusive spaces support mothers in balancing professional and parental roles. lastly, institutions of higher learning should provide training and development opportunities that assist working mothers in integrating professional abilities into their personal lives, thus improving their capacity to manage both domains effectively. this can improve both work-to-life enrichment and career commitment. limitations and recommendations a number of limitations and recommendations can be cited from this study. firstly, language barriers may have affected the feedback provided, as english was not the first language for many participants. considering the subject-specific terminology used may have contributed to missing values and lower statistical significance in the study. secondly, the study’s quantitative approach overlooked valuable, nuanced information that a qualitative methodology could have uncovered if integrated into the investigation. utilising triangulation methods could have alleviated standard method bias. thirdly, the reduced scales used may not fully capture the breadth of the original validated measures, which could limit the generalisability of the findings. future research should consider using the full scales or validating the reduced scales independently to ensure conceptual equivalence. future research future research may consider combining questionnaires and interviews to enhance the study’s comprehensiveness. the research was conducted with a relatively narrow focus, involving a sample size of 256 respondents. this limited sample size was partly because of some participants refusing to participate and others returning incomplete questionnaires. more robust results could have been achieved if all distributed questionnaires had been completed and all targeted respondents had participated. lastly, using a small, random sample from a single higher education institution in south africa restricts the generalisability of the findings to other institutions in the country. conclusion this study highlights the important mediating role of work-to-life enrichment in the relationship between networking behaviour and career commitment among working mothers within higher education. the findings indicate that when working women feel good spillovers from their jobs to their home lives, they are more able to participate in networking activities, which improves their commitment to their careers. higher education institutions can improve the professional development and well-being of working mothers by creating work cultures that encourage work–life enrichment through flexible work practices, networking opportunities and skill development programmes. this not only benefits the individuals but also helps to create a more inclusive and productive academic environment. acknowledgements the authors are thankful for the feedback received from the mbali conference at the university of zululand that helped improve this paper. competing interests the authors declare that they received funding from the health & welfare sector education training authority, which may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed publication. the author has disclosed those interests fully and has implemented an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from their involvement. the terms of these funding arrangements have been reviewed and approved by the affiliated university in accordance with its policy on objectivity in research. authors’ contributions all authors, v.n., w.c. and o.o. contributed equally to this paper. funding information the authors reported that they received funding from the health & welfare sector education training authority aimed at funding viwe ngwevu’s phd project. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not 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(2020). the career advancement experiences of female managers in the ict sector. doctoral dissertation, university of south africa. https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@ajcd.africa indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2023 to 30 september 2024. andronikos kaliris anthony brown anthony naidoo aygul s. mehmedova brian j. taber che jude christopher beukes cynthy haihambo damien canzittu donna m. san antonio emilia n. mbongo fernando silva teixeira filho jackie peila-shuster johannes buthelezi kamilla v. rawatlal kitty b. dumont koketso nthimbane kudzayi s. tarisayi leonardo lemos de souza lindokuhle m. ubisi lucky maluleke lynne damons lynne goldschmidt mabatho sedibe mary mcmahon maximus m. sefotho nadia ferreira nashua naicker nonhlanla maseko ntomboxolo n. yamile obakeng kagola omphile madiba paul g. west paulo cardoso petro erasmus precious simba ronel kleynhans roy venketsamy samukezi mrubula-ngwenya https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa mailto:submissions@ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maria e. duarte faculty of psychology, university of lisbon, lisbon, portugal citation duarte, m.e. (2021). ‘establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose’, african journal of career development, 3(1), a35. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.35 conference report establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose maria e. duarte received: 18 jan. 2021; accepted: 19 feb. 2021; published: 23 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. i have lived my life in the service of individuals, studying their stratums of meanings and forms and trying to teach the secrets of psychology to my students. i‘ve learned that nothing in our relationships should be taken for granted, in particular, at this moment in history. i’ve learned more from reading the classics and famous writers on the substance of human life than from hundreds of reports or scientific articles. i’ve learned about the limits of some illusions – the futility of total accuracy, of absolute quantification, of complete knowledge. i believe that human experience is always more enriching compared to any interpretation. now, in this globalised world without political or ethical control that ‘weakens’ the foundations of our existence and gives rise to uncertainty, risk, lack of prospects and stability, and when actions to eliminate those same risks are diverted of the real sources of danger, it becomes easier to point out the reasons of uncertainties and risks that we face. therefore, some individuals need ‘interpreters’ who understand the utility of enlarging the small, accommodated or non-existed horizons, by making use of the potential of infinite dialogue with each one’s condition. being useful to an individual, developing one’s ability for entertaining different perceptions of the world and incorporating the other individual’s perspectives on specific challenges may be viewed as an invitation to expand one’s own perceptions. the main goal of counselling dialogue is to achieve coherence considering the individual’s identity, self-concept and agency, and also to integrate events from the past and present and put them into the perspective of the future. i present a different approach that is always under development, and which will probably never be complete: to develop a dialogue so that the counsellor and counselee develop a partnership where the counsellor must be aware of an obligation to support and participate in another individual’s process, or in other words, create something together. for that purpose, i refer to one of the most widely read books in the history of western culture (harari, 2015): the little prince (mały książę) by de saint-exupéry (1943). i will then highlight the dialogue between the little prince and the fox (chapter xxi), which deals with the impossibility of a relationship between two creatures that are not known to each other, one that is in its own environment (the fox), and another that comes from another world (the little prince): come and play with me, proposed the little prince. i am so unhappy. (p. 45) i cannot play with you, the fox said. i am not tamed. (p. 45) this impossibility of establishing a relationship is based on two main arguments: one is the absence of an affective tie or connection between them, and the other is simple: they do not belong to the same world (to the same planet): ah! please excuse me, said the little prince. (p. 45) but, after some thought, he added: what does that mean ‘tame’? (p. 45) you do not live here, said the fox. (p. 45) and, therefore, they do not have the same cultural allusions – whilst the little prince, in a strange world, was in search of people looking for identity ties, or something or someone to play with him (as usual in a human child), the fox fled from these same people because they used guns to hunt chickens (and, by inference, foxes), the fox, consequently, and in a sort of primary syllogism, wondered if that child, being human, would not also be as was implicit, in search of chickens, and of foxes to hunt: what is it that you are looking for? (p. 45) i am looking for men, said the little prince. what does that mean – ‘tame’? (p. 46) men, said the fox. they have guns, and they hunt. it is very disturbing. they also raise chickens. these are their only interests. are you looking for chickens? (p. 46) but in his naivety, which contrasted with the knowledge of the world held by the fox characterised by the use of cunning, acquired by the experience of life, as a survival technique, the little prince guaranteed that what he was looking for was friends, thus not discriminating between people and animals. it was only then, after the little prince used the word friends, that the fox decided to answer the question persistently asked by the prince, ‘what does that mean – “tame”’, as he did not know the concept of ‘tame’. this was a point of argument used by the fox in order not to play with the little prince: the act of playing, assumed here to be a playful act, and also the act of two persons or two objects to articulate with each other to obtain a harmonious result, is possible only between people who are bound by some common ties and these ties, in a large comprehensive way are also affective – something that people tend to neglect: no, said the little prince. i am looking for friends. what does that mean ‘tame’? (p. 46) it is an act too often neglected, said the fox. it means ‘to establish ties’. (p. 46) and the fox continues, these ties allow two people to become special each other whilst maintaining their own identity – the fox will always be a fox, and the little prince will always be a human – because it is the only way they can be happy: to establish ties? (p. 46) just that, said the fox. to me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. and i have no need of you. and you, on your part, have no need of me. to you, i am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. but if you tame me, then we shall need each other. to me, you will be unique in all the world. to you, i shall be unique in all the world … (p. 46) the fox further specifies referring to the distinctive features that allow the members of a group to identify with each other, but in opposition to another group whose elements are also united by distinctive traits – but different distinctive appearances: i hunt chickens; men hunt me. all the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. […] but if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. […] and then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? i do not eat bread. wheat is of no use to me. the wheat fields have nothing to say to me. and that is sad. but you have hair that is the color of gold. think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! the grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. and i shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat … (p. 46) and it is also these ties that infuse in individuals a sense of responsibility for other individuals, especially those with whom they have established connections and who allow them to consider them as unique, similar to what we do since the very beginning of a counselling process: men have forgotten this truth, said the fox. but you must not forget it. you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose … (p. 48) i am responsible for my rose, the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. (p. 48) in brief, de saint-exupéry emphasises, through the voice of the fox, the importance of rituals in people’s lives, insofar as they allow them to organise their lives so that each day may be different from the others, just as people should be in order to retain their identity: those also are actions too often neglected, said the fox. they are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. there is a rite, for example, among my hunters. every thursday they dance with the village girls. so thursday is a wonderful day for me! i can take a walk as far as the vineyards. but if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and i should never have any vacation at all. (p. 47) let us recall and consider some of the basic ideas of these passages, all of them originate from the fact that the two creatures live in a dual reality: on the one hand, both interact with the same objective entities external to them (e.g. ‘man’, ‘flower’, ‘the harvest’); but, on the other hand, these objective entities arouse in each of them subjective reactions resulting from their own experiences. the first of these ideas is the impossibility of communication between ‘individuals’ because they do not belong to the same ‘world’ – i mean, the same environment – (you do not live here), and the lack of a connection between them (i cannot play with you. i am not tamed). the second idea is that the two ‘individuals’ have different cultural references: for the little prince, men are potential friends, whilst for the fox, men are fox and hen hunters. the third idea to be retained is the importance of knowledge as held by the fox and the need to obtain it as embodied by the little prince who asks questions. the fourth idea is clear: only the establishment of ties between individuals makes it possible to overcome problems and to co-construct relationships, which is represented here by reference to ‘rituals’ and by the construction of symbols: the yellow fields, which produce the bread that the fox does not need, will remind of , in a situation of absence, the blond hair of the prince. finally, the fifth idea: the responsibility of the individual before the collective as a result of the establishment of ties: ‘you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose …’ in a technical language: to create something together where meanings are co-created during the conversation, where new dialogues gradually take shape, contain a deeper meaning and rest on a value-based conviction, creating, in that way, a degree of sustainability, trying to connect phenomenology and social constructionism, by placing the concept of meaning at the ‘core business’ of conversation or dialogues. we all read the little prince – after all, it is the fourth most well-read book, excluding religious and doctrinal texts, after don quixote of la mancha (1605) by miguel de cervantes, a tale of two cities (1859) by charles dickens and the lord of the rings (1954–1955) by r.r. tolkien (harari, 2015) – and read it in the category of literature relevant for children and young people, an age group to which tradition almost exclusively attributes the right to imagination and fantasy. indeed, a child that travels freely from planet to planet, each inhabited by a single being endowed with consciousness and the ability to express in a language, amongst them were plants and animals that speak and think like humans (though maintaining the idiosyncrasies of their own species), cannot be possible anywhere else than in a story for children. and yet … from the point of view of objectivity, the ‘worlds’ through which the little prince travels, as well as the ‘characters’ with which he interacts in each of these worlds (the narrator, the flower, the king, the conceited man, the tippler, the businessman, the lamplighter, the old geographer, the snake, the echo, the roses, the fox, the railway switchman, the merchant and of course the lost aviator …) belong to the universe of fable and fantasy – that, by definition, absurd manifestations are treated and understood as normal behaviours. however, in this journey through the little isolated worlds, each of the characters (which, in the case of humans, are defined by their occupations) contributes to the knowledge of the little prince creating a ‘truth’ from which he can see the world. and this truth is not the world that exists, the real world, but the way each character (both the little prince and the interlocutors) understands and assimilates it. given this duality, the reader ‘forgets’ the unlikely of the successive scenes (not even wondering how the prince can travel between asteroids, or if there are life and characters identical to the human ones of the earth), and concentrates on the essential, which is the experience of each one of the characters (inanimate, animated or human, but always referred to the real world – the railway switchman, the sheep that eat little bushes, the fox that does not like hunters) voiced by themselves, helping the child to grow by transmitting the truths that really matter. we could find here echoes of husserl’s phenomenology (1907) and his ideas about communication. dialogue defined as an act of communication. for husserl, interpreted by płotka (2009), university of cardinal stefan wyszyński in warsaw: [c]ommunication motivates others to do something. […] there is no doubt, the communication introduces completely new dimension of human practice. namely, according to communicative acts, i am never alone, and my actions should be grounded on the responsibility for the other. sketched relation is two-sided, but the aim is common: a consensus. (p. 90) therefore, there can be no rigid or standardised models of dialogue, regardless of the situation in which it occurs: in an interview situation, which presupposes a dialogue, the interviewer – who is an integral part of the process and not an external agent interested in obtaining from the respondent a given answer that can be conditioned – is not alone, that is, he has to take into account the view that the other has of the world, and respect it. this is the case with the model proposed by savickas (2015) which fits into this phenomenological concern of husserl, in that it is organised around items that aim not to condition the respondent’s response but to motivate him or her to act – in this case, telling his life story, which will be one of the possible representations of his own unique way of seeing the world and from which, from then on, he will also become a part. by telling the stories, the individual can connect his or her subjective realities to the challenges of social world. as bruner (2002) and gergen and gergen (2006) pointed out, subjective perceptions and resulting personal self-constructs need to be replaced or modified in social discourses that are relived in the counselling dialogue. another selection could be that which can be described as affections. identity simply does not exist without the language of affection, from which inter-personal relationships and people’s relationships with the context in which they find themselves or could find themselves are constructed and developed. the language of affection, which theoretically can be disassociated from other forms of language, for example, cognition in the sense of the selection, storage and treatment of information, implying a choice of object or situation (the object of our affections is never an aleatory choice), can be observed through the manifestation of an individual’s feelings in relation to an object or situation. put another way, this is a manifestation of the emotions which being the individual’s intense affective responses to the stimuli of their surroundings, can also influence the process of choosing new objects and situations that will in turn require new responses. the concept of dialogue, in being complemented by interindividuality, is a fundamental aspect when it comes to the positioning of that which forms the heart of counselling (duarte, 2017). the notion of dialogue becomes theoretically central to the understanding of the various situations that bring something to that which we refer to as life. dialogue implies integrating thoughts into an act of communication: in opposition to the foundationalism view of language, it is the adoption of the hermeneutic or dialogical positions, as reflected in the works of gadamer (1975) and bakhtin (1981) respectively. hermeneutics is concerned with understanding the meaning that people make of their lives. it takes into consideration the historical and psychological reality of the lived experience of the person whose life is being interpreted, and that of the interpreter herself/himself, because ‘an interpreter understands by constant reference to her own perspective, preconceptions, biases, and assumptions that rest, fundamentally, on her lifestyle, life experiences, culture, and tradition’ (tappan, 1997, p. 649). from the hermeneutic perspective, we understand the new in terms of what we already know, and more importantly, in terms of who we are. similarly, bakhtin (1981) has emphasised the dialogical nature of all understanding. understanding pre-supposes (and recognises) the other, with whom one can agree or disagree. bakhtin (1981) argues that: the consciousness of other people cannot be perceived, analyzed, as objects or as things – one can only relate to them dialogically. to think about them means to talk with them; otherwise they immediately turn to us their objectivized side: they fall silent, close up, and congeal into finished, objectified images. (p. 68) contrary to idealistic philosophy, dialogism argues that a fully voiced consciousness (i.e. with its own ideas and points of view) is to be found at the point of contact with another equally-voiced consciousness. this implies that dialogues need to genuinely engage with the context. conclusion are we capable to close the gate and escape from a technocratic perspective of knowledge, and take new roads, which means, pay attention to the new emerging perspectives other than the traditional way to face individual or collective problems and, also, highlight the importance of individual differences as opposed to standardisation, which led us, during the machine age of the 20th century to the mechanisation of behaviours as if all individuals were copies of a lost original …? the reality of globalisation and the concurrent worldwide competitiveness impose a shift on intercultural research towards an integrative background to both common and regional competencies to achieve added value and usefulness of research. it also involves evaluation and its meaning of concerns related with conceptual definitions and the context of its operationalisation, which means the identification of the relevant contents of culture knowledge is also crucial. nowadays, intervention is not a cumulative process of the interpretation of the assessment data: it integrates environmental variables, and also considers the cultural context. regarding the consequences of globalisation, it seems to me that it is important to recognise the desirability of a greater proximity to culture in those issues. guidance and counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world are the motto of the conference. i believe it would be possible to put together – united nations eduactional, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) chair on lifelong guidance and counselling and its university twinning and networking programme (unitwin) partners – a narrative collaborative practice, and, in that way, ‘taking part’ in the history of the other and with it being supportive, following the dialogue in which ties were established, so well synthetised in the sentence ‘you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose …’ acknowledgements this article is partially based on the author’s keynote address (duarte, 2018) at the international conference: counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world, 24–25 may 2018. the author would like to thank the editor of african journal of career development, prof. kobus maree. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contribution m.e.d. declares that she is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references bakhtin, m.m. (1981). the dialogic imagination. austin, tx: university of texas press. bruner, j. (2002). making stories – law, literature, life. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. de saint-exupéry, a. (1943). le petit prince. english translation: the little prince. new york, ny: reynal and hitchcock. duarte, m.e. (2017). counseling and well-being: on the road to realities. british journal of guidance and counselling, 45(5), 508–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2017.1309641 duarte, m.e. (2018). establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose. in international conference: counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world, 24‒25 may 2018. (keynote address). the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. gadamer, h-g. (1975). truth and method. new york, ny: continuum. gergen, m.m., & gergen, k.j. (2006). narratives in action. narrative inquiry, 16(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.15ger harari, y.n. (2015). homo deus. a brief history of tomorrow. london: vintage, penguin books, 2017. husserl, e. (1907). the idea of phenomology. dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers, 1999. płotka, w. (2009). between language and communication: a husserlian approach. lingua ac communitas, 19, 85–93. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1415449/between_language_and_communication_a_husserlian_approach savickas, m.l. (2015). life-design counseling manual. retrieved from www.vocopher.com tappan, m.b. (1997). interpretive psychology: stories, circles, and understanding lived experience. journal of social issues, 53(4), 645–656. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1997.tb02453.x abstract introduction literature review theoretical framework research methodology research design participants’ setting and characteristics data analysis and collection findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) aretha farao department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic management science, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa marieta du plessis department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic management science, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation farao, a., & du plessis, m. (2024). the need for structured career guidance in a resource-constrained south african school. african journal of career development, 6(1), a116. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.116 original research the need for structured career guidance in a resource-constrained south african school aretha farao, marieta du plessis received: 18 mar. 2024; accepted: 12 june 2024; published: 17 july 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: career guidance and counselling in secondary schools are crucial for young adolescents as they embark on the initial stages of shaping their post-school studies and career goals. initiating career guidance as early as grade 9 is imperative to ensure alignment between chosen subjects and future career aspirations. the study was conducted with grade 12 learners at a resource-constrained high school in cape town, western cape. objectives: utilising the systems theory framework (stf), we sought to explore grade 12 learners’ perceptions of the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling and its significance in shaping future career choices. method: the study used a qualitative methodology. semi-structured online interviews were used to gather the data, which were then analysed thematically. the study consisted of a sample size of 16 grade 12 participants. results: the findings indicated that learners found career guidance and counselling effective for deciding future occupations, with a preference for opportunities such as job shadowing and interactions with experts in the field of interest. however, limited access to vocational resources and a lack of structured classroom guidance led learners to conduct their own research. conclusion: the study recommends that life orientation teachers actively engage with organisations and relevant stakeholders in providing career guidance and counselling to learners and ensure that pupils have sufficient access to career resources for effective career guidance. contribution: these findings are a valuable resource for professionals and policymakers seeking to improve high school learners’ educational experiences, providing a framework for future scholars delving into the dynamic field of career counselling. keywords: career guidance; career counselling; subject choices; career resources; south africa. introduction in the realm of education and career development, career assistance emerges as a crucial element, aiding young individuals in navigating dynamic job markets and making informed decisions about their educational paths (barnes et al., 2020; oecd, 2021). career counselling plays a pivotal role in helping adolescents understand their interests, goals, talents and qualifications, especially in the face of an ever-changing employment landscape (albien, 2018). recognising the significance of choosing a career with care, roy (2020) emphasises the need for adequate support and guidance to assist learners in discovering suitable subject choices and making well-informed career decisions. the process of formally selecting subjects for secondary school in grade 9 marks a significant milestone for south african high school learners, particularly those in the black community1 who often lack support in this crucial decision-making phase (maketekete, 2022). the absence of guidance and counselling during this phase may lead to haphazard subject choices, impacting learners’ post-school career trajectories (naidoo et al., 2020). limited parental expertise and awareness of the school curriculum further compound the challenges faced by learners in making informed subject selections (albien & naidoo, 2017; pillay, 2020). the repercussions of ill-considered subject choices may limit study options after matriculation and contribute to south africa’s persistently high youth unemployment rates (dlamini, 2019; streicher, 2020). based on these findings, it may imply that without adequate guidance and counselling support for learners, there may be a continuous cycle of limited and ill-informed career decision-making, impacting the quality of employment, suitable for career and limited opportunity to reach self-sufficiency. furthermore, the issue of inadequate career guidance extends beyond subject selection, impacting the broader context of youth unemployment in south africa. graduate unemployment is particularly concerning, with a lack of effective career counselling identified as a significant contributor (mseleku, 2022; stats sa, 2023). the high youth unemployment rate, especially among those aged 15–24, highlights the vulnerability of this age group in the south african labour force (stats sa, 2023). the study by mseleku (2022) reveals that graduates often face challenges in securing employment because of factors such as a lack of demand for their skills, a mismatch between expertise and job market needs and insufficient work experience. this signifies the potential consequences of inadequate career guidance and counselling in making effective career decisions and navigating the job market (modiba & sefotho, 2019). while much research on career guidance focuses on the perspective of professional career counsellors, the perspective of grade 12 learners remains relatively unexplored. for example, a study conducted by diale (2016) aimed to address the career development needs of life orientation teachers to help them effectively teach the curriculum. the findings revealed the need for resources, stability in the lo subject and formal training. similarly, pityi (2020) investigated the experiences of a career development practitioner providing career guidance services. the findings highlighted the need for training and regulatory guidelines for junior career development practitioners. this article addresses this gap by delving into the beliefs and experiences of high school learners, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds who often lack tailored career services (brown et al., 2016). the qualitative approach employed in this contribution seeks to understand how learners perceive the value of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools and aims to uncover the types of career guidance that prove effective for learners in specific socio-economic groups. employing the systems theory framework (stf), the article aims to inform the development of more suitable and tailored career resources for learners facing unique challenges in their career decision-making process. literature review background of career guidance and counselling in south africa career guidance in south africa has been shaped by political and economic factors since its origins in the 1930s, with services historically excluded from people of mixed race groups under apartheid (naidoo et al., 2016; watson et al., 2014). this lack of access for people of mixed race2 persisted until post-apartheid. schools located in under-resourced communities often lack sufficient infrastructure, trained teachers and career education material. according to the study conducted by sefotho (2017), it was found that the majority of the learners in under-resourced communities in south africa lack sufficient access to career counselling services as their schools often lack trained educators or psychologists onsite. similarly, dlamini’s (2019) study revealed that educators from the same communities’ struggle to provide adequate career guidance because of resource constraints and proper training. these findings might suggest that the current levels of accessibility to appropriate services are limited in some resource-constrained communities, even post-apartheid. more recently, demand has grown because of high unemployment and skills mismatches in the workforce (makola et al., 2021; morse, 2019). therefore, the improvement of services is targeted through initiatives that involve updating competency frameworks and integrating them into the national curriculum (jonck & swanepoel, 2019; maree, 2013; sefotho, 2017). as demonstrated by robertson (2013), the accessibility of career guidance can empower youth, enabling them to make informed life decisions and increasing their confidence in managing further education. unfortunately, the issue of equitable access, highlighted by albien (2021), persists and limits options for certain groups. in addition, meeting the needs of career development in the country is a major challenge that calls for better guidance professional training and provision. albien (2021) further claims that an ad hoc approach to guiding and counselling in schools is often marked by a shortage of qualified and trained teachers. to address the country’s career development needs, there is a need to enhance the provision and training of guidance professionals. career guidance and counselling in south african schools despite the potential effectiveness of career guidance and counselling services, learners often face challenges in making informed decisions about their futures, leading to a lack of awareness regarding their possibilities. mokodutlo’s (2019) study on high school learners conducted in south africa revealed that poor subject decisions, contributing to inadequate career choices, were often influenced by social factors. hako (2021) further emphasises that this lack of exposure results in learners having ordinary self-confidence levels and low career aspirations because of uninformed perspectives on their abilities and potential career pathways. the consequences of insufficient career guidance are far-reaching, leading to a continuous cycle of uninformed career decisions, unrealistic expectations and adverse outcomes such as school failure, dropouts and the pursuit of careers solely for perceived financial gains (hako, 2021). the challenges faced by learners suggest that there may be a deficiency in the delivery of high-quality services, even though this is a major goal that the south african department of education strives to achieve. in addition to this conversation, it is critical to acknowledge and resolve these issues to improve the general efficacy of the provision of educational services. moreover, external support and initiatives from organisations beyond the department of education play a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling. the south african career development association (sacda) has developed an educational framework encompassing counselling techniques, self-evaluation tools and information on careers and vocational preparation (sacda, 2020). furthermore, the south african qualifications authority (saqa) collaborated with the south african broadcasting corporation (sabc) to launch the national qualifications framework (nqf) and career advice service, providing resources, an occupational guidance helpline, an online platform and a weekly radio broadcast programme across nine local radio stations (dbe, 2021). the grade 9 career assistance project, adapted into a self-directed format amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, exemplifies the adaptability of career initiatives to diverse circumstances, emphasising the importance of external support (van schalkwyk et al., 2022). although learners have access to a wide range of tools, resources and platforms, there is a noteworthy lack of research investigating the effectiveness of recipients’ understanding of the distributed material and its dissemination to all learners in the country. therefore, this emphasises how important it is to incorporate resources and tools into the educational system to guarantee that everyone has fair access to career guidance and counselling. while career guidance and counselling can function effectively when integrated into the educational system, shortcomings such as the absence of a robust career guidance programme persist when offered by schools, as highlighted in the study by rukewe and oats (2020). learners acknowledge the benefits of career services when adequately provided but express dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of school programmes in meeting their requirements (makola et al., 2021). recognising that career initiatives cannot solely rely on educational institutions, the involvement of corporate bodies is emphasised, providing learners with broader opportunities to make informed decisions (epstein et al., 2018). furthermore, educators stress the crucial role of career guidance in helping learners understand their strengths and weaknesses and aligning them with suitable career options (jäckel-visser et al., 2021). this signifies the need for continuous improvement and collaboration between educational institutions, external organisations and corporate entities to enhance the overall effectiveness of career guidance programmes. evaluation of the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling moreover, a meticulous evaluation of career guidance and counselling emphasises its considerable benefits as well as the impediments it encounters. career guidance and counselling services play a pivotal role in aiding learners to harmonise their career choices with their objectives, competencies and the demands of the market. this alignment has the potential to mitigate skill mismatches, heighten job satisfaction and optimise overall career trajectories (european centre for the development of vocational training, 2014; oecd, 2018; roy, 2020). the significance of career guidance and counselling becomes apparent in its capacity to facilitate informed career decisions, instill motivation and inspiration in learners, cultivate self-awareness, nurture career development during childhood and facilitate networking opportunities with professionals across diverse fields (kashefpakdel & mann, 2016; makola et al., 2021; otwine et al., 2022; theresa, 2016; watson et al., 2016). learners actively seek guidance on a spectrum of aspects, including career decisions, subject combinations, higher education programmes and employment options, underlining the far-reaching impact of career guidance and counselling on their decision-making processes (otwine et al., 2022). challenges of career guidance and counselling despite its inherent advantages, career guidance and counselling face numerous challenges that impede its effectiveness. notably, time constraints emerge as a formidable obstacle, influencing the duration of career counselling sessions and constraining the ability to address essential emotional needs, thereby potentially resulting in misinformed career decisions (otwine et al., 2022; reid, 2022). the efficacy of career counselling is further hindered by limited rapport and skills among advisors, underscoring the imperative of establishing meaningful connections and enhancing the proficiency of educators and counsellors delivering career advice (groves et al., 2023; kabunga, 2020). socio-economic disparities introduce additional complexities, as learners in economically disadvantaged schools encounter restricted support because of resource limitations, leading to disparate access to vocational guidance (groves et al., 2023; musset & mýtna kureková, 2018). according to a study by groves et al. (2023), career guidance and counselling are not equally prioritised or provided across schools and some learners from economically disadvantaged households only receive a limited amount of support because of time and resource limitations. despite the fact that career counsellors can be quite helpful and effective, stakeholders claimed that a lack of funding for careers meant that some areas of provision or specific groups of students were left out of career-education opportunities such as individual consultations (groves et al., 2023). moreover, a uniform approach and a dearth of diversity in career guidance activities impede the provision of personalised support, potentially overlooking specific professions and sectors (kumar, 2022; makola et al., 2021). these challenges highlight the imperative of addressing the multifaceted nature of career guidance and counselling to ensure its efficacy and inclusivity. learners’ perception of career guidance and counselling in low-resource high schools moreover, learners assume a pivotal role as the ultimate beneficiaries of career guidance and counselling programmes within school settings, with their perspectives offering valuable insights into the effectiveness of such initiatives. studies performed in south africa also showed a broad pattern of learners who were happy with the career instruction they received in school. according to dabula and makura (2013), 80% of the participants said their school’s career guidance programme had given them more confidence in making professional decisions. other participants believed that the career guidance programme had met their needs for career development and that they were prepared for higher education (dabula & makura, 2013). similarly, another study also discovered that learners saw the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling services at their schools favourably (adewumi & adendorff, 2014; jacobs, 2011; jonck & swanepoel, 2015, 2016). however, the authenticity of learners’ enthusiasm has been subject to scrutiny, prompting the utilisation of tools such as jonck’s (2014) assessment of the efficacy of career guidance in life orientation, which may provide nuanced insights into the matter (adewumi & adendorff, 2014). according to the national curriculum statement (ncs), life orientation is the study of an individual’s self-relative to others and the community. the topics covered include occupations and professional alternatives, social interaction, physical activity, knowledge of the environment, responsible citizenship, leading a healthy and productive life and self-awareness (department of basic education, 2011). it is noteworthy that some learners perceive life orientation as lacking purpose, dull and falling short of its national curriculum objectives (jacobs, 2011). issues such as the inadequacy of essential tools in schools, insufficient career guidance and limited access to university information contribute to learners seeking alternative sources for career advice (maila & ross, 2018; njoko, 2019; ramjit, 2015). despite a general consensus on the positive impact of career guidance and counselling on learners, particularly in south africa, discernible discrepancies exist, especially within underserved schools. influences from peer pressure, family dynamics, educators and media significantly shape learners’ perceptions of professional education, with their beliefs about the effectiveness of career guidance closely tied to their levels of career maturity (adewale et al., 2017; dabula & makura, 2013; shafie et al., 2018). the evident disparities and shortcomings in the efficacy of career counselling services, particularly in underserved schools, underscore the necessity for a proactive approach that equips learners with the requisite skills for the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) (kayembe & nel, 2019). the potential adverse consequences for learners making career decisions without adequate knowledge emphasise the critical importance of addressing existing gaps in high school career guidance and counselling. in contributing to this ongoing discourse, it is crucial to recognize the possible long-term consequences this vulnerable set of learners may experience in long-term such as graduate unemployability because of mismatch in skillsets or interests. by taking steps to address these issues, proactive measures can be put in place to make a positive impact on learners’ future success and fulfillment by giving them the opportunity to realign their career pathways according to their interests and level of job satisfaction. as a further proactive measure, the study aims to explore grade 12 learners’ perception of the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling and to identify valuable career resources when making career decisions. theoretical framework young and popadiuk (2012) highlight the systems theory framework’s (stf) significant impact on career development, emphasising its role in connecting research, theory and practice. vondracek et al. (2014) further endorse its comprehensive nature, integrating diverse fields. patton and mcmahon (1999, 2006) contribute by applying systems theory to professional theory and career counselling, recognising its utility in understanding occupational development. the stf has notably enhanced career development theory and practice over time, acknowledging the complexity of job development and aiding individuals in understanding occupational contexts (patton & mcmahon, 2015). in the south african context, however, the stf lacks sufficient attention to the time dimension, particularly the historical implications of the educational system. according to the stf, professional development evolves over time, with past decisions influencing present and future decisions (mcmahon & patton, 2020; patton & mcmahon, 2006). unfortunately, learners in south africa often make career decisions in isolation, lacking historical support. this suggests a need for south african learners to prioritise historical understanding in their career development, emphasising the importance of time in applying the stf. the stf (figure 1) functions as a metatheoretical framework, amalgamating diverse career theories to bridge theory and application (patton & mcmahon, 2015). it underscores systems thinking and mapping to grasp the interconnectedness of influence systems over time (patton & mcmahon, 2006). according to mcmahon (2024), understanding how different components of a system are interconnected and affect an individual’s problems and overall situation is the goal of systems thinking. whereas systems mapping provides in-depth insights that improve comprehension of the individual’s environment and decision-making process by illuminating these impacts using visual aids such as genograms, timelines and mind maps (mcmahon, 2024). blustein (2015) underscores its usefulness in locating and applying theoretical insights in career development, delineating variables influencing professional development within complex systems. for grade 12 learners, the stf provides a valuable tool to assess the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling (patton & mcmahon, 2006). it emphasises systemic thinking and mapping in conceptualising professional development strategies (mcmahon & patton, 2018). recognising individuals within larger systems such as families, communities and educational institutions, it analyses contextual factors affecting career decisions (mcmahon & patton, 2020). according to patton and mcmahon (2006), the stf can assist the researcher in examining the many components of the career development system and comprehending the interactions that take place between learners and career counsellors in a counselling situation. the researcher can use systems mapping to depict and analyse the multifaceted nature of career exploration programmes within educational institutions, particularly their impact on curriculum and the function of career education. this method enables a thorough investigation of the numerous variables influencing the efficacy of career guidance and counselling (patton & mcmahon, 2006). figure 1: systems theory framework. research methodology the research methodology outlines how a researcher systematically designs, collects and analyses data in order to achieve research objectives. it involves making decisions about gathering and analysing data with the goal of producing reliable results while minimising biases (mccombes & george, 2023). in this study, the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling in high school settings is the specific event under investigation. the qualitative research method is the approach used, and it is a useful tool for both the researcher and the participants to gain a thorough understanding of the contextual significance of the study. research design qualitative research qualitative research collects and analyses non-numerical data to understand the opinions, thoughts and experiences of participants (bhandari, 2020). this research design method evaluates the complexity of the study issue and provides in-depth insights (bhandari, 2020). examining a phenomenon’s nature entails considering its qualitative characteristics, various manifestations, surrounding circumstances and possible points of view (busetto et al., 2020, p. 1). a qualitative research design was used for this study over a quantitative one because semi-structured online interviews were used to get first-hand accounts from participants and understand the research phenomenon (bhandari, 2020). qualitative descriptive to investigate the problem statement and research questions, the study used a qualitative descriptive approach. with interviews and other qualitative data, people’s experiences and points of view can be summarised because of this design (magilvy & thomas, 2009). however, its shortcomings include limited generalisability and reliance on participants’ accurate responses (kim et al., 2017). the purpose of the study was to investigate how grade 12 learners perceived the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling (sandelowski, 2000). the layout promotes the collection and evaluation of learners’ perspectives and experiences (doyle et al., 2020; kim et al., 2017). participants’ setting and characteristics the research was carried out at a historically disadvantaged public school in the western cape, south africa. the school, sponsored by donors, aimed to provide technological resources, including a computer hub, to help learners develop computer literacy. the school offered a range of fourteen subjects for subject selection. the study employed semi-structured online interviews during recess to ensure privacy and confidentiality. this approach was chosen to gather diverse perceptions without overwhelming data repetition, adhering to the methodological considerations outlined by mason (2010). the interviews were conducted in the computer hub at the school where each participant had access to laptop and a headset. the participants consisted of learners from underprivileged backgrounds and communities that attended the school. the demographic details of the participants are presented in table 1. table 1: table of participants’ characteristics. the study involved sixteen grade 12 learners from a high school in the western cape, all attending the same school but distributed across various subject classes. the participant group comprised seven females and nine males, all identified as mixed race individuals, with ages ranging between 17 and 19 years. the research aimed to explore the influence of career guidance and counselling support on the participants’ future career choices, prompting an investigation into their experiences with such support. data analysis and collection data collection data collection in this research involved using semi-structured online interviews to gather information on grade 12 learners’ perceptions of career guidance and counselling. specifically, following careful consideration of multiple factors, online video-conferencing interviews were selected as the primary data collection method, conducted through the microsoft (ms) teams and whatsapp video calling platforms. mwanda’s study (2022) confirmed the efficacy of online video conferencing for individual and group discussions, ensuring equitable participation despite time constraints, language barriers or geographical isolation, thus producing robust datasets. in addition, this approach facilitated the observation of social cues (irani, 2019). the chosen technique allowed participants to provide detailed responses, fostering open sharing of their experiences and perceptions (longhurst, 2003). the interview questions were informed by the systems theory of career development, incorporating demographic factors, career interests, guidance information and knowledge. throughout the study, participants were presented with a sequence of questions designed to assess their comprehension and viewpoints regarding career guidance and counselling. the questions explored different facets, encompassing their understanding of career guidance, its personal importance to them and their perceptions of its utility. moreover, participants were asked to describe the specific resources they found helpful for successful career advising and to consider the support they had received in this area. moreover, they were requested to review the efficacy of the materials supplied and determine their preparedness to make well-informed professional decisions after finishing grade 12. procedures the recruitment procedure involved obtaining consent from the western cape education department (wced), gaining approval from the university of the western cape’s human research ethics committee and reaching out to schools via email and telephone. after receiving approval from a responsive school, potential participants were approached through the head of the department (hod) for grade 9 and interested learners provided their details for formal invitations. the researcher sought permission and obtained consent from participants and their parents or guardians using hardcopies, considering limitations in electronic mail and mobile phone access. the interviews were conducted via microsoft teams and whatsapp video calling. participants were assured of their right to withdraw and verbal consent was audio recorded. the researcher archived the audio recordings securely, ensuring ethical considerations were maintained. data analysis data analysis is a crucial step in turning gathered data into a comprehensible story, involving coding and thematic analysis. coding, as described by theron (2015), facilitated the organisation of data for the qualitative study. the coding process involved systematic interpretation, categorisation and iterative refinement of codes and categories. thematic analysis, following braun and clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework, aimed to identify patterns within the data and explain those themes in the context of the research questions. the six phases included gaining a deep understanding of the data by thoroughly familiarising oneself with the entire data set, including all interviews and any other pertinent information. for this study, each transcript was read multiple times to ensure comprehension. next, initial codes were generated by identifying significant statements from the transcripts about grade 12 learners’ perceptions and experiences with career guidance and counselling. the search for themes followed, where these significant statements were used to create meanings, grouped by supporting quotations, and developed into themes based on comparable concepts. during the review phase, the researcher categorised and refined these meanings. in the defining themes phase, the researcher provided thorough descriptions and definitions of any recurrent themes. the process concluded with the write-up of the research findings, where the relevant themes were reported in a write-up. ethical considerations, such as maintaining participant confidentiality and obtaining informed consent, were consistently adhered to throughout the data analysis process. quality rigour the trustworthiness of the research was assured through credibility, transferability and dependability. according to korstjens and moser (2018), the degree of confidence in the reliability of the results is a key component of research credibility. to ensure accurate interpretations, the researcher thoroughly explained the objectives and purposes of the research to the participants as a crucial part of the data collection process. for transferability, korstjens and moser (2018) describe it as how well findings from qualitative research may be used in various scenarios with numerous participants. in this study, the researcher enhanced the transparency and understandability of the findings by detailing the research procedure, context and participant characteristics. lastly, dependability, which includes the consistency of study findings over time, was addressed by providing a general description of the various processes involved in conducting the study (korstjens & moser, 2018). ethical considerations in adherence to comprehensive research ethics, this study, as outlined by saunders et al. (2012), diligently addressed various elements encompassing the development of research concepts, planning, execution and data collection. ethical considerations extended to the responsible handling of analysed data and the ethical presentation of research findings. the study meticulously followed ethical guidelines, securing clearance from the social science research ethics committee (ethical clearance no: hs22/8/67) and obtaining permissions from the wced and the school principal. ensuring transparency, participants were fully informed about the study’s objectives, purpose and the audio recording of interview responses, with the option to withdraw without consequences. consent from parents and assent from participants, especially minors, were obtained, emphasising participants’ rights, confidentiality and protection from potential harm. participants’ codes and demographic information were securely maintained, underscoring reliability and conformity to ethical standards. notably, the study prioritised the participants’ right to privacy, explicitly communicated the option to withdraw from the interview without consequences and refrained from any form of coercion. findings and discussion the themes identified in this contribution offer an examination of how participants perceive career guidance and counselling. it is evident that the participants highlight the importance of career guidance and counselling for making well-informed career choices, emphasising the value of exploring a variety of resources and underpin the significance of conducting personal research and engaging with professionals in their chosen fields. in addition, most participants expressed their preparedness and determination to move forward in their selected career paths, all while recognising the necessity of continuous learning and self-exploration. the themes presented significant insights regarding learners’ perceptions and can be summarised as follows: (1) career guidance as a supportive mechanism, (2) need for accessible career guidance resources, (3) importance of support network in career choices and (4) confidence through adequate career guidance. theme 1: career guidance as a supportive mechanism the insights gathered from participants emphasise the indispensable role of professional guidance in the process of making career decisions. the holistic support offered by career guidance, extending beyond academic assistance, is highlighted by participant 1, which signifies the emotional and spiritual benefits that contribute to overcoming stress associated with academic challenges: ‘it’s very important as it helps you emotionally and spiritually as one can sometimes be discouraged by all the stress of schoolwork, but having someone that can help you with your career can make a difference.’ (participant 1, female, 18 years old) the contribution brings to light the multifaceted nature of guidance and counselling, addressing various domains such as academic, personal and social aspects. when asked about their impressions of career guidance and counselling, participant 7 emphasises the importance and value of career guidance for grade 12 learners, indicating the widespread uncertainty among students about their future paths. the narratives highlight the significance of having someone experienced guide them through the complexities of career choices. in addition, some participants stated the following: ‘it’s important that each grade 12 learner gets it. like at my school, most learners don’t even know what they want to do next year.’ (participant 7, male, 18 years old) ‘i think it’s very important. i feel like you need someone who is already in the adult world, who lets you know what you need to do and what is out there and guide you.’ (participant 12, female, 17 years old) ‘someone who maybe helps you to make a decision about your studies or career after school.’ (participant 16, female, 18 years old) as read in the responses, the participants perceive career guidance and counselling as a supportive mechanism for making sound decisions regarding educational paths and career choices. they emphasised its value in aiding them in making informed choices in their career pursuits. the sentiment is echoed by streicher (2021), emphasising the necessity for learners to access professional knowledge, understand their unique job interests and receive guidance on achieving their future goals. mailula’s (2021) findings further support this notion, indicating that participants believe career counselling can alleviate uncertainty in career decision-making. collectively, these perspectives emphasise the critical need for efficient career guidance and counselling resources to assist grade 12 pupils in making informed and meaningful career choices, aligning with the broader goal of identifying their abilities and potential, as suggested by shah et al. (2021). theme 2: need for accessible career guidance resources the collective insights from participants underscore the pivotal role of independent efforts and effective resources in the career decision-making process. when asked how learners can go about obtaining information, participants 1 and 2 highlighted the significance of proactive exploration and independent research in aiding career choices, emphasising the value of gathering information through avenues such as open days and online research: ‘they can look at their interest and do research about the career. they can attend open days for the career they want to pursue.’ (participant 1, female, 18 years old) ‘so, when i went online it told me the different places to go and work, like hospitals, prisons and rehabilitation centres. so that was very helpful because it gave me an idea of where i can work as a social worker.’ (participant 2, female, 17 years old) the findings align with quinlan and renninger’s (2022) research, emphasising that active exploration and research positively influence career decisions. however, findings emerge regarding the lack of social justice in career guidance resources. limited resources and access to information about career opportunities create disparities, showcasing the challenges faced by some participants in receiving adequate career guidance support: ‘like at my school, we don’t have access to a lot of things, so i think like getting people to come to us to tell us what is available. we have visits from colleges now and then. but it’s almost like we are limited to that because of our resources being limited, especially at my school.’ (participant 7, male, 18 years old) ‘i have been to open days; however, our school doesn’t really give guidance as to where we need to go. maybe, uhm, a bit more structure to understand about my career.’ (participant 10, male, 19 years old) this demonstrates participants’ lack of adequate career resources, specifically relating to visits from further education institutions and having a structured process for career guidance. this result was generally consistent with maree’s (2015) findings, which revealed that learners from disadvantaged areas receive little to no career assistance and information while making career-related decisions. the participants emphasise the crucial need for easily accessible and effective resources, particularly when learners actively guide their career exploration. this aligns with shah et al.’s (2021) recommendation for comprehensive grade 12 career guidance sessions, aiming to facilitate informed career decisions and guide academic choices for university studies. these sessions are deemed invaluable for students. the findings highlight the importance of socially just distribution of career guidance resources, supporting maree’s (2022) assertion that the emphasis is on fostering fairness and equal opportunity in accessing career aid across diverse backgrounds. this may imply the necessity to provide both individual and collective career guidance support, ensuring that underprivileged learners are well informed and have equitable access to resources for their career journeys. theme 3: importance of support network in career choices according to the findings, participants emphasised the importance of motivation and encouragement from their families, friends and teachers. participant 1 highlighted how her family, friends and teachers played a vital role in motivating and encouraging her to pursue her career aspirations. as participant 1, this sentiment was also shared by participants 8 and 15: ‘people must be there to motivate me and to encourage me to keep pushing for my career. such as my family, friends, and teachers.’ (participant 1, female, 18 years old) ‘i would probably choose my teachers. my grade 8 and 9 teachers. they advised me what i need to do and how to start and plan my career.’ (participant 8, female, 17 years old) ‘i spoke to my teachers and my uncle … i took the teacher’s advice and took my own introspection and made a decision based on my career. uhm, basically, i need time, i need support, motivation and someone to be there when i need them.’ (participant 15, male, 18 years old) these narratives reflect the belief held by the participants that receiving motivation and encouragement from their family, friends and teachers plays a vital role in shaping their decisions about their future careers. the research conducted by mtemeri (2017) supported this idea, demonstrating that family members indeed had an impact on learners’ career choices. this contribution also revealed that schools impacted high school learners’ choice of careers as well as peer advice and encouragement (mtemeri, 2017). however, a sub-group of participants notices the importance of proactive engagement with teachers for effective career guidance, as highlighted by participants 3 and 7. while the research suggests limited guidance during classroom sessions, the value of teachers as enablers becomes evident when learners actively seek career-related information: ‘at school the teachers offered me support when i had questions about my career choice.’ (participant 3, male, 18 years old) ‘when i was sure about a career in political science, my lo teacher was able to advise me that there aren’t many jobs in that field.’ (participant 7, male, 18 years old) this finding aligns with mailula’s (2021) study, emphasising the limited role of teachers in vocational guidance unless specific career-related queries are raised. based on the narratives, participants demonstrate an awareness of the dual importance of external motivation and proactive engagement with teachers for effective career guidance. this corresponds with the influence parents may have on their children’s decision-making, as seen in maila and ross’s (2018) study, and supports sackett et al.’s (2018) findings highlighting the significant impact of teachers and career counsellors on learners’ decisions. the participants’ perspective seems to align with the broader idea that the educational environment might play a pivotal role in shaping career-related decision-making (patton & mcmahon, 2006). theme 4: confidence through adequate career guidance a prevailing sense of preparedness for post-high school career decisions was evident among some participants, as exemplified by participant 2, who confidently expressed her passion for helping people and her readiness to pursue tertiary education at institutions such as stellenbosch university and university of the western cape (uwc). as participant 2, participant 14 also echoed a sense of readiness, emphasising the importance of research and discussions with others to clarify career choices. when asked about their readiness to make a career decision, the participant answered as follows: ‘yes. it’s something i always wanted to become because i have a passion to help people and take people out of their circumstances that are not very good where they are living. i have also applied at universities such as stellenbosch and uwc.’ (participant 2, female, 17 years old) ‘yes, i have done my research and spoke to my neighbour to make sure that i am clear on what i want to do.’ (participant 14, male, 18 years old) this aligns with research by datar and ahmad (2019), emphasising the role of career information services in enhancing students’ understanding of available options. however, some participants exhibited uncertainty and hesitation regarding their readiness for career decisions. participant 6 mentioned external opinions causing self-doubt, highlighting the influence of societal pressures on students’ career choices. participant 7 expressed ongoing information gathering and incomplete university applications, indicating a lack of readiness. these findings may imply that with available and structured career guidance support, learners may exhibit more confidence and certainty in their decision making: ‘no. i am second guessing myself because people are asking me why i want to become a teacher, so i started to listen to other people.’ (participant 6, male, 18 years old) ‘no. i don’t think i’m ready. so, for me i’m still trying to gather information on my own. but also trying to finish my university applications.’ (participant 7, male, 18 years old) the participants’ mixed responses appear to highlight the varied levels of readiness and confidence in making post-high school career decisions. while some express assurance through proactive measures, others highlight challenges influenced by societal pressures and limited access to career information. this suggests the importance of comprehensive career guidance and support to address the diverse needs of learners as they navigate this critical decision-making phase. the research findings reveal that participants acknowledge the importance of guidance and counselling in making informed career decisions. while existing career guidance may have been effective in fostering learners’ confidence, a gap appears to exist in the provision of structured, in-class information sessions conducted by life orientation teachers. consequently, learners are left to independently navigate their career decision-making process through self-initiated research and seeking guidance. this introduces potential challenges, as the effectiveness of learners’ comprehension depends on their interpretation of information for shaping informed career choices. the findings suggest the ongoing need for abundant career resources and emphasise the necessity for a well-structured career programme led by life orientation teachers. limitation several noticeable limitations were discovered by the study conducted at the chosen school with learners. firstly, the interviews were conducted online, which posed a challenge in establishing rapport as the participants were unable to engage in face-to-face interactions with the researcher. the utilisation of video calling might have mitigated this limitation to some extent. secondly, the occurrence of load shedding3 during the data collection phase resulted in interruptions during the interview sessions, necessitating the repetition of questions because of connectivity issues. moreover, time constraints imposed limitations on the study, as interviews were conducted during recess, limiting participants’ availability. this constraint potentially impacted the depth and breadth of the data collected. the researcher also faced limited control over the school environment, as activities during recess times occasionally changed last minute, and classroom disruptions were a factor that could influence the research process. moreover, the participants were exclusively in their grade 12 (final) year of high school. given that career guidance ideally commences as early as grade 9 when learners must make subject selections with some form of guidance, a broader sampling strategy, involving interviews with learners in grades 9, 10 and 11, could have potentially yielded more comprehensive results. thus, providing a more comprehensive representation of their perceptions of the efficacy of career counselling and guidance for future career choices. lastly, because of the school’s designation as a quantile 4 school,4 it is possibly that the limitation of this research study is that it might not adequately represent the career guidance and counselling tailored to low socio-economic conditions. when drawing conclusions about the school’s ability to serve learners from low socio-economic backgrounds, this classification could potentially introduce uncertainty. the results of the study imply that the relationship between the school’s quantile rating and the socio-economic position of the parents or the availability of resources at the school might not be entirely accurate, which could potentially limit the usefulness of the findings to low socio-economic conditions. conclusion the findings indicate that participants recognise the significance of receiving guidance and counselling concerning making a decision regarding their careers. moreover, the available career guidance appears to be effective, potentially instilling learners with the confidence to take charge of their decision-making process. however, the research also uncovers a gap in structured, in-class information sessions delivered by life orientation teachers. consequently, learners are compelled to independently navigate this process through self-initiated research and proactive seeking of guidance. this introduces additional challenges, as the extent of learners’ comprehension hinges on how they interpret the information to shape their informed career choices. this highlights the ongoing need for ample career resources and emphasises the requirement for a structured career programme led by life orientation teachers. recommendations for future research the study proposes multifaceted recommendations to address deficiencies in career guidance and counselling for learners. firstly, it advocates for a comprehensive national research initiative in south africa, drawing on maketekete’s (2022) and mailula’s (2021) suggestions for a comparative study between public and affluent schools. this research aims to provide nuanced data reflecting diverse learner experiences, facilitating a more precise evaluation of career guidance across the educational system and identifying potential gaps at the school level. to deepen the study, there is an emphasis on triangulating learner experiences by incorporating the perspectives of life orientation teachers, following jonck’s (2015) and makola et al.’s (2021) recommendations. this involves actively seeking feedback from both learners and teachers to gain a comprehensive understanding of how learners engage with and benefit from the provided career guidance. secondly, the recommendation addresses learners’ reliance on independent research for career decisions by suggesting alignment of life orientation educators’ practices with the department of education’s goals. initiatives such as career weeks are proposed to enhance learner preparedness and information. additionally, the study calls for research on effective strategies for teachers to provide necessary resources, preventing decisions based on limited or incorrect information, as highlighted by dama et al. (2020) and mtemeri (2017). lastly, the study underscores learners’ strong desire for job shadowing experiences and professional visits. recommendations include establishing connections with local organisations, arranging workplace visits and inviting professionals for informative career sessions at schools, aligning with the broader goal of enlightening students about education and employment options, as advocated by rukewe and oats (2020). acknowledgements this article is partially based on a.f’s thesis entitled ‘exploring the effectiveness of career guidance and counselling: perceptions of grade 12 learners’ towards the masters degree in industrial psychology, university of the western cape, received april 2024 with supervisor, marieta du plessis. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all the authors of this article belong to the same community engagement group and were involved in different duties in authoring this article. a.f. was responsible for conceptualising the article, correspondence, writing, collection and analysing data and finalising the article. additionally, a.f. was responsible for the methodology and the literature review. m.d.p. was responsible for initiating drafts and proofreading. funding information the authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by mict seta bursary. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are openly available from the corresponding author, a.f., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references adewale, b., adisa, o., ndububa, c., olawoyin, c., & adedokun, a. 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(2019). load shedding fact sheet. retrieved from https://www.westerncape.gov.za/110green/sites/green.westerncape.gov.za/files/atoms/files/load%20shedding%20faq%202019_final_2.pdf young, r.a., & popadiuk, n.e. (2012). social constructionist theories in vocational psychology. in social constructionism in vocational psychology and career development (pp. 9–28). brill sense. footnotes 1. the term black people used is aligned with the ethnicity descriptions included in the employment equity amendment act no. 47 of 2013 (republic of south africa, 2014). 2. the term people of mixed race used is aligned with the ethnicity descriptions included in the employment equity amendment act no. 47 of 2013 (republic of south africa, 2014). 3. according to the western cape government (2019), load shedding is a practice by energy utilities to lessen strain on the energy-producing system by temporarily halting energy distribution to specific geographic areas. 4. schools in quintile 1, 2 and 3 have been declared no-fee schools, while schools in quintiles 4 and 5 are fee-paying schools (grant, 2013). abstract women’s entrepreneurial careers in dubai social cognitive career theory in the united arab emirates context the present research study 1 findings study 2 results discussion data availability statement acknowledgements references about the author(s) pamela hawkswell school of education, university of southern queensland, toowoomba, australia peter mcilveen school of education, university of southern queensland, toowoomba, australia patricia n. hoare school of psychology and counselling, university of southern queensland, toowoomba, australia citation hawkswell, p., mcilveen, p., & hoare, p.n. (2021). a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai. african journal of career development, 3(1), a46. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.46 original research a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai pamela hawkswell, peter mcilveen, patricia n. hoare received: 13 oct. 2021; accepted: 28 oct. 2021; published: 15 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: social cognitive career theory (scct) is one of the leading theories within the literature of career development, but there is marginal evidence of its applicability within the diverse nations and cultures of the middle east and arab nations. objectives: the research involved a mixed methods exploratory design with an aim to determine scct’s utility in the context of dubai and with a specific focus on the careers of emirati women. method: study 1 used interviews to explore contextual factors affecting women’s careers. study 2 used a survey to measure core scct constructs, namely self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relations with work engagement. results: the qualitative data from the interviews and quantitative data from the survey found salience in factors that were consistent with the tenets of scct. conclusion: the findings provide evidence of scct’s potential utility in this cultural context; however, future research should extend into a broader and larger sample of workers in dubai and the uae. keywords: social cognitive career theory; self-efficacy; outcome expectations; work engagement; dubai; women’s careers. dubai is one of the world’s high profile economic and cultural hubs. however, research into the careers of people of the united arab emirates (uae) and citizens of dubai, women in particular, is uncommon in specialist international career development journals. accordingly, the present research had two aims. firstly, given the global significance of dubai as a commercial hub, we sought to address this research gap in the career development literature by exploring career development of women in the private sector in dubai. secondly, we sought to explore the utility of a western theory, namely the social cognitive career theory (brown & lent, 2019; lent & brown, 2019) in this specific context and demographic group. women’s entrepreneurial careers in dubai in recent decades there has been emerging government programmes to enhance emirati women’s careers, including the national strategy for the empowerment of emirati women (united arab emirates government, 2021), the dubai women establishment (government of dubai, 2021) and, the dubai business women council (dubai chamber of commerce and industry, 2021). the dubai women’s establishment, for example, aims to nurture the next generation of emirati women leaders who will serve as role models to young women in the wider society, with the establishment playing an active role to equip these women to fulfil this task. despite these initiatives, there is limited research pertaining to women’s careers in dubai. the disciplinary field of business studies acknowledges a history of significant social, cultural, and legal constraints on women’s careers in the uae (e.g. erogul, 2011; erogul, rod, & barragan, 2019; gallant, majumdar, & varadarajan, 2010; marmenout & lirio, 2014). with respect to the issues of gender, men may be both an inhibitor and promoter of women’s entrepreneurship, with inhibition diminished by the support of close male networks, particularly family (barragan, erogul, & essers, 2015; erogul, 2011). calls for a feminist perspective on women in business aim to address a discourse that limits women to the traditional role of mother (barragan et al., 2015; erogul et al., 2019) which reflects societal norms for women such as marriage, family, and modesty (marmenout & lirio, 2014). furthermore, young emirati women may be inclined towards an entrepreneurial career if there is educational preparation for business (gallant et al., 2010). whilst the present study is within the private sector, we acknowledge similar constraints on women’s careers in the public sector (cf. williams, wallis, & williams, 2013). social cognitive career theory in the united arab emirates context the social cognitive career theory (scct) has diverse theoretical, empirical, and practical utility (brown & lent, 2019; lent & brown, 2019); however, its utility for non-western cultures requires further research (sheu & bordon, 2017). the limited research using scct in the arabian region includes a study involving interviews with uae women to explore the factors that have an influence on their careers in the it sector which found family to be a major influence (howe-walsh, turnbull, khan, & pereira, 2020). another qualitative study using interviews explored young emiratis’ bias against work in the private sector and their notions of agency, but it did not specifically report findings related to self-efficacy in terms of the scct (al-waqfi mohammed & forstenlechner, 2012). a quantitative scct-informed research into emirati school children’s interests in a stem career used program for international student assessment (pisa) data for the uae but did not find a predictive relation between self-efficacy and aspirations for a stem career (cairns & dickson, 2020). another quantitative survey research by badri, mohaidat, ferrandino and el mourad (2013) used scct work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006) to inform research into teachers in abu dhabi, a neighbouring emirate of dubai. contrary to scct hypotheses, badri et al. found no direct predictive relation between self-efficacy, which is core to the scct, and job satisfaction. goal support was also found to be indirectly related to work satisfaction via work conditions and self-efficacy as reflected in goal progress. albeit limited, these qualitative and quantitative research studies are suggestive of scct’s potential utility for research into emirati women’s careers, but more research is needed to affirm its status as a useful theory for this region. the present research the present research was exploratory by design (i.e. to explore the potential of the scct in a novel cultural context); therefore, we used a mixed methods sequential exploratory design (hanson, creswell, clark, petska, & creswell, 2005). firstly, a qualitative study sought to explore the contextual factors that may influence women’s career satisfaction. secondly, a quantitative study focused on the core social cognitive variables, namely self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relation with women’s sense of engagement in their careers. study 1 participants five women participated in the interviews about their careers. they were residents of dubai, employed, and studying at a women’s college, nearing completion of a 4-year bachelor’s degree programme. their ages ranged from 23 to 33 years. two participants were married having children. all were employed in non-managerial positions at the time of the interview and were from a wide range of career backgrounds – banking, insurance and finance and accounting – with three out of five working or having worked in banks, which was consistent with females predominantly opting to work in the banking sector in the uae. pseudonyms are used hereafter. salma (27 years of age) lived with her family of origin and had worked in the insurance sector for 8 years before switching to a governmental position in 2014. salma majored in human resources during her college years. sumaya (28 years of age) was married, had a young daughter, and worked for the banking industry for 8 years before switching to the government sector 2 years prior to the interview. sumaya majored in human resources. dana (23 years of age) was working in a private bank. dana had studied nanoengineering on a government-sponsored scholarship in canada for 3 years before returning home. she then pursued a business degree to better accommodate her knowledge and skills for the banking industry. fatma (33 years of age) was married with one child and expecting a second. she had spent 8.5 years in the private sector at two banks and an airline and had worked for the government during the 4 years prior to the interview. her intention was to re-join the private sector within a year. amina (30 years of age) worked in the government sector after working for 8 years in a private bank. the participants were personally invited by the interviewer to participate in the study and were provided with written information about what was required of their participation. the invitations were given in english (the language of instruction at the college) and reflected respect for the culture and demarcation of boundaries for the participants and the researchers. the participants agreed to audio record their responses during the interview. they were assured of maintaining anonymity of their identity and therefore pseudonyms were used throughout the transcripts and in the resulting reporting of the findings. the interviewer was a teacher at the participants’ college. she is an australian citizen of white european background. she has extensive expatriate professional experience in the uae, including teaching female emirati students for more than 18 years. the participants knew the interviewer in her role as a teacher. this knowledge of the interviewer as a member of college with significant cultural understanding of the uae and its islamic traditions legitimised her role and assured the participants that she has much respect for local customs. the interviewer identified as both an insider and an outsider: an insider as a woman exploring women’s careers and an outsider as person of different cultural heritage. to manage this complex balance of insider-outsider, the interviewer participated in regular supervision meetings with the project supervisor. these meetings included reflective discussions to ensure that the interviewer was aware of the potential cultural concerns and influences on her interpretation of the interview data. the research was approved by the ethical review board of the university of southern queensland (approval: h15rea252). procedure the design of the interview questions was informed by the theoretical tenets of the scct with the aim of exploring how the participants experienced and expressed (cognitively, behaviourally, emotionally) contextual factors (e.g. family), self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals with regard to their careers. for example, questions pertaining to contextual matters included the following: [h]ow might your family and friends feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? how might your friends feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? how might society feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? the interview questions were sent to the participants in advance. the questions (provide the questions) that may have resulted in answers reflecting cultural influence were carefully worded to avoid signs of bias or judgement. the interviews lasted between 30 and 60 min and occurred over a period of 3 weeks. immediately after the interview, notes were taken in an effort to supplement the transcripts. transcriptions were completed within 2 days of an interview and then returned to the participants for their checking to comment on any misunderstandings or misrepresented responses, and to add any other relevant points that would enhance the interpretation of data. data analysis the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006, 2013). a manual approach with a coloured coding table matching the constructs of the scct was used. the entire transcripts were copied and colour-coded to the ‘original data’ column with thoughts on the content added to the second ‘comments’ column. additional comments were added using the comments tool on the review option in microsoft word. these comments represented initial justification for the colour-coding and ultimately linked extracts to the constructs of the scct. a second table headed ‘themes from codes for aspects of the scct’, was drawn up and then data from the five interview transcripts were organised according to the scct constructs. those data that were considered relevant to career paths but that did not fit specifically into the scct constructs were listed under an additional heading ‘other’. data were collated to facilitate identification of patterns across the dataset, instead of being constrained by the questions, which is a technique recommended by braun and clark (2013). findings in alignment with scct work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006), the findings section is organised with respect to themes that represent contextual supports, resources, and obstacles, and work conditions, both proximal (e.g. family-of-origin, own family) and distal (e.g. workplace, societal expectations). matters pertaining to gender – of being a woman in this specific context – imbue the findings. accordingly, the issues pertaining to gender are integrated into the themes. family-of-origin maternal figures have been a significant proximal influence on the careers of the participants. salma recounted an almost 180-degree turnaround in the attitude displayed by her mother from when she first joined the private sector to the present time. she excused her mother’s initial reaction to her working in the private sector by saying that, ‘old people have the belief that government jobs are more secured, have less hours and less stress’ but then conceded that her mother was, ‘eventually understanding and supporting … “til today”’ of her decision to pursue a career in insurance in the private sector. of particular importance to salma was the way in which her mother motivated and encouraged her by telling her, ‘you can do better than this, these are not your limits…you’re capable of better than this’, as she was the only one in the family undertaking further study. dana also credited her mother as, ‘actually giving me the idea of pursuing this path (business) rather than the engineering, although they [sic] were very supportive of that’, after she forewent a scholarship at an overseas university and returned home to live and work. her mother was again identified as being the major motivator behind the idea that she would eventually start a family business when she felt she had the required experience. all participants spoke of the obvious and somewhat expected pride and happiness expressed by their families regarding their career achievements to date, as reflected in fatma’s comment, ‘they will always be proud of me of course…because they know i worked hard on myself to reach that position or that stage’. the influence of encouragement from their family members was also noted, as exhibited by sumaya, in the form of them, ‘wanting me to be better and getting a higher position and higher certificate’, and by dana, in her observation of, ‘they feel that being successful in your career is a very good thing … something to be proud of … and they would like to see their kids being very successful’. amina’s family can be seen to contravene traditional societal norms to a certain extent by encouraging her to take up study abroad. the unusual nature of this encouragement is demonstrated by amina’s rhetorical remark, ‘i got a scholarship to do the master’s internationally. will they allow me to go … yes … !’. these words of amina give an indication of the societal tradition in which females are generally not encouraged to move abroad if it means separation from family members. in addition, the fact that amina was single, reinforced the significance of the family’s decision that has spurred her on to consider undertaking doctoral studies abroad in the future. this was closely linked to her obligation to reach the top of her field in academia. own-family work-life balance was mentioned by the participants as an important obligation especially where their family was concerned. it appears to be mandatory for females pursuing a career, to fulfil the role of being available for other family members. this was illustrated in salma’s comment in relation to undertaking further study, ‘and of course it is my duty to keep the balance between my work and my family’, and in amina’s previous comment, ‘… if i do the study abroad the challenge will be double as i’m quite tied to the family’. as such, it is difficult to find out whether the obligation was self-imposed or was imposed by family or society, both of which are the wider communities to which the participants belong. regardless of these two possibilities, a sense of obligation to the family was evident amongst these participants. in contrast, dana saw further commitment to study as possibly causing her to have to, ‘give up so much of her social life and leisure life in general’ but admitted that if she wanted to focus on her career, ‘… my lifestyle would be dedicated to studying and working hard’. the fact that dana lived abroad for study for 2 years sharing a flat with western students has undoubtedly granted her this somewhat alternative perspective in relation to the obligation and pursuit of career goals, although not necessarily at the neglect of family. as was to be expected, other obligations fell more directly under career goals. for instance, sumaya was determined that the next position she looked for, ‘… has to be related to hr because i studied so i want to apply what i studied in my work’, and was in direct contrast to her taking up previous positions which she referred to as ‘just getting something’. the reason behind dana’s decision to quit her engineering course abroad, return home, and switch to the business field, was revealed in her words, ‘i knew if i did engineering i just wouldn’t be happy … i was just more interested in the business subjects’. the fact that she had found parts of the engineering course tough led her to this conclusion. she appeared to have gone from strength to strength, with an awareness of what is expected for success in the private sector in her comment: […i]’m still pursuing further education … it’s a very important part for you to succeed … if you have a lower level education they won’t much consider you … even though you’re good at the job. her expectations in relation to success in her future career path hinged on her getting more experience to perhaps open a family business, becoming more financially independent to explore other avenues, and growing as a person. amina also saw her own success as being intertwined with the success of her future family and, ultimately, the society in her observation, ‘if i add anything to myself, definitely it will be adding value to them and the uae as we are like a small community’. she made reference to moving up a job hierarchy in the form of a ‘good position, in a good field in a good organisation’ to exemplify this observation. she was, however, well aware of the fact as to how society sees a single female pursuing a doctorate when she stated, ‘i’m not married and i know the society will not agree with me taking another degree, especially a phd and being highly educated’. she defended her status with a lengthy explanation amounting to being kept busy by running around with ‘unnecessary stuff’ or by filling the hours with study. she explicitly distinguished between what she perceived as the somewhat-harsh choices given by society as keeping busy with study or having children and challenges the ultimatum, by saying if she does not find ‘a person really good to marry’, she will continue her career and earn a phd. workplace employers’ influence plays a pivotal role in the participants’ perspectives of career advancement, an influence that is both positive and negative in nature. salma made special mention of what she perceived to be gender discrimination, generalising that: ‘… there are still people in the world who as ceos will not be happy to give promotions to women and who would prefer men instead of women and girls’. she consolidated her belief by adding that, ‘… even if you are working double the men, still they are not happy with you, just because you’re a woman’. others spoke of managers as not being supportive, with dana, in particular, wondering if ‘they really want you to become a better person…or grow in the company…or they just want you to stay there because you’re good at your job and that benefits them alone’. fatma, whilst seeing the initial project set by the manager as being a direct challenge to her as a new staff member, acknowledged that when she succeeded, he was impressed, and gave her positive feedback. salma vented her frustration when she told about her experience of not receiving a promotion after 2 years when she emphatically stated, ‘but of course we can do work, we are better than men!’ her indignation of and eventual triumph over the situation was summed up in her final reaction, that of feeling: [a]ngry and making me go and search for another higher position just to show my manager i deserved more than this because when i was there he didn’t understand my true value but after i left what happened … he hired three employees! perhaps unknowingly, she was exhibiting self-efficacy here along with a degree of outcome expectation – that of being confident that she would get a better position if she made the effort to look elsewhere. positive experiences in relation to managerial support, as reported by fatma, ranged from a manager who was partially supportive because, ‘he was too busy with what he was doing … and when we had that one-to-one meeting, he was just trying to wrap up fast’ to an hr lady working with the manager who, ‘was always supportive’. she then went on to recollect that the best experience came from a different bank describing the years here as, ‘the most important period of my career because of the amount of support i got from my managers and my colleagues’, support that came in the form of various trainings to enhance learning and skills. her outcome expectations from completing these trainings then were to be better equipped to carry out day-to-day tasks and responsibilities and ultimately work towards promotion. societal expectations dana was mindful of the fact that today’s society wanted and expected women to be more successful in the workplace. this encouragement has been given by governmental actions and by other female groups throughout the uae. she opined that ‘it would be a very good thing’ in relation to her succeeding in a role previously only considered for men, and the subsequent effect this success would have on women in society. now that there are more female than male students enrolled in higher education. it stands to reason that, as these females graduate, they will occupy a larger percentage of the local workforce and may want to exert more control over their career progress. fatma was more direct and went one step further in her perception of societal expectations, linking the concept of being a role model to friends or their friends in terms of ‘giving back to your country’. she equated society with the broader aspect of the country, which is reflected in her statement, ‘whatever you are doing you are giving back to society, giving back to your country, and this is what is expected from you’. the participants acknowledged that they were women working in a society that predominantly favours males, but they were quick to argue that this bias may not necessarily be the case for them. this was reflected in salma’s comment: [… n]owadays our society is more open … and women are half of the society so we are being supported by our government, family, friends, so when we are highly successful in our career, it will be a positive feeling from them. uppermost in this participant’s mind was the late ruler his highness shaikh mohamad bin zayed (1918–2004), who did much to encourage sexual equality, including encouraging women to serve in the police and armed forces. dana’s comments concurred with salma’s perspective by saying about society, ‘… they will actually be very supportive because they do want to see people in the uae go on to be highly successful, especially women …’. she backed this up by adding, ‘in this recent year, there are actually a lot of women pursuing different kinds of jobs and positions that weren’t there for them, only for men’, and then alludes as to how it would be ‘a very good thing’ if society saw them ‘getting there’. the importance of giving back to society through being a role model, either to friends or to people in general, was emphasised by fatma who saw it as a societal expectation. in contrast, sumaya raised a somewhat negative issue of some people in society being presumably unsupportive, when she said, ‘ah society … i will face some jealousies in my life for how she reached this position … she doesn’t deserve it’, but went on to concede that, ‘… in general, they will be happy to see an emirati in a (good) position’. this once again raises the issue of how emiratis see themselves as being apart from the expatriate workforce, which is unsurprising, considering emiratis in 2013, who made up just 0.5% of the private sector workforce. another negative reaction to managerial influence was highlighted by fatma in the form of wasta, a feature of emirati society in which preferential treatment is given to family and friends with regard to position and promotion within a company. she cited this as an impediment on her otherwise flourishing career at the time by stating, ‘i saw myself growing in that bank…but the problem was my manager was put there by wasta. he knew nothing’. this in fact, was instrumental in fatma leaving the company with the difficult decision to do so alluded to in her statement, ‘…there are external factors that force you sometimes to leave a place … and i didn’t want to leave that place’. her action was in contrast to the usual passive acceptance of this societal phenomenon and indicated a self-belief in her ability of being able to find a job in another company where presumably she would be treated more fairly. summary the interviews identified four themes: family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. these themes represent the supports, resources, obstacles, and work conditions that contribute to the women’s career development and satisfaction. having completed the qualitative phase of this mixed method sequential explanatory study (hanson et al., 2005), we now turn to the quantitative phase in study 2. study 2 the aim of study 2 was to quantitatively explore relations amongst the core variables identified in the scct, self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relation with work engagement. participants there were n = 41 participants whose ages ranged across the following categories: 20–25 years, 48.8%; 26–30 years, 22%; 31–34 years 9.8%; and 35–40 years, 19.5%. with respect to their education status, 4.9% held a master’s degree, 68.3% a bachelor’s degree, 12.2% a diploma, and 14.7% reported ‘other’ or unspecified, and approximately half of the participants (53.7%) were enrolled in further studies. relationship status were 63.4% single, 26.8% married, and 9.7% divorced. the majority (80.3%) had no children and 4.9% had one or two children, and a further 9.8% had more than three children. employment sectors included 36.5% in the private sector, 41.4% in the semi-private sector, and 21.9% in the public sector. industries were 39% in banking and finance, 46.4% worked in ‘other’ unspecified industries, and 4.8% reported their industries as health, media and retail. the majority of participants (39%) had worked in their current organisation for more than 4 years with 29.3% having worked for 2–3 years, 17.1% for 1–2 years and 14.6% for less than 1 year in their current organisation. procedure study 2 participants completed an online survey available on the create survey (2017) platform. instructions and items were translated into arabic by a professional translator. a college-level educator, fluent in arabic, checked the final draft of the survey for accuracy. the survey’s invitation to participate was distributed through a tertiary education college which acted as a third-party to culturally legitimise the invitation. the study was approved by the ethical review board of the university of southern queensland (approval: h15rea252). materials occupational self-efficacy scale (oses; rigotti, schyns, & mohr, 2008). there were six items on this scale related to participant beliefs in their ability to manage various challenges in their job (e.g. i can remain calm when facing difficulties in my job because i can rely on my abilities). the participants rated each of the six items on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the scale was scored as an average, all items were summed and then divided by the total number of items. reliability coefficients for the oses were between 0.85 and 0.90 over the five countries in which the scale was tested (rigotti et al., 2008). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.78. sources of self-efficacy and outcome expectations scale (sseoe; lent, ireland, penn, morris, & sappington, 2017). twelve items were used to assess personal mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, and vicarious learning as sources contributing to self-efficacy (e.g. i have been resourceful at gathering the information i need to make career-related decisions). the participants responded using a 5-point likert scale of 1 (strong disagreement) to 5 (strong agreement). they were asked to reflect on their past experiences, including the influence of important others and role models, and how these may influence their future career decisions. original cronbach’s alpha values suggested the sub-scales internal consistency reliability estimates of α = 0.82 (personal mastery), α = 0.89 (verbal persuasion) and vicarious learning α = 0.83 (lent et al., 2017). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.85 for personal mastery, α = 0.93 for verbal persuasion, and α = 0.89 for vicarious learning. the full scale returned a cronbach’s α of 0.92. vocational outcome expectations scale – revised (voes; mcwhirter & metheny, 2009). eleven items sought to elicit information from the participants about outcome expectations regarding career planning (e.g. i will have a career/occupation that is respected in our society). because of an administrative error, item number 12 from the original scale was missing. a 4-point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) was used and was scored as an average, all items were summed and then divided by the total number of items. the original cronbach’s alpha score for the scale was 0.93 (mcwhirter & metheny, 2009). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.90. utrecht work engagement scale – 9 (uwes; schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006). nine items sought to explore participant feelings in relation to the workplace and overall work engagement (e.g. i am immersed in my work). they were asked to rate themselves on a 6-point likert scale from 1 (never) to 6 (daily). the original cronbach’s alpha for the scale varied between 0.85 and 0.92 across 10 countries (schaufeli et al., 2006). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.96 for the full-scale (i.e. nine items). for the subscales, the internal consistency coefficients were cronbach’s α = 0.94 for vigour, α = 0.89 for dedication, and α = 0.87 for absorption. results data screening table 1 presents the descriptive statistics. there was no missing data from the 41 participants. the uwes’ subscales had marginally high skew values higher than |1| and the oses and absorption subscale had marginal kurtosis higher than |1|. inspection of box plots revealed one case with relatively lower scores for occupational self-efficacy (ose) and vocational outcome expectations (voe); however, this case was retained for analyses. table 1: descriptive statistics for the measures. relations amongst variables table 2 presents the correlations amongst the measured variables. according to the scct, the sources of self-efficacy – mastery, verbal persuasion, vicarious learning – should correlate with self-efficacy. the significant correlation coefficients bear out this theoretical relation. multiple regression analysis with the sources of self-efficacy entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.57, adjusted r2 = 0.28, s.e. = 0.46, f(3,37) = 6.15, p = 0.00, durbin-watson = 2.05] with only personal mastery as a significant predictor of self-efficacy [β = 0.56, t = 2.74, p = 0.01]. table 2: correlations of the full scales and subscales of measures. social cognitive career theory posits predictive relations between self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and the correlation between these two variables is evident in table 2. in addition to self-efficacy per s.e., we tested the relations between its sources and outcome expectations. multiple regression with the sources entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.81, adjusted r2 = 0.63, s.e. = 0.26, f(3,37) = 23.66, p = 0.00, durbin-watson = 2.20]. again, only personal mastery was the significant predictor [β = 0.62, t = 4.45, p = 0.00]. we note, however, that verbal persuasion had a non-trivial albeit statistically non-significant contribution in the model which may reach significance in a larger data set [β = 0.23, t = 1.99, p = 0.05]. according to scct, self-efficacy should associate with work engagement. although self-efficacy did not correlate with work engagement measured as a full scale, two of the sources of self-efficacy, personal mastery and vicarious learning did correlate. multiple regression analysis with personal mastery and vicarious learning entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.54, adjusted r2 = 0.26, s.e. = 1.27, f(2,38) = 7.85, p = 0.001] with only personal mastery as a significant predictor of work engagement [b = 0.39, t = 2.09, p = 0.04, 95% ci = 0.03, 0.1.80]. discussion this research sought to explore the potential utility of the scct for research addressing entrepreneurial women in dubai. there are two notable findings. firstly, through the interviews in study 1, we discerned proximal and distal contextual supports, resources, and obstacles, and work conditions which are consistent tenets of the scct, namely family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. secondly, the variables measured in study 2 had correlations with one another at levels that were sufficiently consistent with the scct. social cognitive career theory contextualises vocational behaviour by situating its core cognitive constructs (i.e. self-efficacy, outcome expectations) amidst social-environmental constructs (e.g. contextual affordances), and by assuming that these factors influence one another. whilst we cannot draw specific conclusions about the relations between the contextual factors in study 1 (e.g. workplace) and the measured variables in study 2 – because they are separate studies per s.e. – we speculate that the significant correlation between work engagement and outcome expectations is tentative evidence of the theoretical relations specified in the scct. germane to the assumptions of social cognitive paradigm and scct, the measured sources of personal mastery, verbal persuasion, and vicarious learning had significant correlations with self-efficacy and outcome expectations. similarly, self-efficacy and outcome expectations were linked with one another. vocational outcome expectations correlated with all measures of work engagement (i.e. vigour, dedication, absorption); however, self-efficacy did not which is inconsistent with scct’s work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006). similarly, badri et al. (2013) found no relation between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. we considered this ostensibly contradictory finding in light of the essential role of family-of-origin and own-family to the women in this study. recent research highlights complex relations amongst non-work family support, professional self-efficacy, and work engagement (azim & al-halawani, 2020) and self-efficacy for balancing work and family demands and work engagement (chan et al., 2017; wood, oh, park, & kim, 2020); however, wood et al. concluded that the directionality of effects between life balance and work engagement is yet to be determined by research. we speculate that the women in this study had to similarly appraise their occupational self-efficacy in the context of family dynamics. contrary to the findings by williams et al. (2013), participant careers did not appear to be restrained once they had accessed the private sector and proved their worth. in this study, family members showed unwavering support for their choices including change in career direction and other activities such as additional studies that may further enhance future careers. specific mention was made in relation to support given by mothers. less obvious is the specific influence of male family members on the women’s careers. this finding is important because it suggests that there is a need to explore nuances of family influence on emirati women from an scct perspective. for example, are the relationships between women and their parents qualitatively different in the case of mother and father? how do parental relationships influence self-efficacy and outcome expectations? in the present study, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion were evidently correlated with the women’s self-efficacy. are those sources of self-efficacy influenced by how women observe the work-related behaviour of their parents, and how they attend to their work-related discourse of their emirati parents? future research is needed to answer these questions and to further test the potential of the scct in this context. if the tenets of the scct have merit in the socio-cultural and economic context of dubai and the uae, then attention should be given to designing and implementing strategies to support women’s career exploration, decision-making, and transitions in the world-of-work. initiatives such as the national strategy for the empowerment of emirati women (united arab emirates government, 2021), the dubai women establishment (government of dubai, 2021) and, the dubai business women council (dubai chamber of commerce and industry, 2021) are signs of structural reform. for career development researchers and practitioners, the challenge is to advocate for the field’s theory, research, and practices to inform how those initiatives can be implemented to positively affect women’s self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, and contextual factors that may enhance or limit their development. limitations this research is inherently limited by its intent to explore scct’s potential for use in the specific demographic group of interest (i.e. younger entrepreneurial emirati women residing in dubai). we did not advance specific hypotheses drawn from the scct and therefore the results should be interpreted as tentative evidence of the scct’s utility. notwithstanding statistically significant correlation and regression coefficients amongst the majority of variables, and acceptable durbin-watson coefficients in study 2, the study’s findings are limited by the small sample size and should not be taken as indication of the population of entrepreneurial women in dubai. accordingly, future research may aim to conceptually replicate the present study by using a larger sample to enable the use of confirmatory factor analysis to determine the measurement properties of the arabic versions of the measures used in the study, and to use structural equation modelling to test scct hypotheses. furthermore, given the findings of study 1, we recommend including measures pertaining to contextual factors that involve family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. there are significant challenges to recruiting participants of this demographic segment. therefore, we recommend researchers to formulate a recruitment plan in conjunction with local personnel who possess expert knowledge of and respect of gender-related conventions. conclusion in dubai today, there are expectations that more women will become educated and venture out into the workforce; however, there remains ambiguity with respect to what are valorised roles for women in the workforce. the present study offers initial evidence of the scct’s utility for conducting research into the careers of women in dubai because of its conceptual scope to contextualise distal and proximal social-cognitive factors. future research must determine how well the scct can be applied in the geographical region of dubai and the uae, and other demographic segments. data availability statement because of the nature of this research, the participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed to the conceptualisation, design, and data analysis for the research. pamela hawkswell conducted the data collection. all authors contributed to the writing of the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the human research ethics committee of the university of southern queensland h15rea252. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are not available for distribution as approved by the human research ethics committee of the university of southern queensland. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references al-waqfi mohammed, a., & forstenlechner, i. 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(2020). the relationship between work engagement and work–life balance in organizations: a review of the empirical research. human resource development review, 19(3), 240–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484320917560 abstract introduction research methods and design results and discussion of findings discussion of results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) beccy stones department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa jacobus g. maree department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa joyce jordaan department of statistics, faculty of natural and agricultural sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation stones, b., maree, j.g., & jordaan, j. (2023). olympiad participation: problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners. african journal of career development, 5(1), a97. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.97 original research olympiad participation: problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners beccy stones, jacobus g. maree, joyce jordaan received: 29 june 2023; accepted: 03 aug. 2023; published: 07 nov. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: gifted learners are south africa’s future leaders and investment in the skills of disadvantaged learners would benefit the country. objectives: this study investigated whether olympiad participation could develop problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners. methods: the methodology of the study was quantitative. a total of 100 mathematically gifted grade 7 learners from two quintile two schools in the same disadvantaged area of south africa were exposed either to olympiad-style questions (south african mathematics challenge past papers), or traditional department of education worksheets. five aspects of study orientation, including problem-solving behaviour, were assessed using the study orientation in mathematics (som) before and after the intervention. results: the findings revealed a correlation between success in traditional mathematics and study attitude, study habits, and overall study orientation, as well as an interaction between disadvantage and success in mathematics. the intervention did not increase problem-solving skills. participants found the olympiad-type questions unfamiliar and difficult, which is indicative of the limited enrichment opportunities for mathematically gifted learners in disadvantaged areas of south africa. conclusion: poverty and giftedness were shown to interact: the gifted disadvantaged learners in this study were less disadvantaged by their surroundings than one would expect and conversely had higher mathematics anxiety than expected for their achievement level. contribution: this study highlights the need to nurture the skills of mathematically gifted disadvantaged children. keywords: mathematically gifted; gifted disadvantaged; problem-solving skills; mathematics olympiad; south africa. introduction gifted disadvantaged learners in south africa gifted children are south africa’s future leaders, scientists and researchers. gifted children in south africa are typically ‘undervalued and under-served’ (van der westhuizen, 2007, p. 1), particularly disadvantaged children, who do not have access to quality education. according to statistics south africa (2017), 66.8% of children aged 0–17 in south africa were living below the upper-bound poverty line (ubpl) in 2015. definitions of giftedness vary from 2% to 5% of the population, which means that roughly 260 000 to 650 000 children in south africa have untapped potential as both gifted and disadvantaged. education potentially facilitates an escape from a poverty ‘trap’ in south africa: only 8.4% of adults with higher education are living below the ubpl compared with 79.2% of those with no education and 69.2% of those with only primary school education (statistics south africa, 2017). in south africa, the department of basic education categorises schools according to quintiles or fifths of the population, based on the poverty level of the communities surrounding the schools, with quintile 1 being the poorest, and quintile 5 the richest (murray, 2017). quintile 1–3 schools are non-fee-paying. for the purpose of this study, a child attending a non-fee-paying school was defined as disadvantaged. van broekhuizen et al. (2016) found that: [w]hile attending a quintile 1–3 school largely precludes learners from gaining access to university, those who do make it into university tend to perform almost on par with their quintile 4 and 5 counterparts. (p. 66) this finding implies that investment in the skills of gifted disadvantaged learners at school level (resulting in more learners entering university) would pay off with more university passes. identification of the gifted in south africa many difficulties are associated with intelligence testing in multilingual and multicultural countries with widely varying access to education (such as south africa). the country has 11 official languages, namely english, afrikaans, and nine african languages (jordan, 2015; maree et al., 2011). although english is the dominant language in business and government in south africa, 76.9% of the population speaks an african language as a home language (jordan, 2015). intelligence quotient (iq) tests available for african language speakers in south africa are limited. the new south african individual scale (nsais) (1962) was translated into isixhosa in 1988, and from there into four other african languages, and normed on black children from 9 to 19 years of age (mayaba, 2016). these translations of a 1962 test remain the only iq tests available in these languages. the junior south african individual scale (jsais) (madge, 1981) was translated into isizulu and sesotho in 2010 (mawila, 2012). however, these versions are not yet commercially available (health professions council of south africa, 2017). van eeden published studies in 1993 and 1997 on black children attending private and former white schools, who were educated in english and took the senior south african individual scale revised (ssais-r) (van eeden, 1991) in english. she concluded that norms for environmentally disadvantaged learners should be used when evaluating children whose home language is not the testing language (cockcroft, 2013). non-verbal tests, such as the raven’s standard progressive matrices (spm), the naglieri non-verbal ability test (nnat) and form 6 of the cognitive abilities test (cogat) are often suggested as a cultureor language-fair option for use in multicultural and multilingual societies such as south africa (laher & cockcroft, 2017; sarouphim, 2009). however, lohman and gambrell (2012) found a 7.3 and 9.5 point difference in scores between firstand second-language english speakers and that ‘reducing the language demands may actually increase the cultural loading of the test’ (lohman, 2013, p. 274). in south africa, studies by israel (2006) and knowles (2008) found substantial language bias in the raven’s advanced progressive matrices (rapm) and rpm. similar results have been found in zambia and kenya (maree 2018). problem-solving skills in south africa problem-solving skills are higher-level, creative skills. these skills are beneficial at university and in the workplace (griesel & parker, 2009). good problem-solvers have meta-cognition developed through problem-solving experience (nieuwoudt, 2015). mathematics competitions expose learners to problem solving (engelbrecht & mwambakana, 2016). various mathematics competitions are open to learners in south africa. most of these competitions are free or have free entry for learners from no-fee schools (south african mathematics foundation [samf], 2020b; university of cape town, 2019; university of pretoria, 2019; university of witwatersrand, 2019). there are also several free olympiad training programmes provided by the samf, namely the siyanqoba training and samf olympiad training (grades 7–12) (samf, 2020a). the south african (sa) mathematics challenge is the biggest of these olympiads for grades 4–7 learners, with 80 000 learners having participated in 2019 (samf, 2020b). south african learners lack problem-solving strategies and skills, and mathematics textbooks used in south african schools use routine problems (chirove & mogari, 2014). the general level of problem-solving skills at school level in south africa is demonstrated in south africa’s performance in the trends in international mathematics and science study (timss), which ‘assesses a range of problem-solving situations within mathematics, with about two-thirds of the items requiring students to use applying and reasoning skills’ (grønmo et al., 2013). south africa came in second-last in mathematics (business tech, 2016). additionally, in south africa, not only learners but also teachers find non-routine problems difficult (chirove & mogari, 2014). in a study by govender (2014b), 14 second-year trainee teachers wrote the grade 7 sa mathematics challenge. only 28.7% of the trainee teachers scored over 60% (the score required for a grade 7 learner to progress to the second round of the olympiad). south african mathematics teachers even lack basic skills: venkat and spaull (2015) found that 79% of south african grade 6 mathematics teachers were classified as having content knowledge levels below grade 6. maree and erasmus (2006) stress the need for informal mathematics learning to develop problem-solving skills. this is hard to achieve in a country where parents work long hours and have low levels of mathematics education themselves. even south africa’s best performers in the timss did poorly in problem solving (long & wendt, 2017). rationale for the study mhlolo (2015, p. 166) identifies mathematical competence as ‘the key to the welfare of a nation in a global economy’ and warns of two groups that are in high risk of not realising their full potential: mathematically gifted children and economically disadvantaged children. research in south africa has largely neglected mathematically gifted disadvantaged children (stones, 2020). although there is extensive research on mathematics education in south africa, ‘little research has been done on the impact and efficiency of mathematics olympiads’ (engelbrecht & mwambakana, 2016, p. 2). there was a gap at the intersection of these two areas of research, namely gifted disadvantaged children and the impact of mathematics olympiads. there have been no studies on the potential benefits of the sa mathematics challenge or olympiad for gifted disadvantaged children (stones, 2020). this research aims to fill this gap in the body of knowledge on giftedness. research questions the purpose of this study was to examine the possible effects of olympiad participation on gifted disadvantaged children, particularly to explore whether olympiad participation could develop problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted learners from disadvantaged schools. the primary research question was as follows: how valuable is participation in the sa mathematics challenge for developing problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners? this gave rise to the following secondary research questions: what are the essential aspects of current (group-based) programmes aimed at enhancing the problem-solving skills of mathematically gifted learners in disadvantaged schools? what is the impact of 3 h-long facilitated sessions doing sa mathematics challenge past papers on mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners’ study orientation in mathematics in general? what is the impact of 3 h-long facilitated sessions doing sa mathematics challenge past papers on mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners’ problem-solving skills in particular? research methods and design research paradigm and design this study was viewed through the lens of critical realism (cruickshank, 2011). to examine matters from multiple cultural stances, research in a multicultural society needs to adapt from a eurocentric view. the advantage of the pragmatic prism to one’s lens is the emphasis on the practical: research does not have to reach an ideal that might be unattainable to contribute to the body of knowledge on gifted education in south africa, or to benefit gifted disadvantaged children. the methodological approach of the study was quantitative. as shown in figure 1, the study utilised a non-equivalent comparison group design, which is a quasi-experimental version of the pretest-posttest comparison group design (engel & shutt, 2014). there are two groups in a comparison group design, one of which receives the intervention and one that receives a different intervention. the disadvantage of comparison group design compared to using a traditional control group is that it is a comparison of interventions, rather than comparing an intervention against no intervention. however, it is generally accepted that it is right and ethical to offer both groups some benefit in the study (maree & pietersen, 2016). figure 1: non-equivalent comparison group design. sampling selection of schools a two-step approach to sampling was used. purposive sampling was used to select two large quintile 2 schools in the same township in gauteng (department of basic education, 2017). all schools in quintiles 1–3 are no-fee schools, so children attending them would be considered to be disadvantaged. selection of learners within the chosen schools the participants were grade 7 learners. because of the limitations of iq tests available in south africa for black learners, an iq test was not used for selection (bouwer, 2014; erasmos, 2013; knowles, 2008; maree, 2018; mawila, 2012; zygmont, 2006). teacher identification could have been used, but giftedness is given little emphasis in teacher training in south africa (van der westhuizen & maree, 2006). parent identification of the gifted is generally better than teacher identification (daǧlioǧlu & suveren, 2013; gross, 1999). however, contact with parents in a quantitative study with large numbers of learners would have been impractical. the study required that the learners have a sufficient grasp of the basic concepts of mathematics for their grade. it is impossible to access higher-level learning such as problem solving without a basic understanding of concepts (johnson & schmidt, 2006). taking the issue of gifted identification together with the requirement for basic mastery of mathematical concepts, the learners’ mathematics marks were used to identify mathematically gifted learners. therefore, for the purposes of this study, the definition of mathematically gifted was the top 50 of the grade by mathematics year mark at the end of grade 6. the top 50 equated to the top 14.1% of the grade at the intervention school (355 learners) and the top 14.7% of the grade at the alternative intervention school (340 learners). data-gathering instruments the study orientation for mathematics (som) (maree et al., 2011) was used as the pre-test and post-test. the som is designed for grades 7–12 learners (maree et al., 2011). advantages of the som include that it was normed on learners from different language and socio-economic groups in south africa (maree et al., 2009), reliability and validity are highly satisfactory (maree et al., 2011), it is quick to administer, and can be administered by a teacher rather than a psychologist (maree, 2020). the sub-tests of the som for grades 7–9 learners consist of study attitude, mathematics anxiety, study habits, problem-solving behaviour (psb), and study milieu. study attitude (14 questions) covers the feelings and attitudes that learners have towards mathematics. mathematics anxiety (14 questions) covers the degree to which the learners exhibit anxious behaviours. study habits (17 questions) refers to consistent study habits such as practicing examples, learning theorems and doing assigned work diligently. problem-solving behaviour (18 questions) includes the act of self-reflection when approaching problem solving in mathematics. study milieu (13 questions) highlights the impact of the socio-economic situation and home language versus the language of learning on learners. the som was normed on 3013 grades 8–11 learners at high schools across south africa, and the grades 8 and 9 norms were extended for grade 7 learners (maree et al., 2011). the samples in the initial study by maree et al. (2011) were chosen randomly on three levels: the education department of the learner (which until only a few years previously had been racially segregated, and so could be used as a proxy for race), language of instruction, and area (urban or rural). this sampling resulted in a spread of race and language groups reflecting the general high school population, including black learners from disadvantaged urban schools such as the participants in this study. the reliability and validity of the som are high. in the original study by maree et al. (2011), the reliability coefficients for the different fields for african language learners who did the test in english (the same demographic as the learners in our study) ranged from 0.67 to 0.77, with the overall reliability of all the fields together at 0.89. table 1 in the results section shows the pre-test dataset compared with the african language norm group from the original study. table 1: reliability coefficients for the different fields for the pre-test compared with the study orientation in mathematics african languages norm group. the authors of the som tried to ensure the content validity of the som by reviewing the literature on the subject, getting experts to check the ordering and wording of questions, checking the item field correlations, and checking with experts whether all the important aspects of each item were included (maree et al., 2011). in terms of construct validity, study attitude correlated with study habits; study attitude correlated with problem-solving behaviour; study habits correlated with problem-solving behaviour, and mathematics anxiety correlated with study milieu (maree et al., 2011). in addition, there was a low correlation between two distinct groupings of items. study habits, study attitude, and problem-solving behaviour combine to measure ‘academic behaviour in mathematics’ and mathematics anxiety and study milieu combined to measure ‘helplessness, anxiety and lack of control… in mathematics’ (maree et al., 2011, p. 45). to test concurrent validity, maree et al. (2011) compared the som to two existing tests, the diagnostic tests in mathematical language (dtml) and the achievement test in mathematics (atm) and all the items except problem-solving behaviour correlated at the 1% level. maree et al. (2011) speculate that the lack of correlation in this sub-test is because of the questions in the dtml and the atm not requiring problem-solving skills to answer successfully, which far from being a drawback of the som, shows its unique benefit. a study of the som in relation to school mathematics results in the northern cape province of south africa found that for: [b]oth genders and across all three race groups, the set of study orientation scales contributed significantly (at the 1% level) to the explanation of variance in mathematics achievement for grade 9 learners. (moodaley et al., 2006, p. 652) these results show clear predictive validity for the som for white, black and so-called ‘coloured’ (mixed-race) learners in previously white schools. procedure intervention the intervention consisted of 3 h-long facilitated sessions where the learners worked through past papers of the sa mathematics challenge for grade 7 (samf, 2018). because of the low problem-solving skills of mathematics teachers in south africa (chirove & mogari, 2014; govender, 2014b) and because of the success of govender’s (2014b) study of the sa mathematics challenge without overt teaching of problem-solving skills, facilitation was kept to a minimum. the three past papers covered the first-round papers from 2013, 2014, and 2018. figure 2 shows examples of questions in the intervention and the alternative intervention. figure 2: example questions from sa mathematics challenge intervention and the alternative intervention. learners in the intervention group completed on average 42.07 questions during the study, of which they got 8.85 correct (21%). learners were encouraged to work in pairs and to discuss their answers but were also allowed to work alone if they preferred. over 90% of learners in the intervention group chose to work in pairs. learners were also encouraged to take home the past papers to complete at home. six learners did this after each of the first two sessions (participants 6, 9, 10, 11, 22, and 42 after session 1 and participants 6, 9, 10, 11, 18, and 19 after session 2), and two (participants 18 and 19) after the last session. after each session, the past papers were marked. however, to avoid emphasising scores rather than on the process of learning, these marks were not given to the learners. instead, the following week, learners received an answer sheet printed from the sa mathematics challenge website, giving both the correct answer and a brief explanation. after the learners had been given the answer sheet, the primary researcher explained a selection of common mistakes. alternative intervention the alternative intervention followed the same format as the intervention. worksheets 1–6 from mathematics in english book 1: grade 7 book 1 terms 1 and 2 (department of basic education, 2018a) were used. example questions are shown in figure 2. in contrast to the intervention group, fewer than 20% of the participants chose to work in pairs. five learners took worksheets home after the first session and six after the second session, with three in common between the two sessions. there were far more questions in the alternative intervention worksheets than in the sa mathematics challenge worksheets because the questions were simple drill questions, rather than complex problem-solving questions. on average the participants in the alternative intervention completed 105.8 questions in total, compared with 42.07 in the sa mathematics challenge intervention. the average number of questions answered correctly was 87.23 (82%). once again, after each session, the papers were marked, learners were given an answer sheet, and lastly, the primary researcher went over a few common errors on the board. the number of common errors was fewer than in the sa mathematics challenge intervention because the learners got fewer questions wrong than in the sa mathematics challenge past papers. ethical considerations the ethics of this study were guided by the american psychological association’s (apas) five general principles: beneficence and non-maleficence; fidelity and responsibility; integrity; justice; and respect for people’s rights (elias & theron, 2012). the study also conformed to the apa requirements for research, publication and assessment (american psychological association, 2017). lastly, ethical clearance was required from the university of pretoria and the department of basic education, which included vetting of the study design and all letters sent to schools. ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of pretoria research ethics committee. (no. ep 18/06/01. rigour of the study the study considered internal and external validity and reliability of the data. the following threats to internal validity were considered: history, maturation, instrumentation, testing, selection bias, mortality, contamination and treatment misidentification. to reduce the effect of history, the interventions ran just 13 days apart. maturation was not a concern as the study was only 5 weeks in duration. the som is highly reliable (maree et al., 2011) so instrumentation was not a problem. a testing disadvantage was that the preand post-tests were administered only 4 weeks apart, which could result in learners remembering what they answered the previous time, but this effect was assumed to be the same for both groups. selection bias is usually countered by randomisation (maree & pietersen, 2016; mertens, 2015). because of the practicalities randomisation was not viable, so the schools were as closely matched as possible. in terms of mortality, there was a greater attrition rate at the intervention school than at the alternative intervention school. contamination was avoided by not revealing to either school the other school taking part in the study. also, although the schools were in the same overall area, they were not close to each other. lastly, the primary researcher attempted to counter treatment misidentification by interacting with the alternative intervention group in the same manner as with the intervention group. the placebo effect applied to both groups, as participants, parents and teachers at both schools were aware of being chosen to participate in the study. the factors influencing external validity include time, selection and setting (creswell, 2014). as time passes, the results of the study could become less relevant. because only two schools from the same area in gauteng were selected for this study, it is not possible to generalise beyond this area, without replication of the study in other disadvantaged areas of the country. lastly, as only one researcher was involved in the sessions, results may be bound by the setting. only replication in other settings can counter this threat to external validity. the reliability of quantitative data is the extent to which research findings or results from a test instrument can be replicated (maree & pietersen, 2016). as mentioned earlier, the reliability of the som has been established, and the reliability of the dataset for the study was examined in the data analysis. data analysis procedures to check the reliability of the dataset from the study, cronbach’s alphas were calculated on the pre-test dataset (tavakol & dennick, 2011), which consisted of all the participants who completed both the preand post-test (27 from the intervention group and 40 from the alternative intervention group). the pre-test dataset was compared with the african language learners in the original sample used for norming the som. as can be seen from table 1, the reliability of this study’s sample compared well with the original sample. the psb sub-test had a reliability of 0.78, which is above the acceptable cut-off of 0.7 (muijs, 2004). a demographic comparison was made of the two schools, comparing gender, age and home language. the pearson’s chi-square test on the cross-tabulation of gender by school showed that gender distribution did not differ significantly between the two schools (p-value = 0.34). in both schools, there were many more girls than boys in the top 50 in the grade. the age range was from 11 to 14 years in the intervention group, and 11 to 13 years in the alternative intervention group. the median age for both groups was 12.00 years; the mean for the intervention group was 12.30 years (s.d. = 10.9 months), and for the alternative intervention group was 12.08 years (sd = 7.4 months). because age was not normally distributed, the non-parametric mann–whitney u test was used to analyse the data (mat roni et al., 2020; pietersen & maree, 2016). there was no significant difference between the two school samples in terms of age (p-value = 0.35). the number of home languages was extensive, with all 11 official languages, and ‘other’, represented between the two schools. there was some difference in terms of the spread of language groups at the two schools, with the intervention group having more learners from the sotho–tswana language group, and the alternative intervention having more nguni language speakers, but both groups could be described as african language speakers taking the som in english. the mann–whitney u test, which is a non-parametric test used in place of an independent t-test for small or non-normal samples (pietersen & maree, 2016), was used to compare the grade 6 marks for the two schools. the sample from the intervention school had a much broader range of marks (51% to 90%) than that of the alternative intervention school (58% to 84%), and the median of the intervention group (72%) was considerably higher than the alternative intervention group (65%). the mean for the intervention group was 71.26% (sd = 10.97) and the mean for the alternative intervention group was 66.28% (sd = 6.46). the distribution of grade 6 marks was not the same across schools (p-value = 0.04). furthermore, the pre-tests of the som for the two schools were compared. descriptive statistics were computed across the two schools and then a non-parametric test (mann–whitney u) was performed. these tests aimed to find out if the schools could be considered to be equivalent in terms of problem-solving skills before the interventions. the p-values greater than 0.05 were obtained for all three tests, across all fields of the som. this shows that before the intervention, the two groups can be considered to be on par in terms of all sub-tests of the som, and in terms of overall mathematics study orientation. results and discussion of findings the main null hypothesis for the study was: there is no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores for the two groups. to evaluate this hypothesis, the change in the score of the psb sub-test of the som from the pre-test to the post-test in both schools was examined. comparing preto post-test a related-samples wilcoxon signed rank test was chosen as a non-parametric test to investigate whether there was a significant change from the preto the post-test in the intervention group (maree & pietersen, 2016). particular emphasis was placed on the results for the psb sub-test of the som, as this was being used to assess whether the sa mathematics challenge intervention had improved the participants’ problem-solving skills. the null hypothesis investigated was ‘the median of differences between som psb post-test and som psb pre-test equals 0’, with a one-sided alternative hypothesis. the median was chosen rather than the mean because the wilcoxon signed rank test, as a non-parametric test, utilises ordinal data (mertens, 2015; muijs, 2004). the significance of this test was 0.21, so there was no significant improvement in problem-solving skills from the sa mathematics challenge intervention, which was against expectations. there was also no significant improvement in problem-solving skills from the alternative intervention (p-value = 0.07). the other sub-tests of the som were examined to see the impact of the interventions on the participants’ study orientation in mathematics in general. as can be seen from table 2, there was no significant change in study orientation after the intervention, with minimal effect sizes for all sub-tests, and there was a significant change in study habits and overall study orientation in mathematics, with small effect sizes, after the alternative intervention. table 2: related-samples wilcoxon signed rank results showing differences between preand post-tests of the study orientation for mathematics. to investigate whether low mathematics skills were a limit to developing problem-solving skills, the authors examined the top stratum of study participants. to do this, the authors went back to the original sample and took the top 5% (17 learners) in each school. then, learners who did not complete both the sessions of the som were excluded, leaving a sample of 12 learners (2 boys and 10 girls) from the intervention school and 14 learners (2 boys and 12 girls) from the alternative intervention school. the lowest grade 6 mark in this sample was 74% at the intervention school and 68% at the other school. the 5% sample was less affected by the dropout rate at the intervention school than the larger sample. however, neither the intervention nor the alternative intervention resulted in a significant difference in problem-solving skills. the p-value for the 5% group at the intervention school was 0.36 and the p-value for the 5% group at the alternative school was 0.17. discussion of results problem-solving behaviour studies of problem solving in mathematics vary in their approach on a continuum from overtly teaching problem-solving strategies to the pure experience of problem solving. this study was on the experiential end of the spectrum, with no overt teaching of strategies and learners were not asked to formally categorise their problem-solving methods. for the sa mathematics challenge group, there was a very slight decrease in psb from the pre-test to the post-test, with a negligible effect size, as shown in table 2. the participants also did not improve their average marks from the first to the third session of the sa mathematics challenge past papers, which contrasts with govender’s (2014b) study, where the in-service teachers improved their marks on the sa mathematics challenge after his intervention. problem-solving behaviour improved slightly from the preto the post-test for both the full alternative intervention group and the 5% sample. as can be seen in table 2, there was a small effect size for the larger group and a negligible effect size for the 5% sample. this slight improvement in skills in a 3 h intervention correlates positively with the findings by reder et al. (2020), wang et al. (2017), and gladwell (2008), who found that practice improves skills, but practice needs to be long term to have a significant effect. study attitude scores for the intervention group decreased slightly from the pre-test to the post-test, but the study attitude of the learners was still high, with participants scoring at the 80th percentile in study attitude compared with the grades 8 and 9 norm group. the participants were above the 86th percentile of their class by mathematics achievement, so scoring at the 80th percentile is slightly less than expected. however, study attitude increases with age so these findings could be said to correlate with those of maree et al. (2003, 2011) and moodelay et al. (2006) that study attitude correlates positively with success in mathematics. in addition, as can be seen in table 2, the learners in this study who were in the top 5% of the class scored higher in study attitude than those in the larger sample (top 14.1% of the class). this finding is also in line with the finding by palomar-lever and victorio-estrada (2017) that disadvantaged learners’ attitude towards school correlates positively with achievement at school, and findings by maree et al. (2003, 2011) and moodelay et al. (2006) that study attitude correlates positively with achievement in mathematics. like with the intervention group, the study attitude scores were high both before and after the alternative intervention, which is in line with research that correlates academic success positively with study attitude (goodman et al., 2011; heuser & wang, 2017; maree et al., 2003, 2011; moodaley et al., 2006; palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017). mathematics anxiety people are more likely to persist with a task if they believe they can succeed at it (pajares, 1996). anxiety interferes with this self-belief. in the som, a high score in the mathematics anxiety sub-test indicates high confidence in mathematical ability or low mathematics anxiety. the scores of the intervention group decreased slightly between the preand post-test, indicating a slight increase in anxiety levels, with a negligible effect size. the mean mathematics anxiety score for both the preand post-test was at the 60th percentile, which indicates quite high anxiety for learners who were above the 86th percentile in mathematics achievement. the vast majority of the participants in both interventions were girls, and the literature has shown that gifted girls tend to underestimate their mathematical ability (pajares, 1996). this relatively high level of anxiety in high-performing students contradicts the findings of hart et al. (2016) and lindskog et al. (2017), who found that mathematics anxiety is inversely related to success in mathematics. conversely, the mathematics anxiety scores support the findings that educationally disadvantaged high school and university students in a rural area all experienced mathematics anxiety to some degree (hlalele, 2012, 2019). the mean score on the mathematics anxiety sub-test of the som increased (i.e. indicating an improvement in confidence in mathematics) slightly for the intervention participants, with a negligible effect size, as can be seen in table 2. this finding contrasts with newstead (1998), who found that discovery teaching methods result in higher levels of mathematics confidence. the worksheet content was traditional, and although the way that it was presented to the learners with minimal input from a teacher could be described as experiential, it was less experiential than the sa mathematics challenge intervention, as most learners chose to work alone. study habits study habits have been correlated with academic success (maree, 2015; maree & ebersöhn, 2002; moodaley et al., 2006; sikhwari, 2016). the sa mathematics challenge intervention did not result in improved study habits for the participants. scores in study habits decreased slightly from the preto the post-test, with a negligible effect size. however, the participants in this study were somewhat younger than the norm group, and study habits increase with age (maree et al., 2009). taking the younger age of the participants in the study into account, these findings could be said to agree with the findings of maree et al. (2011). table 2 shows that there was a statistically significant improvement in the study habits scores from the preto the post-test for the alternative intervention participants, with a small effect size. there was also an increase in the study habits score for the alternative intervention 5% sample, although it was not statistically significant, with a small effect size. studies correlating study habits and success (maree, 2015; maree & ebersöhn, 2002; moodaley et al., 2006; onoshakpokaiye, 2015; sikhwari, 2016) are concerned with better study habits resulting in success, rather than the other way round. but, if the mathematical practice of routine worksheets improves study habits, it could be part of the reason why practicing mathematical skills in a structured way improves academic success, as has been shown by the kumon method (usmadi et al., 2020). the other reason would be practicing a particular algorithm to develop automaticity (department of basic education, 2018b). study milieu the mean study milieu score for both the intervention group and the alternative intervention group was higher than the 20th to 40th percentile that one would expect considering the socio-economic area where the school was situated (see table 2). this contradicts the findings that poverty is directly related to the standard of education (nortje, 2017) and that there is a positive relationship between both school resources and academic success (lemmon, 2017; letsoalo et al., 2019) and family resources and academic success (gaillard, 2019; uleanya & bunmi omoniyi, 2019). however, various factors have been shown to protect disadvantaged children from the poverty trap, namely being identified as gifted (bolland et al., 2019); good child-rearing methods (lipina, 2016), a positive relationship with a teacher; support from family or the community (williams et al., 2017); a positive attitude to school (palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017), and having a goal on which to focus (kotzé & niemann, 2013). the learners from this study had been identified as gifted by their selection to the study, had above-average scores in study attitude, and may have had some of the other protective factors despite the poverty of their community. taking the protective factors into account, these findings could be said to be in line with both the findings that there is a positive relationship between resources and academic success (gaillard, 2019; lemmon, 2017; letsoalo et al., 2019; uleanya & bunmi omoniyi, 2019) and the findings on protective factors mitigating the effects of poverty (bolland et al., 2019; palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017). overall study orientation overall study orientation in mathematics predicts success in mathematics (maree et al., 2009; 2011; moodaley et al., 2006), engineering (maree et al., 2003) and natural sciences (maree, 2015). the sa mathematics challenge intervention did not improve overall study orientation in the participants, but the alternative intervention resulted in a statistically significant improvement in overall study orientation, with a small effect size, that can be seen in table 2. the improvement in the 5% sample of the alternative intervention was smaller, although starting from a higher base. the available studies on study orientation did not investigate improvement in study orientation brought about by an intervention, but these findings did concur with the prior findings that a positive study orientation in mathematics is correlated with academic achievement (goodman et al., 2011; maree et al., 2003, 2009, 2011; moodaley et al., 2006; palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017). integration of findings success in traditional mathematics the study found a positive relationship between success in traditional mathematics and study attitude, study habits, and overall study orientation, in line with research on these aspects of study orientation (heuser & wang, 2017; maree, 2015; maree et al., 2003, 2011; maree & ebersöhn, 2002; moodaley et al., 2006; onoshakpokaiye, 2015; palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017; sikhwari, 2016). the influence of poverty the participants in this study were less disadvantaged by the poverty of their surroundings than would be expected, scoring at the 65th percentile in study milieu when their school was in a quintile 2 (20th to 40th percentile) area in terms of socio-economic status (ses). these study milieu scores contradict studies that show a positive relationship between study milieu and success in mathematics (gaillard, 2019; lemmon, 2017; letsoalo et al., 2019; serrano corkin et al., 2019; uleanya & bunmi omoniyi, 2019; van der berg, 2015). however, these results are in line with studies that certain factors protect against poverty, including being identified as gifted (bolland et al., 2019), study attitude (palomar-lever & victorio-estrada, 2017) and study habits (kotzé & niemann, 2013; williams et al., 2017). problem solving the study showed that olympiad-type questions were more difficult for the participants than the alternative intervention. the finding that the sa mathematics challenge was difficult to the participants in this study was in line with other research into problem solving in south africa (engelbrecht & mwambakana, 2016; govender, 2014a; mochesela, 2007) and abroad (schoevers & kroesbergen, 2017), and can be linked to findings that teachers in south africa are themselves unfamiliar with problem solving and olympiad-type questions (govender, 2014b). problem solving can be exacerbated by language difficulties (mochesela, 2007; sepeng, 2013; sepeng & webb, 2012; tambychik & meerah, 2010) so this angle of difficulty with problem solving would be worth investigating in future studies. strengths and limitations of the study the strengths of this study were the selection of the schools and the use of the som for assessment. the two schools were well-matched in demographics as well as results on the pre-test of the som. the som was normed on disadvantaged south african learners and is a valid and reliable scientific instrument, which has been used in several studies in south africa (jagals, 2013; molepo et al., 2005; moodaley et al., 2006). the limitations of the study were the sample size and area, the selection by grade 6 marks, the short duration of the study, the lack of overt teaching and the relative difficulty of the interventions. although the sample size was sufficient for statistical purposes, it was not large, and the two schools chosen were from the same township in gauteng, so results cannot be generalised beyond the area where the study took place. because of the difficulties of using iq tests to assess disadvantaged learners and practical considerations, grade 6 mathematics marks were used for selection. additionally, the intervention took place at one school and the alternative intervention at the other, which precluded random assignment of participants to the intervention or alternative intervention group. the grade 6 marks were not equivalent at the two schools and did not correlate with the som pre-test results. the study was very short, with no teaching of problem-solving skills. overt skills building as offered by the siyanqoba regional training for high school learners or the online samf olympiad training for grades 7–12 (samf, 2020a), in conjunction with practice of past papers, might have resulted in better skills acquisition. lastly, the intervention and the alternative intervention were not equivalent in terms of difficulty. recommendations for future research if this study were to be repeated, it is suggested that learners are not selected by marks, but rather by iq test, the grade 6 standardised annual national assessment (ana) results or the psb sub-test of the som. the reason for this is that this study showed that end-of-year marks are not comparable across schools. future repetitions of this study should include 10 or more sessions of sa mathematics challenge practice rather than just three. this would give learners a chance to self-develop skills over time. additionally, overt teaching on how to approach various types of mathematics olympiad questions is recommended to scaffold the development of problem-solving skills in learners. future researchers could analyse the success of the samf olympiad training materials, other materials, or develop their own. lastly, it is recommended that schools in disadvantaged areas that are successful in the sa mathematics challenge are researched. investigation of olympiad preparation techniques used by no-fee schools that are successful in the sa mathematics challenge or mathematics would potentially give a blueprint that could be rolled out to other no-fee schools. a comparative study of som psb scores of learners at two disadvantaged schools, one that is successful in the sa mathematics challenge, and one that is not, could test the relationship between som psb scores and success in the sa mathematics challenge. conclusion this study found a positive relationship between success in traditional mathematics and study attitude, study habits, and overall study orientation. poverty and giftedness were shown to interact: the gifted disadvantaged learners in this study were less disadvantaged by their surroundings than one would expect, and conversely had higher mathematics anxiety than expected for their achievement level. more importantly, the study highlights that while opportunities for mathematically gifted learners in disadvantaged areas of south africa do exist, much more could be done. the participants in this study found the problem-solving questions in the sa mathematics challenge difficult. greater experience in mathematics olympiads, possibly coupled with teaching problem-solving techniques, may help mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners live up to their potential as south africa’s problem-solvers. acknowledgements this article is partially based on the author’s thesis entitled south african mathematics challenge participation : developing problem-solving skills in mathematically-gifted disadvantaged learners submitted at the university of pretoria, south africa. with prof. j.g. maree as the supervisor, available here: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78379. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.s and j.g.m contributed to the article. j.j. contributed towards the statistical analysis of the article. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, b.s. the data are not publicly available because of their content that could compromise the privacy of research participants. disclaimer the 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(2006). an exploratory factor analysis of the junior south african individual scales (jsais). master’s thesis, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11892/31920 abstract introduction methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pazambadi kazimna department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo yawo a. holu department of career counselling, university of lomé, lomé, togo akila alfa department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo masamaésso tchonda department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo paboussoum pari department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo jonas masdonati institute of psychology, faculty of social and political sciences, university of lausanne, lausanne, switzerland citation kazimna, p., holu, y.a., alfa, a., tchonda, m., pari, p., & masdonati, j. (2020). what work should be and bring: representations of decent work in togo. african journal of career development, 2(1), a8. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.8 original research what work should be and bring: representations of decent work in togo pazambadi kazimna, yawo a. holu, akila alfa, masamaésso tchonda, paboussoum pari, jonas masdonati received: 09 dec. 2019; accepted: 23 jan. 2020; published: 11 mar. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: little is known about workers’ and students’ perceptions and views of decent work in the african context. objective: the purpose of this study was to understand the perceived characteristics of decent work and the needs that work is expected to satisfy in togo, a country in which a significant number of workers experience job insecurity. method: twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were carried out with workers in the formal and informal sectors, and college and university students. a thematic consensual qualitative analysis was applied to the interview transcriptions. results: the representation of decent work covered four key components: to be considered decent, work should entail some basic conditions, enable one to develop professionalism, and make one feel productive and be a source of pleasure. moreover, participants mentioned five types of needs that work should meet: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. these results indicate the existence of both universal and culture-specific features of decent work. conclusion: the study results suggest that career counsellors should take into account counselees’ specific representation of work and the needs work is expected to satisfy. vocational and career practices should then place greater emphasis on the adequacy between the occupations to which people are oriented and the social and personal representations of decent work. keywords: togo; decent work; representations; need satisfaction; formal sector; informal sector; career counselling. introduction the challenges of accessing decent work accessing decent work is a major issue around the world. in 2002, the international labour organization (ilo) advocated for everyone to have the opportunity to work in conditions of freedom, equity, safety and human dignity. moreover, the challenge of accessing decent work concerns not only employees in the formal economy but also workers in the informal sector, the self-employed and those working at home (ghai, 2003). some 10 years later, given the persistent dehumanisation of work, the ilo (2013) reiterated that decent work is not only a basic human right but also one of the biggest challenges that the world is facing. the concept of decent work covers many facets, such as employment, social protection, workers’ rights and social dialogue (ilo, 2013). according to the ilo, in order to be considered decent the work must protect employees from physical or interpersonal threats, guarantee them a fair wage, provide access to healthcare, enable adequate leisure time and schedules, and advocate values that are aligned with those of the individuals and their communities. based on these principles, scholars in vocational psychology and career development have recently suggested a psychosocial understanding of the concept and characteristics of decent work (blustein, masdonati, & rossier, 2017; blustein, olle, connors-kellgren, & diamonti, 2016; pouyaud, 2016). these reflections led di fabio and maree (2016) to propose the following definition: decent work helps all workers attain a sense of self-respect and dignity, experience freedom and security in the workplace, and (as far as possible) is afforded the opportunity to choose and execute productive, meaningful and fulfilling work that will enable [workers] to construct themselves adequately and without restrictions and make social contributions. (p. 9) this definition completes the decent work criteria suggested by the ilo with additional and more subjective indicators, such as the opportunity to carry out meaningful, satisfying and socially useful work. the psychology of working theory the psychology of working theory (pwt) (duffy, blustein, diemer, & autin, 2016; duffy et al., 2019b) is among the most comprehensive career development theories for identifying the issues of decent work. it is anchored on the psychology of working framework (pwf) (blustein, 2013), which postulates that work is a central life sphere having a direct influence on the well-being of workers and people who aspire to work. the pwf also stresses that people have unequal opportunities to access decent jobs. based on these assumptions, the pwt postulates that access to decent work is determined by contextual variables, such as marginalisation and socio-economic constraints. in addition, psychosocial variables, such as work volition and career adaptability, are involved in this process. according to the pwt, doing decent work satisfies three basic human needs: survival, social contribution and self-determination (autin et al., 2019). survival needs refer to access to housing, water, food and social capital; social contribution needs refer to a ‘sense of connecting to the broader social world via contributing to the welfare of communities’ (autin et al., 2019, p. 196); and self-determination needs cover relatedness, skills and autonomy. research based on pwt has proliferated over the past five years (e.g. duffy et al., 2017, 2019b). an example is the recent publication of a thematic issue of the journal of vocational behavior on this topic (duffy, blustein, allan, diemer, & cinamon, 2019a). this issue addresses the cultural particularities of decent work assessment, bringing together contributions from europe (e.g. dodd, hooley, & burke, 2019; masdonati, schreiber, marcionetti, & rossier, 2019), south america (ribeiro, texeira, & ambiel, 2019) and asia (nam & kim, 2019). however, very few studies have investigated the characteristics and challenges of decent work in african countries (cohen-scali et al., submitted). in this context, mattos (2015), summing up the reflections of several contemporary authors on decent work, asked three questions that remain valid: (1) is there a single form or multiple types of decent work?, (2) to what extent does working operate differently in different contexts? and (3) is there one or more ways to achieve the same goal through work? furthermore, if there are scales that allow assessing the extent to which work can satisfy the above-mentioned three basic needs (autin et al., 2019), to our knowledge, no qualitative research has investigated how workers describe and perceive these needs. objectives and context this study addresses the lack of research regarding applying the pwt in the african context and qualitatively investigating the needs that decent work is expected to meet. our general objective, then, is to understand the perceived characteristics of decent work in togo, a country in which a large number of workers experience job insecurity. this general objective is divided into two specific objectives: (1) to explore the representations of decent work in togo and (2) to understand the needs that work is expected to meet in order to be considered decent within the togolese context. these specific objectives target two key components of the pwt: decent work and its characteristics, and the needs that people can fulfil through decent work. togo has a population of 8 million inhabitants, with an annual growth of 2.6%, with 60% of the population being under the age of 25 years (united nations, 2018) and with an incidence of poverty of 55.1% in 2015 (république togolaise, 2018). employment in togo has recently increased, and unemployment has declined by 3.1%, from 6.5% in 2011 to 3.4% in 2015. however, the underemployment rate remains high and rose from 22.8% in 2011 to 25.8% in 2015. the informal sector dominates the supply of jobs and is largely characterised by low productivity and low-quality employment. moreover, togo’s doing business rankings remain modest: in 2020, it was ranked 97th out of 190 countries. finally, smalland medium-sized enterprises face difficulties in accessing financing. the togolese context then lends itself to an analysis in terms of decent work, as most togolese workers seem to be at risk not only of experiencing difficulty in finding a job, but also of having access to quality jobs. grasping what characterises ‘quality jobs’ from the workers viewpoint thus contributes to a better understanding of the issue of decent work within this context. methodology as this research was exploratory in nature, we adopted a qualitative approach through semi-structured individual interviews. this approach is indeed appropriate for obtaining in-depth information to understand real-world problems as experienced by the people directly affected by these problems (moser & korstjens, 2017). a qualitative approach is also suited for the exploration of populations and phenomena that are still little studied, which is the case in our research (levitt et al., 2018). participants in total, 29 people participated in the study. the sample comprised 11 women (38%) and 18 men (62%) living in lomé, the capital of togo, with a mean age of 34.9 years (standard deviation [sd] = 11.2 years). twenty-four participants spoke french, two spoke ewe, two spoke kotokoli and one spoke kabye. the sample covered four categories of profiles: (1) six students, including three high school pupils and three university students (mage = 19.3); (2) seven workers in the formal (wage-earning) public sector (mage = 42.0); (3) eight workers in the formal private sector (mage = 37.4); and (4) eight workers in the informal sector (mage = 37.9), including self-employed entrepreneurs (owners of unincorporated businesses, small businesses or workshops), sellers and craftsmen (sheet metal worker, designer, electronics engineer and electrical technician). data collection data collection was carried out by means of purposive sampling, a sampling strategy used in qualitative research to target people who are ‘best placed’ to talk about the study topic (elo et al., 2014). the study’s inclusion criteria were as follows: the participant must be pupil/student or active worker, must have lived in togo for the last 10 years and must have togolese parents. the students were recruited at the university of lomé and the secondary schools of the city of lomé. workers in the formal private and public sectors were recruited at the national social security fund and among the employees of the university of lomé, respectively. informal sector workers were approached at the roadside surrounding the university of lomé. the researchers visited these sites, presented the research and its objectives to possible participants, and requested that they take part in an interview. participation in the study was voluntary, and participants were informed that the interview would be recorded and that confidentiality of the data would be ensured at all stages of the process. the interviews took place at participants’ workplace or school, lasted for 40 min on average and were recorded and fully transcribed in french. interview guide the interview guide for workers was divided into five sections: (1) career path up to the current work situation, (2) perception of the current situation, (3) representations of decent work, (4) meaning of work and (5) sociodemographic information. the interview guide for students did not include the first two sections. for the present research, we focussed on the third and fourth sections and more specifically on the answers to the following questions: (1) what characterises decent work for you?, (2) to what extent do you consider that your work is decent?, (3) what functions do work plays in your life? and (4) basically, why are you working? through these questions, we were able to collect information on two key components of the pwt: the characteristics of decent work (third interview section, questions 1 and 2) and the needs decent work is expected to satisfy (fourth interview section, questions 3 and 4). data analysis a thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) integrating the principles of consensual qualitative research (cqr) (hill, 2012) was carried out on the interview transcriptions. the research comprised six researchers: two professors in work and organisational psychology, a career counsellor, two phd students in psychology and a research associate. a professor in vocational psychology who is an expert in cqr was the auditor. the research team went through the six steps suggested by braun and clarke (2006). each step comprised a research team meeting, and the auditor intervened three times throughout the process: familiarisation with data. the two phd students went through the entire set of material and cut it into units of meaning. a team meeting that included the auditor was organised to retain the general themes related to the specific objectives of the research, that is, representations of decent work and the needs that the work is supposed to meet. generation of initial codes. the two phd students systematically coded the units of meaning related to the two general themes. search for themes. the research team identified specific themes within the general themes. each specific theme was divided into categories. this resulted in a first consensual thematic map, which was submitted to the auditor. review of themes. based on the feedback from the auditor, a final thematic map was defined. the two phd students then coded all the material based on this final map. definition and naming of themes. the general themes, specific themes and categories were defined and described, including exemplary and illustrative quotes. production of the report. the research team members and the auditor collaboratively reported the results of the analysis. this step consisted of describing each theme and category, selecting the most vivid and compelling quotes, ensuring the overall consistency of the presentation of the results and addressing the research objectives. the criteria suggested by morrow (2005) for post-positivist qualitative research were taken into consideration to ensure the trustworthiness of the study: exchanges among the research team members allowed to attain credibility; transferability was addressed in the description of the study context and limits within the present article; dependability and confirmability were guaranteed through both the step-by-step description of the data analysis and the inputs from the auditor. finally, we adhered to ethical principles by guaranteeing participants’ confidentiality and anonymising the interview transcriptions. also, interviews were conducted preserving the dignity, integrity and privacy of the interviewees. ethical consideration this study was conducted in conformity with the swiss 810.30 federal act on research involving human beings (human research act, hra) of 30 september 2011 (status as of 01 january 2014). results in line with our objectives, the findings of the consensual thematic analyses are divided into two parts, covering the representation of the components of decent work and the needs that work is expected to satisfy. the general themes, specific themes and categories are presented in table 1. table 1: overview of themes and categories. representation of decent work our analyses revealed that the representation of decent work includes four key components, corresponding to four specific themes. to be considered decent, a job must indeed satisfy some basic requirements, allow having fun, allow developing professionalism and inculcate a feeling of being productive. satisfying basic requirements for 20 interviewees, a job is decent when it meets some basic working requirements and standards. these requirements cover seven categories: a fair compensation, activities not threatening workers’ security and health, an adequate work environment, the availability of working instruments (i.e. equipment and tools), the respect of legal norms, activities respecting traditions and customs, and an appropriate working schedule. in this respect, participant 1 believed: ‘decent work is essentially characterised by good working conditions, material conditions, availability of offices that meet standards, acceptable salary conditions to enable the person to be happy, to flourish and to dream; this is the only way a person can work and be efficient.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) participant 7 had similar feelings: ‘… decent work is any work that is carried out respecting the norms and the social laws.’ (p7, female, management controller and accountant, 35 years old) regarding working schedule, participant 6 stated: ‘… our working conditions are good, but we would like to organise our shop better and to have the possibility to avoid returning home late.’ (p6, female, retailer, 39 years old) in general, students seemed to mainly focus on legal norms and physical security, as emphasised in the following quote: ‘… it is work that does not threaten the physical integrity of the individual.’ (p21, male, student, 20 years) employees in the formal and informal sectors tended to focus more on fair compensation. having fun the second component of the interviewees’ representation of decent work refers to the pleasure that workers should be able to experience when performing their tasks. five interviewees mentioned this specific theme, including: ‘… decent work is a job we love.’ (p14, male, special education teacher, 35 years old) ‘… decent work is a job that gives us pleasure, satisfies us on all levels, and makes us want to go there.’ (p17, male, school supervisor, 32 years old) developing professionalism four participants said that a decent job must enable workers to build their professionalism. the specific theme covers the possibility of learning and training and the opportunity to develop skills. participant 8 evoked the first category as follows: ‘… decent work is a learned and mastered job.’ (p8, male, welder-sheet metal worker, 34 years old) the exercise of an activity must then always be preceded not only by a training phase but also by professional actions, as illustrated: ‘… it’s a job that requires serious and determined efforts.’ (p9, male, student, 11 years old) feeling productive according to three participants, decent work must enable workers to feel productive. to do so, the efforts invested in work must result in tangible, positive and valued outcomes. this was explained by participant 7: ‘… decent work can be summed up in productive work … and is characterised by good performance.’ (p7, female, management controller and accountant, 35 years old) needs that work should satisfy the general theme of needs that the work is supposed to meet was addressed through five specific themes, consisting of five different needs: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. vital needs all interviewees stated that work should satisfy vital needs. these needs are divided into two categories: daily necessities (to eat, dress, drink, heal: in short, to take care of oneself) and residential needs (housing). participant 14 stated, for example: ‘… my work allows me to eat, to take care of myself, to get dressed.’ (p14, male, cleaner, 29 years old) this element was particularly important for two interviewees whose work did not meet the needs of survival, such as: ‘… work enables me to eat but does not allow me to be housed, to look after me, to get dressed, to take care of myself.’ (p20, woman, executive secretary, 28 years old) psychological needs according to 20 interviewees, work must satisfy three categories of psychological needs: independence, self-esteem and meaning. for example, participant 5 stressed her need for independence: ‘…work brings freedom; through work, you can do what you want, be self-governing and independent.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) participant 12 gave an example of how work should increase self-esteem: ‘… work is essential because it is the job that makes the man.’ (p12, male, teacher and translator, 48 years old) finally, work is expected to give meaning to life: ‘… work is unavoidable, and i cannot imagine my future without work.’ (p21, male, student, 20 years old) social needs social needs are the third type of needs that work is expected to satisfy. these needs were mentioned by 17 participants and divided into two categories. firstly, work must make it possible to feel useful to others, concretely and in everyday life: ‘… decent work makes it possible to help others.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) secondly, decent work should make it possible to feel useful in a broader way, allowing people to feel that they contribute to society. this was stated, for example: ‘… work is important because it enables me […] to participate in the development of my country.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) busyness needs the fourth specific theme refers to the need to be and feel busy, which was mentioned by seven participants. beyond its contents, work thus serves to provide people with an occupation and prevent idleness, whatever work consists of. in this respect: ‘… work enables me not to be idle.’ (p15, female, human resource [hr] manager, 48 years old) ‘… work enables me to keep myself busy, to make myself useful.’ (p16, male, director of studies, 39 years old) statutory needs finally, six participants mentioned that decent work should also make it possible to assume a valued status in society, to benefit from a certain social recognition or prestige. participant 3 mentioned, for example: ‘… work enables me to be someone.’ (p3, male, forwarder/cook, 41 years old) whereas participant 5 stressed: ‘… through work, you are respected and considered.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) the study analyses also indicated that most participants mentioned several representations of decent work and associated several needs with work. for example, participant 1 expected work to satisfy vital, social and psychological needs: ‘… decent work is a job that enables us to take care of ourselves and our family; it is a work that enables a man to realise his potentials.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) discussion our analyses showed that, in participants’ minds, to be qualified as decent, work should entail some basic conditions, enable one to develop professionalism, make one feel productive and be a source of pleasure. in addition, work should ideally meet five types of needs: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. between cross-cultural and specific components of decent work the study results tend to confirm the statements of the ilo (2013) on the characteristics of decent work. indeed, the first specific theme of participants’ representations (‘satisfying basic requirements’) covers categories that refer to workers’ protection from dangers and threats (‘health and safety’, ‘adequate work environment’ and ‘availability of working instruments’), fair wages (‘fair compensation’), health (‘health and safety’) and values aligned with those of the person and his or her community (‘respect of traditions’). however, participants did not mention the ilo indicator of adequate leisure time and work schedule. an explanation of this absence could be that the issues related to the working time and work–life balance are culturally situated and do not equally concern workers across contexts. moreover, our findings show that decent work is not limited to certain basic ‘objective’ requirements. participants added to these requirements other specific themes, such as the opportunity to develop professionalism, feel productive and have fun. this result tends to corroborate the pertinence of completing the definition of decent work with additional psychosocial components (blustein et al., 2017). in this regard, the definition by di fabio and maree (2016) is particularly relevant because it refers more or less explicitly to these three additional specific themes. indeed, in their definition, these authors included the possibility of carrying out work that is productive (which corresponds to our specific theme, ‘feeling productive’) and fulfilling (which is close to our specific theme, ‘having fun’) and that enables workers to construct themselves (which is close to our specific theme, ‘developing professionalism’). however, at this level too, participants did not mention all of the elements of di fabio and maree’s (2016) psychosocial definition of decent work: the issues of freedom in the workplace are indeed not put forward in the togolese context. these findings seem to corroborate our interpretation of a distinction between relatively universal components of decent work and other components that might be more specific to particular cultural contexts. towards new work-related needs? regarding our second general theme, our results confirm the relevance of the pwt (duffy et al., 2016), and more specifically the existence of three needs that decent work is expected to satisfy (autin et al., 2019). in the togolese context, survival, social contribution and self-determination needs are indeed referred to as vital, social and psychological needs, respectively. however, two needs mentioned by our participants are not explicitly addressed in recent literature emanating from the pwt. firstly, according to our data, work is supposed to also confer a status. the existence of this need tends to update the relevance of the initial theorisation of the pwt (duffy et al., 2016) and its original framework (blustein, 2013). in this first theorisation, the need for survival was associated with a need for power, implying that ‘working has the potential to enhance one’s power in the world, via material acquisition as well as the attainment of status and prestige’ (blustein, 2013, p. 11). the togolese data seem to confirm then that work is not only expected to guarantee people’s survival but also to ensure a certain position and social recognition. busyness is the second need suggested by our participants, which is not addressed in the pwt. interestingly, the need to be busy and to avoid idleness was evoked in recent research on the meaning of work and more specifically on work purposes (e.g. fournier et al., 2019) and orientations (willner, lipshits-braziler, & gati, 2019). moreover, this need is indirectly mentioned in the comparative study by cohen-scali et al. (submitted), which investigated representations of work of low-qualified young workers in several cultures. in this research, some young adults mentioned that work should enable them to feel and be occupied. our results might then constitute an invitation to combine research on decent work with studies on the meaning of work. this could lead to a systematic integration of the busyness need among the needs that decent work should satisfy. practical implications the results of this study have implications for career counselling and vocational guidance in togo, which may contribue to the promotion of decent work for all social and occupational strata. according to our findings, these practices should focus on the fit between the occupations suggested to people and the social and personal representations of what defines decent work. this would not only mean taking into account jobs that are valued within the togolese society but also fostering the enhancement and revalorisation of occupations that are considered indecent or do not meet the needs highlighted in our results. more explicitly, it appears that career counsellors within the togolese context might play a double role. firstly, they can relay to decision-makers the information on the perceived and expected characteristics of decent work, which would allow them to set up qualifying and inclusive vocational education and training programmes. secondly, counsellors should foster adolescents’ and young adults’ career maturity through career education interventions that take into account the characteristics of decent work as a criterion for sound career choices. given the importance of work conditions and characteristics providing vital needs, career counsellors should also promote a more attractive, guaranteed minimum inter-professional wage. moreover, they can be active in the implementation of a universal system of health and safety at work. furthermore, the strengthening of vocational education and training – as well as its social and economic recognition – can contribute to the promotion of jobs that could meet all the characteristics of decent work beyond basic conditions and the satisfaction of survival needs. effective and recognised vocational education and training would indeed facilitate access to jobs in which workers could develop their professionalism, feel productive and have fun. limits and perspectives the main limitation of this study concerns the specificities of the context and the population interviewed. indeed, this research was limited to the city of lomé, and interviewees did not cover all of the occupational categories of the togolese society. in that respect, the study results cannot be generalised to the togolese situation as a whole. for example, the representations of work in rural areas of the country may be different from those shown in our study. further research is needed to complement this study and provide a more comprehensive portrait of the representations of decent work – and the needs that the work is expected to address – in the togolese society, with all its complexity and nuances. further studies could also quantitatively assess decent work, for example, by validating a togolese version of the decent work scale (duffy et al., 2017) and the needs satisfaction scales (autin et al., 2019). conclusion this study is amongst the first ones based on the pwt that help researchers understand decent work in the african context and the first to do this in togo specifically. although further research is needed to complete this portrait, this study seems to confirm the existence of universal criteria defining what decent work entails and the needs it should meet. it also corroborates the relevance of a psychosocial understanding of decent work, which is not limited to guaranteeing material conditions that make it possible to survive but is also a source of personal and social achievement. other criteria, however, seem specific to the togolese context and thus stress that representations of work are culturally situated. the needs of social status and feeling busy are examples of needs that appear to be specifically salient in the togolese context and that are not necessarily mentioned in other contexts. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo and jérôme rossier for their contribution to the conception of the interview guide. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research was conducted within the research for development (r4d) programme, financed by the swiss national science foundation and the swiss agency for development and cooperation (grant number izo8zo_177295). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as this could potentially compromise participant privacy. disclaimer the views and opinions 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(2019). construction and initial validation of the work orientation questionnaire. journal of career assessment, 28(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072719830293 abstract introduction rural context dilemmatic spaces theory research methods and design results discussion of findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tholakele c. dlamini department of teacher development studies, school of education, university of kwazulu-natal, pietermaritzburg, south africa free-queen b. zulu department of teacher development studies, school of education, university of kwazulu-natal, pietermaritzburg, south africa citation dlamini, t.c., & zulu, f-q.b. (2024). curriculum implementation challenges and responses during the covid-19 pandemic in a rural secondary school in south africa. african journal of career development, 6(1), a73. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.73 original research curriculum implementation challenges and responses during the covid-19 pandemic in a rural secondary school in south africa tholakele c. dlamini, free-queen b. zulu received: 03 feb. 2023; accepted: 07 oct. 2023; published: 08 apr. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic posed unprecedented challenges for curriculum implementation in schools globally, but little is known about how teachers responded to these challenges in a rural school context. objectives: the purpose of this study is to explore the curriculum implementation challenges and responses during the covid-19 pandemic in a rural secondary school in south africa. method: the study used semi-structured interviews and document analysis to generate data. results: the study established that covid-19 highlighted pre-existing challenges such as lack of infrastructure, internet connectivity, learner-teacher support material and poor learner attendance and participation. these challenges exacerbated school closures, which created curriculum gaps leading to the prioritisation of certain topics and assessment tasks. findings also revealed that teachers struggled with the necessary teaching strategies, as they were not trained to teach during a pandemic. in response to curriculum implementation challenges, the school in question installed wi-fi using the money allocation from the department of education, which enabled teachers to access programmes developed in other provinces and new teaching strategies used by other teachers. the findings highlighted that teachers engaged in team teaching and shared resources with teachers from neighbouring schools and the subject advisors. conclusion: the findings show that responses to the curriculum implementation challenges could be addressed through innovation and agency in rural schools. therefore, curriculum implementation in south african rural schools requires the joint efforts of all stakeholders. contribution: this study provides insights into how teachers can be supported with skills and resources to negotiate, interpret and reconstruct their teaching practices to deal with curriculum implementation dilemmas in a rural school context. keywords: covid-19 pandemic; challenges; rural school; teachers; curriculum. introduction the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in early january 2020 in some countries and subsequently in south africa at the beginning of march 2020 forced schools worldwide to make unprecedented decisions. across the globe, the educational institutions had to close immediately, which resulted in the loss of teaching and learning time. the education stakeholders had to act quickly to devise strategies to address this problem. remote schooling replaced face-to-face teaching and learning. jena (2020) argued that in developed countries such as china, digital learning was simpler because they are more familiar with technology and computerised learning. however, digitalisation of teaching and learning in developing countries like south africa presented many challenges. in developing countries, most households are poor and it is difficult to access online learning, for example, ethiopia, a developing country where approximately 80% of the people living in rural areas are without electronic devices for online learning, digitalisation of teaching and learning had multiple challenges (tiruneh, 2020). similarly, a study conducted by putri et al. (2020) in indonesia established that teachers were faced with numerous challenges such as teaching online, the unavailability of infrastructure and not having enough time to familiarise themselves with the changes. another problem was that many learners’ homes were too unstable to sustain home learning. bayradkar & guveli explained that ‘children from poor families lived mostly under deprived conditions’ (2020, p. 5). they usually have a small house and children do not have their own rooms (bayradkar & guveli 2020), making it difficult for them to do schoolwork without disturbance. in support of this, harris and jones (2020) confirmed that covid-19 highlighted the inequalities of access to education because of household income differences. for this reason, gustafsson and deliwe (2020) argued that ‘remote schooling in the context of the pandemic is neither feasible nor fair in developing countries’ (p. 3). most households are poor and cannot afford online learning. in south africa, where schools remained closed for nearly 4 months (from march 2020 to july 2020), the challenges were particularly pronounced. the department of basic education (dbe) had established a strict time allocation within the curriculum for teaching and learning, with grades 10 and 11 assigned 36 weeks and grade 12 with 30 weeks designated for learning (dbe, 2012). the extended closure had severe consequences, leading to the loss of substantial teaching and learning time and consequently, a substantial impact on curriculum implementation (mahaye, 2020). the disruption caused by the pandemic also extended to the 2021 school calendar. initially scheduled to open on 13 january 2021, schools remained closed until 25 january 2021, owing to the covid-19 second wave, as announced by the deputy minister of basic education, dr. mhaule (2021). additionally, in july 2021, early winter holidays were mandated following the presidential address to curb the spread of covid-19 (circular no. 52 of 2021), with an extra week of holidays granted by the kwazulu-natal department of education (doe) (2021). these cumulative disruptions resulted in the loss of approximately 70 school days, placing tremendous pressure on teachers who had to find innovative ways to recover the lost time. in response to the aforementioned challenges, the doe came up with various ways of replacing traditional face-to-face teaching. these responses include broadcasting lessons on television and radio and implementing online teaching. however, it became evident that not all students would have equal access to online education, revealing persistent inequalities within the education system, especially in rural schools (khumalo & mji, 2014). as pillay (2021, p. 5) succinctly noted, ‘the inaccessibility to online learning by poor and rural children has enforced the old saying that the poor become poorer and the wealthy continue to prosper’. this study explores the multifaceted challenges encountered in curriculum implementation during the covid-19 pandemic within the context of rural secondary school in south africa. guided by two fundamental research questions, this research seeks to shed the light on the experiences of teachers facing these challenges: (1) what were the curriculum implementation challenges encountered by teachers in a rural secondary school during the covid-19 pandemic? (2) how did teachers in a rural secondary school respond to the curriculum implementation challenges during covid-19? rural context in the literature (langa, 2015; marongwe & giridzarai, 2021), a rural context is defined both in terms of geographical location and historical segregation, for example, of the south african apartheid government policy. in the context of the colonial and apartheid-driven land settlement in south africa, langa (2015) defines a rural context as a setting where agricultural activities are the main means of economic gain in areas that are densely populated. according to the dbe (2013), rural contexts are defined as farms and traditional areas characterised by low population, low levels of economic activity and low levels of infrastructure. a farm school is one that is built on a farm and usually the parents of the learners work on that farm. there are rural schools located in areas that are under tribal authorities led by izinduna (headman), amakhosi (chiefs) and counsellors. customarily, these schools are far from towns and are located in places where there is very little development. therefore, farm and rural schools are usually ranked in quintile 1. in the south african context, schools are ranked from quintile 1, the poorest schools, to quintile 5, the wealthy schools. the quintile 1 schools receive the highest subsidy from the doe, which is r1466 per learner (maistry & afrika, 2020). this quintile system aimed to distribute equitable funds to both poor and wealthy public schools in order to achieve equity in education; however, the system has not achieved the goals that were envisioned (van dyk & white, 2019). although the quantile 1 schools receive big amounts per learner, the rural schools are still faced with numerous curriculum implementation challenges. prior to covid-19, the rural schools had been experiencing a number of challenges that impacted the way in which curriculum and assessment policy statement (caps) was recontextualised. khumalo and mji (2014) stated that many rural schools did not have the necessary infrastructure. du plessis and mestry (2019) also noted that some rural school buildings were built of mud blocks, exposing the learners to physical harm as mud structures could fall at any time. marwan et al. (2012) discovered similarities in their study of rural schools in malaysia, where the shortage of urinals was one of the challenges. a school should be safe for learners; however, lack of buildings that are fit for use puts the learners’ lives in danger and makes it difficult for teaching and learning to continue smoothly. this is the same as not having enough teaching and learning material, which fesi and mncube (2021) confirmed added to the difficulty of teaching in a rural school. additionally, inadequate furniture makes it difficult for the teaching and learning process to continue smoothly. moreover, du plessis and mestry (2019) stated that it was difficult for rural schools to find qualified teachers who were willing to teach multiple grades in one classroom. another issue was that farm and rural schools receive very little support from the doe, and it is difficult for teachers to attend development workshops as they have to travel long distances (du plessis & mestry, 2019). teachers need to be constantly developed if teaching and learning are not to be affected, causing learners’ performance to drop. the aforementioned challenges create the gap between the planned curriculum and the enacted curriculum. little is known about how teachers in a rural school context responded to these challenges as they escalated during covid-19. dilemmatic spaces theory several research scholars (fransson, 2016; fransson & grannäs, 2013; lofving et al., 2023; westerholm & lindqvit, 2023) attest that for a better understanding of the teachers’ challenges, a theory of ‘dilemmatic spaces’ should be used. according to lofving et al. (2023), the concept of dilemmatic space in a teaching situation concerns aspects of control and is affected by expectations from both people and curricula. hence, this study adopted the dilemmatic spaces theory as a framework for understanding curriculum implementation challenges and responses in a rural secondary school during the covid-19 pandemic. the study conducted by maree (2022) on managing the covid-19 pandemic in south african schools established that covid-19 came with a lot of changes for society and, in particular, for education, it transformed educational contexts resulting in turning challenges into opportunities. in relation to dilemmas, when teachers are responding to the challenge, they can turn them into opportunities. a dilemma, a problem that one has to find ways of dealing with, is explained by chen et al. (2017) as a circumstance that one needs to manage, as it cannot be resolved, just as societies are still learning to live with covid-19. fransson and grannäs (2013) cited honig (1996), explaining that ‘dilemmas should not be regarded as specific situations but things that are ever-present in people’s living spaces’ (p. 7). they quoted lampert (1985), adding that teachers have a lot of work to do under difficult circumstances that end up resulting in practical dilemmas. in the teaching profession, there are always different challenges, which might not only be caused by the subject content, but, arising from the environment, they also end up affecting teaching and learning, forcing teachers to learn to deal with them on a daily basis. chen et al. (2017) cited fransson and grannäs (2013), explaining that just as dilemmatic spaces are deep-rooted in the teachers’ work, external contexts can also result in dilemmas for teachers. for example, covid-19 caused disruptions to teaching and learning. the theory of dilemmatic spaces enhanced an understanding of important aspects of the nature and complexity of teachers’ work in the rural context. as teachers sometimes find themselves in situations where they have to try their best to overcome challenges that they face in the teaching profession, the dilemmas of everyday practice might differ from teacher to teacher. fransson and grannäs (2013) explained that depending on the context, one teacher might experience something as a dilemma and another may not. for example, a rural school teacher’s dilemma would not be the same as that of an urban school teacher. fransson and grannäs (2013) pointed out that handling dilemmas sometimes needs knowledge about different or possible solutions. hence, teachers had to find ways of managing the dilemmas in order to effectively implement the curriculum. research methods and design this study adopted a qualitative case study to provide a representation of real people who are in real dilemmas, resulting in in-depth understanding of the situation (cohen et al., 2007). using the case study enables researchers to explore a general issue within a limited and focused setting (rule & john, 2011). the study was conducted in 2021 at lihlithemba (pseudonym) secondary school in kwazulu-natal. lihlithemba is categorised as quintile 1, a no fees-paying school with 450 learners and 14 teachers. purposive sampling was used to select the four participants (from one secondary school in a rural context) teaching in the further education and training (fet) phase. the participants were given letters explaining what the study was about and requesting their participation. they were also given consent letters to sign. for confidentiality reasons, participants were allocated the numbers 1–4. teacher 1 had been teaching geography for 5 years, teacher 2 taught mathematical literacy with 18 years of teaching experience, teacher 3 had been teaching agricultural sciences for 8 years and teacher 4 had been teaching isizulu home language for 4 years. the participants were selected because they taught in the fet phase, which was the grade phase that was first allowed back to school during the covid-19 pandemic. the participants all had more than 3 years of teaching experience in the same rural school. data collection was through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. because of covid-19, the semi-structured interviews were conducted via zoom. the documents that were analysed were teachers’ annual teaching plans (atps), the school’s logbook and the minutes of the staff meetings. in the teachers’ atps, to check the curriculum implementation, a comparison was made of what was taught with what had not yet been taught and with what should have been taught. the school’s logbook is the heart and soul of the school. therefore, any challenge that is faced by the school or the teachers is recorded in it. moreover, if there is any support provided to the school in order to overcome curriculum implementation challenges, it should be recorded in the logbook. the minutes of the staff meetings were reviewed to find out what was discussed regarding the challenges that affected curriculum implementation. thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the transcribed qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews. data from document analyses were also thematically analysed. relevant gatekeepers’ permission for the study to be undertaken was obtained from the dbe and ukzn ethics committee. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of kwazulu-natal humanities and social sciences research ethics committee (hssrec) (no. hssrec/00003354/2021). results challenges that existed before the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic shortage of classrooms and furniture all the participants were concerned about the shortage of classrooms and furniture. this was cited as the reason teachers had challenges when implementing the curriculum. although this challenge had been in existence long before covid-19, it was exacerbated, as during the pandemic learners had to keep a social distance. the shortage of classrooms and furniture in the school resulted in the implementation of a rotational timetable. teacher 2, a mathematical literacy teacher, outlined that: ‘space, desks and chairs are the biggest challenges in this school. there is no space to accommodate all the learners to attend daily.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) the minutes dated 26 august 2020 indicate that the classroom numbers were insufficient to accommodate all the learners. because of this shortage, learners had to attend school on a weekly rotation. prior to the arrival of covid-19, forcing social distancing, learners in this school had to share desks. as a result of the additional requirements, the rotational timetable was the only option, as stated in the school’s logbook and minutes of the meetings. the aforementioned findings confirm the findings of a study conducted by du plessis and mestry (2019), where lack of space, water and electricity had a great effect on teaching and learning. lack of internet connectivity during the covid-19 lockdown, school buildings were closed and schooling migrated to an online environment (kaden, 2020). the participants highlighted that they transitioned to online teaching and learning using whatsapp, but they had to stop because of the poor internet connection in some areas where learners live. although internet connection had always been poor in the area, it affected participants more when teaching and learning had to move to the online platforms. as a result, they could not communicate with all the learners because of the unavailability of a signal. teacher 1 explained: ‘when the schools were closed i tried teaching online but learners were not able to attend because there was no signal in the area. most of the parents were also not able to buy data bundles for the learners.’ (teacher 1, 30 year old, male) this correlates with what kaden (2020) had argued about online teaching and learning when she pointed out that there were going to be problems with internet connection, especially in poor households. according to the four teachers, it was unfortunate, because had there been a good internet connection for all the learners, they could have continued implementing the curriculum online. challenges that arose because of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic more frequent school closures affecting the teaching and learning times the aforementioned pre-covid-19 challenges intensified during the pandemic. the findings suggest that because of pre-covid-19 challenges, the school did not meet the requirements of the regulations passed during the pandemic period. the participating school had frequent closures compared to other schools because it lacked proper sanitation. during the interview, when asked about the challenges they faced in their school when implementing the curriculum during covid-19, all the participants reported that their school had to close more often than other schools, which greatly interrupted curriculum implementation of teaching timeframes per subject (department of education, 2012). for example, teacher 1 lamented about the reason for regular closures that caused learners to be left behind in geography topics: ‘our school had to remain closed for two consecutive weeks because we did not have water and toilets. our learners were left behind and the topics could not be covered as stipulated in the atp.’ (teacher 1, 30 year old, male) these closures were also noted in the school’s logbook. there was one closure that was related to a covid-19 case, from 19 july 2020 to 26 july 2020. there were two other closures where the school closed because there were no toilets; the first closure started from 02 march 2021 to 12 march 2021 and the second closure was from 26 july 2021 to 05 august 2021. these closures resulted in the loss of 5 weeks of teaching and learning. this was also evident in the school’s logbook entry dated 08 march 2021 (figure 1), showing that the doe officials found that the school needed toilets. the available pit toilets were found to be in terrible conditions. figure 1: school’s logbook entry (08 march 2021). in this school, the shortage of required toilets led to the closure of the school. the poor conditions of toilets in some south african schools were also raised by bantwini and feza (2017), that in most farm schools there is a great lack of proper toilets and sanitation. this was in spite of the doe asserting that it was working hard to get rid of pit toilets. this school is therefore one of the 2753 south africa schools that are still using pit toilets (dano, 2021). gaps in subject content and assessments curriculum implementation seems to have been greatly affected, judging by the gaps that appeared in the atps of the four participants. these gaps arose when teachers decided to teach certain topics and omit others because of the shortage of time. the teachers’ atps indicated that they did not teach everything as stipulated in caps. teacher 3, an agricultural sciences teacher, declared: ‘in grades 10 and 11, i end up focusing on what will be assessed mostly at the end of the year.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) similarly, teacher 4, an isizulu home language teacher, elaborated: ‘in grade 12, i started with the topics that i had left out in the previous grade such as other transactional writings that are in this year’s atp.’ (teacher 4, 27 year old, male) confirmatory to that, three participants said that they prioritised certain topics. teacher 2, a 47-year-old male with a teaching experience of 10 years, confessed: ‘in mathematical literacy i focused more on the topics that had more marks in the exam.’ for example, teacher 3, a 34-year-old female who has a postgraduate certificate in education (pgce), detailed that: ‘[i]n grade 11, i prioritised on the content that linked with what would be taught in grade 12.’ it seems that prioritising certain topics worked to their advantage, as they were preparing learners for grade 12. it was clear that none of them were able to follow the planned curriculum as they should have, and there were many topics that were not covered, especially in grades 10 and 11. according to the teachers’ atps, in geography, mathematical literacy and isizulu, 70% of the subject content had been covered, while in agricultural sciences, it was 60% of the subject content and it was the last term of the year. each subject has its programme of assessment (poa) containing assessment tasks for the grade. all four teachers mentioned that it was impossible to cover all the subject content and conduct assessments in a short period of time. regarding assessments, teacher 3 elaborated: ‘i ended up focusing on what will be assessed mostly at the end of the year compared to teaching the learner to get knowledge.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) this concurred with teacher 4’s explanation: ‘we start doing assessments early and are instructed to assess what we taught, so in most cases, i teach for assessment.’ (teacher 4, 27 year old, male) conducting assessments early was also noted in the minutes of the meetings dated 26 may 2021 (figure 2), where the report from the department officials insisted that assessments be done early. figure 2: minutes of the meetings (26 may 2021). these findings suggest that teachers were teaching for assessment, by not covering the whole content, but selecting topics that assessment would be based on. teaching strategies because of covid-19, teachers had to find new teaching strategies. according to kaden (2020), the unprecedented interruption affected the work of many teachers. as the participants (teachers) worked in a farm school where the resources are not adequate, they had to find new teaching strategies that would work best during the pandemic. one of the strategies that the four teachers tried was online teaching, which was not successful because of the reasons presented in the section concerning the lack of internet connection. however, a lot of changes occurred in the teaching and learning process. for example, as teacher 4 explained: ‘so far i have covered 90% of the curriculum; however, i will not be able to do revision like i used to before.’ (teacher 4, 27 year old, male) teacher 4 explained that he used to teach and then have time for revision. however, because of the shortage of teaching and learning time, he was not able to do that. likewise, teacher 3 elaborated how things had changed: ‘other learners might be left behind because as a teacher, i do not have much time to accommodate learners with special needs due to the reduced number of school days.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) if teachers are not able to use the teaching strategies that work, curriculum implementation is affected and the learners with special needs do not get the attention they need. shortage of learner-teacher support material another challenge noted from the data was not having enough teaching and learning resources. in the minutes of the meetings dated 26 may 2021, teachers had raised their concerns about not having enough textbooks. in the interviews, teachers 2 and 4 mentioned that this affected curriculum implementation. teacher 2 declared: ‘there aren’t enough mathematics literacy books for each learner. before covid-19, they used to share, but now sharing is not allowed.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) from the interviews, it emerged that textbooks were the main resource that was used in teaching and learning. teacher 3 revealed that it was not only textbooks that were in short supply but also other resources that were needed to do practicals. she elaborated: ‘since our school does not have resources, we used to visit agricultural exhibitions where learners learnt about the marketing of agricultural products. we also used to visit a neighbouring school where learners learnt about the handling of tools and agricultural production. however, as from 2020 it became difficult to organise such because of the covid-19 regulations. hence, i end up focusing on the theorised part only which makes it difficult for learners to understand all the content.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) it was not only teacher 3 who could not do practicals but also teacher 1: ‘i used to take my learners to nearby farms when doing economic geography practice where we would compare different types of farms. now that there is covid-19, we cannot not visit the farms because the farmers do not allow people to get in.’ (teacher 1, 30 year old, male) without the required learner-teacher support material (ltsm), teaching and learning could not be carried out successfully. in the school, teachers could not teach effectively because of the shortage of the needed material. malebese (2017) argued that rural schools are usually undersupplied with relevant teaching resources, which makes it difficult to provide quality education. according to bantwini and feza (2017), most farm schools faced a severe lack of resources necessary to facilitate the teaching and learning process. from the literature, it is clear that lack of ltsm is not a recent thing, but it is longstanding. learner participation and low learner attendance rate all four teachers mentioned in the interviews that the rotation of learners created many challenges in curriculum implementation. to accommodate learners, the timetable was designed for learners to come to school according to allocated weeks because of the shortage of classrooms and furniture, as discussed. teacher 3 elaborated: ‘since the learners started rotating, it became difficult to implement what is on the atp because of the reduced number of school days.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) this reduction was evident in the teachers’ atps, showing there was a big difference between the implemented curriculum and what should have been covered. the minutes of the meeting dated 26 may 2021 show discussions about giving learners informal assessments that were in line with caps on a regular basis. however, teachers 1 and 4 were concerned about learners not doing their work. teacher 1 confirmed that although they gave work to learners, most of them did not do it. similarly, teacher 4 argued: ‘finishing the content is highly impossible because even if you give the learners work to do at home, they never get it done.’ (teacher 4, 27 year old, male) however, it emerged from the minutes of the meetings that the district officials had noted that learners’ work was not properly monitored. teachers 1 and 3 agreed that most of the time they did not give feedback on the homework that was given because of the shortage of time. teacher 3 explained: ‘you can give learners work for the whole week but it is difficult to see who understood and who did not because when they come back you want to teach new content.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) the low learner attendance rate was another challenge that affected curriculum implementation. on the school’s logbook dated 07 july 2021, a district official had come to monitor spring classes and discovered that a lot of learners were absent. additionally, teachers 1 and 2 mentioned poor attendance as one of the challenges. teacher 2 detailed that the main problem was transport. when parents lost jobs because of covid-19, they could not pay for their children’s transport. he further explained: ‘learners had to walk long distances to school which resulted in absenteeism. curriculum implementation is affected because as a teacher you continue while other learners are left behind.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) similarly, in an article published in the independent online, equal education spokesperson, mila kakaza, was quoted by nene (2017), agreeing that walking long distances was the cause of lack of concentration, late coming and absenteeism. as a result, curriculum implementation was greatly affected in the school. distress for teachers and learners because of coronavirus disease 2019 the data suggest that covid-19 was traumatising and stressful for both teachers and learners. teachers 2 and 4 attested that the school did not provide much help, as everyone had been confused, not knowing how to deal with the pandemic. teacher 2 said: ‘teachers are overwhelmed and not supported to do their work.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) the fact that covid-19 was known to have fast contamination scared most people, especially teachers and learners who interacted on a daily basis. teacher 1 declared: ‘my confidence was affected because whenever i went to class, learners believed that i would infect them with covid-19 as i lived in an urban area.’ (teacher 1, 30 year old, male) teacher 2 affirmed this fear: ‘learners were scared that they might get infected with covid-19; this fear also contributed to poor learner attendance.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) fearing for one’s life because of unanticipated situations can cause people to be overwhelmed (kukreti et al., 2021). the learners did not feel safe at school; as a result, learner absenteeism increased, affecting curriculum implementation. responses of teachers towards the curriculum implementation challenges in a rural secondary school during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic online teaching when the schools were closed, online teaching became the solution for implementing the curriculum. however, from the interviews, it is evident that teachers from this school did try to teach online but were unsuccessful. in a study conducted by mukuna and aloka (2020) with the aim of exploring challenges to online learning during the covid-19 pandemic at selected rural schools in south africa, it was discovered that the reason for the failure of online teaching in rural areas was the lack of internet, electricity, network signal, data and wi-fi in the learners’ homes. similar challenges were encountered in the school under study, which resulted in the teachers’ decision to stop teaching online as they could not reach all the learners. conducting extra lessons for grade 12 as the school had closed several times because of the reasons discussed previously, in order to make up for the lost time, teachers conducted extra lessons. teacher 4 confirmed this: ‘we do extra classes for grade 12 on saturdays and holidays.’ (teacher 4, 27 year old, male) the school’s logbook entry in figure 3 also shows that grade 12s had extra classes on the weekends, winter holidays and spring holidays. figure 3: school’s logbook (05 july 2021). teachers 1, 3 and 4 agreed that these extra lessons were helpful to the grade 12 learners. according to the united nations children’s fund (unicef) (2021), south african school children lost approximately 54% of learning time because of school closures and rotational timetables. hence, the teachers had to offer extra lessons to make up for the lost time when the school was closed and the curriculum could not be implemented. support from the subject advisors the data from the interviews indicated that the subject advisors assisted teachers with lesson plans, revised atps and questions and memoranda booklets. in the interviews, teacher 3 pointed out: ‘since we had to use the revised atps, the agricultural science subject advisor gave us ready-made lesson plans to ensure that all schools were on the same pace.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) teacher 2 affirmed this support for teaching geography: ‘my subject advisor sent supportive documents which had questions and answers. these documents made revision easier for me and the learners.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) the role played by the subject advisors seems to be in line with the dbe (2013) tasking subject advisors with facilitation of curriculum implementation and improvement of the teaching environment. correspondingly, dilotsothle et al. (2001) affirm that the roles of subject advisors included compiling worksheets for teachers, encouraging cross teaching and the sharing of resources among schools. it was evident that the subject advisors fulfilled their duties as expected. team teaching the minutes of the meeting shown in the extract in figure 4 and the data from the interviews both indicated that team teaching did occur and that it was encouraged in the school. figure 4: minutes of the meeting (26 may 2021). teachers 1, 2 and 3 all mentioned that their respective subject advisors for geography, mathematical literacy and agricultural sciences sent teachers from other schools to assist during the extra classes that took place during the holidays. they expressed their experiences as follows: ‘by observing the lead teacher that was sent by my subject advisor, i was able to learn how they introduced topics from the learners’ prior knowledge.’ (teacher 1, 30 year old, male) ‘the highly experienced lead teacher that was sent by the subject advisor gave me tips on identifying topics that i had to focus on during revision and also gave productive feedback on my teaching.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) ‘the lead teacher taught the chapters that i felt needed to be stressed more to the learners. we discussed other strategies that could be used to help the learners with revision such as grouping them into groups.’ (teacher 3, 34 year old, female) importantly, this highlighted the supportive role of subject advisors and teachers from other schools in facilitating the implementation of the curriculum. in support, moloi (2010) argued that ‘there is power in a collective force’ (p. 628). when teachers work together, they are able to tackle issues that pose a threat to curriculum implementation. furthermore, this situation seems to be in line with the collaboration among teachers and encourages the formation of the professional learning communities (plcs) in rural contexts. installation of wi-fi in school in the school’s logbook and the minutes of the meeting dated 12 october 2020, it was noted that the school installed a wi-fi network. teacher 2 explained: ‘the wi-fi network was connected so that teachers are able to communicate with the rotating learners.’ (teacher 2, 47 year old, male) additionally, teacher 1 said he used the wi-fi to his advantage because he was able to search for the learning programmes developed from other provinces. he confirmed that these programmes were helpful to his subject as they also gave tips on how to best implement the curriculum, for example, teaching strategies that could be effective during the mentioned challenges. delcker and ifenthaler (2020) agreed that digital skills are essential to have in a modern workplace. during covid-19, these skills were relevant because of the high need to be familiar with technology in order to use in the circumstances. discussion of findings the findings of the study suggest that teachers encountered many dilemmas that affected teaching and learning. mbatha (2016) stated that teachers play an important role in creating learning environments that enhance learning. however, the arrival of covid-19 brought new and also highlighted existing challenges in farm schools which made it difficult for teachers to implement the curriculum. given that teachers in farm schools experience a lot of challenges when implementing the curriculum, lofving et al. (2023) attest that dilemmas arise from the context where they work. hence, teachers who worked in the farm school under study experienced a lot of challenges because of the environment they were in. the biggest challenge was the irregular school closures during covid-19. the data show that the school closed regularly because of the shortage of toilets and water. however, in the school’s logbook and minutes, it emerged that there had been a contractor who was building the toilets, indicating that the toilet issue might have resolved as soon as the construction had ended. khumalo and mji (2014) argue that infrastructure is the most important element in teaching and learning. teachers found themselves facing additional dilemmas because there was a great lack of infrastructure. the shortage of buildings and furniture resulted in the disturbance of curriculum implementation, as the school had to use the rotational timetable. when the learners were rotating, it was difficult for teachers to implement the curriculum because there were fewer teaching days than stipulated in the caps document. another issue was the shortage of textbooks. teachers could not teach effectively, as sharing was not allowed during covid-19. to cover the curriculum gaps that had resulted because of curriculum implementation problems, teachers conducted extra lessons on weekends and holidays. however, this was provided for grade 12 only and did not solve the problem for grades 10 and 11. according to westerholm and lindqvist (2023), the dilemmas teachers experience every day influence how they deliver subject content. hence, the teachers under study tried various ways of interacting with the learners, such as teaching online. as qoytimah et al. (2020) affirmed, whenever a teacher is faced with a dilemma, they have to develop ways of dealing with it. however, in this case, teachers faced challenges because of the lack of signal in the area. their school even installed wi-fi to assist teachers in implementing online teaching and learning, but it was still unsuccessful. the school’s ability to install the wi-fi shows that it had the capability of doing more, using the funds allocated by the government. these findings suggest a need for guidance and support on how the funds allocated to schools by the doe can be spent on the required resources. although these teachers from a rural school were facing dilemmas because of covid-19, teacher agency seemed to play a very big role in how they dealt with the challenges. the findings show how, for instance, wi-fi was used to learn new teaching and learning strategies. fransson and grannäs (2013) contend that handling dilemmas requires knowledge about different things, such as the internet, which can be exploited by teachers not only for teaching and learning but also to find solutions to their dilemmas. the findings indicate that the rural schools can exploit wi-fi to their advantage, using it to find teaching strategies and to connect with other teachers. before covid-19, teachers took learners to well-resourced schools for their practicals. however, during covid-19 they could not visit these schools and ended up teaching more theory. the findings also show that team teaching enabled the teachers to cover curriculum gaps, as other teachers taught different topics to their learners. this also highlights the importance of plc. learner participation and feedback to learners is crucial in teaching and learning. the findings indicate that during covid-19 the teachers were no longer checking work or giving feedback to learners, which might have been the reason for learners not doing their work. another reason could be that parents are not involved in their children’s education because of their level of education and work commitments. according to kaden (2020), parents who work are not able to supervise their children’s learning. as most parents in this study area work on the farm, most of the time they are not at home to help their children. moreover, ngwacho (2020) mentioned that the reason for parents not being involved in their children’s learning could be their lack of education. on the farms, many parents are not literate and therefore do not know how to assist their children. additionally, a high rate of learner absenteeism adds more to the challenges that teachers face when implementing the curriculum. the findings suggest that during covid-19 curriculum, implementation was uneasy and stressful, as teachers had to be extra careful when interacting with the learners. mcdonough and lemon (2022) contend that the stressors that were a result of covid-19 negatively impacted the teachers’ well-being. sfard (1998) argued that if a solution to a dilemma cannot be found, people learn to live with it. according to mcdonough and lemon (2022), covid-19 affected the well-being of both teachers and learners. hence, the solution was to teach the learners about covid-19 and to incorporate it into every lesson, as was discussed in one of the staff meetings. the pedagogy during the covid-19 lockdowns has been labelled by schwartzman (2020) as pandemic pedagogy, which takes into consideration family dynamics and interaction and allows students to drive discussions. although this study did not aim to focus on teacher well-being, it cannot be ignored that while the study findings show that the teachers were facing a lot of stressors, they do not show how teachers coped with their well-being during covid-19. conclusion this study established that covid-19 broadened the pre-existing challenges in the rural secondary school under study. these were irregular school closures, shortage of classrooms, shortage of furniture, curriculum content coverage gaps, assessment, lack of internet connectivity, teaching strategies, shortage of ltsm, low learner participation and attendance rates and distress for teachers and learners because of covid-19. it appears that responses towards some of these challenges facilitated innovation and agency in the rural school. however, the distress experienced by teachers and learners was too much and resulted in learners not receiving the quality education they should have received. from the findings of this study, teachers, the dbe and all the stakeholders may gain insight into how rural schools could be supported to implement the curriculum effectively. curriculum implementation in the south african rural schools requires the joint efforts of all the stakeholders. future research is needed to show how teachers are closing the gaps in subject content that were not covered in the previous grades because of the challenges that were caused by covid-19. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.d. conducted research in a rural secondary as an honours research project under the supervision of f.q.b.z. who provided input on the methodology and ongoing support with corrections and feedback regarding the article structure and information. funding information teaching innovations and quality enhancement grant (tiqeg) of the university of kwazulu-natal (ukzn), both funded by the department of higher education and training-university capacity development plan (ucdp). data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, 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(2023). a dilemmatic space: a qualitative study about teachers’ agency working with early identification of special needs. european journal of special needs education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2023.2263715 https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. in order to be considered, please email submissions@ajcd.africa indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2022 to 30 september 2023. anthony naidoo blanche ndlovu brandon morgan brian j. taber che jude christopher beukes curwyn mapaling dikeledi mokoena doh n. walters eben swanepoel florida beukes ingrid l. potgieter jackie peila-shuster johannes buthelezi kamilla v. rawatlal kubeshni gounder lindokuhle ubisi lindokuhle m. ubisi lucky maluleke maximus m. sefotho nadia ferreira namhla tambatamba nomawonga v. msutwana ntomboxolo n. yamile paul g. west petro erasmus petrus nel rauna haitembu scott solberg sianne alves thomas t. clark wandile tsabedze zelda e. barends https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa mailto:submissions@ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers abstract introduction literature review on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and other (+) research problem research methodology conceptual framework findings and discussions recommendations conclusion ethical consideration acknowledgements references about the author(s) xolile sibande department of management, faculty of commerce, law and management, wits business school, johannesburg, south africa jenika gobind department of management, faculty of commerce, law and management, wits business school, johannesburg, south africa citation sibande x., & gobind j. (2025). workplace experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other employees in south africa. african journal of career development, 7(1), a174. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.174 original research workplace experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other employees in south africa xolile sibande, jenika gobind received: 12 apr. 2025; accepted: 03 oct. 2025; published: 26 nov. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract background: despite progress in global campaigns supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and other (+) (lgbtqia+) rights, many lgbtqia+ employees continue to face discrimination, harassment and violence, especially in countries where same-sex relationships remain criminalised. in south africa, although legal protections exist, societal and workplace challenges persist, particularly in industries such as telecommunications. objectives: this study explored the lived workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees in south african telecommunications companies, examining how organisational culture shaped inclusion and whether diversity and inclusion initiatives effectively supported them. methods: a mixed-methods approach, grounded in queer theory and institutional theory, was used. phase one involved reflective diaries with participants, followed by in-depth interviews. phase two employed thematic analysis to identify patterns in participant experiences. results: findings revealed ongoing challenges, including discrimination, harassment and limited organisational support. some participants resigned as a coping mechanism. trust and psychological safety were significant. the industry’s reluctance to engage in the research also highlighted broader issues of openness and inclusion. conclusion: the study provides empirical insights into the experiences of lgbtqia+ employees in south africa, highlighting systemic barriers to inclusion and organisational challenges in supporting diversity. contribution: this research offers a conceptual framework informed by queer and institutional theory for understanding workplace inclusion. it contributes to management, business ethics, and sociology literature and provides recommendations for creating safer, more inclusive organisational environments, with a call for further research across other sectors. keywords: diversity; experiences; inclusion; organisational culture; workplace; lgbtqia+; south africa. introduction lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, and queer individuals, as well as those questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and other [+] [lgbtqia+]), form a diverse and multifaceted community. their identities intersect across various dimensions, including gender, social affiliations, gender expression, sexual orientation, professional roles and ethnicity, contributing to the complexity of their lived experiences (gates & viggiani, 2014; paisley & tayar, 2016). despite this diversity, lgbtqia+ individuals often face unique and persistent challenges in different societal domains, including education, social settings and the workplace (subhrajit, 2014). members of this community frequently encounter discrimination, judgement, harassment, violence and bullying because of their gender identity and sexual orientation (mavhandu-mudzusi, 2014; ricciardo et al., 2021). although the lgbtqia+ community constitutes a significant portion of the global population, it remains one of the most under-represented and least studied groups in workplace research (ng & rumens, 2017; ozeren, 2014). the persistence of societal norms that reinforce heterosexuality and the gender binary exacerbates discrimination against lgbtqia+ individuals (mackay, 2021). these dominant frameworks devalue non-heteronormative identities, contributing to systemic marginalisation and exclusion in professional and social environments (goshorn et al., 2022). in many parts of the world, particularly in africa, institutionalised homophobia remains deeply entrenched. legal restrictions against homosexuality exist in three out of five african countries, criminalising any public expression of non-heteronormative gender or sexual identities (pichon & kourchoudian, 2019). for example, in cameroon, individuals can face up to 5 years of imprisonment for engaging in same-sex relationships (maidment, 2021). such legal and societal constraints force many lgbtqia+ individuals to conceal their identities out of fear of severe repercussions, including imprisonment, violence or social ostracisation. given the broader experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals in society, prejudice against lgbtqia+ employees in the workplace remains a significant concern. this discrimination manifests in various forms, including hiring bias, wage disparities, limited career advancement opportunities and exclusionary organisational cultures (badgett et al., 2021; tilcsik, 2011). studies have shown that lgbtqia+ individuals are more likely to experience workplace harassment and microaggressions, contributing to stress, reduced job satisfaction and lower productivity (brewster et al., 2019; lyons et al., 2020). bias is particularly pronounced in industries where traditional gender norms are strongly enforced, such as law enforcement, engineering and finance (ozeren, 2014). while organisational policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion have been found to mitigate some disparities, research suggests that without a broader cultural shift towards acceptance, formal policies alone may not be sufficient to eliminate deeply ingrained biases (hebl et al., 2002; kaplan et al., 2022). literature review on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and other (+) workplace discrimination against lgbtqia+ individuals has significant negative consequences, affecting their physical and emotional well-being as well as their professional outcomes (desouza et al., 2017). many choose to conceal their sexual orientation or gender identity to avoid harassment, exclusion or discrimination (dau & strauss, 2016). microaggressions and ostracism are common experiences, largely rooted in societal norms that privilege heterosexuality and cisgender identities while marginalising those who do not conform (ng & rumens, 2017; subhrajit, 2014; tshisa & van der walt, 2022). in several african nations, lgbtqia+ identities are often denied or ignored, with dominant religious beliefs, particularly within christianity, reinforcing stigma and discrimination (matsúmunyane & hlalele, 2019). heterosexual employees often remain unaware of the discrimination faced by their lgbtqia+ colleagues. a study by benjamin and reygan (2016) found that none of the heterosexual participants recognised the challenges encountered by lgbtqia+ employees, suggesting that those unaffected by discrimination may not acknowledge its existence. heterosexual employees generally experience a more favourable work environment, while lgbtqia+ employees frequently lack protections against exclusion and discrimination (luiz & terziev, 2022; tshisa & van der walt, 2022). despite increasing support for lgbtqia+ rights over the past two decades, workplace discrimination persists. many organisations have incorporated equality initiatives into their diversity management strategies (hossain et al., 2020). however, legal and societal barriers remain; the united nations condemn discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, yet several countries still impose severe penalties, including imprisonment and even the death penalty, for lgbtqia+ individuals (bhandari, 2023; ilga, 2023). a survey by afrobarometer found that african respondents exhibited greater tolerance towards individuals with different religious beliefs than towards lgbtqia+ individuals, indicating persistent societal biases that extend into the workplace (dulani et al., 2016). while progress has been made in the recognition of lgbtqia+ rights globally and in parts of africa, homosexuality remains illegal in over 30 african countries (bhandari, 2023). according to the ilga (2023) review, same-sex relationships carry severe legal consequences, including the death penalty in three countries and imprisonment in numerous others. nonetheless, some african governments have passed anti-discrimination laws, with south africa, botswana, mauritius, mozambique and seychelles implementing legal protections for lgbtqia+ individuals (matebeni, 2023). the global visibility of lgbtqia+ rights does not necessarily translate into freedom from violence and discrimination. recent legislative developments in uganda and kenya illustrate continued institutionalised oppression. uganda’s 2023 anti-homosexuality bill imposes severe penalties, including the death penalty and life imprisonment for lgbtqia+ individuals (bhandari, 2023; matebeni, 2023). in kenya, although the supreme court overturned a government ban on registering a national gay & lesbian human rights commission, systemic discrimination remains widespread (woensdregt & van stapele, 2023). in south africa, despite the constitutional protections established in 1994, significant discrimination against lgbtqia+ individuals remains widespread. studies have shown that, despite the legal framework, lgbtqia+ workers continue to experience discrimination in the workplace, with negative impacts on their well-being and professional advancement (dhatemwa, 2014; pearce et al., 2016; terra et al., 2021). this persistent workplace discrimination manifests in various forms, such as harassment, exclusion from key opportunities and unequal treatment, which often leads to reduced job satisfaction and performance. furthermore, such negative experiences contribute to a broader culture of silence and fear, preventing individuals from fully embracing their identities at work (webster et al., 2018). these challenges illustrate that while legal protections exist, social and organisational norms often hinder the effective implementation of these protections, perpetuating an environment of inequality and bias. benjamin (2016) state that younger lgbtqia+ individuals from townships encounter heightened levels of homophobia, further illustrating the gap between policy and lived experiences. this observation underscores the disconnect between legal protections on paper and the harsh realities faced by marginalised groups. these individuals, particularly from lower socio-economic backgrounds, often find themselves more vulnerable to discrimination and violence, both in public and workplace settings. the effectiveness of workplace diversity and inclusion depends not only on formal policies but also on organisational culture and leadership. as webster et al. (2018) highlight, anti-discrimination policies are a critical first step in signalling the values of an organisation, but the policies alone are not enough. to be truly effective, they must be supported by a diverse and inclusive climate where employees feel safe and valued. this includes having clear reporting channels for discrimination, visible allyship from leadership, and an environment where inclusion is not just a policy but a lived reality. furthermore, supportive workplace relationships, such as employee networks and advocacy groups, are essential in fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment for lgbtqia+ individuals (tshisa & van der walt, 2022). tshisa and van der walt (2022) further found that the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees were mixed; some reported positive and inclusive environments, while others faced ongoing exclusion and discrimination. this disparity underscores the need for a deeper commitment to inclusivity. it is not enough for policies to simply exist on paper; active efforts must be made by employers to cultivate an environment that truly values diversity and fosters inclusion. employers play a pivotal role in shaping workplace dynamics by not only enforcing policies but also creating an atmosphere where diversity, equity and inclusion are promoted consistently at all levels. this involves encouraging open dialogue, providing support networks, and leading by example to ensure that lgbtqia+ employees are both protected and valued within their organisations. workplace cultures that implicitly favour heterosexual and cisgender employees often limit networking opportunities and mentorship for lgbtqia+ workers, creating additional barriers to advancement (tshisa & van der walt, 2022; webster et al., 2018). research suggests that lgbtqia+ employees are under-represented in leadership roles, not because of a lack of capability but because of exclusionary practices and workplace biases (cech & rothwell, 2019; ng & rumens, 2017). these biases manifest in various ways, including a lack of sponsorship from senior leaders, reduced access to high-profile projects, and implicit assumptions that lgbtqia+ individuals do not fit conventional leadership roles. in addition, fear of discrimination or negative perceptions may discourage lgbtqia+ employees from openly pursuing leadership roles, further exacerbating their under-representation. to counteract these systemic barriers, organisations must implement equitable promotion structures, mentorship programmes and leadership training initiatives that actively include lgbtqia+ employees, ensuring fair and transparent pathways for career progression. research problem despite progress in advancing human rights relating to gender and sexual diversity, lgbtqia+ individuals continue to experience widespread discrimination, stigma and exclusion in workplaces globally and in south africa (sears et al., 2021; subhrajit, 2014). although existing scholarship has examined lgbtqia+ workplace experiences in various sectors internationally, there has been limited empirical attention to the south african telecommunications industry, despite its economic significance and large, diverse workforce. the telecommunications sector is one of the country’s largest economic contributors through investment, employment creation and taxation, while also underpinning broader social and economic development through communication services and connectivity (the world bank group, 2021). its scale means that it employs a wide cross-section of the population, including lgbtqia+ individuals, yet little is known about how organisational cultures, policies and practices in this industry shape their workplace experiences. the central problem, therefore, is the absence of sector-specific evidence on the workplace inclusion of lgbtqia+ employees in south africa’s telecommunications industry. addressing this gap is critical to advancing diversity and inclusion in one of the country’s most influential sectors. accordingly, this study investigated the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees in the south african telecommunications industry through a mixed-methods approach, guided by queer theory and institutional theory. research methodology this study was guided by the following research question: how do diversity, inclusion, and organisational culture shape the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees in south africa’s telecommunications industry, and to what extent is reasonable accommodation effectively implemented? to address this question, the study adopted a mixed qualitative research methodology. this approach was selected to facilitate an in-depth exploration of the lived experiences of lgbtqia+ employees, capturing the nuances of how they navigate their workplace environments. by employing a mixed qualitative methodology, the study ensured a rich and multidimensional perspective on workplace dynamics. the research was conducted in two distinct phases, incorporating multiple data collection methods to enhance the depth and reliability of findings. a non-probability sampling method, specifically snowball sampling, was employed to recruit participants. the researcher initially identified and invited participants from a social group to which they had access. the participants were asked to refer other individuals from their networks who met the study’s inclusion criteria (identified as lgbtqia+ and employed in south africa). notably, participants were drawn from different telecommunications companies rather than a single organisation, ensuring that the findings reflect experiences across the sector rather than the culture of one organisation. this approach facilitated access to a broader pool of participants while leveraging existing social connections to enhance recruitment. in the first phase, five participants were purposively selected to maintain reflective diaries, allowing them to document their workplace experiences, perceptions and interactions. this method provided rich, self-reported insights into the day-to-day realities of lgbtqia+ employees and enabled an introspective analysis of their evolving thoughts and emotions. in the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 participants, including the reflective diary participants, allowing for a more interactive and detailed exploration of themes emerging from the diary entries. the interviews provided an opportunity for participants to elaborate on their experiences, clarify their perspectives, and discuss broader workplace dynamics that may not have been fully captured in written reflections. thematic analysis was conducted following braun and clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework. firstly, the researchers familiarised themselves with the data by transcribing interviews, reading reflective diaries and repeatedly reviewing both sources. secondly, initial codes were generated inductively, capturing meaningful features of the data relevant to the research question. thirdly, codes were collated and grouped into potential themes across both interviews and diary entries. fourthly, these candidate themes were reviewed in relation to the coded extracts and the entire dataset, ensuring internal coherence and distinction across themes. fifthly, the themes were refined, clearly defined and named to capture their core essence. finally, the findings were reported with supporting extracts from the data. to integrate the two data sources, interview and diary transcripts were initially coded separately and later merged into a single coding framework. this ensured that patterns unique to each data source were captured while also identifying areas of overlap. for participants who contributed both interviews and diaries, their entries were cross-referenced to ensure consistency and to capture the richness of their perspectives across formats. thematic analysis of both reflective diaries and semi-structured interviews produced overlapping but distinct insights. across the two data sources, five core themes were identified: (1) inclusive policies and practices, (2) discrimination and harassment, (3) workplace culture, (4) support networks, and (5) intersectionality. inclusive policies and practices participants emphasised the importance of formal organisational policies that explicitly recognise lgbtqia+ employees and provide clear protections against discrimination. both diary and interview data revealed that while some organisations had progressive policies in place, gaps often remained in consistent implementation: ‘on paper the company says it supports diversity, but when i asked about same-sex partner benefits, hr didn’t know what to say.’ (participant 3, 35-year-old, sales administrator, interview) ‘having a written policy gave me confidence that if something happened, i wouldn’t be completely alone.’ (participant 8, 28-year-old, network engineer, diary) discrimination and harassment discrimination emerged as a persistent challenge, particularly in subtle or unreported forms. participants described experiences of ridicule, exclusion and stereotyping, often left unaddressed by management: ‘even when colleagues made homophobic jokes, managers just laughed along instead of intervening.’ (participant 5, 29-year-old, office assistant, interview) ‘writing my diary made me realise how often i just brushed off comments that actually hurt deeply.’ (participant 2, 50-year-old, portfolio management, diary) workplace (organisational) culture workplace culture was consistently identified as shaping lgbtqia+ experiences, either reinforcing exclusion or fostering inclusion. several participants described how leadership attitudes influenced whether policies translated into daily practice: ‘my manager genuinely supports me, and that makes all the difference. i feel safe in this team.’ (participant 6, 33-year-old, internal auditor, interview) ‘culture is not about what’s written, but about what people do every day.’ (participant 4, 37-year-old, customer service, diary) support networks for many participants, informal and formal support networks provided critical spaces of safety and affirmation. these networks often mitigated the negative effects of discrimination and helped to build resilience: ‘the lgbtq group in our company helps me breathe. it’s the only place where i don’t feel judged.’ (participant 3, 41-year-old, marketing leads administrator, interview) ‘i leaned heavily on colleagues who “got it.” without them, i think i would have quit.’ (participant 1, 33-year-old, engineering, diary) intersectionality participants’ experiences were shaped by intersecting identities such as race, gender and class, which compounded marginalisation. for example, black lgbtqia+ employees often reported layered experiences of both racial and sexual prejudice: ‘it’s not just being gay – it’s being black and gay in a corporate space that wasn’t built for us.’ (participant 9, 47-year-old, technical support, interview) ‘my identity as a woman and queer means i’m constantly proving myself twice over.’ (participant 2, 50-year-old, portfolio management, diary) conceptual framework in examining the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees, the study’s conceptual framework was informed by both queer theory and institutional theory. integrating these theoretical perspectives provided a comprehensive approach to understanding the complexities of these experiences. by drawing on key concepts from both theories, the researcher developed a holistic perspective on lgbtqia+ employees’ workplace dynamics. queer theory’s emphasis on deconstructing societal norms and recognising diverse identities complements institutional theory’s focus on structural forces and organisational practices (minton, 1997) and complements institutional theory’s examination of structural forces and organisational practices (cox, 2022). by incorporating key concepts from both theories, the researcher achieved a holistic perspective on how workplace environments shape the experiences of lgbtqia+ employees. together, these theories offered a conceptual foundation for analysing and improving workplace diversity, inclusivity and well-being. figure 1 is particularly significant as it visually represents the theoretical lens applied to examine workplace diversity and inclusion while capturing the lived experiences of lgbtqia+ employees. the interplay between the two theories can be likened to the relationship between a tennis ball and a racquet. queer theory serves as the overarching framework (the racquet), shaping the discourse on diversity management, while institutional theory (the tennis ball) represents the evolving and dynamic processes that influence how diverse individuals navigate and are managed within workplace structures. figure 1: conceptual framework. these interconnected concepts formed the basis for analysing how lgbtqia+ employees navigate their workplace experiences and whether they are reasonably accommodated: diversity and inclusion policies: examined how policies are developed and implemented to ensure equal treatment and opportunities for lgbtqia+ employees. organisational culture: explored the underlying values, norms and practices that shape the inclusivity of the workplace environment. work environment: investigated the tangible and intangible aspects of the workplace that impact the experiences of lgbtqia+ employees. workplace experiences: focused on the lived realities of lgbtqia+ employees, including their challenges and achievements in the workplace. findings and discussions the data collected from reflective diaries and interviews revealed that while some progress has been made, significant challenges remain, and diversity and inclusion measures in the workplace continue to be unmet. the study highlighted that lgbtqia+ employees are confronted with discrimination and exclusion on a daily basis, with some resigning in an attempt to escape harassment and abuse. one participant explained that although he consistently met his performance targets, he was denied a salary increase for three consecutive years. when he questioned this, his manager, described as openly homophobic, threatened to make his life ‘a living hell’ if he did not resign. several participants recounted similar experiences of verbal abuse, mockery and shaming in the workplace. many reported that hr departments and management failed to intervene or hold perpetrators accountable, thereby perpetuating a culture of discrimination. participants also described being overlooked for promotions, salary increases and recognition despite strong performance. these accounts suggest that lgbtqia+ employees face not only direct discrimination but also systemic barriers to career advancement. while a minority of participants shared positive experiences of inclusive workplaces where they felt valued equally to their heterosexual colleagues, the majority emphasised ongoing exclusion, harassment and lack of meaningful support. from the data analysis, four key themes emerged: systemic discrimination: ongoing exclusion, lack of protection and failure of hr to address workplace mistreatment. policy versus practice gap: formal diversity and inclusion policies exist, but are not effectively implemented. impact of organisational culture: inclusive organisational cultures foster positive experiences, but inconsistent or weak efforts leave many lgbtqia+ employees vulnerable. need for proactive inclusion measures: the absence of structured diversity and inclusion initiatives perpetuates workplace challenges for lgbtqia+ employees. south africa has made notable progress in promoting lgbtqia+ rights through its progressive legal frameworks and constitution. it was among the first countries to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution, and it has enacted several supportive laws, such as the basic conditions of employment act 75 of 1997 (republic of south africa, 1997), the employment equity act 55 of 1998 (republic of south africa, 1998), and the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act 4 of 2000 (republic of south africa, 2000). despite these robust legal foundations, participants’ accounts reveal that the implementation and effectiveness of these policies in workplaces vary significantly. some organisations have comprehensive diversity and inclusion policies in place, but others lag behind, and enforcement remains inconsistent. this aligns with previous scholarship showing that workplace policies alone are insufficient without active monitoring, leadership commitment and accountability structures (tshisa & van der walt, 2022). the findings of this study suggest that while formal protections exist, lgbtqia+ employees often continue to conceal their identities for fear of discrimination, harassment or exclusion. participants’ experiences reinforce earlier research highlighting the persistence of systemic barriers and microaggressions that undermine workplace equality (sears et al., 2021; subhrajit, 2014). moreover, participants’ perceptions that some organisations adopt policies ‘just to be seen as inclusive’ highlight the gap between public commitments and lived realities. this supports arguments in the broader literature that symbolic compliance does little to advance genuine workplace inclusion without sustained organisational culture change (hebl et al., 2002; kaplan et al., 2022). recommendations the study’s findings have broader implications for promoting diversity and inclusion within the workplace. by highlighting the lived experiences of lgbtqia+ employees and the influence of organisational culture on their professional lives, this research underscores the importance of cultivating workplaces that not only recognise but actively celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion for all. the insights offered can catalyse change by informing the development and implementation of practical policies and strategies that directly support lgbtqia+ employees’ well-being, reasonable accommodation and career progression. in doing so, the research aims to contribute to a more inclusive society, one where diversity, equity and inclusion are not just aspirational values, but are embedded in everyday organisational practice, allowing all individuals the opportunity to thrive professionally. based on the findings of this study, several recommendations are proposed to enhance the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees in south african organisations. these recommendations are directed at both industry practitioners and researchers, aiming to address systemic discrimination, bridge the gap between policy and practice, foster an inclusive organisational culture, and implement proactive inclusion measures. while organisations must take concrete steps to create safe and equitable workplaces, researchers should continue to explore effective strategies and interventions that can drive meaningful change. to enhance diversity, inclusion and support for lgbtqia+ employees in the workplace, organisations should develop and implement clear anti-discrimination policies that explicitly protect lgbtqia+ employees. these policies should be effectively communicated, consistently enforced, and outline strict disciplinary measures against discrimination and harassment. regular workplace assessments through surveys and focus groups should also be conducted to evaluate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, ensuring that feedback from lgbtqia+ employees informs meaningful action plans. additionally, supporting lgbtqia+ employee networks and allyship groups can create a sense of community and provide valuable advocacy platforms, reinforcing an inclusive organisational culture. promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace culture requires ongoing efforts, including diversity training programmes, awareness campaigns and events that celebrate lgbtqia+ employees. leadership training on lgbtqia+ inclusivity, unconscious bias and allyship is essential for fostering a supportive environment and ensuring long-term cultural change. furthermore, organisations should establish confidential and accessible reporting mechanisms for discrimination and harassment, providing lgbtqia+ employees with a safe avenue to report violations. these measures, informed by institutional and queer theory, contribute to breaking down structural barriers and creating workplaces that respect and empower all employees. future research should expand the understanding of lgbtqia+ workplace experiences by exploring diverse organisational contexts and interventions. comparative studies across different industries and organisational types can provide valuable insights into how contextual factors shape inclusivity, allowing for the identification of best practices and culturally specific strategies. additionally, investigating the effectiveness of diversity training programmes, inclusive policy implementation, and lgbtqia+ employee resource groups can provide evidence-based recommendations for improving workplace diversity and inclusion efforts. adopting an intersectional approach is also essential to understanding how multiple aspects of identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age and disability, interact and influence the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees. expanding the scope of populations studied, particularly under-represented groups within the lgbtqia+ community, such as non-binary, genderqueer and transgender individuals, can further enrich the discourse on workplace inclusivity. longitudinal studies would be beneficial in tracking how lgbtqia+ workplace experiences evolve over time in response to shifting policies and societal attitudes. additionally, incorporating quantitative and mixed-methods research approaches would enhance the validity and generalisability of findings, complementing qualitative insights with statistical analysis. policy analysis should also be prioritised to assess how national and local legal frameworks impact workplace diversity and inclusion, helping to identify effective legislative approaches. finally, future research should focus on the mental health and overall well-being of lgbtqia+ employees, examining how workplace environments contribute to stress, job satisfaction and psychological resilience. by addressing these research areas, scholars can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of lgbtqia+ workplace experiences, ultimately supporting the development of inclusive, equitable and supportive work environments. conclusion in conclusion, substantial strides have been made in advancing diversity, inclusion and equity for lgbtqia+ individuals, particularly in a workplace environment. organisational culture plays a pivotal role in cultivating an environment that is free from discrimination, harassment and the exclusion of lgbtqia+ employees. while the treatment of lgbtqia+ individuals remains uneven across regions, with some areas, such as parts of africa, lagging in progress, there are nonetheless significant and encouraging movements in numerous countries committed to combating discrimination and exclusion. although many organisations have implemented policies designed to enhance the diversity, inclusion and equity of lgbtqia+ employees, the pace of policy execution remains slow. nonetheless, there is an increasing commitment within organisations to embrace diversity, ensuring reasonable accommodations for lgbtqia+ employees. this study has offered a thorough examination of the workplace experiences of lgbtqia+ employees, revealing the challenges and opportunities they face in diverse organisational contexts. through methods such as reflective diary journaling and semi-structured interviews, key themes have emerged relating to the importance of diversity and inclusion, the influence of organisational culture, the need for reasonable accommodation and the strategies employed by lgbtqia+ employees to navigate their work environments. the findings underscore the ongoing necessity for more robust diversity and inclusion policies to support the well-being and career advancement of lgbtqia+ individuals in the workplace. in addition, this research has highlighted the utility of queer theory and institutional theory as conceptual frameworks for understanding the complexities of lgbtqia+ employees’ experiences. queer theory has illuminated the fluid and dynamic nature of sexual orientation and gender identities, while institutional theory has provided a valuable lens through which to examine these experiences within the broader context of organisational structures and cultures. together, these frameworks offered a nuanced perspective, reinforcing the multifaceted nature of workplace inclusivity and emphasising the critical role of organisational practices in fostering a supportive and positive environment for lgbtqia+ employees. ethical consideration the research was conducted in line with the ethical considerations and guidelines of the human research ethics committee (non-medical) at the university of the witwatersrand. an ethics clearance certificate with protocol number h22/11/81 was obtained from the university of the witwatersrand human research ethics committee before conducting the research. the researcher obtained written consent from the research participants before they took part in the study. the participants were taken through the research process, explaining that their participation was voluntary and that there would be no compensation for their participation. the participants were provided with detailed information about the study’s purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits. this information was communicated both in writing and verbally to ensure understanding. confidentiality and anonymity were maintained and guaranteed; if there was a need to mention a name or organisation details, pseudonyms would be used. the findings were reported in a manner that ensured the individual participants could not be identified, maintaining their confidentiality. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the valuable feedback and discussions provided by participants at the 7th international conference on gender research, held on 25–26 april 2024, in barcelona, spain, hosted by the universitat autonoma de barcelona. this article was peer-reviewed as part of the conference proceedings, and the insightful comments and suggestions received during this review process significantly contributed to refining our research. this work benefited from the insightful comments and suggestions received during the conference sessions. special thanks are due to all the conference participants for their encouragement and constructive critique. the support and networking opportunities provided by the conference were instrumental in advancing this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. credit authorship contribution xolile sibande: conceptualisation, data curation, investigation, methodology, project administration, visualisation, writing review & editing. jenika gobind: funding acquisition, supervision, validation. all authors reviewed the article, approved the final version for submission and publication, and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position 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(2022). emotional well-being of black african queer employees in the workplace. sa journal of human resource management, 20, a2043. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2043 webster, j.r., adams, g.a., maranto, c.l., & sawyer, k. (2018). workplace contextual supports for lgbt employees: a review, meta-analysis, and agenda for future research. human resource management, 57(1), 193–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21873 woensdregt, l., & van stapele, n. (2023). queerphobia in kenya: a supreme court ruling on gay rights triggers a new wave of anger against the lgbtiq+ community. vrije universiteit. abstract introduction conceptual framework methods results discussion limitations of the study implications and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) louise m. vital graduate school of arts and social sciences, international higher education program, lesley university, cambridge, united states of america citation vital, l.m. (2021). higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti. african journal of career development, 3(1), a30. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.30 original research higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti louise m. vital received: 26 oct. 2020; accepted: 27 jan. 2021; published: 29 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on students’ experiences in the haitian higher education system, and even fewer that examined university-based career counselling and the career trajectory of university graduates in haiti. objectives: the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of the higher education experiences and career development of university students and graduates in haiti. method: this study emerged from a larger qualitative case study conducted in 2013 on higheredorg (pseudonym) – a higher education-centred organisation in haiti – whose services for university students and organisation alumni include career counselling. data collection included semi-structured and focus group interviews, participant observation and document analysis. results: data analysis revealed two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. a combination of country-level opportunity constraints and university-specific academic structures contributed to higher education and career challenges for emerging adults in haiti. conversely, these university students and graduates affiliated with higheredor, found the comprehensive support provided alleviated those difficulties. implications include the possibility of a new model of haitian higher education that integrates career counselling as a new area of focus. conclusion: although emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges in their higher education and career development experiences, the findings revealed a pipeline between higher education attainment and positive career outcomes for those affiliated with higheredorg. recommendation for future research includes analysis of the career guidance offered to university students in haiti, which will inform the design of targeted and relevant research projects to address this understudied issue. keywords: haiti; higher education; career counselling; emerging adulthood; non-government organisations; low-income country. introduction there are positive outcomes associated with educational attainment, with increased schooling resulting in benefits to individuals and society (akinyemi & ofem, 2012; harper, patton, & wooden, 2009; kezar, chambers, & burkhardt, 2005; lewis & hearn, 2003). among the many benefits, individuals are likely to obtain more technical jobs and receive job promotions with the additional education and academic preparation they have received. not only do the individuals have the potential for a greater income, but they also experience an increase in wages for every year they attend school, apart from gains in critical thinking, skills development, employment readiness and socialisation, and life-long learning, amongst other outcomes (coates & edwards, 2011; tight, 1989). the benefits of increased education to society are considerable as well. higher education is important for social equity, mobility and integration (brennan & teichler, 2008), resulting in individual participation that in turn benefits the larger society (belyakov, cremonini, mfusi, & rippner, 2009). lowell and findlay (2001, p. 1) found that ‘the level and distribution of educational attainment has a strong impact on social outcomes, such as child mortality, fertility, education of children and income distribution’ (p. 1). earning a higher education degree leads to income growth, expanded range of choices and increased relevant skills (ozsoy, 2008). furthermore, obtaining higher levels of education leads to better living conditions, better jobs and social development (unesco, 2009, 2014). education, therefore, can be viewed as ‘a leveller reducing societal inequalities and enabling larger numbers of a population to share in the growth process’ (carlson et al., 2011, p. 10). given the benefits of higher education and the employment outcomes for those who have earned higher education degrees, it stands to reason that students who attend university have an expected positive career outcome after graduation. students choose to pursue higher education for a number of reasons: opportunities for financial security, a good quality of life and life-long learning are a few to mention (chamorro-premuzic & frankiewicz, 2019). depending on the country context, those enrolled in higher education institutions receive career training and are prepared to work in professional settings and perform in entrepreneurial, managerial and technical positions, amongst others (birdsall, 1996; maree, 2009; iakovleva, kolvereid & stephan, 2011). overall, it is expected that higher education meets the needs of three categories of stakeholders: students who want access to higher education, employers who expect graduates who are appropriately skilled for the market and countries that want to stimulate development by the presence of institutions of higher education (somers et al., 2006). despite what is known about the benefits of earning a higher education degree, and the connection between an earned university degree and positive career outcomes to both the individual and local society (hoyt & allred, 2008), career counselling is not a major function of the university experience for undergraduate students in haiti. the purpose of this study was to examine the higher education experiences and career training of university students and graduates in haiti. this study is drawn from a larger case study conducted of higheredorg (pseudonym), a higher education-centred non-governmental organisation (ngo) responding to university access and persistence in haiti (vital, 2015). amongst the range of services provided, higheredorg offers comprehensive career services to university students and alumni affiliated with the programme, which is the focus of this study. this research was warranted because as brennan and naidoo (2008, p. 293) summarised, ‘participation in higher education is important because of its implications for an individual’s life chances in the long term’. approximately 21 090 individuals receive vocational training in haiti (suzuta, 2011), and there is some scholarship and practice-based reporting on the efficacy of such training (bigelow, 2010; rti international, 2018). there is limited empirical research on student experiences in the haitian higher education system (vital, 2015; dumay, 2009; endicott, 2019; jacob, 2020; pierre, arrellano, ramírez, gómez, & romero, 2014; rameau, louime, & behar-horenstein, 2007; zanotti, stephenson, & mcgehee, 2016) and even less that specifically examined the university-based career training preparation programmes and trajectory of university students and graduates in haiti. this research addressed a gap in research on career counselling in the haitian context. more specifically, it advances the scant empirical research that exists, and discusses the connections between haitian higher education and career counselling. the researcher’s visit to haiti provided an opportunity to interview both students and alumni of higheredorg, who were also students and graduates of the haitian university system at the time of this research. together, this group of higheredorg participants were able to highlight the career counselling they were receiving at the time of the research and speak about the outcomes of the career counselling received as current university graduates working in the local job market. as the terms ‘emerging adults’ and ‘emerging adulthood’ describe the human development that occurs between the ages of 18 and 25 (arnett, 2000), these terms will be used interchangeably with ‘university students and graduates’ to reflect on the participants of this study who discussed their experiences as career-seeking university students and university graduates in haiti within this age range. interviews with the higheredorg staff members that provided career preparation and counselling along with external stakeholders from the haitian ministry of education and a local research institute offered a necessary contextual background to the career counselling and prospects of emerging adults in haiti. learning of the higher education and career preparation experiences of university students and graduates in haiti provides a lens for understanding the complex realities they face as emerging adults, as they seek to enter the local job sector. furthermore, examining the services and interventions provided by higheredorg staff members to mitigate those complex realities allows for a holistic understanding of the career development experiences of university students and graduates in haiti. thus, the question guiding this work was the following: what are the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti? emerging adulthood and career counselling in low-income countries in his seminal work, arnett (2000) focused on the ages of 18–25 years as a new concept of development that he referred to as emerging adulthood. according to arnett (2000, p. 469), emerging adulthood is distinguished by ‘relative independence from social roles and normative expectations’ and emerging adults’ emphasis on becoming self-sufficient as a marker of transition to adulthood (arnett, 1998). he further explained that during this time, ‘young people obtain the level of education and training that will provide the foundation for their incomes and occupational achievements for the remainder of their lives’ (arnett, 2000, p. 469). although his work in 2000 introduced a theory that offered new insight into human development, the framework arnett offered was limiting as it emphasised the period of emerging adulthood in the context of industrialised societies, including the united states of america. the work of juarez and gayet (2014) advanced the understanding of adulthood, specifically the transition to adulthood in the context of developing countries such as haiti. juarez and gayet (2014) described transition to adulthood from the economic, social and cultural contexts of africa, asia, latin america and the caribbean. focusing on the transition to adulthood in these contexts allows individuals to consider how ‘economic and social inequality, institutions, and families of origin have determined the course of young people’s transitions to adulthood’ (juarez & gayet, 2014, p. 522). given the increasing interconnectedness of the world community, juarez and gayet (2014, p. 522) explained that the transition to adulthood has changed over time and that country or regional specific norms, standards and expectations are influenced by a ‘globalized world that encourages new lifestyles beyond borders’. in their work on workforce development, tan, lee, valerio and nam (2013) also noted the influence of globalisation, along with technology, on the demand for skilled workers. the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has heightened awareness of the precariousness of those living in low-income and emerging economies. the pandemic has implications for decent work and economic growth, with 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy at risk of losing their livelihoods (un, 2015). understanding the factors that shape the lived experiences of emerging adults in developing countries is helpful when seeking to understand their higher education and career preparation experiences, and later, as they seek to enter the local job sector. job training, preparation, education or development can occur in various formats. broadly, career counselling is provided to individuals ‘to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers’ and the services available may be offered ‘in schools, in universities and colleges, in public employment services, in companies, and in the voluntary and private sectors’ (watts & fretwell, 2004, p. 2). in their report on the job-relevant skills required to enter the workforce in developing and emerging economies, tan et al. (2013, p. iii) noted the ‘mismatch in skills demand and supply’ in those contexts (p. iii). in low-income countries, most workforce development occurs through informal or private, formal technical and vocational education and training schemes (janjua & naveed, 2009; king & palmer, 2010). in this context, local governments often do not have the capacity to offer comprehensive, well-resourced technical and vocational education and training. furthermore, the development of career guidance programmes may be at lower priority as choice in occupation and preference for specific careers are not as readily available. counselling services programmes may have various components, including individual or group training that is in-person or online, specific career information and advice, opportunities for self-assessment, job preparation including interviews and print work, and the facilitation of apprenticeships or internships (watts & fretwell, 2004). there is evidence of career counselling in higher education contexts (bittaye, odukogbe, nyan, jallow, & omigbodun, 2012; maree, 2009; sidiropoulou-dimakakou, argyropoulou, drosos, kaliris, & mikedaki, 2016; sun & yuen, 2012). maree (2009) explored career counselling offered in south african institutions of higher education. in his work maree asserted that every student at every higher education institution should have access to career counsellors who are trained to assess, counsel and mediate career-related questions. bittaye et al.’s (2012) research on career counselling for medical students in gambia found that the opportunity for mentorship by senior colleagues was a significant factor for male medical students entering particular medical specialties. however, all the students reflected in their study indicated that there was no career counselling offered by the medical school, which the researchers indicated had implications on students’ choice of their intended medical specialties (bittaye et al., 2012). research on the experiences of greek university students noted that opportunities to gain and practise skills relevant to all work fields and particular occupations, experiential activities, seminar-type workshops and interventions that focused on students’ perceived self-efficacy beliefs in their career and career adaptability were effective strategies of career counselling in higher education (sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016, p. 47). sun and yuen (2012) concluded that career guidance and counselling for university students in china should not copy approaches from foreign countries and instead: chinese theories and strategies for career guidance and counselling should be created, with due reference to chinese society’s characteristics, practical problems … job market, employment system, educational philosophy and the social value system. (p. 207) taken, all together, emerging adults in developing countries often experience economic and social inequality, and less than favourable job options. yet, comprehensive career guidance and counselling that is coupled with higher education attainment may lead towards positive career preparation and more optimal outcomes. this brief review of emerging adulthood and career counselling in low-income countries was offered to highlight the uniqueness of career counselling in the higher education environment in haiti. higher education does not always lead to employment, or employment that aligns with skills and academic training, and this is true for haiti. in a global context, it is understood that there is a positive connection between higher education graduation and career attainment, broadly. however, although data collection for this study occurred in 2013, there does not seem to exist any empirical research that describes a university-to-career pipeline in haiti. more specifically, career counselling and the patterns for people who attend and graduate from university are understudied in the haitian context. this scholarly work is focused on the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti. the following section offers a contextual background of haiti, including the higher education and career experiences of university students in haiti. contextual background: higher education and career experiences in haiti haiti’s history is marked by periods of political and economic instability and catastrophic natural disasters, including its devastating 2010 earthquake and hurricane matthew in 2016, described as the ‘fiercest caribbean storm in nearly a decade’ (brice & marsh, 2016). given its complicated history and contemporary realities, haiti is noted as the poorest and least developed country in the western hemisphere (ferguson, desir, & bornstein, 2014), and it ranks 214 out of 217 countries in terms of unemployment rates (cia, 2019). in 2020, the unemployment rate in haiti was 16.74% for women and 11.37% for men (the world bank, 2020). in 2010, the labour force by occupation was 38.1% agriculture (farming, fishing and forestry), 11.5% industry (mining, manufacturing, energy production and construction) and 50.4% services (government activities, communications, transportation, finance and all other economic activities that do not produce material goods) (cia, 2019; index mundi, 2019). haiti’s economic position has implications for the higher education and career prospects of the emerging adults in the country. in 2019, haiti had a population of over 11.2 million individuals. given the challenging educational realities in haiti, the united states agency for international development (usaid, 2017) indicated that there is a generation of haitian youth who are at risk of lacking the knowledge and basic skills necessary to succeed in the labour force. less than 1% of the haitian population attends a university in haiti (dumay, 2010). of the less than 1% of those who study in haiti, only 50% of those students eventually earn a university degree, and 84% of university graduates leave haiti after graduation (jadotte, 2012; ratha & shaw, 2007). this phenomenon is known as brain drain; in 2012 haiti had a high rate of brain drain, which included more skilled people leaving the country as compared to other countries in the caribbean region (clinton, 2012; jadotte, 2012). the majority of graduates leave haiti for job prospects in other countries, mainly in the usa, canada and other parts of the caribbean (joseph, 2011). included in their reasons for departure is the lack of capacity in the local job market, and a mismatch between their disciplinary training and the positions available in haiti. this has resulted in a brain drain within the country (vital, 2015, 2017; lemay-hébert, marcelin, pallage, & cela, 2020). higheredorg higheredorg is a higher education-centred ngo located in port-au-prince, haiti. the organisation envisions all haitians having access to quality education and the ability to contribute to local society. it is an independent organisation and is not a function of the ministry of education, or any institution of higher education in haiti. higheredorg has staff located in haiti and new york, the united states of america. the haiti-based staff members work directly with the programme participants. the staff members in haiti strive to create and maintain relationships with local universities and the ministry of education. they also attempt to develop connections with companies in haiti and academic programmes outside of haiti for the purposes of generating internships and educational enrichment opportunities for its students. the staff members in new york primarily work on development and fundraising for the organisation. the ngo was founded in 1997 and its aim is to provide scholarships to talented young haitians who do not have the financial means to access higher education studies. higheredorg values gender development and sustainable practices. it operationalises these values by reserving 40% of the seats for women in each new class, and by having a staff that is comprised by a majority of women, who are also represented in leadership positions. initially it was supporting one university student, and presently supports approximately 130 students a year who are in various levels of study (first through fifth year). in addition, higheredorg has more than 30 alumni who have access to the career-related services and resources of the organisation. for the purposes of the scholarships it provides, higheredorg recruits high achieving students demonstrating the most financial need. once admitted, higheredorg students must attend universities recognised by the ministère de l’education nationale d’haïti [ministry of education] and the association of francophone universities and must maintain a 3.0 grade point average. the higheredorg scholarship provided to its scholars is comprehensive. acceptance into the programme includes full university tuition, textbooks and supplies, access to a computer lab with internet access, an onsite library, academic advising and study abroad opportunities in the united states of america. higheredorg scholars also attend three organisation-designed enrichment courses: 2 years in computer literacy, 4 years of english as the second language and 4 years of leadership courses that have a social justice orientation. students are also required to participate in extra-curricular activities that include a speaker series, field trips and retreats. higheredorg also offers students counselling support. the scholarship also provides housing in a higheredorg residence and a monthly living stipend. students in their final year at university are assigned a thesis advisor and receive national exam preparation support. higheredorg students and alumni receive career guidance, including workshops with guest industry and alumni guest speakers, cover letter and curriculum vitae reviews for future professional and academic opportunities domestically and abroad, and internship opportunities with local and international organisations, which is managed by the career and alumni services manager. table 1 presents higheredorg statistics as they relate to overall country statistics in key areas. table 1: higheredorg statistics. conceptual framework this study is framed by the work of holman (2014) who developed a report on good career guidance based on his visit to and analysis of six countries viewed as having positive career guidance and educational results (canada, finland, germany, hong kong, ireland and the netherlands) and five independent schools in england. the key components of the eight-part good career guidance benchmarks are the following: (1) a stable career programme, (2) learning from career and labour market information, (3) addressing the needs of each pupil, (4) linking curriculum learning to careers, (5) encounters with employers and employees, (6) experiences of workplaces, (7) encounters with further and higher education and (8) personal guidance. the eight benchmarks for providing good career guidance to pupils in schools are adaptable to the work of higheredorg. the organisation functions in a manner similar to that of higher education institutions as it responds to the academic, social, financial and emotional needs of the scholars associated with its programme. holman (2014) provided descriptions for each benchmark. a stable career program: ‘every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance that is known and understood by pupils … and employers’. learning from career and labour market (holman, 2014): every pupil should have access to good quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. they will need the support of an informed adviser to make best use of available information. (p. 7) addressing the needs of each pupil: ‘pupils have different career guidance needs, at different stages. opportunities for advice and support need to be tailored to the needs of each pupil’. linking curriculum learning to careers: ‘all teachers should link curriculum learning with careers’. encounters with employers and employees (holman, 2014): every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. this can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes. (p. 7) experiences of workplaces: ‘every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities and expand their networks’. encounters with further and higher education (holman, 2014): all pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. this includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace. (p. 7) personal guidance: ‘every pupil should have the opportunities for guidance interviews with a career adviser, who could be internal or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level’ (p. 6). these benchmarks offer a useful framework for examining the range of academic and career supports higheredorg provides to university students in haiti. at first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive to frame this study on a conceptual framework based on country contexts vastly different from haiti and its low-income country status. however, holman’s (2014) good career guidance offers a framework that illuminates the approach of higheredorg, an organisation that incorporates both haiti-based and international perspectives in its work with university students in the country. higheredorg is an innovative presence in the higher education landscape in haiti. the career development approach of the career and alumni services unit includes a combination of training and guidance that provides a foundation for higheredorg students and alumni to draw from as they prepare to engage in the local job sector. methods this was a qualitative case study of a higher education-centred organisation in haiti, higheredorg (pseudonym). stake (2005) emphasised that an ngo may be a case and higheredorg identifies as such in haiti. the case study provided a detailed description of the organisation and the strategies it utilised to respond to the challenges that university students experience within the haitian higher education system and post-graduation. the question guiding this research was as follows: what are the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti? findings provided insight into how higheredorg students conceptualised their university experiences in haiti and the implications to their future careers, the range of support provided by higheredorg related to career development, and the local career prospects for higheredorg alumni after university graduation. in this sense, participants both ‘described an intervention and the real-life context in which it occurred’ (yin, 2003, p. 15), which was useful for the data analysis for this study. participants the case study of higheredorg was conducted in port-au-prince, the capital of haiti. with regard to participant recruitment, after this study was conceptualised, the new york-based founder and executive director of higheredorg was contacted to learn if the organisation could serve as the site and focus of the research. after receiving approval, participant recruitment material written in french was sent to the haiti-based associate director of higheredorg to forward onto organisation students, alumni and staff. the email included information about the study, participant requirements and my expected arrival and duration in haiti. potential participants were given the option of pre-scheduling their interview or confirming an appointment with me after i arrived in haiti. snowball sampling (patton, 2002) was also utilised to recruit participants after i arrived in the country. the participants reflected in this study on higher education experiences and career development in haiti included higheredorg students (1), higheredorg alumni (2) and higheredorg staff (7). in an attempt to gain a holistic understanding of career preparation and counselling approaches in haiti, interviews with higheredorg staff (one of whom was also a programme alumni), an administrator from the haitian ministry of education and the associate director for the interuniversity institute for research and development (inured) provided the contextual background to the higher education experiences and career development of emerging adults in haiti. according to its website, inured’s (n.d.) mission is to ‘contribute to the development of high-level research and scientific training in haiti with the aim of improving the educational, socio-economic and political condition of haiti’s people’ (para 1.). participants either selected a pseudonym or asked that one was to be assigned to them. in total, 11 participants were interviewed. given the range of backgrounds and experiences of the participants interviewed, i was able to collect rich data that increased the trustworthiness of the interviews analysed (glesne, 2011), which offered insights into the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti and those who address these concerns in the country. data collection and analysis this study emerged from a larger qualitative case study conducted in 2013 on higheredorg that focused on university access and persistence in the haitian higher education system. additional analysis of the data collected revealed findings related to higher education experiences and career counselling that together reflected the career development experienced by university students and graduates affiliated with higheredorg themes specific to this study. i utilised a multi-method approach, including semi-structured and focus group interviews, observation and document analysis to collect the data. all interviews occurred face-to-face with participants and lasted for between 15 min and 60 min. semi-structured interviews of higheredorg stakeholders (students, alumni and staff) and focus group interviews of teaching staff occurred in various locations, including one in the student residences located in the capital provided by the organisation, in their staff offices and in the courtyard of the higheredorg centre. semi-structured interviews of the inured ad occurred at the inured office building and the interview with the ministry of education administrator occurred at a café in the capital. reflexive memos (glesne, 2011) were written after each interview for me to capture my initial reactions and learnings from each interview. interviews were conducted in haitian creole, french and english. non-english interview data were translated and transcribed after i returned to the usa. i completed the first round of the haitian creole translation to english. a native haitian creole and french speaker confirmed the accuracy of the haitian creole translation and made necessary corrections, and also conducted the translation of data from french to english. the translator confirmed that idioms and culture-specific terminologies were accurately translated and described in the transcription, and were understood by me, the researcher. the transcribed interview data went through first and second cycle coding, following a scheme outlined by miles, huberman and saldaña (2014). after in-depth analysis of the interview data, findings related to this study emerged. observation was another method of data collection. i resided in a higheredorg student residence during my month-long research visit in haiti. i observed student interactions, study habits and engagement with student staff, and we had informal discussions regarding their higheredorg experiences. i also observed the dynamics at the higheredorg centre, including those between students, students and staff, staff and staff, staff with external visitors, staff meetings, student and staff meetings and the annual student graduation. the data collected from my observation allowed me to ‘use my senses, especially looking and listening in a systematic and meaningful way’ (mckechnie, 2008, p. 573), which deepened my examination of higheredorg. my final data collection method was document review. in total, i reviewed 110 pages of the organisation’s documents, including its organisational chart, student handbook, monthly reports, information management system guide, student profiles, summary of student needs, advisory guide, and applications for admission and academic scholarship forms. the organisation’s website was also a source of relevant data. analysing the organisation’s documents provided background information and meaning to the interviews i conducted and dynamics that i observed (glesne, 2011), which provided a holistic understanding of higheredorg. overall, the qualitative case study approach allowed me to ‘close in on real-life situations’ (flyvbjerg, 2006, p. 235) and helped me to understand the problem under study. trustworthiness and validity i used several methods of testing to rule out validity threat. the first test included respondent validation and member checking. respondent validations included ‘systematically soliciting feedback about your data and conclusions from the people you are studying’ (maxwell, 2005, p. 111). this member-checking process occurred throughout my inquiry and via the ‘data i played back to the informant to check for perceived accuracy and reactions’ (cho & trent, 2006, p. 322). these processes helped me to ensure that what i understood i learned from the interviews was in fact what the participant intended to convey. their feedback confirmed my internal conclusions and that i was not misinterpreting what i gleaned from previous interviews. this was particularly important as the interviews were conducted in multiple languages: english, french and kreyòl ayisyen [haitian creole]. the second validity test was triangulation, which, in qualitative case studies, ‘is a common means through which researchers increase the trustworthiness of their representation of the case’ (grandy, 2010, p. 1). the larger study utilised multiple data sources (34 participants), data collection methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observation and document review) and my field notes. the data collected revealed consensus between participants, the documents analysed and the observations concluded. lastly, i consulted with a peer who is familiar with conducting qualitative case studies. this peer review process (glesne, 2011) included discussing my data collection methods, coding scheme and themes that emerged. this feedback loop provided outside and objective suggestions that allowed me to refine my findings and strengthen my conclusions. researcher reflexivity as i conceptualised my study research in haiti, it was important that i reflect on any bias i would bring to this research project (maxwell, 2005). my mother and father were born and raised in haiti. i am a first-generation american and grew up in a close-knit haitian community in the united states of america. i am also a heritage speaker of haitian creole. given how strongly i felt connected to my ethnic heritage, it was critical that i examined how my positionality might influence my research process; i was aware of the potential bias i would bring and recognised the lens from which i would be conducting and analysing my haiti-based study. prior to the start of my research project in haiti, i reflected on the fact that i was a scholar who was born, raised and academically trained in the united states of america. i was concerned about being labelled an ‘other’ or viewed as an ‘outsider’ by haitians in haiti. i was anxious about revealing a subconscious bias that favoured my american self over my haitian self. smith (1999, p. 66) states that the ‘western culture constantly reaffirms the west’s view of itself as the centre of legitimate knowledge’. to combat any preconceptions that i may have brought to my work in haiti, i attempted to bracket the deficit narratives that i was inundated with throughout my life that overwhelmingly described haiti and haitian education from a negative viewpoint, and instead focus on the first-hand knowledge of educational experiences in haiti from the study participants. through my reflexive memos i continually checked myself on how i was thinking about education in haiti by listening to my participants, instead of introducing what i learned prior to my study of the interviews. i wanted to ensure that i was viewing participant responses and experiences as authentic and valid. i strived to make sense of what i was learning from their haitian perspective, and to limit as much as possible, juxtaposing my american perspective in meaning making and interpretation of the data collected (creswell, 2009). ethical considerations this study was approved by and granted exempt status from the michigan state university institutional review board (irb# x13-485e category: exempt 1.2) and informed consent was obtained from all the participants. the case study was conducted on an entity outside of any formal ministry of education or higher education institution purview. as such, a haiti-based irb application was not submitted or requested. however, an explanation of the study was submitted to higheredorg and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the organisation’s executive director. results analysis of the data from the larger case study revealed findings related to perceptions of higher education training and career prospects for university students and graduates in haiti, and the related implications on their career development and expectations. findings are organised by two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. together, these themes highlight the necessity of addressing the combination of experiences of emerging adults in haiti as they relate to their higher education attainment, career development and employment opportunities in haiti. challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti the case study participants discussed a range of higher education and career prospect challenges experienced by university students and graduates in haiti. the challenges conveyed are categorised by the larger haiti country context, university-specific experiences, and what participants believed to be nepotism and neo-colonial practices embedded in the higher education and career structures in haiti. collectively, these challenges describe a broken university-to-career pipeline experienced by emerging adults in haiti. when discussing the experiences of university students in haiti, olivia jean reconceptualised the notion of brain drain broadly as a general lack of opportunity, and explained: ‘for me, brain drain is not just for people who leave the country only. i think that when a person is in a place that he can’t develop, even if he is in the country, but he doesn’t, his heart wants … he doesn’t find the opportunity, or he is doing something else that he does not want to do, he is just doing it because, he makes a way but his brain is not utilized, that means that he is not being utilized the way that he should, that is also a problem.’ (olivia jean, student, higheredorg) the lack of a financial aid system creates barriers to university access for students, impeding their opportunities for higher education attainment. the ministry of education administrator noted the financial challenges that were barriers for students wanting to pursue higher education in haiti: ‘there is a lot of effort for students to get scholarships in the country. that means that right now in the country, there is a lot of demand. at the same time, the state university in the country of haiti almost cannot respond to the demand of all of the students who want to enter the university. thus, this provides an opportunity for the private sector to [answer] the question of higher education not being good here in the country of haiti.’ (paul simon, administrator, ministry of education) from the perspective of staff members working at higheredorg, margreth mathieu discussed the complexities surrounding pursuing a university degree in haiti and described the following challenge: ‘entering a university is not just entering a university. even if he is a state university student, coming from province [the countryside], if he does not have a stable location to stay, stable like he knows in the morning that he will enter a place, it will not be easy for him. therefore, it is extremely difficult for a student to enter a university right now. to enter is one, to remain entered is another, and there is … every year this number is rising.’ (margreth mathieu, student recruiter/alumnus, higheredorg) for those students who find an opportunity to enter a university in haiti, they experience challenges to their persistence. many of the participants described various university academic structures that made it difficult for students to graduate. they conveyed that although students were motivated in their disciplinary areas of study, they often felt discouraged because the academic experience disrupted their matriculation and hopes for degree attainment, and consequently their future employment. farah paul provided a nuanced account of the teaching offered at the university level in haiti and its implications for potential employers: ‘it’s a major issue because you teach the person how to read and write. you teach them how to make subtractions and multiplications and stuff and then what? how is that person going to become the professional that he is? … universities, there’s not a lot of them with good quality … how do you assess the work that they are doing? same textbooks that [had] been used 20 years ago are the same ones that are being used this year. the people who are teaching at the university they are not … they’re just people who have time to teach. most of them are not educators. they are just people in the field. they have an extra hour or couple of hours extra. they come in they give a class they go away. this is not really a lot of emphasis on the educational part of it. and the quality. i think that’s what worries the potential employers. the quality of the education. it is very obvious that they are looking for that also. and they want their candidate, whoever it is applying for job, they want them to be able to write a letter in english or to write in french. good french. since french is the second language that we speak. so, you have expectations but how are you going to ensure the delivery of that? i don’t think universities do that. they don’t do it. i’m not going to say i don’t think. they don’t.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) an additional academic-related challenge described by participants was the university thesis requirement. once students addressed barriers to access and navigated various challenges to their university persistence, they were faced with a thesis requirement that must be completed prior to being awarded their baccalaureate degree. the inured associate director discussed this further: ‘although all students are required to complete this component of their baccalaureate degree, based on participant responses, it appeared that there were not enough faculty members to guide students to do so. so, the students are going into the systems and they are not finishing and most of them are not finishing them not because they are not passing their classes. most of them are not finishing because they can’t pass their thesis….’ (name not disclosed, associate director, inured) other participants explained that often students arrive to the thesis component of their post-secondary experiences without ever having enrolled in a research course, being taught about how to conduct a research or analyse data, and not understanding how to develop a line of inquiry, let alone conduct a review of the literature. the thesis requirement was seen as a barrier because of the lack of training and preparation to develop a thesis and because a clear indication of how the thesis requirement related to their career aspirations had not been articulated by the faculty. an additional challenge described by participants included ones that they believed university students had no control over, which contributed to their sense of defeat. higheredorg students, alumni and staff discussed the discouraging reality that the haitian university degree was not seen as valuable in haitian contexts. furthermore, they explained that local entities and even haiti-based international organisations seemed to value degrees earned outside of the country. participants noted that any foreign academic experience, even if it was short term, provided an edge for the university graduate on the local job market. olivia jean captured this sentiment: ‘the first thing that i can say, because like i said before, our education does not have international value. we could get some recognition if there is a school that is affiliated with a school outside. that can give us an opportunity to continue with school. but for us to have an international value, that means more than just getting an education. if we are in haiti only, you will always have in mind if you want a professional, international … do your master’s another place, you will not want to do your master’s here. if you have an opportunity, a person on your side, you go.’ (olivia jean, student, higheredorg) the final challenge discussed by participants was broadly perceived to be corruption embedded in the employment sector in haiti. this was discussed by nearly every higheredorg participant. guy andrew, the english as a second language (esl) and leadership instructor for higheredorg, highlighted that ‘there’s a huge, huge amount of nepotism in haiti. and a lot of people get jobs just through family and a lot of people, they are not qualified for.’ conversely, higheredorg associate director described the neo-colonial practices that kept haitian nationals out of the job sector all together. the associate director underscored: ‘it’s like, how bizarre, how that in haiti, this extremely impoverished country, how, with an unemployment rate of like 90%, is importing middle management and at the same time, we are exporting the educated haitian, like that’s just stupid. it just doesn’t make any sense.’ (name not disclosed, associate director, higheredorg) emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges to both their higher education experiences and career expectations. because of country-level opportunity constraints and university-specific academic structures participants explained that post-secondary students face barriers to their access and persistence in university in the country. furthermore, university graduates must contend with what has been perceived to be a corruptive employment environment, which has implications for their career trajectory in haiti. multi-pronged career guidance as noted previously, this study is framed by holman (2014), whose work highlighted eight key benchmarks of a good career guidance programme. the benchmarks are as follows: (1) a stable career programme, (2) learning from career and labour market information, (3) addressing the needs of each pupil, (4) linking curriculum learning to careers, (5) encounters with employers and employees, (6) experiences of workplaces, (7) encounters with further and higher education and (8) personal guidance. the findings of this study reveal that these benchmarks are embedded in the multi-pronged career guidance offered by higheredorg. the range of services that the organisation provides that fosters the career development of its students and alumni are discussed below. higheredorg career and alumni services manager farah paul provided an in-depth understanding of services provided to current students and alumni of the programme. during her interview she discussed the overall career services she provided, the workshops offered and the support provided for post-graduation. when discussing the intent of the career services programme, she explained: ‘our first focus is to place the students. i want them to have this professional experience. it doesn’t matter if it’s haitian field, a haitian organization, or a foreign organization. i really look for the opportunities that can provide them with you know with an internship in their own field. so, this year we’ve made a lot of progress regarding this specific aspect placing the student in the field that is of interest to him.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) in her discussion, farah explained that offering a stage or internship experience was novel in haiti. additionally, some of the students were able to participate in opportunities for international engagement at various institutions in the united states of america. most university students did not have such opportunities as a component of their university experiences. higheredorg students stood out amongst university students because of the internship experience, and she found that the organisations often sought out programme alumni because of the career preparation they received. farah also provided insights into the career workshops she offered to programme students and alumni. she noted: ‘a lot of them [alumni] see it as “oh i’m done, and i just deposit my cv.” but they haven’t called me, but they don’t know it’s a continuous process, and it’s a project. and so, actually letting them know how it works really, and then the reality, and how it can work for them is what i’ve been doing in the past 3 years.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) when discussing the alumni support component of her role, farah explained that older alumni were not aware of her position and that she was available to provide them with support long after they graduated. although it took some time for her to reach the alumni, she explained that at that point she had developed a good network of programme graduates. the alumni had begun to seek her out for support in their post-graduate endeavours, sometimes for new professional positions or for additional academic pursuits. farah alluded to the challenges of the local job market in haiti. she described: ‘[a]nd if there are job opportunities as well, because some of them, all of them are placed, but maybe they are not well placed, maybe there are better opportunities, then i communicate that with them.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) farah highlighted an issue that many of the case study participants discussed – namely, despite earning university degrees and having access to the comprehensive range of services provided by higheredorg, programme alumni must still contend with the job market realities in haiti, which some described as dire and incompatible with the degrees they earned. the three required enrichment courses were also discussed by higheredorg participants. when prompted, the alumni explained that the enrichment courses were not in existence when they were students of the programme. most programme students welcomed the enrichment courses as a function of their scholarship because they believed the courses prepared them for future employment and potential academic opportunities in other countries, including the united states of america and canada. however, some of the programme students found the course load overwhelming given the full academic load they were concurrently engaged in at their respective universities. course staff members discussed the aim of the courses and why they believed they were necessary. each of the course managers shared their insights. higheredorg computer science assistant manager viola persine explained that unlike experiences in the united states of america, many of the students were engaging in basic computer skills for the first time after becoming programme scholars. she described the support her unit provided: ‘i help the students troubleshoot. we do with them like, what is a computer, what is in a computer. this is something that you start small so that they can have abilities with it. there are some who do not know how to send an email. we show them how to do an excel document, create a formula … then we show them access … how to save a file.’ (viola persine, computer science assistant manager, higheredorg) program scholars also participated in the leadership course. embedded in the leadership course is a social justice ideal that speaks about higheredorg’s mission to create a more just society. higheredorg leadership programme manager marie belizaire discussed the benefits of the course further: ‘i really do think that the transformation is happening, and the students feel really empowered, really good, and have the tools and skills and knowledge of how to use their competencies to give back to their community. and [we] are seeing the value in that so i hope that, that is you know, is setting down some roots in the community.’ (marie belizaire, leadership programme manager, higheredorg) higheredorg esl programme manager myrtho izikyel discussed the esl enrichment course. in her discussion, myrtho alluded to the ‘neo-colonial practices’ mentioned earlier by higheredorg associate director who believed that these practices kept haitian nationals out of the job sector altogether. myrtho explained the role of the esl instructors: ‘so, we are helping the students by giving them more tools to be more successful in whatever professions they have. now after the 2010 earthquake, january 12, i think that english has become even more important in the sense now you’ve got all of these other international actors, ngos and we don’t necessarily want to be encouraging to work for ngos, because it’s not very sustainable. but at the same time, they need the tools to navigate those systems because of their work in the private sector. most likely they are going to have some sort of interaction with these nongovernmental organizations.’ (myrtho izikyel, esl programme manager, higheredorg) finally, ‘financial support’ as a sub-theme provides an opportunity to expand the good career guidance framework. for instance, all of the higheredorg participants discussed the benefits to not only the student but also their entire family when they were awarded a higheredorg scholarship. the scholarship eliminates barriers to university access, which provides a pathway to decent work, or a suitable career post-graduation and an overall improved quality of life in the country. two alumni described what it meant for them to earn a full university scholarship from higheredorg. ernest conveyed: ‘[i]t was a big relief, it was definitely, it was because i often said, i have my brother that finished one year before me, but he did not succeed to go into the public college, so he spent one year doing nothing.’ (ernest duncan, alumnus, higheredorg) ernest’s reflections speak about the lack of opportunity discussed earlier by higheredorg student olivia jean, who conveyed it as an internal brain drain. margreth mathieu also discussed the benefits of the full scholarship offered to accepted students. she said: ‘[a] lot of the students are coming from lower low-income, rural backgrounds where they would, you know, not first of all have the financial means to pay the tuition [fee] at a lot of these universities.’ (margreth mathieu, student recruiter/alumnus, higheredorg) both alumni underscored the economic challenges experienced by post-secondary students in haiti. they also conveyed the difficulty of attending university without bursaries or other forms of financial aid made available to prospective students. given the extent of unemployment in haiti, and the low average salary of the population, the scholarship provided by higheredorg is undeniably invaluable for the percentage of overall university students who are accepted to the programme. additionally, as all prospective higheredorg students must demonstrate their financial need in order to receive the full scholarship to attend a university in haiti, the funding awarded is a step prior to them achieving benchmark 6 ‘encounters with further and higher education’ (holman, 2014). in this regard, ‘financial support’ as a sub-theme extends holman’s good career guidance when applied to low-income contexts like haiti. more specifically, this theme highlights the necessity of coupling financial aid with university acceptance in order for benchmark 6 to be achieved. despite the extent and nature of university and career challenges described by case study participants, those participants affiliated with higheredorg believed that the comprehensive range of support and interventions offered by the organisation worked to alleviate the difficulties surrounding higher education and career expectations. the full scholarship and all it entailed helped to mitigate issues related to university access and persistence. the career and alumni services helped participants to develop skills required for the job market. the enrichment courses deepened student competencies and fostered their career development for the local job market. discussion this study examined the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti, who in the context of this study are university students and graduates. the analysis of the data collected highlighted the challenges experienced by this group, and the strategies provided by higheredorg to mitigate those career-related challenges. findings from the analysis conducted revealed two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. they are discussed below as they relate to previous research. the study participants affiliated with higheredorg explained the challenges experienced by university students in haiti and the related implications on their future career outcomes. all participants discussed haiti in the context of its economic realities. with respect to higher education matriculation, the lack of a financial aid system was a significant barrier for most university students, given the high rates of poverty in the country (cia, 2019; ferguson et al., 2014). as such, the full tuition scholarship offered by higheredorg was critical. the financial environment discussed by participants is consistent with the economic inequality that emerging adults experience in developing countries (juarez & gayet, 2014). brain drain was also a topic of conversation for participants, and particularly the administrators reflected on that aspect. however, one participant, a university student olivia jean, offered a nuanced understanding of the issue. as noted in the findings, olivia explained that despite pursuing and earning a university degree, a student often ‘makes a way but his brain is not utilised, that means that he is not being utilised the way that he should.’ this experience, of one’s intellect being underutilised in their home country because of local job market realities, was conceptualised as an internal brain drain in previous research on emerging adolescent and adult experiences in haiti (vital, 2015, 2017; ferguson et al., 2014). the ‘mismatch in skills demands and supply’ was also articulated by tan et al. (2013, p. iii). finally, the findings related to challenges indicated that the academic structure of universities in haiti made it difficult for students to graduate, which in turn impacted their ability to pursue a career related to their disciplinary background. as a result, university students miss out on the positive outcomes of degree attainment: better jobs, including increased wages; opportunities for promotion; and social mobility (brennan & teichler, 2008; coates & edwards, 2011; tight, 1989; unesco, 2009). research participants also discussed the career service strategies of higheredorg: they found the comprehensive support useful to their career preparation and career trajectory. higheredorg’s multi-pronged approach to career guidance and training is consistent with research on the topic (watts & fretwell, 2004). in particular, when reviewing the literature on career counselling at higher education institutions in developing country contexts, higheredorg’s strategies are similar to the effective practices discussed in empirical research (bittaye et al., 2012; maree, 2009; sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016; sun & yuen, 2012). holman’s (2014) good career guidance offered a useful framework for examining the components of the career services department at higheredorg and how it fostered the career development of university students. holman indicated that institutions must have a stable career programme, which presently exists at higheredorg despite it not being a higher education institution, specifically. career counselling must include personal guidance that addresses the needs of each pupil. this occurs as each student and programme alumni has access to the alumni and career services manager, who offers tailored individual and group support that mirrors the approach noted by watts and fretwell (2004). the good career guidance framework emphasises linking curriculum learning to careers, and encounters with further and higher education. this is most evidenced by the three enrichment courses by higheredorg. students are enrolled in programme courses focused on leadership, information technology and english, while being full-time students at their respective universities. these enrichment courses provide opportunities for life-long learning (chamorro-premuzic & frankiewicz, 2019), and ensure that they are prepared to work in professional settings with the skills necessary for quality job performance (birdsall, 1996; maree, 2009; iakovleva et al., 2011). the holman framework also captures the experiential learning that is necessary for career training (sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016), specifically learning from career and labour market, encounters with employers, and employees and experiences of workplaces. as noted by the study participants, all higheredorg students participate in internships as a function of the programme, while others have received opportunities for international engagement at various institutions in the united states of america. additionally, company representatives from internship locations as well as alumni working in their respective fields have served as guest speakers during the various workshops provided to students. limitations of the study as is consistent with empirical research studies, this study has also limitations (maxwell, 2005). firstly, the study was conducted during the busiest month of the year for higheredorg. the staff members were rewriting organisational handbooks, preparing for the close of the academic year, planning the higheredorg graduation in a period of staff transition, nearing the end of their recruitment season, and preparing for the start of their new student orientation. it was also a busy time for students attending the state university who were in the middle of their examination period. because of the ongoing staff and student commitments, it was difficult at times to schedule interviews and the length of many interviews was shortened because of participants’ multiple competing priorities. the lack of access to higher education officials in haiti was also a limitation. another limitation of the study was language as most of the participants spoke limited to no english. i am not fluent in french, and i am a heritage speaker of kreyòl ayisyen [haitian creole]. finally, the work reflected in this article was drawn from a larger case study on the haitian higher education system, which was not explicitly focused on career counselling and guidance of university students in haiti. as such, the findings related to this particular topic were limited. despite these limitations, this study contains rich data on the experiences of study participants within the higher education environment in haiti. it offers insightful perspectives on higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in a developing country context. furthermore, it highlights strategies that have proven successful and can be drawn from in the design of interventions in contexts similar to that of haiti. implications and recommendations implications from this study re-imagine higher education and career development in country contexts like haiti. the findings highlighted the internal brain drain that occurs in haiti such that highly educated individuals have diminished opportunities to enter the local workforce. an implication of this research is the possibility of a new model of higher education for haiti’s particular context that integrates career counselling as a new area of focus. as noted by the scholarship on workforce development in developing countries, many qualified individuals are not able to secure positions that are aligned with their skills and academic training. yet, higheredorg serves as a model that both prepares university students for the job market and trains them with the soft skills that employers seek along with appropriate academic preparation. this understanding occurs through the partnerships developed by higheredorg with local companies and international organisations. other ngos and disciplinary departments at higher education institutions can model their approach in similar ways. this research also reveals implications for the provision of career guidance in higher education institutions that occurs at the start of the student’s university tenure and is embedded throughout their matriculation. this approach would be counter to the experiences of students who begin their search to secure jobs after graduation and are nearing the conclusion of their university career. while this timeline may work for university students in countries that have stronger economies, the higheredorg model suggests that this timeline may prove too late for students in countries like haiti. an implication for theory addresses the eight benchmarks embedded in holman’s (2014) good career guidance. benchmark 6 emphasises the necessity of increased education and the pursuit of higher education in particular. yet, less than 1% of the haitian population attends university, and tuition costs make this endeavour infeasible for most of them. the subtheme of ‘financial support’ as reflected in the findings underscores the critical need to couple funding with the university pursuits that holman indicates as a function of good career guidance. as such, theories, or frameworks as reflected in holman’s work, must be flexible enough to adapt to lower-resourced country contexts like haiti. finally, a significant implication of this research is the need for partnerships between the higher education sector, the higher education-centred ngos and the ministry of education. such a coalition would reveal the perceptions of corruption in the local workforce, as highlighted by the study participants, and will provide opportunities for coordinated interventions. additionally, it will diminish the duplication of efforts in response to local, country-wide and global events; for instance, the increased unavailability of jobs in developing countries as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. the extent of the economic fallout that will occur in haiti as a result, or in a similar context, is still unknown. recommendations for practice are challenging for countries that are resource constrained like haiti. however, they are worth mentioning and include the adoption of career guidance in higher education institutions, and as a function of the services provided to university students by the many ngos that exist in haiti. although there are contextual data on the range of vocational and technical education and training that exist in haiti, there does not seem to be a clear understanding of any career counselling specific to university students that exists, or any empirical research that has examined this topic previously. recommendations for policy include the ministry of education providing basic guidelines or standards for universities and stakeholders to follow as a way for career development to emerge as a service provided to students in the haitian higher education system. recommendations for future research include an environmental scan of the career guidance that is offered to university students in haiti. this scan will reveal what is and what is not occurring in the higher education environment, and will inform the design of targeted and relevant research projects. additionally, more stakeholders should be interviewed to determine a holistic and multi-pronged strategy between key stakeholders to address the career counselling and development challenges experienced by university students and graduates in haiti. recommendations for theory include an expansion of the good career guidance framework to incorporate the social and economic realities of developing countries like haiti, particularly as the career development approach may not resemble the process of countries reflected in holman’s (2014) research. conclusion overall, emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges in both their higher education experiences and career development. however, the findings of this study revealed that there is a pipeline between higher education attainment and positive career outcomes for those university students affiliated with higheredorg. more specifically, the academic advisories and support offered by the organisation, coupled with career counselling and guidance, resulted in an 80% graduation rate as compared to 40% for the entire country population, which in turn led to a 90% employment rate for higheredorg alumni, as compared to 50% for the rest of the country. these statistics are relevant. although career counselling and guidance might be customary for university students in many countries, it is unique to haiti and not readily accessible to the emerging adults there. thus, higheredorg serves as an innovative presence in haiti, and a model for other countries in similar contexts. acknowledgements competing interests the author declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions l.m.v. is the sole author of this research article. funding information no funding was provided for the development of this manuscript. funding was provided by michigan state university for data collection. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, l.m.v., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the institution or funder. references akinyemi, s., & ofem, i.b. 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(2016). international aid, local ownership, and survival: development and higher education in rural haiti. voluntas: international journal of voluntary and nonprofit organizations, 27(1), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9618-7 abstract introduction methodology findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jane rossouw department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation rossouw, j. (2024). balancing faith and duty: challenges in teaching inclusive sexuality education. african journal of career development, 6(2), a131. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.131 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research balancing faith and duty: challenges in teaching inclusive sexuality education jane rossouw received: 06 may 2024; accepted: 25 june 2024; published: 22 july 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: life orientation educators hold great responsibility for the well-being of their students, which can be supported through imparting sexuality education. however, the absence of formal training for this subject may have negative consequences in fulfilling professional duties. objectives: this article intends to foreground how life orientation educators impart sexuality education to their students, exploring aspects of their personal attitudes and comfort in imparting education related to sexuality and queerness. methods: this qualitative study consisted of five life orientation educators in the gauteng province to understand their approaches to impart sexuality education to their students and the influence of their personal upbringings. the research was thematically analysed through a systems theory framework. results: the results emphasise how personal religious beliefs impact sexuality education’s delivery and educators’ discretion in implementing the curriculum. the ambiguity of the curriculum and diverse teaching backgrounds also contribute to avoidance of topics like sexuality education and queer identities. moreover, the non-examinable nature of these topics, combined with subjective interpretations of age-appropriateness, further marginalise them. conclusion: this article calls for awareness of the consequences of religious convictions and subjective perceptions of age-appropriateness of educators on the delivery of sexuality and queer education. contribution: this study contributes by highlighting challenges faced by life orientation educators in creating inclusive environments when personal religious beliefs conflict with comprehensive sexuality education. it enhances understanding of areas for improvement in training and subject knowledge to ensure educators affirm diverse identities and impart sexuality education effectively. keywords: religious values; professional responsibilities; age-appropriateness; queer identities; sexuality education. introduction south africa’s constitution asserts that its citizens have the right to freedom of religion, belief, and opinion. the national policy on religion and education recognises a valuable relationship between religion and education, emphasising its contribution to teaching and learning. the national curriculum statement (ncs) aims to equip students with practical knowledge and skills applicable to their daily lives (department of basic education [dbe], 2019). the curriculum strives to promote social transformation and respect for human rights by inclusively representing the country’s diverse population (dbe, 2011). however, despite these constitutional and policy frameworks promoting freedom and acceptance in education, there exists a notable tension and disparity between religious freedom and education practices (russo, 2014). christianity permeates laws, policies, and school environments, privileging adherents and shaping educational norms (ferber, 2012). sexuality education, often influenced by educators’ strong religious beliefs, tends to prioritise heterosexuality (aston, 2017), and promotes abstinence (brewer et al., 2007). this emphasis on heterosexual narratives reinforces traditional notions of the nuclear family (mcewen, 2018; ngabaza & shefer, 2019), limiting discourse on queer identities. consequently, students may face challenges expressing their gender and sexual identities openly within educational settings guided by educators with entrenched religious values. in 2000, the dbe integrated sexuality education into the life orientation (lo) subject in response to high rates of teenage pregnancy and hiv infections. initially, the focus was on addressing sexual risks and promoting protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. in 2018, unesco updated the international technical guidance on sexuality education, which emphasised the importance of incorporating social, cognitive, emotional, and physical health aspects of sexuality into education. the guidance also acknowledged the necessity of including queer identities in the curriculum, although it highlighted a lack of research on effectively integrating queer identities and understanding their sexual health needs (unesco, 2018). in 2015, the dbe developed and piloted sexuality education scripted lesson plans (slps) to aid educators and learners to address important sexual health topics in a structured manner and to empower them to address topics that they would otherwise be uncomfortable discussing. while these slps included content on queer identities, focusing primarily on definitions and addressing stigma and discrimination, they fell short in adequately addressing the specific sexual health needs of queer individuals compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. educators, learners, parents, and religious organisations expressed varying opinions that either supported or opposed this piloted rollout. the key concerns expressed about the curriculum included it being a western import not suited for local cultural norms and values. it was regarded as immoral and a topic that should be reserved only for the private household environment (family policy institute, 2019). mcewen and francis (2022) have highlighted the vulnerability of queer students in south african schools because of the persistence of conservative christian groups advocating for safer schools that exclude knowledge about queer identities and the enactment thereof. this underscores the influence of christian values and teachings in shaping attitudes and knowledge surrounding queer identities within south african educational settings. despite ongoing reservations about the appropriateness of the educational environment for sexuality education, schools remain the primary source of information given that children and adolescents spend most of their time in these settings. as a result, there is heightened emphasis among educators to convey this content confidently and accurately to students. research on sexuality education in lo has revealed the nature on the content being driven by being disease-ridden (mayeza & vincent, 2019), abstinence (mstuwana & de lange, 2017), and the reinforcement of heteronormative narratives (brown, 2022). within discussions surrounding gender and sexuality, heteronormativity and cisnormativity are legitimised (francis, 2018) through teaching and learning materials (wilmot & naidoo, 2018), curriculum policies, and the words and actions of educators (reygan, 2016). francis (2018) contends that an educator’s discomfort and silence regarding non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities serves to uphold heteronormativity and invalidate non-conforming identities. against this backdrop, this research aimed to investigate how five lo educators conveyed sexuality education to their students, exploring aspects of their personal attitudes and comfort in teaching the sexuality education, particularly regarding content on queer identities. methodology a qualitative research design was implemented alongside a purposive sampling method. semi-structured interviews were conducted with five lo educators who taught the subject from grades 6–12. the participants were prompted to share their personal experiences of sexuality education during their own developing years and the impact of that on their sexuality education teaching style. the educators were selected from a johannesburg-based primary school and its sibling secondary school, which included all lo educators from those schools. johannesburg, in the province of gauteng south africa, is the hub for diverse populations with varying cultures, values, and religions, making it a favourable environment for sexual and gender diverse identities. in recent years, gauteng has seen an increase in acceptance and visibility of diverse gender expressions and sexual orientations across various sectors, including educational settings. for this reason, investigating the teachings of diverse sexual and gender identities in johannesburg schools was conducive to this research. the data collected formed part of a larger research project. the participants were purposively sampled based only on being lo educators for the respective grades required for the research. all participants identified as heterosexual and cisgender. table 1 details specific information about the participants. table 1: participants’ details. the data was analysed through an ecological systems theory framework, which informed the study by considering the various systems and contexts that influence educators’ delivery of sexuality education, such as their personal upbringing, religious beliefs, and the school environment. the six-step process of thematic analysis, as explained by braun and clarke (2006), was also used to analyse the data. ethical approval for the overall study was provided by the faculty of education [stellenbosch university] (project id: 28756). each participant granted verbal informed consent, ensuring their anonymity and confidentiality through the application of pseudonyms and the redaction of identifying details in transcripts. ethical considerations an application for full ethical approval was made to social, behavioural and education research (sber), stellenbosch university and ethics consent was received on 23 november 2023. the ethics approval number is 28756. findings and discussion the analysis of the interviews revealed two predominant themes: ‘religious contestations and professional responsibility’ and ‘assessing age appropriateness’. these themes highlight the educators’ individual religious beliefs and convictions and its relationship with their ability to fulfil their professional responsibilities. it further centres the consideration of age appropriateness in the delivery of sexuality education, including education on queer identities. religious contestations and professional responsibility while significant strides have been made in the integration of sexuality education within south african schools, the pivotal role of teachers persists in ensuring its effective implementation. shefer and macleod (2015) underscore that educators’ personal religious and cultural convictions influence their pedagogical approach to this subject matter, raising concerns about the extent to which educators can fulfil their professional obligations in offering comprehensive care and support to students, particularly in the domain of various topics within sexuality education. the analysis of data indicated that educators’ approaches to imparting sexuality education are significantly influenced by their religious beliefs. all participants were raised in christian households, with priya having an additional layer of indian cultural practices. priya recounted being instructed to regard sex as reserved for marriage and not a topic to be spoken about with children: ‘for me, sex was not something we spoke about growing up. my family viewed this topic as taboo and avoided it for my own safety. the less you know, the safer you are.’ (40 years old, female, teaching grade 6) priya further expressed apprehension about potentially disturbing the sexual innocence of her grade 6 students, approximately age 12, by providing them with comprehensive information. despite acknowledging that her students possessed greater sexual knowledge and exposure than she did at their age, priya felt inadequately prepared and uneasy about engaging in detailed discussions. samantha, michael, and emily shared similar sentiments as priya. hailing from deeply religious households, these participants lacked formal sexuality education because of its taboo nature within their households and school curriculums. stacey, the youngest of the participants, and in the early stages of her teaching career, had greater exposure to sexuality education owing to evolving social norms: ‘i had education from my family and school because the time i grew up in there was a lot of peer pressure about drugs and alcohol and sex. they taught me about my body and what will happen to me if i have sex; that it will have a negative effect on me emotionally and i am not ready for it. i should wait until i’m married before i have sex. this is what i tell my students; that they are not emotionally ready for sex, they will get pregnant and infections.’ (23 years old, female, teaching grade 8 and 12) stacey’s sexuality education revolved around biological aspects and advocated abstinence to safeguard innocence and emotional development. she shares these views with her students because of their perceived deficits in emotional maturity. the analysis revealed that the participants’ upbringing, characterised by the taboo nature of sexuality education, predisposed them to either avoid the subject altogether, or to approach it solely from an abstinence-only perspective. influenced by conservative christian values, which uphold heterosexuality and disapprove queer identities, the participants felt uncomfortable discussing diverse identities. responses to interview questions on discussions about queerness in the classroom were met with hesitancy and were short-lived. this alone highlights the resistance and/or avoidance of queer identities in their teachings of sexuality education. samantha remarked ‘we don’t talk about that’ (41 year old, female, teaching grade 6), while stacey expressed that ‘it is not good for the students to know about those things’ (23 year old, female, teaching grades 8 and 12). michael and emily, although aware of queer identities in the school, either did not feel equipped enough to navigate this conversation or viewed other topics as more important, which would ultimately lead to an overall avoidance of it. michael revealed that: ‘i know that there are students in the school who are not straight. they’ve never come out directly, but i know that there are. lesbian, gay, bisexual and all that are not part of the textbook, so i don’t talk about it, and the students don’t ask questions about it. i wouldn’t know what to say if they did ask.’ (40 years old, male, teaching grades 8, 9 and 10) on the other hand, emily emphasised the safety of the students: ‘i just think it is more appropriate to teach them about safety, especially because the grades i teach are older and the matrics [grade 12] will soon be going to university and exposed to a lot more danger and pressures so i tend to focus on that.’ (35 years old, female, teaching grades 10, 11 and 12) conservative christianity reinforces traditional roles, emphasising the male/female binary, primarily within the context of reproduction. this perspective often serves to marginalise diverse gender identities. given its emphasis on family values, christianity strongly opposes non-conforming gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationships. research by peter (2018) suggests that educators’ religious affiliations significantly influence their inclination towards practicing inclusive and diverse education. the participants indicated that their approach to sexuality education was guided by their personal religious beliefs and comfort levels with the topic, which were shaped during their upbringing. furthermore, the nature of responses from the participants revealed that discussions on queerness were absent from their teachings. embedded religious convictions influenced the educators’ capacity to address non-conforming identities. to reconcile the tensions between their religious beliefs and the effective teaching of sexuality education, the participants proposed delegating this topic to an external professional. while educators bear the responsibility of caring for and supporting their students, relinquishing the responsibility to an external provider hinders their ability to fulfill this aspect of their role. in the event that a student is provoked by a discussion with the external provider, it would fall upon the on-site educator(s) to provide further support should the student have additional concerns or queries. although providing students with comprehensive sexuality education inclusive of queer education is advantageous, deferring this responsibility may have broader implications for educators in meeting the supportive dimension of their professional obligations. ultimately, the participants grapple with a conflict between their religious beliefs and their professional duties. the narratives provided by the participants highlight religious convictions and personal discomfort as key factors in restricting sexuality education and evading discussions on queer identities. this avoidance consequently perpetuates non-affirming narratives surrounding queer identities and raises concerns about their safety within school environments. when educators are guided by their personal and religious convictions, they may be unable to effectively fulfill the caring and supportive element of their professional role. assessing age appropriateness like the contestations encountered concerning the intersection of their religious beliefs and professional duties, they further grappled with the concept of age appropriateness. narratives by priya alluded to considering age appropriateness when educating students about queer identities, coupled with her personal exposure. ‘i don’t know much about it. it wasn’t something that i was taught when i was growing up, so i don’t want to tell the students something wrong. i also think that in grade six they are too young to know about gay and lesbian and those things.’ (40 years old, female, teaching grade 6) stemming from their religious convictions, priya and samantha specifically did not believe it was an age-appropriate time to teach children about non-normative identities as they feared corrupting their innocence. samantha believed that ‘it is important to protect them. at this age they are still innocent, and i do not want to damage that’ (41 years old, female, teaching grade 6). the religious perspectives on innocence, emotional development, and heteronormativity afford educators’ significant discretion in determining the age-appropriateness of content for students. developmental theories propose suitable sexual health knowledge to share with children and adolescents based on the life stage they are in. research has shown the value in initiating sexuality education as early as the age of 5 years old as it can foster body awareness and confidence as individuals progress through developmental phases (bonjour & van der vlugt, 2018). furthermore, with the growing visibility of queer identities, it is imperative to recognise that children possess an awareness of diversity in identity and expression, even if they lack the vocabulary to articulate it. nevertheless, anti-gender movements vehemently oppose queer education in schools, fearing that it may compromise children’s innocence and lead them away from christian values and the traditional concept of the nuclear family (mcewen & francis, 2022). the adherence to conservative religious values had hindered educators like priya and samantha from addressing queer identities in their teachings. regarding the evaluation of age-appropriateness, the educational backgrounds of lo educators play a significant role. often, these educators originate from diverse teaching backgrounds (koch & wehmeyer, 2021), and are tasked with teaching lo to manage their workload and bridge gaps in the curriculum. consequently, not all lo educators possess the fundamental subject knowledge requisite for lo. the absence of this foundational understanding prompts educators to approach the content using their personal inventory. for these participants, the structure for lo and age-appropriate sexuality education is largely undefined, except for what is outlined in the provided teaching materials. depalma and francis (2014) observed the lack of structure in how sexuality education is addressed within lo. the ambiguity surrounding the design of age-appropriate content, coupled with the unstructured nature of lo, allows educators to personally determine the scope of what should or should not be covered (shefer et al., 2013). furthermore, all participants disclosed that they had not received any formal training in sexuality education. this revelation suggests reliance on personal experiences in the absence of formal training and structured guidance. to resolve their uncertainty with age-appropriateness, the educators again recommended the development of a distinct sexuality education programme tailored to each grade and facilitated by an external profession. this solution involves deferring the subject altogether. it could further have implications for educators’ ability to fulfil their professional responsibilities of care and support effectively. when questioned about the appropriate grade for initiating sexuality education, priya, samantha, and stacey collectively advocated for commencing such education from grade seven (approximately 13 years old), albeit without inclusion of queer education. their reasoning stemmed from personal exposure to sexuality education at that age and the perceived necessity of imparting lessons on ‘the importance of reputation and the element of respect associated with sex’ (23 years old, female, teaching grades 8 and 12). notably, these justifications were not grounded in objective foundational subject knowledge. moreover, there is a tendency to allocate more instructional time to topics that are subject to examination, as noted by depalma and francis (2014), with sexuality education not falling within this category. each participant expressed, in their own manner, the non-examinable nature of sexuality education. through the lens of prioritising examinable topics, educators are presented with the opportunity to avoid sexuality and queer education under the guise of prioritising students’ academic progression and success. these narratives highlight the nuances and complexities of providing sexuality education and education on queer identities, which are often explored separately in research on lo educators. in summary, various factors serve as avenues to evade discussions on sexuality education and subsequently queer identities. driven by personal religious convictions, the deferral of sexuality education impedes educators’ ability to fulfil their professional roles. the subjective view of age-appropriateness is utilised to further reinforce religious convictions. moreover, the lack of foundational subject knowledge leads to the exercise of individual discretion and prioritisation of examinable topics, thereby providing additional leeway to avoid addressing the subject altogether. conclusion south africa’s constitution and educational policies acknowledge the intersection of religion and education, granting educators the autonomy to decide how to approach sexuality education and discussions on queer identities. however, this discretion can sometimes lead to the avoidance of providing comprehensive and affirmative education. the study findings revealed a tension between religious beliefs, subjective perceptions of age-appropriateness, and the fulfilment of professional obligations among educators. clear guidelines are needed to define age-appropriate sexuality education content to ensure educators fulfil their duties objectively. furthermore, educators lacking foundational knowledge in lo may make biased decisions regarding the provision of sexuality education. the non-examinable nature of sexuality education may also lead to selective discussions and perpetuate hegemonic narratives of heteronormativity and cisnormativity rooted in universalised christian values. these contestations between religious and professional values can hinder students’ access to care and support, potentially exacerbating unsafe school environments for queer students. it is crucial to examine how educators’ religious biases can be addressed to promote affirmative and protective narratives of queer identities while adhering to constitutional and ncs objectives of human rights, inclusion, and diversity. the discrepancy between policy and practice underscores the need for further interrogation and alignment to ensure equitable educational outcomes for all students. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the educators for participating in the research and sharing their personal reflections to help complete the study and write this article. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions j.r. is the sole author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study is available from the author, j.r., on reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. the article does not necessarily reflect 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(2018). international technical guidance on sexuality education: an evidence-informed approach. author. wilmot, m., & naidoo, d. (2018). entrenching heterosexuality through language in south african life orientation (lo) textbooks. perspectives in education, 35, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593x/pie.v35i1.1 abstract introduction theoretical framework methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthea h.m. jacobs dean’s office, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa lucretia z. valentine department of industrial and systems engineering, faculty of engineering and the built environment, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa citation jacobs, a.h.m., & valentine, l.z. (2025). enhancing self-confidence as female academics through sharing experiences. african journal of career development, 7(1), a183. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.183 original research enhancing self-confidence as female academics through sharing experiences anthea h.m. jacobs, lucretia z. valentine received: 18 july 2025; accepted: 18 sept. 2025; published: 08 dec. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the authors. licensee: aosis. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract background: in higher education (he), female academics frequently experience self-doubt, imposter syndrome and marginalisation, which can negatively impact their self-confidence. these challenges are intensified by systemic gender biases and exclusionary institutional cultures. objectives: this study explores how two female academics situated within the south african he context reclaimed their self-confidence through participation in an informal community of practice (cop). it examines how relational and reflective support can contribute to academic identity formation and professional growth. methods: using collaborative autoethnography (cae), the authors reflected on their lived experiences of navigating academic spaces. as both participants and co-researchers, they drew on personal narratives to explore the intersections of career confidence, institutional culture and gendered experiences. framed by moon’s theory of academic assertiveness, feminist voice theory and feminist praxis, the authors employed thematic analysis to identify and interpret key patterns within their reflections. results: the study revealed five interrelated themes: (1) gendered barriers and structural inequity, (2) emotional toll and loss of confidence, (3) disrupted career trajectories, (4) the transformative potential of shared vulnerability and (5) the empowering role of a cop. informal peer support was found to be a powerful mechanism for enhancing confidence and fostering resilience. conclusion: self-confidence in academia is not a given but is shaped by institutional contexts and interpersonal support. while structural reforms are essential, grassroot communities of practice offer meaningful, affirming spaces for career development and self-empowerment. contribution: this study highlights how informal, reflective partnerships can serve as tools for building self-confidence among female academics, offering valuable insights for career development, mentorship and institutional transformation. keywords: self-confidence; female academics; collaborative autoethnography; communities of practice; imposter syndrome. introduction academia is a competitive environment that remains male dominated and marked by gender bias (onyegeme-okerenta, 2022). few women occupy top positions in universities – not because of a lack of competence or qualifications, but because many struggle with low self-confidence and have internalised the belief that academia is a male space. this lack of self-belief affects various aspects of women’s professional lives and can take a toll on their emotional well-being (herbst, 2020). some female academics avoid publishing or presenting their work out of fear of judgement or rejection, often rooted in perceived or imagined responses from others (onyegeme-okerenta, 2022). imposter syndrome further compounds these challenges. it refers to ‘persistent feelings of inadequacy despite evidence of competence’ (brevata et al., 2019, p. x). in this article, we reflect on our experiences of becoming aware of these internalised doubts. uncertainty in the academic workplace can fuel stress and anxiety, particularly for female academics navigating gendered expectations, caregiving responsibilities and the pressure to earn recognition in a male-centric environment. these challenges can erode self-confidence and hinder a sense of belonging. as askins and blazek (2016) argue, emotions in academia matter and strategies are needed to navigate such spaces. one such strategy is cultivating supportive communities of practice (cops) that enable shared reflection and growth. in this collaborative autoethnography (cae), we reflect on our experiences of navigating uncertain and demanding higher education (he) spaces. we questioned whether our feelings of inadequacy and lack of confidence stemmed from impostor syndrome despite our qualifications and efforts. through informal, early-morning conversations during training runs, we gradually opened up about our professional challenges. these spontaneous exchanges evolved into a small, supportive cop. this space allowed us to share ideas and affirm our identities. while cops are increasingly common in academia, few studies have explored their impact on the confidence of female academics. our organically formed peer relationship, rooted in mutual care and shared purpose, became a site for connection, growth and self-empowerment. this reflective article is guided by the question: how do we, as two female academics, navigate our professional journeys in he? we explore how building a collaborative network, sharing ideas and experiences and fostering a supportive relationship within a safe and inclusive environment contributed to enhancing our self-confidence as female academics. given the deeply personal nature of this inquiry, we provide a brief overview of our academic roles and lived experiences that underpin our reflections. these contexts shaped our perspectives and highlight why this topic resonates with both of us. author 1 holds master’s and phd degrees in education and has worked across the basic, further and he sectors. currently a learning and teaching (l&t) specialist at a south african university, her role centres on supporting academics in their learning, teaching and assessment practices. her professional journey has been shaped by persistent gender-based challenges, including subtle bias and systemic exclusion. these experiences often led to self-doubt and a sense of invisibility. however, finding a supportive cop offered renewed confidence in her work. author 2 is programme coordinator for quality in the department of industrial and systems engineering at another south african institution. with a background in food technology and a phd in commerce and administration, she brings over a decade of industry experience to academia. her transition into he, particularly within a faculty dominated by engineers, has been marked by steep learning curves and self-doubt. in finding a trusted cop, she discovered an affirming space for rebuilding confidence as a female academic navigating complex institutional terrain. before proceeding, we introduce the theoretical framework that underpins our reflections. in what follows, we draw on key constructs and gendered dimensions related to being a female academic in he that shaped our experiences. theoretical framework this study draws on three intersecting lenses: moon’s theory of academic assertiveness, feminist voice theory and feminist praxis. these lenses are used to explore how two female academics navigate voice, confidence and belonging in south african he. moon’s (2009) theory of academic assertiveness positions assertiveness as a vital skill for success in academia, particularly for those who feel marginalised or lack confidence. moon argues that assertiveness enables individuals to express themselves clearly and confidently. this theory helps explain how our peer support relationship allowed us to challenge internalised self-doubt and develop our academic voices through mutual affirmation. feminist voice theory, grounded in the work of gilligan (2023) and expanded by mitchell (2017), affirms the legitimacy of personal voice and subjectivity. it resists the erasure of identity and instead embraces presence, emotion and relational knowing. mccall (2021) emphasises the role of feminist voices in transforming academia by challenging hegemonic norms and affirming alternative ways of knowing. from an african perspective, scholars such as mama (2019), gouws (2012) and adom-aboagye and burnett (2019) highlight the structural and historical challenges faced by women in academic and leadership spaces, calling for feminist solidarity and reimagined inclusive forms of leadership and scholarship. in line with feminist voice theory, onyegeme-okerenta (2022) highlights how women in academia often struggle with internalised self-doubt and diminished self-confidence, shaped by systemic gendered dynamics that marginalise their contributions. her arguments reinforce the importance of fostering spaces where women’s voices are affirmed and recognised as legitimate knowledge. these perspectives affirm our choice to centre our personal narratives as valid scholarly contributions. according to the united nations girls’ education initiative (n.d.), feminist praxis links theory and action by advocating for relational, transformative and justice-oriented engagement. defined as ‘the practice of feminist theory’, it emphasises acting against oppression through dialogue, solidarity and community. as bell hooks (2004) reminds us, supportive communities sustain hope and healing. our small cop embodied this ethos, offering a space where we could share vulnerabilities without judgement, resist isolation and rebuild our confidence. this relational approach reflects feminist praxis in action, where voice and presence are reclaimed not individually but collectively. even though there have been several encouraging developments aimed at challenging the perception that women in he should perform softer, hospitality-like roles, female academics continue to report a range of persistent challenges. at the same time, faculty requirements for promotion have increased (mason, 2020), often disproportionately impacting women, particularly those balancing l&t, research and care responsibilities. these conditions suggest that despite policy advancements, the structural and cultural barriers facing female academics remain deeply embedded. with these conceptual foundations in place, we now turn to the methodological approach that enabled us to make sense of our experiences. together, the theoretical strands provide a multilayered lens to understand how self-confidence, academic assertiveness and feminist resistance are cultivated within the community and through voice. methodology in this section, we outline our methodological approach, provide an overview of the ethical considerations that shaped our process and present the thematic insights that emerged from our collaborative reflections. throughout the article, we aim to preserve the distinctiveness of our voices while embracing the relational nature of our shared reflections. collaborative autoethnography here we explain our cae approach. our data are centred around our own reflections of our academic journeys, with our data analysis being thematic. we employed cae as it offers a variety of modes of engaging with our two selves (anderson & glass-coffin, 2013). campbell (2016, p. 95) describes this as a form of ‘self-narrative that places the self within a social context’. collaborative autoethnography enabled us to combine our reflections with our experiences and how they relate to broader cultural and social contexts. collaborative autoethnography is a tool to ‘break through the dominant representations of professional practice, creating new knowledges’ (denshire, 2014, p. 838) and examine the complexities of he (ed. barkhuizen, 2017). collaborative autoethnography allowed for a more nuanced understanding of shared experiences. the strengths of using cae in research include ‘self-reflexivity associated with autobiography, cultural interpretation associated with ethnography, and multi-subjectivity associated with collaboration’ (chang et al., 2013, p. 17). collaborative autoethnography allowed for reflexivity of how we negotiate our roles within our universities to contribute towards driving sustainable and transformative l&t. we tell our stories of real experiences because we believe in the power of narrative as a form of meaning-making. sole and wilson (2002) confirm that sharing experiences through stories is a powerful way to exchange and consolidate knowledge. the sharing of experiences through narratives builds trust and generates emotional connections. for us, storytelling is not only a method of personal reflection but also a valuable scholarly practice that enables the surfacing of hidden struggles. in sharing our experiences, we invite others to see themselves in our stories, to question dominant norms and to co-create more inclusive and empathetic academic spaces. that is why we believe it is not only useful but also necessary. our stories involved reflection via journaling. as participants in the he l&t fraternity, it is imperative to be reflective practitioners. mcgregor (2011, p. 4) refers to dewey, reminding us of the power of reflective practice, and states that ‘being reflective requires active consideration about actions and their consequences’. we thus engaged in reflective conversations during which we reflected on our own individual experiences while navigating our respective he spaces. reflection was therefore key in the data collection process. it presented us with an opportunity to examine and verbalise our experiences (given, 2008, p. 747), which facilitated our understanding thereof. reflecting on our personal experience and issues of the workspace requires that we be critical and embrace the opportunity to scrutinise the issues that inform our research space. given (2008, p. 50) reminds us that the researchers’ individual experiences are primarily important if one wants to illuminate the experiences under study. as both co-researchers and participants, we are aware that our positionalities shape the stories we tell. our reflections are grounded in our lived experiences of navigating gendered, hierarchical and often exclusionary institutional spaces. while this insider perspective enriches the authenticity of the narrative, we acknowledge the risk of reflexive bias. throughout the writing process, we engaged in critical dialogue with one another to interrogate our assumptions, recognise moments of personal bias and remain open to alternate interpretations. guided by the feminist voice theory, we also sought to preserve the distinctiveness of our voices, honouring our different institutional roles. rather than striving for objectivity, we embrace reflexivity as a strength of this research methodology, understanding that our subjectivities are not limitations but sources of insight into the complex realities of academic life. this transparency allows us to honour both the rigour and the vulnerability that cae demands. while our collaboration was rooted in mutual respect and trust, we remained mindful of the power dynamics shaped by our differing institutional roles and disciplinary contexts. author 1 brought experience in reflective pedagogical frameworks, while author 2 navigated a more traditional, male-dominated academic environment. these positional differences influenced how we engaged in dialogue and interpreted our experiences. rather than ignoring the asymmetries, we embraced reflexivity and care, consciously creating space for both voices to be valued. we employed thematic analysis to analyse our reflections. following braun and clarke (2006), we began by immersing ourselves in our self-narratives, reading and re-reading them to gain familiarity with the content. we then manually segmented the data into meaningful units and generated initial codes. through iterative discussion and reflection, we identified patterns that we grouped into preliminary themes. these themes were refined through cycles of comparison, merging and differentiation, ultimately leading to a final set that captured the emotional, professional and relational dimensions of our shared experience. this method allowed us to move beyond surface-level descriptions towards a deeper understanding of our professional journeys. by thematising our experiences, we were able to interpret how broader issues such as self-confidence, academic identity and vulnerability manifested in our everyday lives, and how peer support shaped our sense of agency within he. to enhance the trustworthiness of our interpretations, author 1 shared an early draft of the article with a critical friend with scholarly expertise in gender equality and feminist theory. this external review served as a form of peer debriefing and offered constructive feedback on our thematic interpretations. this helped us to guard against potential blind spots and over-identification with the data. ethical considerations in autoethnographic research, ethical considerations primarily concern the researcher’s self-care and the protection of any individuals who may be implicated in the researcher’s personal narratives (tolich, 2010). this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects (bochner & ellis, 2016). given the deeply personal and reflective nature of this cae, ethical considerations were central to our research process. the use of self-narratives required a careful engagement with emotional risk. at every stage of our engagement, we engaged in dialogue to ensure mutual agreement on what would be disclosed. this iterative consent process is a key ethical strategy in cae where power is shared and trust is foundational (chang et al., 2013). results our cae reflections surfaced a range of resonant themes. what follows are the themes that emerged from our stories, with each section presenting a key idea supported by narrative excerpts and scholarly literature. gendered barriers and structural inequity one of the most prominent themes emerging from both narratives is the persistent presence of structural gender inequality. despite notable academic achievements, recognition and career advancement often remain elusive, reflecting how entrenched institutional norms continue to disadvantage women in academia. both narratives highlight the structural and gendered barriers women face in academia: ‘it often seems that promotions are reserved for male colleagues, regardless of comparable or even superior qualifications and achievements on my part.’ (author 1, learning and teaching specialist, female) the other expressed a similar systemic challenge when reflecting: ‘the bar is forever raised and in some weird way, one becomes entrapped.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) these statements reflect the frustration of operating in systems that obscure or deny merit-based progression, particularly for women. these experiences resonate with the feminist voice theory, which critiques how institutional cultures marginalise women’s narratives and devalue relational and experiential forms of knowing (mitchell, 2017; mccall, 2021). they also highlight how gendered power dynamics erode academic assertiveness (moon, 2009), often leading to self-doubt, despite high achievement. this raises the question: how do we navigate professional pathways shaped by exclusionary norms? clark et al. (2024) suggest that by exposing how meritocracy discourse maintains its grip, institutions can begin to redefine what is considered ‘merit-worthy’. such redefinition opens the door to recognising structural inequalities and reimagining more equitable academic cultures. loss of confidence and emotional toll another thread running through our stories is the toll that systemic barriers and repeated setbacks take on one’s confidence and emotional well-being. our accounts reveal the inner struggle of maintaining professional momentum amid cumulative disappointments and a constant sense of precarity. these experiences mirror what moon (2009) identifies as the erosion of academic assertiveness in unsupportive environments, where women often internalise systemic exclusion as personal inadequacy. a deep sense of emotional exhaustion, self-doubt and disappointment runs through both stories: ‘i have always been acutely aware of my lack of self-confidence and assertiveness, fanning a sense of uncertainty in my professional life.’ (author 1, learning and teaching specialist, female) ‘without realising it, the challenges i faced gradually depleted my energy and optimism. this was a title that i was not familiar with, and this resulted in doing some introspection. i had several sleepless nights and finally concluded, that i needed to look out for the sustainability of the department.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) the emotional and psychological cost of navigating academic spaces as a woman, particularly under pressure to constantly prove oneself, is evident. feminist voice theory reminds us that these emotional responses are not merely personal struggles, but reflections of a broader academic culture that devalues women’s ways of knowing, being and leading (mitchell, 2017; mccall, 2021). at this point, we return to cae as our methodology. chang (2008) reminds us that it provides a platform for self-transformation that may bring healing from emotional scars of the past. this confirms our choice of methodology. autoethnography best allowed us to reveal our exclusionary experiences. this method proved to be empowering and liberating. the role of informal peer support or community of practice a strong theme of support through informal networks and peer collaboration is presented as a coping and empowering strategy: ‘we created our own unique network, a space where we could share ideas, reflect on our experiences, and actively “help each other up …” engaging in this network not only served as a method of self-care but also deepened our practice of reflection within a small cop.’ (author 1, learning and teaching specialist, female) amid several challenges, a significant source of strength came from our informal peer support network. our small, organic cop helped us to reframe our experiences, affirm one another’s journeys and rebuild confidence. this form of mutual support aligns with feminist praxis, which emphasises collective healing and action as central to challenging systemic inequities (hooks, 2014; united nations girls’ education initiative [ungei], 2022). wenger (1998) outlined several features of a cop with which we identify. we jointly navigate our l&t journeys and, through discussion, manage to establish a shared understanding of common ground and context. in this way, our cop acted as a counter-space that feminist voice scholars call an ‘affirming epistemic space’ where subjective, relational and vulnerable forms of knowing are validated (mccall, 2021; mitchell, 2017). we realised that our cop is a powerful learning tool. we therefore concur with stark and smith that a cop provides a valuable opportunity for professional learning independent from formal learning programmes (stark & smith, 2016). having a network that understands your situation is great for mutual support. moon’s (2009) theory reminds us that such networks can scaffold academic assertiveness by building confidence, reinforcing voice and resisting self-silencing. our cop helped us to share perspectives, engage in conversations and question worldviews. through a feminist praxis lens, we recognise this belonging not only as emotional support but also as an act of resistance in reclaiming space in institutions where we often feel marginalised. career trajectories and disrupted aspirations our stories also highlight the tension between carefully planned academic trajectories and the disruptive realities of institutional processes. unexpected detours, personal hardships and structural limitations reshaped what once felt like a clear pathway to success. this disruption reflects a misalignment between institutional expectations and the lived realities of female academics, often shaped by care responsibilities, precarity and exclusion from male-dominated networks. both stories present a tension between planned career trajectories and the realities of institutional processes, unexpected disruptions and personal loss: ‘i was very optimistic and still riding the phd wave … reflecting on this tumultuous journey, i realised how it affected my confidence.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) later, they lament: ‘what more does one have to do? … the meticulously planned career trajectory seems to be unrealistic.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) these insights reveal how institutional cultures can derail even the most strategically planned academic paths, and this is confirmed in the literature (barnes et al., 2021). an institutional culture in support of academic career pathing includes an appreciation of equity and inclusion, as well as an ethic of care and collaboration. moon’s (2009) theory of academic assertiveness helps us understand how these repeated disruptions can erode confidence, especially for women navigating these unspoken expectations. feminist praxis invites institutional leaders to critically reflect on the disconnect between policy and lived experience and to centre care, recognition and equity in career development frameworks. leaders and other role players in he need to understand that this kind of institutional culture is needed to enable the career progression and appreciation of all academic staff. vulnerability as strength and reflective growth both authors come to view vulnerability not as weakness but as a gateway to growth, community and perspective. one drew on theory: ‘our shared vulnerability … affirmed the insights of keet et al. (2009) … a pedagogy of vulnerability can foster meaningful growth.’ (author 1, learning and teaching specialist, female) the other reflected on emotional turmoil: ‘i had several “out of body experiences” … this allowed me to get another perspective.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) this theme reinforces the transformative power of reflection and critical engagement with difficult experiences. reflection often becomes enriched when situated within a social context (giddens, 1990). this was exactly our experience. such vulnerability aligns with feminist praxis, where sharing personal experience becomes an act of collective healing (hooks, 2014). it also echoes feminist voice theory, which values subjectivity and personal voice (mitchell, 2017). while vulnerability is often seen as a weakness in professional settings, our experiences suggest otherwise. leaning into our vulnerability enabled critical self-reflection and deeper connections, transforming uncertainty into an opportunity for growth in our academic practice. recognition, validation and the elusiveness of success finally, our narratives foreground the often-discouraging pursuit of recognition within the academy. even when institutional requirements are met or exceeded, recognition is not guaranteed. this raises critical questions about how success is measured and whose contributions are truly valued. despite significant achievements (phds, supervision, leadership roles), we both struggle to attain recognition through formal promotion processes: ‘despite meeting and exceeding the formal criteria for career progression, my professional growth has been hindered …’ (author 1, learning and teaching specialist, female) ‘i was ready … i had the feedback … i had a phd … i was acting hod … and i had not met the requirements.’ (author 2, programme coordinator, female) this raises questions about how success is defined, recognised and validated in academic institutions. it resonates with buckley et al. (2000), who found that unless promotion criteria and reward structures recognise the outstanding contributions of all faculty, it is likely that there will be an imbalance in the proportion of female faculty who reach the highest ranks and assume leadership roles. discussion our cae reflections illuminate the complex interplay between gendered structural challenges, emotional toll and the potential for growth and empowerment through peer support and critical self-reflection. these findings resonate with literature on women’s experiences in academia and affirm the significance of community, dialogue and reflexivity in navigating these challenges. the themes emerging from our stories – gendered barriers, lack of recognition, emotional exhaustion, disrupted trajectories and the healing power of connection – echo long-standing concerns in the literature on gender and academia. studies by buckley et al. (2000) and clarke et al. (2024) highlight how promotion systems and notions of merit often disadvantage women, despite their equal or greater contributions. similarly, barnes et al. (2021) report on the ways in which institutional cultures can stifle the career progression of female academics. our narratives offer lived testimony to these findings, contextualising them within the south african he landscape and deepening their emotional and relational dimensions. our experiences affirm the importance of institutional cultures that prioritise equity, care and recognition. for university leadership, this calls for an intentional commitment to fostering inclusive academic environments where diverse identities and voices are valued. leaders should model and support equity-driven practices that challenge traditional, often masculinised, definitions of academic success. policy must go beyond compliance to focus on implementing tangible support structures such as mentorship programmes, reflective spaces and sustained cops that directly address the emotional and professional well-being of female academics. these mechanisms can mitigate the effects of imposter syndrome, particularly in male-dominated environments (heffernan, 2020; nwaichi, 2022; onyegeme-okerenta, 2022). as our journeys show, even informal peer support can have profound effects on confidence, motivation and resilience. while our informal cop proved transformative, it is important to note that not all cops yield meaningful outcomes. pyrko et al. (2017) caution that without authentic mutual engagement and deep ‘thinking together’, cops risk becoming symbolic rather than impactful. this resonates with our experience where the depth of our reflective dialogue and shared vulnerability was the key. bicchi (2024) highlights how cops can fail when perceived value is lacking or outcomes are hard to quantify, affirming our recognition that informal growth is not always visible in institutional metrics. similarly, noar et al. (2023) warn against too much or too little structure. our cop flourished because it remained purpose-driven yet flexible, allowing space for challenge and growth. these critiques remind us that the true value of a cop lies in its relational depth, clarity of intention and commitment to mutual learning. institutional policies must therefore centre relationality, representation and psychological safety as key components of academic development and staff retention. this study demonstrates the power of cae not only as a research methodology but as a vehicle for transformation. it allowed us to reflect on our lived realities while coconstructing a shared understanding of our academic identities. as chang et al. (2013) and denshire (2014) suggest, cae foregrounds relational ethics, self-reflexivity and emotional authenticity. these dimensions are often marginalised in academic research. through this method, we reclaimed our voices and reimagined our professional worth. collaborative autoethnography thus emerges as a liberatory practice that can amplify under-represented voices and foster solidarity among academics navigating marginalised spaces. in sum, our discussion highlights both the entrenched gender inequities in academia and the possibilities for renewal through supportive relationships and reflective methodologies. our cop offered validation, encouragement and a space for professional reimagining. in telling our stories, we hope to contribute to broader dialogues on how he can become more equitable and empowering, especially for women whose confidence has been eroded by the very systems they work so hard to serve. conclusion this article set out to explore how two female academics, navigating complex and often inequitable he environments, were able to reclaim and enhance their self-confidence through critical reflection and the nurturing power of a small cop. our reflections affirm that self-confidence is not a fixed trait but a dynamic and relational construct. it is constantly shaped by institutional culture, power structures and our interactions with others. through our informal yet intentional engagements, we found a space where vulnerability was not a weakness but a catalyst for growth, connection and empowerment. the act of co-authoring this article became a profound and healing journey. it allowed us to transform our feelings of isolation and inadequacy into a sense of purpose and belonging. we moved from silence to voice, from self-doubt to self-recognition. in sharing our stories, we hope to speak to others who may be quietly grappling with similar challenges, such as those questioning their worth in academic spaces that often overlook, marginalise or undervalue their contributions. we conclude that while individual resilience is important, it cannot replace the urgent need for structural change. if he institutions are to truly foster the confidence and career progression of female academics, they should dismantle exclusionary norms and practices and intentionally cultivate inclusive cultures that affirm diverse ways of knowing, being and leading. until then, cops, however small or informal, remain vital spaces of hope, healing and transformation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. credit authorship contribution anthea h.m. jacobs: conceptualisation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. lucretia z. valentine: conceptualisation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. all authors reviewed the article, contributed to the discussion of results, approved the final version for submission and publication and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings. funding information this study received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are not openly available as these are reflective and experiential accounts. no external datasets were used or generated for this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references adom-aboagye, y., & burnett, c. 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(1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. cambridge university press. ajcd_v5_i1_2023_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contentspage i of i table of contents original research internal career orientations guidance for emerging adults in a university of technology margaret m. ngope, melinde coetzee african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a75 | 19 may 2023 original research adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force emmanuel sithole, clever madimutsa, mulenga c. bwalya african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a67 | 24 may 2023 original research the positive mutually reinforcing dynamics of career-adaptive attributes in career human agency melinde coetzee, headman n. mbiko african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a71 | 11 september 2023 1 8 18 editorial gender diversity and sexual orientation in the south african workplace boitumelo m. diale, anthony brown, obakeng kagola african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a103 | 21 december 2023 original research intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals lindokuhle m. ubisi, wandile tsabedze, eduard fourie african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a81 | 22 august 2023 original research the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment rauna k. haitembu, emilia n. mbongo, anthony brown african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a94 | 23 august 2023 original research troubling gender norms: reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators vusi msiza, obakeng kagola african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a85 | 01 september 2023 62 65 70 78 reviewer acknowledgement african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a105 | 20 october 2023 109 vol 5, no 1 (2023) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research olympiad participation: problem-solving skills in mathematically gifted disadvantaged learners beccy stones, jacobus g. maree, joyce jordaan african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a97 | 07 november 2023 original research high school learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment sector itumeleng dube, sizile makola, pumeza saliwe, ramodungoane tabane african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a77 | 04 december 2023 case study morgan richard tsvangirai’s career development from a psychobiographical approach tinashe t. harry african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a101 | 07 november 2023 29 41 51 original research ‘are there gay men in the mines?’ towards unsettling the heteronormative male occupational culture in mining tshepo b. maake african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a80 | 06 september 2023 original research school principals’ responses in creating an inclusive schooling space for gender and sexual diverse learners henry j. nichols african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a95 | 16 october 2023 original research careership: the experiences of women in choosing career paths in tvet in south africa matimba g. nghonyama, lucky maluleke, tshidiso seitshiro african journal of career development | vol 5, no 1 | a84 | 16 october 2023 85 94 101 vol 5, no 1 (2023): topical collection: troubling normative constructions in careers vol 5, no 1 (2023) i abstract introduction conceptual framework aim specific objectives research methodology findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) emmanuel sithole department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia clever madimutsa department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia mulenga c. bwalya department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia citation sithole, e., madimutsa, c., & bwalya, m.c. (2023). adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. african journal of career development, 5(1), a67. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.67 original research adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force emmanuel sithole, clever madimutsa, mulenga c. bwalya received: 30 sept. 2022; accepted: 26 apr. 2023; published: 24 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: over time, the zambia defence force adjusted the career progression instructions to ensure systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers. however, the amendments did not yield the intended results. objectives: the study examines the adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing the promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. method: this study employed a mixed-method research design which specifically applied convergent parallel design involving qualitative and quantitative research approaches. a total of 209 commissioned officers were selected using a multi-stage sampling method. purposive sampling was used to select 12 brigadier generals, four from each service. questionnaires and an interview guide were used to collect data from commissioned officers and key informants, respectively. statistical package for social sciences and microsoft excel were used to analyse quantitative data, while the content and thematic analysis were used to analyse qualitative data. results: most commissioned officers (84.2%) revealed that they were aware of the career progression instructions that were needed to guide their career path in the zambia defence force. the majority of commissioned officers, 122, expressive of 58.3%, revealed that career progression instructions did not foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. furthermore, 112 commissioned officers, signifying 54.1%, indicated that their promotions were not timely. conclusion: the career progression instructions inadequately facilitated the career progression of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. contribution: the inadequacy of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force was documented in this article. keywords: career progression instruction; promotion; statistical package for social sciences; effectiveness; zambia defence force; services. introduction worldwide, defence forces face challenges in identifying factors that ensure their commissioned officers systematically and timely rise in ranks. the career progression instructions are usually at the core to ensure that commissioned officers steadily rise in ranks. generally, these ranks and a commission are held by military officers in a defence force and proceed as follows: second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general and field marshal (guido, 1984). since time immemorial, military ranks have been a system of hierarchical relationships in the defence forces, and they determine, among others, dominance, authority, roles and responsibilities in a military hierarchy (mattila et al., 2017). these ranks define the career progression of commissioned officers as guided by career progression instructions. ong’amo (2012) argued that promotion is a very attractive reward with several incentives, such as increased pay. the term ‘career’ refers to a ‘succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which persons move in an ordered sequence’ (wilensky, 1961, p. 523). furthermore, morgan (1986) argued that each rank must have specific requirements and a salary and conditions to be earned and enjoyed, respectively. these prerequisites determine a career path for commissioned officers (cao & thomas, 2013). however, before these ranks come into effect, myriad factors influence their attainment (mullins, 2010). for instance, koontz (1993) cited the length of service as influencing employee promotion in organisations, while other related factors are enshrined in the career progression instructions. therefore, bellany (1995) argued that there was a need to evenly apply the instructions for the benefit of all concerned. in the zambia defence force, commissioned officers have made several adjustments to the career progression instructions. however, the system continues to be characterised by unpredictable and unsystematic promotions of commissioned officers. reports indicate that, on average, about 2% of commissioned officers retire as majors after serving for about 30 years (sibamba, 2010). despite well-outlined prerequisites for promotion, the system continues to be associated with the selective application of career progression instructions following known and unknown factors when promoting commissioned officers. most commissioned officers are promoted three times in 30 years from second lieutenant to lieutenant, lieutenant to captain and captain to major. nonetheless, some commissioned officers rise very fast against the number of years served in the services. such officers quickly climb the ladder without experience, skills and competence. for instance, some commissioned officers attain the rank of lieutenant colonel after serving for 12 years only. they even bypass those who joined the service earlier (wiernek, 2003). furthermore, patton and mcmahon (2006) argued that a career must be understood as unfolding in a series of developmental stages. each stage must be characterised by specific tasks and prerequisites to be attained to advance to another stage. ideally, the adjustments to the career progression instructions were expected to resolve the problems mentioned above by earnestly following the instructions. however, this is not the case. therefore, this situation raises questions regarding the adequacy of career progression instructions that influence career progression for commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. conceptual framework the conceptual framework in figure 1 outlines the career progression of a zambian citizen joining the zambia defence force. this conceptual framework was informed by the self-concept theory of career development (super, 1957, 1963, 1990). the assumption based on this theory is that, according to wilensky, (1961, p. 523), a career involves a ‘succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which persons move in an ordered, more-or-less predictable sequence’. this is supported by weinert (2001), who revealed that a career is a pattern of work experiences comprising a greater portion of one’s life and relates to several phases or stages reflecting the transition from one stage of life to the next. furthermore, schreuder and coetzee (2006) postulate that a career consists of different stages. the individual is faced with different issues during each stage. additionally, career progression entails the management of a person’s growth and development in his or her working life (gyansah & guantai, 2018). in this regard, career progression instructions are expected to manage commissioned officers’ promotions at every stage. figure 1: diagrammatic layout of the conceptual framework. furthermore, stage one in figure 1 involved undergoing a young officer’s course to be eligible for promotion examination (promex) in stage two. the clearance of promotion examinations paved the way for promotion from lieutenant to captain in stage three. in the same stage, a captain becomes eligible to go for junior command and staff course (jcsc). the successful completion of jcsc made commissioned officers sit for promex (in stage four), which, when once cleared, the commissioned officers earned a major’s rank. the eligibility for promotion from major to lieutenant colonel was successfully undergoing senior command and staff course (scsc). despite being in need of a promotion, commissioned officers sometimes fail to pass a course or promotion examination. consequently, they anxiously wait for an opportunity. as a result, at whatever stage, they become dissatisfied with their work. however, once a course or promex opportunity dawns, they are promoted. there was a need for career progression instructions to ensure that the promotion desires of commissioned officers were timely met. aim the study examines the adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing the promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. specific objectives to examine the levels of awareness among commissioned officers of the availability of their career progression instructions. to analyse how effective career progression instructions fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. to establish career progression instructions’ ability to ensure timely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. research methodology research design in this study, a mixed-method research design was adopted. this was a convergent parallel design which combined tenets of qualitative and quantitative approaches employed in the process of collecting and analysing data (creswell & plano clark, 2011). nachmias (1976) posits that mixed methods research design involved the collection of data from open-ended, as well as closed-ended questions. the qualitative approach focused on the collection of non-numerical data, while the quantitative approach focused on the collection of numerical data and statistical analysis in order to explain, control or predict phenomena of interest (gay & airasian, 2000). study setting this research focused on the three zambia defence force services: the zambia army, the zambia air force and the zambia national service. they fall under the zambia defence force and their formations, units and departments spread across the country. the zambia defence force was chosen because it was an employer of the commissioned officers and the implementer of the career progression instructions. the research covered the whole country because the subjects from the three services were spread across the country in the 10 provinces of zambia. study population and sample size the target population constituted all commissioned officers from the zambia defence force. the zambia defence force employed a total of 2200 commissioned officers from the three services broken down as follows: (1) zambia army, 1000 (zambia army, 2019), (2) zambia air force 700 (zambia air force, 2019) and (3) zambia national service (2019) 500 commissioned officers. this study’s total sample size was 221 respondents, including 12 key informants. the sample size was calculated from the target population using the formula postulated by yamane (1967). the planning parameters used were a 95% confidence level, a maximum variability level, p = 0.5 and the desired level of precision of ±10%: in the equation, n represents sample size, n depicts the population size and e is the desired level of precision. the n is 2200, the target population of commissioned officers from the zambia defence force across the 10 provinces found in zambia: this sample size formula provided the number of responses which is 186, that needed to be obtained. however, israel (1992) argued that a good number of researchers usually add 10% to cater for the persons that the researcher cannot contact. additionally, non-responses are usually compensated by increasing the sample size by 30%. the researcher added 15% (34) to reach the 220 sample size in this research. this was meant to cater for a minimum of 10% of the target populations of the three services. the initially planned sample size was 220 subjects and 12 key informants from the three services. however, because of the problem of non-responses, the final sample size was reduced to 209 subjects. hence, the total was 221 respondents, including 12 key informants. therefore, the sample size was significantly larger than the number required for this desired level of confidence and precision. sampling strategy this study applied various sampling methods that primarily fall into probability and non-probability. in the probability method, the individuals had an equal chance of being part of the sample. these methods are explained below. selection of key informants purposive sampling was employed to select heads of units responsible for formulating and implementing the career progression instructions. purposive sampling is a non-random method of data collection (zhi, 2014). in this technique, the researcher identified and selected proficient and well-informed individuals on the social phenomenon under study. additionally, purposive sampling involved identifying individuals with the knowledge, experience and ability to articulate and express the subject matter in a reflective manner (bernard, 2002). hence, 12 commissioned officers were selected from the three services: the ministry of defence (three deputy secretaries), training branch (three chiefs of training), administration branch (three chiefs of administration) and copperbelt command (brigade commander 3 infantry brigade, air officer commanding northern air operational command and provincial coordinator). selection of respondents the process of selecting participants in all three services, namely, zambia army, zambia air force and zambia national service was guided by a multi-stage sampling method. different sampling methods were employed at each stage (nafiu et al., 2013). this involved narrowing the scope from the multitude of commissioned officers in each service to arrive at specific ones who filled in the questionnaire. the first stage was cluster sampling, primarily dividing the target population geographically into distinct and identifiable units. because the target population was commissioned officers across the country, these clusters were based on the existing provinces. consequently, there were 10 sampling units. the second stage was identifying and generating all workplaces for the commissioned officers across the country from the 10 clusters. after that, the required number of units were randomly selected. each workplace in the provinces and each member of the study population had an equal chance of being selected. the probability of a member of the population being selected was not affected by the selection of other members (cohen et al., 2000). the third stage used systematic random sampling to select the commissioned officers from the randomly selected units, bases, branches, directorates, formations and commands across the 10 provinces. the starting point was identified. after that, every kth element was selected. this depended on the population of the selected categories or camps. for instance, the commissioned officers’ population was established to select a sample of two respondents from a zambia national service – chisamba camp. the sampling interval k using the formula k = n/n, was used. n was the total number of officers while n was the sample size; therefore, k = 10/2 = 5. therefore, if the first randomly selected officer was two, the next was officer seven. every kth number was included in the sample up to the total number of respondents required in each category. from each camp across the country, offices occupied by those selected commissioned officers were identified. thereafter, a questionnaire was administered to the commissioned officers. after completion, questionnaires were placed in a box labelled ‘research’ which was centrally located in the registry. the same sampling procedures were applied in selecting respondents in all the services: (1) the zambia army, (2) zambia air force and (3) zambia national service. additionally, it involved selecting particular units by the researcher from the target population, for which the findings could be inferred to the population (gupta & gupta, 2013). firstly, the multi-stage sampling method was adopted because it worked well for studies that cover a wider geographical area where a complete list of population members was unavailable. this research looked at commissioned officers across zambia. secondly, this type was cost-effective and time-effective as it enabled the researcher to reduce the large population into manageable smaller or sub-groups. thirdly, these smaller groups subsequently gave the researcher the flexibility to select the sample carefully. fourthly, the various stages made primary data collection easy and simpler for the researcher. this directly resulted from gradually reducing a huge population into practicable smaller sub-groups. methods of data collection qualitative and quantitative data were collected. qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with key informants. pre-written questions in the interview guide guided this interview. these questions were in line with specific objectives. semi-structured interviews enabled the researcher to obtain detailed information while controlling the interview topic. quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire composed of a series of well-structured questions in line with the specific objectives. hence, empirical information from respondents on career progression instructions were gathered in an organised manner using a questionnaire. data analysis methods quantitative data were analysed using two computer software packages called statistical package for social sciences (spss) and microsoft excel. these software generated frequency figures, tables and graphs for the investigated variables. qualitative data, on the other hand, was analysed using content and thematic analysis. the researcher identified and noted specific phrases, words or concepts within the studied text and spoken words. thematic analysis was, therefore, more appropriate for analysing data, as the research aimed at attaining information to ascertain the relationship between themes. through this method, appropriate themes emerged. these included length of service, academic and non-academic factors that affected career progression. research ethics the researcher sought for authority to conduct the study which was granted by the commanders of the respective services. the anonymity of the respondents was ensured by not indicating their names on the questionnaire. confidentiality and anonymity were the two ethical concerns that were observed during the study. findings and discussion the findings were logically presented: (1) qualitative findings complemented quantitative findings and (2) vice-versa coupled with the literature that either supported the findings or not. awareness of the availability of career progression instructions the adjutant general (interview, 21 june 2021) and the chiefs of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the three services, that is, zambia army, zambia air force and zambia national service, respectively, indicated that career progression instructions were available in the three wings of the zambia defence force. however, in the interviews on 21 june 2021 and 28 june 2021, different names were used to refer to career progression policies or instructions, as indicated below: for the zambia army, staff duties (sd) instructions and adjutant general (ag) instructions were nomenclatures used to represent the career progression instruction. in contrast, the term used was administrative instructions for the zambia air force and zambia national service. these instructions prescribed the prerequisites to be met before commissioned officers were promoted and generally how the career progression of commissioned officers was supposed to be in the services. these instructions, generally called career progression instructions, clearly stipulated how commissioned officers were required to progress systematically from one rank to the other. for instance, in the zambia air force, after completing officer cadet training at zambia air force academy (zafa), a second lieutenant was eligible for promotion to full lieutenant after serving for 2 years. the commissioned officer needed to be medically fit for the branch and not facing disciplinary action. these instructions on the promotions of second lieutenant to full lieutenant were similar to the ones found in the zambia army and the zambia national service career progression instructions. like the services in the zambia defence force, other militaries in african countries use different names to mean career progression instructions. the namibia defence force had an instruction to guide the career progression of commissioned officers in the artillery corps called career development and progression policy (amakutuwa, 2011). in the slovenian army, it was called officer career development system (rijavec, 2013). although with different names, hoffman (2008) indicated it as manpower management officers assignment in the united states marine corps. in the nigeria army, it was named career management policy (abubakar, 2016). this shows that most defence and armed forces possessed policies or instructions that guided the career paths of commissioned officers, although with varying names. these career progression instructions were largely promulgated to the commissioned officers. despite the above assertions that career progression instructions were available in the services, the findings in table 1 reveal that a significant number of commissioned officers, 31, depicting 14.8%, were unaware of the career progression instructions that guided their career path in zambia defence force. although career progression is critical in the zambia defence force, many commissioned officers were left uninformed on the subject matter. this means there was a lack of sensitisation or education on the availability of these instructions. this situation left commissioned officers unaware of what they needed to do to be promoted. consequently, this gave rise to arbitrary decisions with regard to the promotion of commissioned officers. this lack of knowledge on commissioned officers’ promotion parameters implied that commissioned officers did not influence their career progression in the zambia defence force. this situation interrogates the adequacy and credibility of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. table 1: distribution of responses on the awareness of career progression instructions. the study further analysed the data on levels of awareness of the available career progression instructions by ranks. table 2 displays the findings in this regard: three brigadier generals, eight colonels, 44 lieutenant colonels, 50 majors, 54 captains and 19 lieutenants knew that career progression instructions guided their career progression. the findings revealed that the awareness levels increased as the commissioned officers ascended in ranks. this implies that their understanding of career progression broadened as commissioned officers ascended in ranks. the understanding of the career progression came with ranks attained by commissioned officers. table 2: distribution of responses on the levels of awareness of career progression instructions guiding the promotion of commissioned officers by rank. this finding is supported by data in figure 2, which shows that young officers were not aware of the availability of career progression instructions. this implies that access to information regarding career progression instruction was a preserve of senior officers in the zambia defence force. this means that junior commissioned officers were not sensitised on career progression instructions, hence, remained blank on the articles contained therein. furthermore, they did not know what was expected of them to be promoted. as a result, some commissioned officers did not influence their promotions because of a lack of knowledge on the prerequisites for promotion. the discrepancy between the rank held by the commissioned officer and the flow of needed information pointed to the inadequacy of the career progression instructions. figure 2: ranks structure against levels of awareness of the availability of career progression instructions for promotions of commissioned officers. furthermore, the 100% recorded by the brigadier generals indicated that higher ranks were well informed on what was expected of commissioned officers to be promoted, as depicted in figure 2. this was not the case with commissioned officers holding lower ranks. generally, there was a lack of exposure to the operations of the services concerning career progression once commissioned officers joined the services. specifically, newly commissioned officers were unaware of the career progression instructions that guided their career path. however, as they ascended in ranks, there was the acquisition of knowledge on the availability of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. although it occurred relatively late in their career, commissioned officers were enlightened on the prerequisites for promotions. consequently, commissioned officers influenced their career progression. these findings on career progression enlightenment moving in tandem with ranks attained are supported by pergamit and veum’s (1999) works. they argued that the more the number of commissioned officers was elevated in ranks, the better they understood the operations of the services as far as promotions were concerned. this was supported by ting (1997), who argued that the more civil servants were promoted, the more they understood the dynamics involved in the promotion. similarly, the majority of respondents from this research, on average, experienced a good number of promotions, bringing insight into the career path based on their experiences. additionally, the chief of training (interview, 21 june 2021) from the zambia army shared similar views on the relationship between the rising in ranks and the awareness of commissioned officers of the career progression instructions. he indicated that: [o]nce commissioned officers joined the zambia army, their view of the system was very narrow in depth and breadth. this was necessitated by the lack of exposure to how the zambia army operated. the small area of responsibility contributed to this narrow-mindedness of commissioned officers on career progression issues in the zambia army. the chief of training (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia air force further revealed that: junior commissioned officers did not know the instructions that guided their promotions because of the limited subject matter covered during the initial training. further, these commissioned officers had limited scope of the force at the time of entry, including the earlier years of their career in the zambia air force. the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service indicated that: the absence of an induction training cadre once commissioned officers joined the service contributed to the narrow scope of commissioned on several matters, including tenets that guided their career progression. additionally, the periodic indabas were insufficient to cover specific matters affecting commissioned officers, especially junior ones. career progression instructions’ ability in fostering systematic promotions table 3 shows that career progression instructions did not promote systematic promotions among commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. the majority of commissioned officers, 122 (87 and 35, expressive of 58.3%) out of 209, revealed that career progression instructions did not effectively, and very ineffectively, respectively, foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. a fraction of 41.7% pointed out that career progression instructions effectively facilitated systematic promotions among commissioned officers. the majority revealed that career progression instructions did not effectively foster the systematic promotion of commissioned officers. consequently, this resulted in irregular and uneven promotions among commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. this implies that the promotions of commissioned officers were not thorough and systematic. instead, they were marred by irregularities and a lack of outstanding and long-lasting specific plans or methods. table 3: distribution of the responses on the effectiveness of career progression instructions to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers in service. the failure of the career progression instructions to foster systematic promotion of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force was also observed and experienced by the deputy secretaries (interview, 11 may 2021) from the ministry of defence, who indicated that: although systematic promotions for commissioned officers were the sole purpose of the career progression instructions, these instructions were devoid of the mechanisms that ensured systematic promotions of commissioned officers. (deputy army secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) ideally, the career progression instruction was meant to ensure that commissioned officers systematically rose in ranks. however, in reality, commissioned officers were uncoordinatedly promoted. no known plan was employed when promoting commissioned officers. (deputy force secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) the career progression instruction did not provide substantial details on promotion examinations and prerequisite courses to be done by commissioned officers. consequently, this created chaos on the parameters to be followed to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. however, commissioned officers were required to go for courses, military and civilian. (deputy service secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) respondents and deputy secretaries revealed that career progression instructions failed to support commissioned officers’ systematic promotions. the adequacy of the career progression instructions was in jeopardy as they did not provide the parameters that effectively fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers. figure 3 shows that career progression instructions from the zambia army and the zambia national service did not promote systematic officer promotions. the majority of respondents, 65 (that is, 46 and 19), expressive of 70% from the zambia army, informed the study that generally, career progression instructions did not effectively foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. similar findings were revealed by respondents from the zambia national service, where the majority of commissioned officers, 31 (that is, 24 and 7), signifying 62% indicated the failure of the career progression instruction to foster systematic promotions. this implies that commissioned officers experienced uneven and uncoordinated promotions in the zambia army and the zambia national service. figure 3: distribution of responses on whether the career progression instructions effectively fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers in your service. on the contrary, figure 4 displays that the majority of commissioned officers, 40 (i.e. 14 and 26) representing 61% from the zambia air force, informed the study that career progression instruction fostered systematic promotions. this means that the zambia air force performed relatively well on this facet than the two ground services, that is, the zambia army and the zambia national service. this means that commissioned officers from the zambia air force had a fixed promotion system known and understood by commissioned officers. furthermore, commissioned offices were promoted when they met the prerequisites. additionally, the implication of this is that the two services were not keen on following and ensuring that the tenets that determined the career progression of commissioned officers were earnestly followed. consequently, there were unsystematic and unmethodical promotions of commissioned officers. this means that career progression instructions in the zambia army and the zambia national service failed to foster the systematic promotion of commissioned officers. figure 4: effectiveness of career progression instructions in fostering systematic promotions of commissioned officers in the services. in line with the findings from the zambia air force, burger (1979) found that systematic promotions of air force commissioned officers in the south african air force (saaf) were a direct result of a feasible career plan driven by good career progression instruction. a viable career plan was at play in ensuring the systematic career progression of commissioned officers in the saaf. the works of eck (2007) were similar to the findings from the zambia air force as they revealed that the officer management policy effectively promoted commissioned marine officers from major through to brigadier general’s ranks. hernandez (2011) argued that flexible implementation of career progression instructions influenced systematic promotions of employees. the career progression instructions, in either case, facilitated effective commissioned officers’ promotions in the reviewed institutions. the chief of training (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service supported this finding on the failure of the career progression instruction to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. he indicated that the career progression instruction in the zambia national service was not adequate to foster systematic career progression of commissioned officers. this was further supported by the chief of administration from the zambia army (interview, 21 june 2021), who revealed that career progression instruction in the zambia army did not cover all the needed details to foster systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers. the findings from the zambia army and the zambia national service were supported by the findings from the study done by gilroy (2002) on the same facet. the study was conducted on the active duty commissioned officers in the four branches of the united states of america’s department of defense (dod). the findings from the dod revealed that very few from the four branches experienced unsystematic promotions. the stagnation marred their promotions despite meeting the promotion strategies. timeliness of the promotions received by commissioned officers table 4 shows the timeliness of past commissioned officers’ promotions. out of 209 commissioned officers, 112, signifying 54.1%, indicated that their promotions were not timely. on the contrary, 95 commissioned officers expressive of 45.9% revealed that their promotions were timely, with 1% uncommitted. the majority of commissioned officers revealed that their previous promotions were not timely. therefore, this implied that commissioned officers in the zambia defence force had delayed or accelerated promotions. although not preview to the reasons for these scenarios, many factors were at play in either accelerated or delayed promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. generally, this presented faulty and inadequate career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. table 4: distribution of responses on the perception of the timeliness of the promotion in the zambia defence force. the experiences and observations of the deputy army secretary (interview, 11 may 2021) were in tandem with the above findings on the untimely promotions of commissioned officers. he revealed that: the career progression instructions were not fully implemented to ensure the timely promotions of commissioned officers. timely or untimely promotions came at the backdrop of benchmarks on timelines, which were absent in the career progression instructions in the zambia army. the deputy force secretary (interview, 11 may 2021) further revealed that: there was a lack of scheduled timings for the sitting of the defence council for the zambia army and the zambia air force and the promotion board for the zambia national service. this implied that commanders and the availability of the commander-in-chief largely determined the time for the promotions of commissioned officers. the system was centralised; hence, it usually negated career progression instructions. the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service revealed that: delayed promotions of some of the commissioned officers were a direct consequence of poor staff work by those staff officers mandated to timely submit the needed documents to support the promotions of commissioned officers. the career progression instruction was devoid of the dates for submissions of the needed documents to facilitate the promotions of commissioned officers. generally, the findings revealed that there were untimely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. similarly, the findings from smith’s (2019) research revealed that despite the us department of defense’s desire to ensure timely promotion opportunities for commissioned officers in all of the services, most of the promotions were not timely because of changes and delays in the authorisation. consequently, there were fluctuations in promotions to the next higher grade in both the time in service and time in grade for commissioned officers. the reviewed study revealed that bureaucracy was at play in these circumstances. figure 5 is a graphical depiction of the findings that shows the timeliness of promotions of commissioned officers in the services. the zambia air force had the most commissioned officers who revealed their timely promotions. this was contrary to the findings from commissioned officers of the two ground-based services, the zambia army and the zambia national service. this implies that some commissioned officers from the zambia air force were promoted based on the career progression schedule, unlike those from the zambia army and the zambia national service. figure 5: perceptions of the timeliness of the promotions by service. time commissioned officers waited before promotion the findings on how long commissioned officers had to wait before being promoted to their current ranks are displayed in table 5. the majority of respondents, 117, out of 209, expressive of 56.5%, revealed that they did not know how long they were expected to wait for them to be promoted. on the contrary, 90 commissioned officers signifying 43.5%, knew how long they were expected to wait before being promoted to their current rank. a significantly high number of commissioned officers did not know when they were supposed to be promoted. this implies that there were faulty channels of communication. alternatively, the career progression instructions did not explicitly state the period commissioned officers were expected to wait at every rank before being considered for the next promotion. it was unclear how long commissioned officers would have to wait before being promoted. generally, the deputy secretaries (interview, 11 may 2021) from the ministry of defence informed the study that it was very difficult for commissioned officers to know the time they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks because of a lack of details. table 5: distribution of responses on whether they knew how long they had to wait before being promoted to their current rank. the findings on the respective services on the period or time commissioned officers had to wait before being promoted are displayed in table 6. out of 64 respondents, 42, signifying 66% of commissioned officers from the zambia air force informed the study that they knew the period they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks. this implies objectivity, transparency and periodic exchange of information on promotions coupled with complete details enshrined in the career progression instruction regarding the period commissioned officers needed to wait before being promoted. this was supported by the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia air force, who revealed that commissioned officers generally knew the years or time when they were expected to wait before being promoted. there was a general understanding among commissioned officers of the time they needed to wait before being promoted. additionally, the air officer commanding (interview, 04 may 2021) amplified these findings when he revealed how individual commissioned officers progressed and provided a hint on how much time they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks. this implied that the career progression instruction did not spell out the timings; however, commissioned officers depended on gut feelings to know the timelines for their promotions. table 6: distribution of responses on whether they knew how long they had to wait before being promoted to their current rank by service. conclusion in conclusion, the findings revealed that although career progression instructions were available in the services, they did not foster systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. this implies that career progression instructions in all the services were inadequate as they did not influence the career progression of commissioned officers. despite making this contribution, the article could not casually infer the findings on other defence forces. future research can focus on career progression instructions across some african defence forces. acknowledgements the authors thank florence tembo mpandamabula for her professional editorial work that shaped the final outlook of this article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.s. wrote the article with input, guidance and supervision of c.m. and m.c.b. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the humanities and social sciences research ethics committee university of zambia on 08 february 2021 (reference no. hssrec: 2021 feb-008). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the zambia defence force. references abubakar, u. 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(2014). a comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. hu li za zhi, 61(3), 105–111. abstract introduction literature review research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) regina m. thetsane department of business administration, faculty of social sciences, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho motselisi c. mokhethi department of business administration, faculty of social sciences, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho mpheteli j. malunga department of statistics and demography, faculty of social sciences, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho lenyora n. sesinyi department of business administration, faculty of social sciences, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho citation thetsane, r.m., mokhethi, m.c., malunga, m.j., & sesinyi, l.n. (2025). majors and career path dynamics: bachelor of commerce students at the national university of lesotho. african journal of career development, 7(1), a170. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.170 original research majors and career path dynamics: bachelor of commerce students at the national university of lesotho regina m. thetsane, motselisi c. mokhethi, mpheteli j. malunga, lenyora n. sesinyi received: 27 mar. 2025; accepted: 10 june 2025; published: 30 july 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: as the job market evolves, understanding factors influencing students’ major selection helps universities and policymakers design programmes aligned with industry needs and support career development. objectives: this study examines motivational factors shaping major selection among bachelor of commerce students in the department of business administration (dba) at the national university of lesotho. by analysing three majors, it explores decision-making dynamics and their influence on academic choices and professional aspirations. methods: a descriptive quantitative survey was conducted with first year dba students. data were analysed using spss for factor extraction and correlation analysis to examine relationships among motivational factors across the three majors. results: six factors, namely, academic convenience, accessibility, engagement, popularity, recommendations and financial prospects influenced students’ choices. however, these were statistically insignificant. long-term career goals and professional development emerged as stronger determinants, aligning with the theory of planned behaviour, which highlights intrinsic motivation and belief in future success. conclusion: decision making is driven by mesosystemic factors such as academic offerings, labour market demands and career advancement opportunities. institutions must align programmes with industry expectations and strengthen career support systems. contribution: the study offers insights for aligning academic programmes with national development goals, improving graduate employability, and supporting students in making informed, aspiration-driven choices. keywords: major; selection; universities; motivation; bachelor of commerce; career development; policymakers. introduction as part of their academic requirements, many universities require first-year students to select a major, which they will study throughout their time at the institution. this is important for allowing universities to allocate financial and non-financial resources for offering the students’ selected major (glaessgen, 2018). fernandes and rawatlal (2024) argue that electing a university major is not only an institutional necessity but also a crucial step in shaping students’ career development. career development encompasses the progression of skills, experiences and choices that prepare individuals for professional growth and adaptation within the labour market (kurtuy, 2025). students might be motivated to select a specific major because of interest or because they find it intellectually stimulating (renninger & hidi, 2016) or because it is an institutional obligation (eccles & wigfield, 2020). the decision to select a major often influences the trajectory of students’ professional interests, career paths and long-term employability (morgan et al., 2013). as such, a well-chosen major not only shapes a student’s academic experience but also serves as a foundation for future career opportunities, personal growth and adaptability in an ever-evolving labour market (lee, 2024). ma et al. (2021) highlight that students primarily select majors based on individual motivation, an individual-level factor. whitehead (2018) emphasises the role of microsystem influences, where advisers, professors, families and peers provide personalised guidance. beyond individual support, stock and stock (2019) notice that universities facilitate advisory sessions led by course recruiters, representing mesosystemic factors, which reflect institutional structures shaping student choices within a broader systemic context. this distinction reinforces how both personal and systemic influences interact in major selection, as reflected in bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (özdoğru, 2011). understanding the factors that motivate students’ selection of a major can assist universities in attracting more students, offering relevant majors needed by the market, managing admissions effectively and tailoring their programmes to better meet students’ needs and preferences for the future (mwantimwa, 2021). furthermore, by aligning academic offerings with students’ career development aspirations, higher learning institutions can empower students to make informed decisions that support their long-term professional goals, creating a more meaningful connection between education and their future career paths (azhenov et al., 2023). however, selecting the right university major is demanding on the part of students, especially the first-year students who may not be sure of the major to select and yet in the majority of cases, major selection is a university requirement (malte et al., 2021). students’ selection of a major is not only important for the universities and policymakers, but students also need to select majors that genuinely interest them, align with their career path and future goals and bring them achievement and opportunities (soria & stebleton, 2013). esteban et al. (2018) argue that university majors are intertwined with various physical, pedagogical and social contexts and choosing a major is a complex task influenced by multiple factors that students must consider. this is the reason why universities and policymakers have recently shown interest in factors motivating students regarding the selection of academic majors (soria & stebleton, 2013). investigating the motivational factors that influence undergraduates’ choices of university majors is essential for students as it helps them to tailor their programmes, support services and career guidance to better align with their needs and aspirations (morton & hyderi, 2016). on the other hand, gilmore (2018) confirmed that understanding these motivations can also assist educational institutions in identifying trends and gaps in students’ choices, allowing policymakers and educators to address issues such as skill shortages in specific fields. ward et al. (2023) observed that understanding what motivates students can lead to more effective strategies for improving recruitment and admissions criteria for university majors. ultimately, such studies can lead to more informed and effective educational strategies that boost student satisfaction and success with their choice of major. it is therefore against this background that this study aims to explore whether bachelor of commerce (b.com) students at the national university of lesotho (nul) have different motivations when choosing a major within the department of business administration (dba), in the faculty of social sciences (fss). the study focused on identifying any key factors that influence b.com students’ choices when selecting majors in the three areas of specialisation offered in the dba, namely, accounting and finance, marketing and human resources management, with a particular emphasis on how these choices align with students’ career development aspirations. thereafter, the study evaluated the similarities and differences in the factors that motivate students to choose a major. finally, the study provided recommendations to higher learning institutions and policymakers, aiming to ensure that academic programmes effectively support students’ career goals. national university of lesotho: focus on the faculty of social sciences the nul is one of the oldest public universities located in roma, approximately 34 km southeast of maseru, the capital city of lesotho (nul, 2025–2026a). it currently consists of seven faculties: education, law, humanities, social sciences, science & technology, agriculture and health science. the fss stands out as the largest faculty within the university. the fss student population in the 2022/2023 academic year was approximately 2179, of which 59 were registered for postgraduate studies (nul, 2025–2026b). being one of the largest faculties, fss is expected to guide learners in recognising the value of selected university majors and empower them to make significant contributions to their career paths (børhaug, 2018). the fss is made up of five academic departments, namely, business administration; economics; political & administrative studies; sociology, anthropology & social work and statistics & demography. the dba offers b.com degrees with three primary majors: accounting and finance, marketing and human resources management. students are required to choose their major from these available specialisations during the first-year admission process. literature review motivation for selecting a major while extensive research has explored the factors influencing university major selection globally, findings vary across different regions. studies from western and asian countries (ma et al., 2021; matthews et al., 2024) emphasise intrinsic interest, academic accessibility and career relevance. however, within african contexts, additional systemic influences such as socio-economic conditions, institutional limitations and labour market demands shape students’ choices in distinctive ways (nyamwange, 2016). for instance, research in kenya and nigeria highlights financial constraints and employment prospects as dominant motivators (abe et al., 2021). south africa, in particular, faces unique challenges related to historical inequalities and shifting economic policies, further affecting students’ academic decisions (mckenzie & bennett, 2022). by contextualising these regional distinctions, this study enhances the understanding of major selection within the southern african higher education landscape. building on these regional distinctions, understanding the role of motivation in students’ academic decision-making becomes essential, as various intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to their selection of majors. in the academic fraternity, motivation can be seen as students’ enthusiasm for participating in learning and their overall university experience (larsen & puck, 2020). according to ishida and sekiyama (2024), motivation shapes the direction, intensity and determination of students’ behaviour during their learning process. matthews et al. (2024) found that personality congruence influences major selection among business students, highlighting an individual-level factor in career decision-making. similarly, marks et al. (2016) observed that women exhibit greater interest in career planning than men, reinforcing individual variations in career choices. these findings align with bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, where the microsystem, consisting of personal traits and immediate social influences, shapes decisions (cherry, 2023). in addition, guy-evans (2024) purports that mesosystemic interactions, such as institutional support and societal expectations, further refine career choices within broader systemic influences. choosing a university major can be quite challenging for a student because of the numerous influencing factors and reasons in the environment that may affect their personal preference. as nyamwange (2016) suggests, when choosing majors, students tend to prioritise the excitement of classes and the appeal of future careers over job prospects. ma et al. (2021) contend that students place great importance on the course content and its relevance to their future careers. chhor et al. (2024) argued that students’ major selection is shaped by various factors, such as the potential to achieve higher grades, the popularity of professors and recommendations from peers. in addition, interpersonal-level influences such as mentorship from educators, encouragement from family and social interactions within academic environments play a crucial role in guiding their choices. prospective career opportunities further reinforce the dynamic interplay between personal aspirations and external guidance, highlighting the interconnected nature of academic and career decision-making (abe et al., 2021). by understanding these factors, universities can create more efficient strategies for resource allocation and enhance their majors to meet students’ expectations, aligning with their motivations and preferences (wang et al., 2024). a career, for instance, is a difficult, personal and vibrant activity in which students engage to make decisions about their future lives (mckenzie & bennett, 2022). patton and mcmahon (2006) argue that career choices emerge from personal and systemic influences, shaped by evolving beliefs, behaviours, society and environment. this supports bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, where decisions are shaped by interactions within the microsystem (mentors, family, peers), mesosystem (institutional support and career guidance), exosystem (economic and policy factors) and macrosystem (cultural and societal expectations) (guy-evans, 2024). in addition, ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour (1991) provides further insight into career selection, emphasising that an individual’s attitude towards a major, the perceived social expectations from family or society and their confidence in their ability to succeed in a chosen career path all contribute to their decision-making process. thus, career selection is influenced not only by systemic forces but also by one’s belief in their capability to execute their chosen career path successfully. therefore, students enrol with the university already having a career interest informed by their previous experience (nyamweya, 2025). this may influence students to take part in activities and enrol in majors that align with their prospective career. liu et al. (2015) asserted that students are mainly motivated by their interest, desire to improve their current knowledge of the job and prepare for future job prospects. andersen and moldstud research team (2024) are also of the same view that major selection is more of a function of relevance towards future careers and perceived interest in the major. however, ma et al. (2021) maintained that students are motivated by a variety of factors to choose a major in university environments and students who enrol in the same major may have entirely different orientations, and those should be considered in major recommendations systems in physically based university environments to avoid selection of a wrong major. according to zainuddin and halili (2016), students who select the wrong major may experience social conflicts, such as negative labelling, being ignored and not being close to peers in the department, resulting in feeling inferior, belittled and facing conflicts with lecturers and parents. choosing a university major is a complex and challenging decision-making process that requires careful consideration (nyamweya, 2025). a number of studies have reliably found that a range of motivators influence university students’ selection of a major (ma et al., 2021). for example, some students enrol because of an intrinsic interest in the major, while others are motivated by external influences to choose a certain major. according to alyamani and morsi (2022), understanding the factors that influence students’ choice of a university major is crucial because it affects multiple aspects of a student’s life, shaping not only their satisfaction with future employment but also the extent to which they will progress and grow in their professional careers. on the other hand, the australian institute for teaching and school leadership (2024) emphasises the importance of engaging parents, peers and advisors in students’ decision-making processes within universities. this involvement can help underscore the value of various majors and support students (al tamimi et al., 2023), particularly first-year students, in making informed choices. as a result, policymakers should create policies that encourage the active participation of parents, peers and the community in the decision-making process, as this can positively impact students’ selection of majors (gülcan & duran, 2018). research methods and design research design this study adopts a descriptive quantitative survey design to systematically examine the motivations influencing students’ selection of majors within the dba at the nul. the descriptive approach ensures objectivity and reliability, providing a structured framework for comparing students’ decision-making patterns (bryman, 2016; field, 2018). the quantitative method enables a comparative analysis, identifying key similarities and differences that shape students’ choices, contributing to a deeper understanding of career development trajectories (creswell, 2014). theoretical foundation and questionnaire selection the study is anchored in educational choice theory, career development models, such as the theory of planned behaviour and social influence frameworks, which collectively provide insights into the factors shaping students’ academic decisions. to empirically explore these motivations, the study adopted a validated questionnaire from ma et al. (2021), which systematically examines students’ motivations for selecting university majors. the decision to adopt this instrument is based on its comprehensive evaluation of multiple factors, including academic ease, career relevance, peer recommendations and institutional support, all of which have been recognised as key determinants in educational decision-making. reliability and validity to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, the adapted survey retained the core constructs validated in ma et al. (2021), which demonstrated high internal consistency in previous applications. in addition, construct validity was strengthened by aligning survey items with established theories from labib et al. (2021) and soria and stebleton (2013), reinforcing its empirical and conceptual rigour. the adaptation process ensured that the instrument effectively captured students’ motivations, providing accurate and meaningful insights into the selection of majors within the dba. respondents and sampling the study focused on undergraduate first-year b.com students registered in the dba programme at nul during the 2024/25 academic year, as recorded in the university’s academic office database. a purposive sampling technique was employed to ensure participants had first-hand experience with major selection, maximising the relevance and depth of responses. by the time of data collection, students had completed their selection process, allowing for reflective and informed responses. from the total population of 127 eligible students, 97 completed the questionnaire, achieving a 76.4% response rate, enhancing the study’s generalisability and robustness. data collection data collection was conducted within the context of the introductory business management course, ensuring equal representation of all first year dba students. before data collection, formal approvals were obtained from the nul registrar and the course lecturer. ethical considerations were carefully upheld, with voluntary participation, anonymity and informed consent being central to the study. to minimise external influence, the questionnaire was administered at the end of a lecture, with the mgm 1302 lecturer absent, ensuring that students could participate freely without academic pressure. the final survey comprised 40 items, structured into three sections: demographic information motivational factors for major selection (measured using a 5-point likert scale) open-ended qualitative responses. while the questionnaire included an open-ended qualitative section, this study focuses exclusively on the quantitative analysis. the qualitative responses were not incorporated into the findings, as they fall outside the scope of this research. to ensure data integrity, responses with less than 65% completion were excluded from analysis (de leeuw et al., 2016), preventing data distortions and ensuring a robust interpretation of student motivations. data analysis the statistical package for social sciences (spss) programme was used to analyse the data using factor analysis with principal component extraction and correlation analysis to determine the relationship between the factors motivating students in dba to select a major. to evaluate the internal consistency of the identified factors, a reliability test was also performed. to evaluate the internal consistency of the identified factors, a reliability test was also performed. cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each factor to assess the internal consistency of the items within it. factors with a high alpha value indicated strong reliability, whereas lower values suggested the need for further refinement. ethical considerations the research involved a questionnaire that did not require students to provide personal information such as names or student numbers. ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the national university of lesotho faculty of health sciences ethics review board (no. nul/sta/2025/02). participation was voluntary, with no rewards offered. the questionnaire detailed the research project, data handling procedures and confidentiality measures. reporting used aggregated data to maintain the confidentiality of students’ identities. the authors adhered to the requirements set forth by the university of lesotho ethics committee. results table 1 reflects the key demographic and academic characteristics of the respondents for the study. table 1: demographic and academic characteristics of the respondents. table 1 reveals a mixed connection between the respondents’ gender, age and the chosen academic major. the demographic and academic profiles of the respondents show multiple relationships between respondents’ gender, age and selected major. the respondents are predominantly female, making up 61.9%, indicating higher female representation. interestingly, this result highlights that the national population of lesotho comprises more women (approximately 1.19 million) than men (1.13 million) (o’neill, 2025). the majority of respondents fall within the age range of 18–23 years, constituting 75.3% of the sample. this age group is significantly greater than that of the 24-year-olds up to 29-year-olds, which represents a small fraction of the respondents. of the three majors, accounting and finance is the most popular choice, attracting 76.3% of the respondents. marketing and human resources (14.4%) comes second, while marketing is the least selected major at 9.3%. factor analysis table 2 shows the items and their factor loadings following rotation. loadings below 0.45% have been omitted, and only scores exceeding 0.45 are considered significant (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). to analyse the arrangement of the 42 items and identify the factors motivating students’ enrolment in the b.com degree, a principal factor analysis (pca) with varimax rotation was performed. table 2: exploratory factor analysis. from the scree diagram analysis, six factors were identified. the first group, labelled academic convenience, comprises eight items, while the second group, academic accessibility, contains nine items. the third group, academic engagement, consists of four items, with the academic popularity, consisting of four items. in the fifth group, that is, academic recommendation, two items have been noticed, whereas the sixth and final group, financial prospects, consists of two items. collectively, these six factors explain 51.7% of the variance, with the first factor accounting for 21%, the second for 8%, the third and fourth factors standing at 6% each and the sixth factor at 5%. reliability analysis to evaluate the internal consistency of the six identified factors, a reliability test was performed. the cronbach’s alpha values for each factor were calculated and presented in table 3. table 3: reliability analysis for six factors motivating enrolment for a programme. according to table 3, academic convenience, accessibility, recommendation and financial prospects showed an acceptable to strong reliability with cronbach’s alpha values greater than 0.7, which indicates high reliability of the measuring scale (cohen et al., 2017; maree & pietersen, 2016). nevertheless, the reliability of factors academic engagement and academic popularity was comparatively lower (cronbach’s alpha = 0.524 and 0.486, respectively), suggesting possible problems with internal consistency. this finding suggests that most motivational factors can inform academic programme designs, but engagement and popularity require re-examination because of lower reliability. to increase reliability, these characteristics might need to be further refined, for example, by changing or eliminating troublesome components. correlation results a bivariate correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationships between the six identified factors. table 4 summarises the data, including correlation coefficients and significance levels. table 4: bivariate correlation of the six factors influencing choice of a programme. table 4 shows that academic convenience and academic accessibility are positively correlated (r = 0.541, p < 0.01). as a result, we can gain confidence that there is a genuine relationship between them. academic convenience is again positively correlated with academic engagement and academic recommendation with (r = 0.479, p < 0.01) and (r = 0.239, p < 0.05), respectively. finally, academic engagement appears to be positively correlated with academic accessibility and academic recommendation with (r = 0.548, p < 0.01) and (r = 0.311, p < 0.01), respectively, suggesting a modest positive relationship between the two. correlations of the six factors controlled for accounting and finance, marketing and human resources management respondents table 5–table 7 present the outcomes of the bivariate correlation analysis, highlighting the relationships between six components across three different respondent groups: marketing, human resources management and accounting and finance. table 5: bivariate correlations among six factors and accounting and finance. table 6: bivariate correlations among six factors and marketing. table 7: bivariate correlations among six factors and human resources management. the bivariate correlation analysis results reveal the relationships between six components within three respondent groups: marketing, human resources management and accounting & finance. the correlation analysis indicates varying degrees of correlation among the six criteria for different respondent groups. academic convenience, accessibility and engagement exhibit moderate correlations for respondents in the accounting & finance major (table 5). among marketing respondents, there are negative correlations with academic popularity and other factors, along with positive correlations between convenience and accessibility (table 6). human resources management respondents display substantial correlations among factors, academic convenience, academic accessibility, engagement and academic recommendation, showing negative correlations with other factors (table 7). these findings suggest that the influence of diverse factors on the selection of a major differs across accounting and finance, human resources management and marketing majors. major differences an analysis of variance (anova) is presented in table 8 to determine how students studying the three majors (marketing, human resources management and accounting and finance) differ in six criteria that affect their choice of university major. at the 0.05 significance level, the anova findings demonstrate no statistically significant differences between groups for any of the six factors. table 8: factors influencing university major choice. the findings in table 8 reveal that dba students vary in six criteria influencing their choice of university major. at the 0.05 significance level, the anova findings demonstrate no statistically significant differences between groups for any of the six factors examined. although the p-values for factors academic recommendation and financial prospects are nearly significant, there is still no convincing evidence of their differences. the absence of significant differences indicates that the factors influencing university major selection are, overall, consistent across different majors, reflecting a level of uniformity in the decision-making processes of dba students. this suggests that the motivational factors driving students’ major choices are more general across the sample, rather than being specific to individual majors. consequently, universities should implement robust career development support systems to help students make well-informed decisions that align with their personal aspirations while equipping them to navigate evolving labour market demands across various fields (ilo, 2021). discussion the results of this study indicate that b.com students in the fss in dba are mainly motivated to select their majors based on six main influential factors: academic convenience, academic accessibility, academic engagement, academic popularity, academic recommendation and financial prospects. academic convenience, accessibility and engagement reflect the extent to which a major is less challenging, achievable and practical. this suggests that dba b.com students, regardless of their specific major, are motivated to select a major that offers academic support, clear course outlines, approachable lecturers and flexible options such as part-time, full-time and online classes. these features make academic programmes more accessible to students with varying needs, providing a smoother path to progress successfully in their studies (al tamimi et al., 2023). these findings confirmed obiosa’s (2020) observation that students’ decisions to select a major are positively influenced by the convenience of workload, module structure and course outlines, which ease their academic journey. kundu (2017) further contends that the quality of education, including specific elements of a major, significantly influences students’ major selection. publicity and social influence have also been identified as key factors impacting major selection, as highlighted by ramalu et al. (2013) and gan et al. (2022). these are often addressed through marketing campaigns, such as inviting successful alumni or collaborating with prestigious organisations both locally and globally (bharti & purohit, 2015). however, grigolienė and tamoševičienė (2020) argued that while academic factors such as accessibility, convenience, engagement, popularity, recommendations and financial prospects remain relevant, personal motivation and aspirations increasingly play a pivotal role in students’ decisions. brown and lent (2020) also observed that career development goals often play a crucial role in students’ decision-making, as they tend to select a major that aligns with their long-term professional aspirations. the factors shaping major selection are diverse and influenced by personal, social and contextual elements (grigolienė & tamoševičienė, 2020). ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (tpb) further supports this idea, arguing that students’ major selection is influenced by three psychological components: attitudes towards the major, subjective norms (external influences such as family and societal expectations) and perceived behavioural control (their confidence in succeeding in the chosen major and career). this suggests that students are not only influenced by academic and social factors but also by their own beliefs in their ability to pursue and excel in a given major or career path. bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) also reinforces this perspective by illustrating how career decisions are shaped by interactions within multiple systems. the microsystem includes direct influences such as family and mentors, while the mesosystem involves institutional support, such as academic advising. broader influences, such as economic policies (exosystem) and cultural expectations (macrosystem), further shape students’ choices. for dba students, the six key factors are influential but do not uniquely determine their choices, implying that other elements might carry greater importance. in addition, differences between majors appear to have a limited impact on this decision. por (2024) further underscores that those motivations beyond these six factors, such as career aspirations and professional development opportunities, may significantly influence students’ selection of a university major. this highlights the importance of universities integrating comprehensive career development support within their academic programmes. watts (2006) argued that such initiatives could better align students’ academic choices with their long-term career goals, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to navigate evolving labour market demands and achieve personal and professional success. limitations of the study this study was conducted at a single institution within the fss in the dba. consequently, the motivations of students across the three majors may not have shown significant variation because of the research’s limited scope, being confined to one institution, faculty and department. the study did not extensively explore how students’ career development aspirations influenced their motivations, which could have provided deeper insights into their academic and professional paths. for more reliable outcomes, it would have been important to extend the study to a wider geographical area and to conduct a longitudinal study, where data are gathered at multiple stages throughout the students’ years at nul (cohen et al., 2017). nonetheless, the research conducted was statistically sufficient, and the results obtained should be replicable. conclusion when students are making the decision to select a major in dba, they are influenced by different factors depending on the specific major. for instance, a major may be more influenced by academic popularity, while another might be influenced by academic accessibility, indicating that the decision to select a major is purely personal and multifaceted. there is no single reason that can explain the choice influencing the selection of a major in the dba. the findings of this study have several implications for higher learning institutions, students, the industry and policymakers, highlighting the need to consider how academic offerings support career pathways. higher learning institutions and students universities can enhance their existing programmes and majors to better align with the evolving needs and interests of both current and prospective students. one approach is introducing trend-driven programmes that emphasise hands-on learning through internships, consulting opportunities and practical projects. for example, fields such as information technology & ai, sustainability & environmental science and financial technology reflect emerging market demands and provide students with real-world experience (gunn & stanley, 2018). students should be encouraged and guided to engage in self-reflection before selecting a major. this involves identifying personal strengths, passions and long-term career aspirations to ensure alignment with individual goals and job market demands. universities can facilitate this by implementing structured career counselling services, where professional advisors help students assess their skills and interests through one-on-one sessions, aptitude tests and career assessments. this approach ensures a more informed and purposeful decision-making process (andersen & moldstud research team, 2024). the role of industry and policymakers policymakers should actively support regular research to identify the skills demanded by the market. this will allow higher learning institutions to tailor their programmes based on evidence of market needs, ultimately fostering economic and social development in the country (ilo, 2021). existing majors might undergo significant changes to incorporate new skills and knowledge areas that are deemed necessary for the current market. this would ensure that graduates are equipped with relevant and up-to-date expertise. by adopting these strategies, higher learning institutions can develop programmes that better address the evolving needs and preferences of students, increasing the likelihood of them selecting and thriving in their chosen majors. beyond policymakers, industry professionals must collaborate with universities to align education with market needs. this includes offering internships, mentorship and skill-based workshops, as well as contributing to curriculum development and research partnerships. according to popli and singh (2024), sharing insights on emerging trends enables industries to ensure that graduates acquire practical, up-to-date expertise, thereby enhancing their career readiness. this collaboration also helps universities continuously update their majors to remain relevant in an evolving job market. nonetheless, considering that b.com students possess a wider range of motivations for major selection, beyond the six identified factors in this study, it is recommended that factors influencing students in major selection be explored further. specifically, attention should be given to how career development aspirations shape their choices, as this could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing students’ major selection in higher learning institutions. by fostering strategic collaborations between policymakers, industry professionals and higher learning institutions, academic programmes can be refined to better reflect the evolving job market, ensuring that students make informed major selections that align with their career aspirations and contribute to professional growth within lesotho’s higher education sector and globally. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the national university of lesotho management, who granted permission to conduct the study, as well as the students who participated by responding to the survey questions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.m.t. and m.c.m. contributed towards the conceptualisation, data collection and writing of the article. r.m.t. and m.j.m. contributed towards the methodology and formal analysis. m.j.m., l.n.s. and m.c.m. assisted with the investigation. r.m.t. and m.j.m. assisted with the writing of the original draft preparation. m.c.m., r.m.t. m.j.m and l.n.s assisted with writing, review, editing and the publication funds. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, r.m.t. the data are not publicly available because they contain information that may compromise the privacy of research participants. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article 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(2016). flipped classroom research and trends from different fields of study. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(3), 2274. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2274 abstract introduction gender and sexuality in the south african mining industry: a historical overview heteronormativity in male-dominated workplaces silencing gay identities in heteronormative male-dominated workplaces hegemonic masculinities and stigma in male-dominated workplaces: a theoretical framework research methods and design findings discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tshepo b. maake department of sociology, college of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation maake, t.b. (2023). ‘are there gay men in the mines?’ towards unsettling the heteronormative male occupational culture in mining. african journal of career development, 5(1), a80. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.80 original research ‘are there gay men in the mines?’ towards unsettling the heteronormative male occupational culture in mining tshepo b. maake received: 12 apr. 2023; accepted: 06 july 2023; published: 06 sept. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: available literature indicates that the male occupational culture of the south african mining industry marginalises and excludes women; however, limited attention has been given to the heteronormative element of this occupational culture and its implications on gay identities. there is a need to interrogate the heteronormative male occupational culture and how it hinders the visibility of gay men. objectives: this study aims to explore how the heteronormative occupational culture of the mining industry facilitates the visibility of gay male identities. method: this study is based on qualitative data that were collected through in-depth interviews with five black gay mineworkers who were based in small mining towns located in north west and mpumalanga provinces. results: this study found that the heteronormative male occupational culture of the mining industry is maintained through the perpetuation of religious arguments and cultural traditions that validate heterosexuality as a central component of masculinity. the findings indicate that sexual diversity is not acknowledged in the mining industry, and this contributes to the invisibility of gay men because the fear of stigma and discrimination silences them. conclusion: a heteronormative male occupational culture undermines gay identities and informs the unequal distribution of power between heterosexual and gay men. as such, the mining industry should promote sexual diversity and develop safe working environments for gay men. contribution: the study brings forth the voices of a silenced sexual minority and interrogates the exclusive heteronormative mining occupational culture to encourage the development of inclusive mining workplaces. keywords: heteronormativity; gay identities; occupational culture; mining; mineworkers. introduction in conceptualising my research, i mentioned to a friend that i was planning to conduct research on gay experiences in the mining industry, and their immediate response was: ‘are there gay men in the mines?’ i was not shocked by the response, considering that the south african mining industry has long been constructed as a heterosexual male space (mudimba, 2017). while some research has established that women are often excluded in mining workplaces because of patriarchy (benya, 2013; mangaroo-pillay & botha, 2020; mudimba, 2017), little is known about the exclusion of gay men because of the heteronormative ideologies embodied in occupational cultures of the mines. while historical research provides evidence of same-sex relations in the south african mines (edwards & epprecht, 2020; harries, 1994; moodie & ndatshe, 1994), gay identities have remained invisible post-1994, rendering the mining spaces heterosexual. existing literature on gay men’s experiences in the south african mines primarily focuses on events that occurred pre-1994, creating an impression that same-sex attractions in the mines ended with colonialism and apartheid (harries, 1994; moodie et al., 1988; ndatshe, 1993). this study draws attention to gay men’s experiences in the post-apartheid south african mining industry because of the legal transformation of 1994 that led to the constitutional protection of lgbtiq+ identities. this study seeks to make gay identities visible in the south african mining industry by paying attention to the silenced voices of gay men. male-dominated workplaces often embody masculinist occupational cultures that emphasise the role of men; however, research indicates that gay men are often met with intrusive heteronormative cultures that exalt hegemonic heterosexual masculinities (pringle & giddings, 2011; priola et al., 2014; reingardė, 2010). gay men’s urgency in male-dominated workplaces is limited by the fear of discrimination, leading to them concealing their sexual identities or passing as heterosexual to avoid the negative consequences of embodying a stigmatised sexual identity (reingardė, 2010). the unintended consequence of the silence is that it creates an impression that gay people do not exist in such spaces, keeping the heterosexual male power intact and excluding and marginalising gay identities. hence, it is necessary to study the experiences of gay mineworkers and shed light on their experiences in male-dominated mining workplaces. as a point of departure, the introduction has provided some background on the nature of the south african mining industry and the rationale behind this study. in the following sections, i start by reviewing historical literature on gender and sexuality in the south african mining industry. this is followed by a systematic review of the literature on heteronormativity and the silencing of gay identities in heteronormative workplaces. i then discuss the theoretical framework and engage with the methodology used to achieve the goals of the study. subsequent to the methodology is an analysis of the research findings, followed by the discussion and concluding arguments. gender and sexuality in the south african mining industry: a historical overview historically, same-sex sexual practices occurred within mining compounds and became part of the occupational culture in the mines. black mineworkers’ patterns of sexuality were merely a component of the multiple cultural expressions that were highly guided by the social context of the mines. the practice of mine marriages emerged during the early 20th century, originating among the mozambican migrant mineworkers, and spread rapidly to other ethnic groups (edwards & epprecht, 2020; harries, 1994). bukhontxana is a term that was used to refer to mine marriages that encompassed romantic and sexual relations between young and older men and were strictly governed by umteto ka sokisi, a strict code of etiquette that directly translates to sokisi’s rules, named after a man who was believed to have invented the practice (edwards & epprecht, 2020; harries, 1994; moodie et al., 1988). gender ratios in the urban spaces were skewed as the mines almost exclusively employed men (delius & glaser, 2002), and while it can be argued that bukhontxana was a product of enforced celibacy as the men were seldom exposed to women and lived in single-sex compounds, harries’ (1994) historical research provides evidence of shared deep emotions that sometimes caused suicides, murders and beatings in cases where a young mine wife broke off their marriage with their mine husband to start a new one with another man. harries (1994) was supported by ndatshe (1993) and niehaus (2002), who argued against the notion of enforced celibacy and emphasised mineworkers’ agency and the enjoyment and love connections derived from mine marriages. the practice of bukhontxana was visible, and it was generally known that mineworkers engaged in sexual intercourse with each other. however, christian missionaries frowned upon sexual activities amongst men (harries, 1994). in 1906, swiss missionaries within the transvaal missionary association believed that sexual intercourse between mineworkers was immoral and called upon government officials to condemn such practices (harries, 1994). consequently, the mineworkers kept information regarding their sexual relationships among themselves and denied engaging in sexual intercourse with other men when outside the mines (edwards & epprecht, 2020; moodie et al., 1988). this brief historical overview documents the experiences of oppressed black migrant mineworkers who stayed in highly regulated mining compounds. it was imperative to consider this historical overview as this study considers the experiences of gay men in post-apartheid south africa with more freedoms and the abolished compound system. it is necessary to consider how same-sex desires were visible and acceptable among male mineworkers during a time when they were strictly prohibited through legislation. yet, they have become invisible and intolerable at a time when legislation is in place to protect them and promote the rights of sexual minorities. in the following section, i provide a review of the literature on heteronormativity and how it operates in male-dominated workplaces. heteronormativity in male-dominated workplaces butler (1997) taught us that in any context, heteronormativity is initiated and naturalised through the continued and sustained performance of heterosexuality. butler’s (1997) notion of performance was supported by reingardė (2010), who argued that heterosexuality in workplaces is visible, repetitive and ritualistic. it is performed through heterosexual colleagues’ portrayal of wedding rings, engagements about heterosexual spouses and heterosexual coupling at work gatherings. thus, sexual identity is relevant to the workplace as the behavioural displays of normative gender roles within spaces of work emphasise and secures the dominant position of heterosexuality (pringle & giddings, 2011). the division of work based on gender affirms heterosexuality as it is borne from the heteronormative organisation of the heterosexual family, which dictates the roles that men and women can and cannot occupy at home. work involving manual labour, bravery and aggression is often considered masculine, while nursing, cleaning, teaching and beauty are considered feminine and socially assigned to women (collins, 2015; van zyl, 2015). heteronormativity in the workplace inhibits the recognition of sexual identities that fall outside the heterosexual norm and renders them questionable and strange to heterosexual colleagues. the lack of recognition consequently results in sexual minority identities becoming invisible in workplaces as they are rarely spoken about and may sometimes be considered by heterosexuals as a private matter with no place at work (pringle & giddings, 2011; priola et al., 2014). however, reingardė (2010) argued that this notion of sexual identities as irrelevant to workplaces is flawed because heteronorms are produced and reproduced in most social spaces and explains that the mere relegation of sexual minority identities to private spheres is an expression of dominant heterosexuality. studies have found that male-dominated workplaces are more heteronormative and aggressive towards gay men than female-dominated workplaces (collins, 2015; ozeren et al., 2016; reingardė, 2010). benya (2013) argued that traditionally male-dominated workplaces, such as the south african mining industry, embody masculine occupational cultures. her argument is supported by various international and south african studies, which have found that the masculine occupational culture of male-dominated workplaces is not only exclusive to women but also excludes gay men because they do not conform to heteronormative ways of being a man (carey et al., 2022; collins, 2015). heteronormativity within male-dominated workplaces affords heterosexual men more social power because they embody an ideal masculinity established as a standard when its value is assessed compared to femininity and gay men’s masculinities (speice, 2020). despite their capabilities to perform the work, gay men are emasculated in the eyes of heterosexual men because of the heteronormative ideologies evident in male-dominated workplaces (collins, 2015; covin, 2015; mennicke et al., 2018). for example, reingardė (2010) conducted a qualitative study in lithuanian male-dominated workplaces and found that within these workplaces, traditional heterosexual masculinity is hegemonic and promoted, while gay men are excluded because of their lack of conformity to the ruling heteronormative expectations that emphasise heterosexuality. similarly, a qualitative study conducted by ozeren et al. (2016) in turkey found that gay men who portrayed gay identities in male-dominated workplaces were most likely to experience exclusion and hostility because of dominant heteronormative workplace cultures. a similar study was conducted in the united states (us) with a specific focus on the experiences of police officers and discovered that gay male criminal justice officers often experienced harassment and discrimination from heterosexual colleagues in their workplaces (mennicke et al., 2018). these studies demonstrate how heteronormativity operates in male-dominated workplaces, rendering these spaces unsafe for sexual minority individuals. this brings us to our next section which reviews the literature on how heteronormativity-related stigma operates as a silencing tool in male-dominated workplaces. silencing gay identities in heteronormative male-dominated workplaces various studies found that heteronormativity and fear of stigma in male-dominated workplaces often silence gay men, forcing them to hide personal aspects of their sexual identities and sometimes pass to fit in (collins & callahan, 2012; reingardė, 2010; willis, 2011). male-dominated workplaces embody what rich (1980) termed compulsory heterosexuality, where every individual is expected to be innately heterosexual, and as a result, gay identities are automatically rendered deviant when they become visible. francis (2023) stated that compulsory heterosexuality informs how we understand gendered behaviour, leading to the perception that lgbtiq+ bodies negate the possibility of ‘proper’ heterosexuality. thus, reingardė (2010) argued that the dominant discourse of heterosexuality in organisations places the dominated sexual minority identities under pressure to be suppressed, silenced and eliminated, crediting them with limited protection and legitimacy. thus, the heteronormative discourse informs the unequal power relationships between sexual minorities and the heterosexual majority and acts as a control mechanism that limits the ability of gay and lesbian people to talk freely and construct their identities at work (collins & callahan, 2012; reingardė, 2010). based on their research in the gas and oil industry, collins and callahan (2012) argued that gay workers in male-dominated organisations and industries are exposed to some form of compulsory heterosexuality, which informs the policing of gay identities and restricts the extent to which gay men can safely disclose their sexual identities. cavalier (2011) and collins (2015) concurred with collins and callahan (2012) as their research in the us male-dominated workplaces found that the presence of heteronormative ideologies and the possibilities of discrimination in male-dominated workplaces suppress and force gay men into silence and conformity to the heterosexual male occupational culture. similarly, willis’ (2011) qualitative study on young lgbtiq+ people’s experiences in australian workplaces discovered that young men who were hired in male-dominated workplaces felt enormous pressure to construct fictitious heterosexual identities and signify a heterosexual status to their male colleagues to keep their sexual identities invisible and escape the heteronormative gaze. a similar qualitative study by ozeren et al. (2016) in turkey found that lgbtiq+ employees were the most silenced in turkish workplaces and often tried to fit in with the dominant heterosexual norm evident in their organisations’ occupational cultures. while there is very limited literature on the experiences of gay men in south african male-dominated workplaces, available research in other workplaces found that heteronormativity often informs discriminatory practices against gay men (olney & musabayana, 2016; van zyl, 2015). this study contributes to the literature by focusing on gay identities in a male-dominated industry and shedding light on how heteronormativity informs an exclusionary occupational culture that favours heterosexuals while marginalising and rendering gay men invisible. the following section draws from the scholarly contributions of connell (2000, 2005) and goffman (1963) in theorising gay male experiences in the heteronormative mining industry. hegemonic masculinities and stigma in male-dominated workplaces: a theoretical framework connell’s (2000, 2005) seminal work on masculinities, in conjunction with goffman’s stigma theory, helps us understand the realities of black gay men and some strategies they employ to cope with stigmas and navigate heteronormativity in mining workplaces. connell (2005) argued that a particular masculinity gains dominance because of the dominant conceptions and understandings of manhood in a certain space at a particular time. she termed this masculinity the hegemonic masculinity. hegemonic masculinity is an arrangement of gender practice that embodies acceptable answers to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominance of men over women (connell, 2005). as such, hegemonic masculinity is representative of the dominant cultural stereotype of a ‘real man’ in a community or workplace. connell (2003) provided extensive evidence which indicates that in different contexts and times in history, hegemonic masculinity has always been associated with heterosexuality. in many african societies, hegemonic masculinity is often constructed in line with the heterosexual gender normative stereotype that prescribes that men marry women, have biological children and grow their family names (khunou, 2006; ratele, 2011, 2013). the common understanding of a ‘real man’ in many south african communities is that he is heterosexual, assertive, aggressive, brave and a leader (khunou, 2006; langa, 2020; siswana & kiguwa, 2018). manual labour requiring physical strength is performed in the mines, and manhood is measured according to a man’s ability and strength to carry out such heavy tasks. connell (2005) argued that while masculinities are vast, their access to power and privilege is not equal at any given time or in every context. conceptions of a ‘real man’ are exclusively heterosexual in various cultures and communities, and its hegemony is validated by questioning the legitimacy of gay identities as natural because they are seen to disrupt the ‘order of nature’. gay men in mining workplaces occupy subordinate positions on the masculinity power hierarchy because of their sexual identities. their sexual identities are used to discredit their masculinity and question their abilities to perform the labour required in their workplaces. goffman’s (1963) stigma theory is essential to developing understandings of gay identities in heteronormative male-dominated mining workplaces and why they are rendered invisible. goffman (1963) argued that social spaces reflect categories of people likely to be encountered in them and render those different from the expected categories vulnerable to criticism or lack of acceptance. problems may arise in cases where an individual possesses an attribute that is different from members in a particular space because they do not fit into the normatively defined categories of persons available for them to be. goffman (1963) referred to these attributes as stigma, particularly when they are extremely discrediting to the person who possesses them. gay identities do not conform to heteronormative gender roles, making those possessing them undesirable in workplaces where everyone is expected to be heterosexual. because of the heteronormative discourse in the mines, heterosexual male identities are expected to exist, while the presence of gay identities in mining spaces is seen as peculiar. because of the dominant heteronormative ideologies, an explicit gay identity may be stigmatised and encourage animosity and resentment from the heterosexual majority. black gay mineworkers are under pressure to conform to the hegemonic heterosexual masculinity or deliberately conceal information about their gay identities to escape the stigmas associated with a gay identity. someone who explicitly identifies themselves as gay within these workplaces may be stigmatised. the heteronormative stigmatisation of gay identities in the mines informs the unequal treatment of gay men because identifying as gay may bear negative responses from heterosexual colleagues who may question gay men’s belonging in mining workplaces. black gay men’s masculinities in the mining workplaces are excluded by maintaining and enforcing heteronormative workplace practices that are reinforced daily through social interactions that affirm heterosexuality and stigmatise gay identities. the heteronormative stigma silences gay men’s masculinities and renders mining workplaces heterosexual male spaces. in the subsequent section, the methodology is outlined to demonstrate how the aims and objectives of the study were achieved. research methods and design in its attempt to interrogate the heteronormative barriers that silence gay identities in the south african mining industry, the study employed a feminist epistemology to bring the voices of marginalised gay men to the forefront. a feminist epistemology seeks to develop knowledge from the point of view of the marginalised groups in society while liberating them from various forms of oppression and empowering them (ashton & mckenna, 2020; sprague, 2018). while feminist research is famous for ‘visibilising’ the experiences of women and advocating for their emancipation, harding (1991) argued that women cannot be the only producers of feminist knowledge and that men who occupy oppressed positions also need to understand themselves and contribute to an understanding of their experiences from a feminist viewpoint. it was, therefore, imperative to employ feminist epistemology to understand the marginalised position of gay men in the mining industry from their point of view and unearth some of the challenges they encounter so that the silence can be broken, and sexual minority identities can be made visible. a qualitative approach was employed to achieve the goal of feminist epistemology by gaining deeper meanings that participants attach to their experiences and how they shape their views on working in male-dominated spaces that embody a heterosexual male occupational culture. given the sensitive nature of the study, accessing participants became a challenge, and personal contacts were utilised to identify suitable research participants. thus, purposive sampling was used to identify black gay men formally employed in the south african mining industry. five self-identifying black gay men were selected to participate in the study. participants were provided with an information sheet detailing the study’s objectives, and written consent to participate was provided. because of the heteronormative nature of the mining industry and the widespread discrimination towards gay people, some gay people would rather keep information about their sexual identities private to avoid unintended disclosure, and this made access difficult, hence the small sample. the participants’ ages ranged between 25 and 37 years, and they were based in small mining towns in the north west and mpumalanga provinces. data were collected through a series of in-depth interviews over three months. one interview was conducted in a restaurant, while the rest were conducted in the participants’ places of residence, which were rented backrooms and houses. interview questions were focused on participants’ childhood experiences in rural communities and how they shaped their perceptions of masculinity. furthermore, attention was given to how participants negotiated their sexual identities in their homes, workplaces and within friendships. issues of disclosure and visibility were addressed in questions centred around the negotiation of gay identities in the three spaces. however, for this article, particular focus is given to participants’ narratives of experiences in their workplaces to explore how the heteronormative occupational culture of the mining industry facilitates the visibility of sexual minority identities. all interviews were conducted in english and lasted between 40 and 92 min. braun and clarke’s (2006) six thematic analysis phases were followed for data analysis. a thematic analysis method requires the researcher to identify and categorise themes or patterns according to similarities and differences that emanate from the participants’ narratives (braun & clarke, 2006). however, braun and clarke (2019) suggested that themes do not passively emerge from the data but are actively created by the researcher at the intersection of data, analytic process and positionality. thus, multiple themes were identified from my critical analysis of and engagement with the data. the visibility of gay men in the contemporary south african mining industry was one of the important themes to emerge from this thematic analysis process. this theme was informed by the participants’ narratives of stigma based on gay identities and the unwillingness of gay men to disrupt heteronormative ideologies that continue to marginalise them in the mining spaces. in the following sections, the research findings are discussed with a focus on how the heteronormative male occupational culture of the mining industry informs perceptions of gay men’s masculinities and the visibility of gay identities in the mining workplaces. the discussions will demonstrate how heteronormative ideologies in the mines facilitate gay men’s decisions to pass as heterosexual and subsequently push them into silence. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty of humanities research ethics committee (no. rec-02-0052-2918). findings the heteronormative workplace ‘closet’: silencing and invisibility one of the key findings of this research was that the heteronormative ideologies in the mining industry contribute to marginalising and silencing black gay identities. the participants expressed that the heteronormative constraints in their workplaces limit their agency. from the participants’ narratives, it was gathered that heteronormative ideologies in the mining workplaces are encouraged by religious beliefs and traditional cultural ideologies that mineworkers widely hold. these heteronormative ideologies emphasise the dominant position of heterosexual men within the mining space and suppress the voices of black gay mineworkers: ‘i think around men, they do not have nice things to say about homosexual men or homosexuality in general. they condemn it, and they use the bible for that. they do not want their children or sons to be homosexual. some things are hurtful, they will tell you that animals cannot be gay and human being is gay. some would use their christianity to hate you, saying that god does not want homosexuals; they will leave everything out and tell you that god does not want homosexuals. so those things are very hurtful, and the best way to deal with that is just to keep quiet and never react.’ (temba, male, 36 years old, safety officer) ‘a lot of people don’t want to be led by a gay person, especially men, because they are patriarchs. men who are very closed-minded in their thinking would not agree to be led by a woman, and then here is a gay man who is associated with woman, not really seen as a man man man. they would never really accept that. i mean, if you are traditional and engaged in cultural things and very strict at home, then you wouldn’t want to get to work and be controlled by a “half-man”. that is what they would think.’ (sibusiso, male, 26 year old, safety officer) in his narration, temba indicates how religious arguments around gay identities inform the negative perceptions that heterosexual men hold about gay men. these religious arguments serve to protect the hegemony of heterosexuality in the mining workplaces by delegitimising gay identities. from sibusiso’s narrative, it is evident that traditional arguments against sexual minority identities are used in the mining spaces to question gay men’s leadership. undermining gay men’s leadership capacity is indicative of the fact that the patriarchy that is used to exclude women does not benefit all men because sexual identity is used as a weapon to exclude men that do not conform to heteronormative ideologies that dictate what a ‘real man’ is. in line with ratele (2014), homophobia and heteronormative ideologies are used to marginalise and silence gay masculinities while keeping the hegemony of heterosexual masculinities in the mining environments intact. the lack of acceptance and intolerance creates a culture of fear amongst gay men, putting them under pressure to conceal their sexual identities and conform to the heteronormative expectations in their workplaces: ‘around straight colleagues, there is that fear of being discriminated against. i have to be a straight man, be a straight actor, for me to be accepted.’ (mthabisi, male, 30 years old, haul truck operator) ‘i act normal, normal as in like a guy, my voice, tone twisted, the way i walk, [the way] i address them, the way i speak to them. when i look at myself, especially when a call comes from a girl or a gay guy – may be such things as screaming at them, but i tend to tame myself, you know.’ (katlego, male, 28 years old, safety manager) ‘i am just a gay guy, and no one knows, so i’m just a guy literally at work. if i had to be out, it would be a problem in my work environment because it’s one thing to just be gay, and it is another thing to be straight, and suddenly you are gay. so, i think it is better if you just come as you are, but once you become straight, then gay … yoooh … i think you are opening another issue on its own.’ (sibusiso, male, 26 year old, safety officer) ‘i have to act straight so that l do not put attention or suspicion on myself. by pretending to be straight, i do not discuss my sexuality or my relationship with them [colleagues]. most of the time, l have to pretend to be like them, like normal. also, to feel respected by them, l have to act normal.’ (temba, male, 26 year old, safety officer) as the participants know that their behaviours are being policed in their workplaces, they all indicated that they conceal their identities and behave in a manner described as heterosexual. mthabisi explains that his fear of discrimination pushes him to ‘act’ straight, indicating how passing operates as a response to possible harm because of the heteronormative context of the mining spaces. similarly, katlego highlights some examples of behaviours that he has to change to create a heterosexual image, including changing his voice, the way he walks and how he speaks to his colleagues. it is worth noting that as a manager, katlego holds a position of authority, and yet, his power to exercise authority is limited by the need to pass and keep his sexual identity hidden. thus, passing is necessary to be accepted by colleagues, but it is at the expense of the participants’ fulfilment. the participants are under pressure to adjust their behaviours, so they do not signal the possibility of being gay. in their narratives, the participants are unconsciously perpetrating the stereotype that gay identities are not normal by referring to heterosexuality as ‘normal’, an indication that they have internalised and accepted to some extent the hegemony of heterosexuality in their workplaces. while passing protects the participants from discrimination and exclusion, it maintains the status quo, creating the false impression that mining workplaces are inherently heterosexual male spaces and that gay men do not exist in these spaces. passing keeps gay identities invisible and leaves the heteronormative male occupational culture of the mining industry unchallenged. i asked the participants how they felt about their position as gay men working in the mining industry, and they expressed discontent with the inability to express themselves in ways that are not limited by heteronormative beliefs in their workplaces: ‘well, i am not proud because i am not out; i am still trapped i cannot be myself. even though the government educates people in the country where i work, it is not as free. maybe if i can move to another working environment, not in the mines, corporate or business, where i am acceptable and tolerated, maybe i will be proud of myself because i will not be judged on whom i am but on my work ethic that i am bringing to the company, so it’s a bit difficult for me.’ (katlego, male, 28 year old, safety manager) although katlego acknowledges that something is being done nationally to educate society about sexual diversity, he is experiencing his workplace as unwelcoming for gay men. katlego is unsettled by this lack of acceptance and tolerance in the mine and hopes to gain employment in a space where he would not have to pass as heterosexual or be restricted by a heteronormative male occupational culture. mthabisi shared similar sentiments and narrated the pain that he experienced from pretending to be heterosexual and confining his gay identity to private spaces outside the mines: ‘if it were up to me, i would have preferred to work in an environment where there are gay people and where i could express myself because it has been a painful life having to pretend to be someone else just for the next person’s right. for me not to be able to talk about the type of day i am having to the next person because i do not want them to move on to the next questions and ask about my sexuality hurts me.’ (mthabisi, male, 30 years old, haul truck operator) it is evident from katlego and mthabisi’s narratives that the lack of acceptance, as informed by heteronormative ideologies in their workplaces, affects their psychological well-being. both participants are troubled by hiding their sexual identities and having to pass as heterosexual at work. temba shared similar experiences and further explained that his life at work has become lonely as he converses less with his colleagues and spends most of his time by himself to avoid possible disclosure of his sexual identity. when i asked the participants about their knowledge of sexual diversity education in the mining industry, they all indicated that issues of sexual identity are not discussed in their workplaces. katlego said, ‘nothing is being done about gay awareness’. he was supported by sibusiso, who argued that sexual diversity is not a point of engagement in his workplace because it unsettles heterosexual men. this silence on sexual diversity in the mining workplaces contributes significantly to the marginalisation and invisibility of gay identities. whose masculinity matters? the hegemony of male heterosexuality in mining workplaces this study’s findings indicate that dominant notions of masculinity in the mining workplaces are informed by broader heteropatriarchal arguments that stem from religious and cultural traditions that define normative gender expectations for men and women. the participants are confronted with these heteronormative expectations that bring their masculine identities under scrutiny in their workplaces: ‘your masculinity plays a significant role. for instance, people tend to think that you are not man enough to actually pick up something. so sometimes you find that i have been doing work and they said to pick up this thing or they will be like let me help you because it will be heavy on you, or they say let me pick it up, and they will be judging you based on your masculinity thinking that i am less of a man.’ (katlego, male, 28 years old, safety manager) the act of offering assistance to katlego when he is supposed to carry heavy objects at work has negative connotations as it suggests that he does not possess the strength necessary to carry out the task at hand. katlego further alluded to the notion that gay men are not ‘real men’ by stating that as a gay man, he is not considered man enough to carry heavy objects, a task that is part of his job. while heterosexual and gay men are employed to do the same jobs in the mining workplaces, there are perceptions that gay men are incapable of possessing the necessary strength. this finding is in line with collins (2015) and mennicke et al. (2018), whose research findings confirmed that gay men are often perceived by heterosexual men as incapable of performing their duties in male-dominated workplaces. mthabisi, philly and sibusiso shared similar views and demonstrated how gay identities discredit the masculinity of gay men in the eyes of their heterosexual colleagues: ‘okay, there are no openly gay colleagues at work because of the mining environment and its nature; it is perceived to be for tough guys, and nobody is brave enough to show their sexuality.’ (mthabisi, male, 30 years old, haul truck operator) ‘you know how they think. they think you are dating men, even if they are unsure what kind of men you are dating. they think you are a woman, like a girl, because you date other men. like when i have to carry something that is heavy, they come and help me carry it because they take me as a woman. they always help me.’ (philly, male, 32 years old, sanitation helper) while katlego mentions that colleagues offer to help him carry heavy objects because they do not consider him a ‘real man’, philly argues that his heterosexual colleagues assist him because they see him as a woman and not a man. philly is supported by temba, who explained: ‘okay, heterosexual man sees gay people as women, so it is always about saying you are a woman, so their belief is that a gay man is a woman’. sibusiso explained that heteropatriarchal cultural traditions evident in heterosexual men’s perceptions of masculinity would not allow them to accept being led by a gay man. the commonality in these narratives is that gay men’s masculinities are stigmatised and undermined, limiting their access to the heterosexual privilege embodied in the heteronormative occupational culture of mining workplaces. while literature established that the male occupational culture of the south african mining industry continues to privilege men and excludes women post-1994 (benya, 2013; mangaroo-pillay & botha, 2020; mudimba, 2017), the findings of this study indicate that the male occupational culture of the post-apartheid mining industry is also heterosexual, and it marginalises and excludes black gay men. thus, black gay men’s masculinities are not treated in the same manner as heterosexual masculinities because of the stereotypical association of gay identities with femininity. the unwarranted association of gay identities with femininity highlights the patriarchal notion that women are weak and cannot work in mining spaces. in the discussion section that follows, i make an argument that the visibility of gay bodies in the south african mining industry challenges the heteronormative male occupational culture that hinders the acknowledgement of sexual diversity. discussion gay visibility unsettles the heteronormative male occupational culture in the mines although historical evidence proves that same-sex relations were evident in mining compounds and formed part of the mining occupational culture (edwards & epprecht, 2020; harries, 1994; ndatshe, 1993; niehaus, 2002), this study found that the occupational culture of the mining industry post-1994 is heteronormative and continually excludes gay male identities. historically, same-sex relations were acceptable and tolerated among mineworkers, even amidst contestations from religious missionaries, but we learn from the findings of this study that post-1994 mineworkers hold strong beliefs against same-sex relations and condemn gay identities. the intolerance and lack of acceptance of gay identities are an indication that the progressive democratic legislation of south africa has not been successful in transforming the mining industry into an inclusive space for all men despite their sexual identities. while the mining industry has been active and explicit in its attempt to change the male occupational culture by including women, it has been silent on transforming the heteronormative occupational culture that excludes gay men. the industry’s silence on sexual diversity contributes to the invisibility of gay men in mining workplaces. this study found that heteronormativity is prevalent in mining workplaces and informs the everyday lives of gay men at work. similar to previous research on heteronormative silence in male-dominated workplaces (collins & callahan, 2012; reingardė, 2010; speice, 2020), this study found that the dominant heteronormative male occupational culture of the mining industry silences and renders black gay mineworkers invisible. the participants in this study expressed fear of disclosing their gay identities because of the prevalent stigmatisation of gay identities and religious beliefs and cultural traditions used to condemn same-sex desires. this finding is in accordance with speice (2020) and ozeren et al. (2016), whose research findings support the notion that heteronormative ideologies in workplaces inform the continued stigmatisation of gay identities, forcing gay men to conceal their sexual identities. in line with reingardė (2010), participants in this study are suppressed and silenced by the dominant heterosexual discourse that affords heterosexual men power and marginalises gay men. gay men are therefore left with little space to incorporate their sexual identities into their everyday lives at work and have limited power to negotiate a place in a working environment that favours heterosexual men. from the findings of this study, i argue that the visibility of gay men in the mining industry threatens the hegemony of heterosexual masculinities, hence the perpetration and promotion of heteronormative ideologies by the heterosexual male majority. in accordance with mennicke et al. (2018), ratele (2014) and speice (2020), homophobia and the perpetration of heteronormative ideologies are tools that heterosexual men use to protect the hegemony of heterosexual masculinity because the presence of gay men in the mining workplace may destabilise this hegemony. the heteronormative male occupational culture of the mining industry entrenches inequalities, where heterosexual men are continually privileged while gay men continue to be oppressed, and there is a need to unsettle this occupational culture to ensure that the rights of gay men, as a sexual minority, are protected. this study confirms that gay men exist in the post-apartheid mining industry, and bringing the voices of gay mineworkers to the forefront is a crucial step to unsettling the heteronormative male occupational culture that erases the possibility that gay men form part of the mining workforce. future research can explore ways in which the exclusive heteronormative male occupational cultures can be unsettled and suggest recommendations towards creating inclusive working environments for sexual minorities. conclusion heteronormativity manifests in various social spaces in south africa, and this study focused on the mining industry to investigate how heteronormative male occupational cultures facilitate the visibility of gay identities. this study demonstrates that sexuality matters in mining workplaces because it can either privilege or oppress various groups of men based on how they identify their sexual identities. however, sexuality does not control men’s access to privilege and power in itself, but when it is used as a power mechanism informed by heteronormative ideals that support the existence of heterosexual identities and seek to erase gay identities. we learn from this research that gay men do exist in the post-apartheid south african mining industry, and their invisibility is significantly because of the heteronormative male occupational culture that stigmatises gay identities. this occupational culture continually produces and reproduces an exclusionary heterosexual discourse that assumes that only heterosexual men are fit to perform work in the mines and gay men are not. the assumption is closely linked to the notion that gay men are not ‘real men’ because they are sexually attracted to and engage in sexual intercourse with other men. questioning the capabilities of gay men and excluding gay identities from dominant conceptions of masculinity in the mining industry serve to protect the patriarchal privilege that heterosexual men enjoy in these male-dominated workplaces. it is only when sexual diversity is embraced and gay identities are acknowledged in the mining industry that the exclusive heteronormative male occupational culture can be unsettled to allow for an occupational culture that fosters inclusivity and tolerance. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions t.b.m., is the sole author of this article. funding information the study was funded by the national research foundation, grant number: sfh170530234990. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are not openly available because of the sensitivity of the topic under research and are available from the corresponding author, t.b.m., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references ashton, n.a., & mckenna, r. 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(2011). laboring in silence: young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer-identifying workers’ negotiations of the workplace closet in australian organization. youth & society, 43(3), 957–981. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x10377650 abstract introduction trauma-informed care goals of the study research methodology rigour of the study synthesis of the findings career construction counselling for work traumas recommendation for an integrated approach deconstructing and reauthoring work trauma narratives identifying problem-saturated stories deconstruction restructuring and reauthoring through co-construction limitations of the study implications for research, practice, policy, and future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jennifer j. linnekaste school of education, old dominion university, norfolk, united states of america citation linnekaste, j.j. (2021). trauma-informed career counselling to address work traumas resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. african journal of career development, 3(1), a42. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.42 review article trauma-informed career counselling to address work traumas resulting from the covid-19 pandemic jennifer j. linnekaste received: 11 aug. 2021; accepted: 26 aug. 2021; published: 30 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: sudden work traumas as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic have left thousands displaced from their current jobs and occupations. traditional career counselling approaches that overlook the role of emotion are not adequate to address the numerous emotional difficulties that arise after a sudden unexpected job loss. objectives: the objective of this research is to examine to what extent career counselling theories and interventions incorporate a trauma-informed career counselling approach and are prepared to address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. methods: a qualitative systematic literature review of all career-related journals that have trauma-informed career counselling in the title or body of the manuscript was conducted. additionally, career related articles, books, and book chapters specifically mentioning work traumas and interventions to address these issues were also examined. results: only one article on trauma-informed career counselling was found given the parameters of the literature review. currently, no articles outline how to integrate career counselling and emotion-focused therapy for trauma in order to address work traumas related to covid-19. conclusion: a trauma-informed career counselling approach that integrates career construction counselling and emotion-focused trauma therapy is needed to address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from a work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. an integrated approach to provide trauma-informed career counselling has been provided. keywords: covid-19; work trauma; trauma-informed career counselling; narrative; career construction theory. introduction the global covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on workers’ career trajectories and work climate resulting in unexpected job loss, significant changes within the work environment, and in some instances, traumatisation within the workplace. globally, millions of workers became unemployed in 2020 as a result of their employer closing or losing their business because of the pandemic (bls, 2021). global employment losses registered 114 million; more job losses being reported in 2020 in comparison to 2019 (ilo, 2020). those hardest hit included women (5% higher than men), younger workers (8.7% higher than older workers) and workers in the travel, food services, arts, retail and construction sectors (ilo, 2021). unemployment and a reduction of work hours have disproportionately impacted less skilled labour harder than those in the technology sector who have been able to adapt more easily to working remotely and online. the loss of employment has been correlated with elevated depressive symptoms (posel, oyenubi, & kollamparambil, 2021). in addition to the unexpected job loss, social distancing measures have forced workers to adapt to the changing work environment in unforeseen ways. global lockdowns and the associated restrictions have led to an increase in the number of employees working from home. prior to the covid-19 pandemic, approximately 17% of employees worked from home five or more days per week. but this rate has increased to 44% after the pandemic (miltz, 2021). workers with limited telework and technological skills suddenly found themselves striving to adapt to new software applications and programmes to retain their job. the stress of learning new skills in a short amount of time was coupled with social isolation. workers were no longer able to socialize or discuss work-related challenges with their colleagues. social isolation can result in psychological distress (i.e. anxiety, low mood, stress, fear, frustration and boredom) (razai et al., 2020). sudden adaptation to working online was seen most strikingly within the education sector, in which many teachers were forced to adapt to teaching online. globally, 1.6 billion students in more than 200 countries have experienced a disruption in their education because of the covid-19 pandemic. as a result, thousands of teachers throughout the world from primary to secondary schools and universities were forced to teach remotely in order to comply with governmental measures to ensure safety during the pandemic. whilst some schools and universities had already begun to adopt distance-learning prior to the pandemic, educators who taught solely in person expressed ambivalence about teaching remotely (moralista & oducado, 2020). teachers cited concerns about academic integrity, quality of the education, student success, and the need for technological support (moralista & oducado, 2020). teacher exhaustion and burnout whilst teaching online during the pandemic have been correlated with a perceived lack of accomplishment or teachers’ self-efficacy (sokal, trudel, & babb, 2020). burnout is characterised by emotional exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalisation, and low professional efficacy that can lead to anxiety, depression, and stress which in turn leads to low job satisfaction and poor job performance (chen et al., 2020). burnout is not only evident amongst educators, but also amongst healthcare workers which are on the front line of this pandemic. burnout rates for healthcare workers sharply increased worldwide as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. in one cross-sectional survey of six hospitals in iran, 53% of respondents (n = 326) experienced high levels of burnout (jalili, niroomand, hadavand, zeinali, & fotouhi, 2021). this study mirrors a larger cross-sectional survey amongst intensive care workers across 85 countries, 12 regions, and 50% university-affiliated hospitals (n = 1001) in which the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression or severe burnout was 46.5%, 30.2%, and 51%, respectively (azoulay et al., 2020). healthcare workers are faced with extraordinary challenges during the pandemic to care for and treat the patients whilst also trying to protect themselves from contracting this deadly virus. the most cited reasons for burnout include the working conditions of healthcare workers (i.e. long hours, shortage of personal protective equipment, lack of preparedness), fear of transmitting covid-19 to their loved ones or becoming infected themselves, disruption of work-life balance, disruption to standard operating procedures and role changes, moral dilemmas (i.e. deciding who to treat) and stress related to relationships with their supervisors, colleagues, and patients (chirico, nucera, & magnavita, 2021; greenberg, docherty, gnanapragasam, & wessely, 2020; roslan, yusoff, razak, & morgan, 2021). studies are just beginning to surface within individual countries that indicate the increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout amongst healthcare workers (vagni, majorano, giostra, & pajardi, 2020). vocational psychologists and career counsellors have traditionally overlooked the role of emotion within career counselling (hartung, 2011). instead, they have taken a more intellectualised approach towards helping clients align their vocational goals and strivings with their abilities, personalities, values, and interests. yet the adverse effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the psychological and emotional well-being and the careers of their clients cannot be overlooked within the field of career counselling. newer studies have found that normative stressful life events such as job loss are capable of causing post-traumatic stress (robinson & larson, 2010). furthermore, high workloads, fear of contracting the covid-19 virus, social isolation because of distancing measures, and the need to adapt to new working conditions have resulted in higher rates of traumatic stress (boyraz & legros, 2020; shevlin et al., 2020). trauma-informed care trauma-informed care is a term and approach articulated by the substance abuse and mental health services administration (samha) in 2001 designed to inform physicians, educators, and other social providers on how to effectively approach, recognise, and respond sensitively to patients, students, and clients who have experienced trauma (samha, 2015). trauma is defined broadly as abuse, neglect, loss, disaster, and other emotionally harmful experiences (2015). as a growing body of evidence demonstrates the significant impact of trauma on learning, behaviour, cognition, mental health, physical health, and educational success, professionals have recognised it important to outline a trauma-informed approach in order to ensure that educational institutions and service systems are aware of the policies or practices that could unintentionally further traumatise or induce trauma (i.e. abruptly removing a child from the home in the child welfare system, or harsh disciplinary practices in schools). a trauma-informed approach helps organisations and social systems in the following ways: (1) realise the widespread impact of trauma exposure, (2) identify how trauma may impact patients/students/clients, families, and staff within the system, (3) respond by applying this knowledge into practice and institutional policies, and (4) prevent re-traumatisation (2015). as a result of trauma-informed approaches, educational and social institutions have increased trauma awareness, and they are able to incorporate their knowledge and skills into their organisational cultures, practices, and policies (nctsn, 2021). the field of vocational psychology and counselling, however, is just beginning to address how to provide trauma-informed career counselling, particularly in light of the covid-19 pandemic. goals of the study the goals of this study are to examine (1) what extent current recommendations for providing trauma-informed care are being utilised within the field of career counselling and development and (2) which career counselling theory and practice can address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. the guiding (explorative) research questions are as follows: (1) to what extent is trauma-informed care being incorporated into career counselling practice? (2) what career counselling theories are best suited to provide counselling to individuals who have experienced work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic? and finally (3) how can career counselling provide an integrated trauma-informed approach towards work traumas? research methodology i conducted a brief, adapted, qualitative systematic review of the literature. data was gathered by conducting a search on all career-related journal articles, book chapters, and books utilising google scholar and also the university library search engines that included the keywords ‘trauma-informed career counselling’, ‘work traumas’, or a combination of ‘trauma and career counselling’ in the title or body of the manuscript. the journals that did not have a snip score greater than 1, and a sjr ranking in top 50%, were excluded from consideration. in addition, articles that did not address career counselling practices were excluded. additionally, i searched and reviewed scholarly peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters that referenced work traumas, trauma and career, covid-19 and career counselling implications, and those addressing emotion in the context of career counselling, until i reached data saturation, whereby repeating material overlapped with one another (booth, 2016). subsequently, the findings were integrated and synthesised. rigour of the study rigorously reviewing the literature is important for planning and conducting future empirical studies (synder, 2019). this review is comparative and deductive in nature. because of the narrow definition of trauma-informed care (sasha, 2005), the recent materialisation of the covid-19 pandemic, and the theoretical limitations inherent in integrating current career theories with the current theories of trauma counselling, there were few articles, books, and book chapters for consideration, thereby increasing the comprehensiveness and accuracy of this review. synthesis of the findings the extensive search on trauma-informed career counselling yielded only two results, which include an article published in 2020 in career development quarterly titled, ‘toward trauma informed career counseling’ and an article published in 2019, in the journal of human services titled, ‘trauma-informed career counseling: identifying and advocating for the vocational needs of human services clients and professionals’. based on the exclusion criteria, the article in the journal of human services was excluded because of the low sjr value (0.152) and ranking (22 986) of the journal (scimago, 2021). the findings reveal that the integration of trauma-informed care within career counselling is in its early stage, with respect to peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, as only one article, published in career development quarterly in 2020, has offered general guidelines on how to provide trauma-informed career counselling to clients who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ace) (powers & duys, 2020). adverse childhood experiences are traumatic experiences in a person’s life before the age of 18 which include experiencing violence, abuse, neglect, having a family member attempt or die by suicide, and growing up in a household where there is substance abuse, mental health problems, or instability because of parental separation (i.e. incarceration) (cdc, 2021). adverse childhood experiences can increase the risk of poverty, unemployment, and attachment-related issues that can impact later relationships (liu et al., 2013; prescod & zeligman, 2018; zielinski, 2009). as a result, powers and duys (2020) recommend career counsellors to provide trauma-informed counselling by learning the science behind aces, toxic stress, and resilience, exploring ace with clients, understanding how childhood trauma and toxic stress affects the biology of the brain, and by building connections with other healthcare providers who are aware of trauma-informed care (powers & duys, 2020). in light of the covid-19 pandemic, however, trauma-informed career counselling must go beyond tackling aces to also address work traumas that have arisen as a result of unexpected job loss, traumatic stress in the workplace, and disruptions in education and training in adulthood. trauma-informed career counselling should also address the challenge of enabling people to integrate what they know about themselves consciously with their subconscious insights (maree, 2020). traumatisation in the workplace can be caused by or lead to a significant unwanted disruption with one’s career path or ability to continue working in one’s current position (del corso, 2015). in order to provide trauma-informed career counselling to this population, it is important to understand how trauma-related symptoms impact career decision-making and career adaptability. furthermore, trauma-informed career counselling also ensures minimising the risk of re-traumatisation or replicating prior trauma dynamics by empowering clients to create a safe environment in which counsellors work collaboratively with clients to foster autonomy, control, and choice over their career decisions (samsha, 2014). in order to promote resilience, career counsellors need to utilise strength-focused approaches to foster resiliency skills in their clients (2015). these protective factors include cultivating clients’ belief in their ability to cope, stay connected to their sources of support, increase their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem, regulate their emotional arousal when confronted with problems, and create meaning to their life (agaibi & wilson, 2005). after reviewing the current approaches to career and trauma counselling, i concluded that career construction counselling is well-suited for providing trauma-informed career counselling for the following reasons. firstly, it relies heavily upon a collaborative counsellor-client relationship that affirms the client’s authority as expert and author of their life story (savickas, 2015). this helps to foster the client’s sense of agency and autonomy over their decision-making process and reduce the likelihood that the counsellor will operate from the role of career ‘expert’ or advising consultant. an expert stance by the counsellor can replicate power dynamics felt by trauma survivors who had initially experienced a sense of powerlessness and lack of agency during the initial trauma incident (butler, critelli, & rinfrette, 2011). secondly, career construction counselling allows clients the opportunity to share their storied experience and engage in meaning making as they construct their careers (mcmahon & watson, 2008; powers & duys, 2020; savickas 2020). understanding a client’s subjective experience in narrative form allows clients the opportunity to process and make sense of their experience. for example, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (tf-cbt) and emotion-focused therapy for trauma (eftt), both encourage clients to share their narrative as part of the therapeutic process (angus & greenberg, 2011; mannarino, cohen, & deblinger, 2014). as a result, narrative career interventions can be both trauma-informed, as well as trauma-focused, enabling career counsellors to participate in the primary goal of trauma recovery, in accordance with the trauma-informed care guidelines. finally, narrative career interventions are inherently strength-based which aligns with trauma-informed care initiatives to encourage practitioners and educators to use strength-focused perspectives to promote resilience (samsha, 2014). career construction counsellors listen for stories of resiliency to empower and strengthen clients’ sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy (pordelan, hosseinian, & lashaki, 2021). they help clients narrate their vocational identity and provide guiding principles to help them construct careers to overcome pain, struggles and crisis points along their career path (savickas, 2011). career construction counselling for work traumas the covid-19 pandemic challenges career counsellors to be cognizant and empathetic towards the emotional changes and cognitions that impact career decision making and adaptability as a result of potential work traumas. work traumas are unanticipated painful events that cause significant emotional distress or traumatisation and result in two or more of the following: (1) significant unwanted disruption of one’s career path and/or ability to continue working within one’s current position; (2) re-examination of previously held beliefs about the workplace or occupation; (3) re-examination of continuity within one’s current profession or career trajectory; (4) vocational identity or role confusion; and (5) erosion of one’s sense of self-efficacy and confidence as it pertains to work performance or career adaptability (del corso, 2015). the findings reveal that there is a lack of information on how to provide career construction counselling and trauma counselling in an integrated manner. career counsellors can provide career counselling to clients who have experienced a work trauma by integrating career construction counselling with eftt because both rely upon narrative processes within the context of an empathetic, trusting, and caring counsellor-client relationship. career construction counselling is a process by which career counsellors invite clients to share their current career circumstances or concerns in story-form. language provides the vehicle for which reality is constructed and experienced. by understanding how clients describe their career identity and career decisions, counsellors can help clients tell a clearer and broader (or thicker) narrative about who they are, what matters to them, and how they have adapted resiliently to challenges in the past. every career concern is unique and specific. counsellors listen for restrictive simplified narratives that are problem saturated (i.e. i’m a failure) and that may impact career adaptability. career counsellors help draw out these narratives and re-author problem-saturated narratives through the process of de-construction and co-construction with the counsellor. in a similar manner, eftt uses narrative processes to help clients assimilate their emotions, psychological needs and beliefs into a narrative that helps them organise the emotional events they have experienced (angus & greenberg, 2011). many trauma narratives are incoherent because traumatic events or stressors have a disorganised influence on the self. an individual’s narrative or imagined view of oneself and the future can become disorganised and disrupted. as a result, there is a clash between two competing plotlines: the previously dominant expected of hoped for plotline and the emerging or actual plotline (angus & greenberg, 2011). painful emotions may make it difficult for clients to construct a complete and emotionally coherent understanding of what they feel or think. maladaptive secondary emotions (i.e. shame, guilt), in particular, can lead clients to avoid talking about their experiences (angus & greenberg, 2011). as a result, traumatic symptoms such as avoidance, intrusive thoughts, over-arousal, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and depersonalisation can occur when clients fail to share what happened (external narrative sequence), process emotions (internal narrative sequence), and make sense of what happened (reflexive narrative sequence), (angus, levitt, & hardtke, 1999; crespo & fernández-lansac, 2016). thus, the findings reveal that career counsellors can utilise the process of career construction counselling (eliciting narratives, de-construction, and reconstruction) to address work traumas that are associated with the covid-19 pandemic, by integrating the narrative processes in eftt (practice) with the use of narrative in career construction counselling, and in a manner that is consistent with trauma-informed care principles (samsha, 2014). recommendation for an integrated approach recommendations based upon the absence of an integrated counselling approach include: (1) eliciting the client’s narrative related to the work trauma, problem-saturated narrative impacting career adaptability, and vocational identity, (2) de-constructing problem-saturated narratives, and (3) reconstructing narratives through the process of co-construction in order to facilitate agency and adaptability. the counselling process begins by establishing safety and trust with the client. next, career counsellors seek to draw out client narratives that relate to their present career problem, specifically, what career difficulty has led them to seek out career counselling. depending on the type of career concern, career construction counsellors may elicit narratives that pertain to a client’s vocational identity, that is, what they consider to be their abilities, needs, values, and interests (savickas, 2005). they may also elicit narratives that relate to their career adaptability, that is, how they have narrated their attempts to adapt or handle their current career problem. in addition, counsellors listen for signs of a break in the narrative that reflect evidence of an unprocessed work trauma. the final step is to de-construct and reconstruct/reauthor client narratives to help them have a cohesive understanding of their vocational identity and strivings to help facilitate their ability to adapt. the process of de-construction and re-authoring often happens simultaneously in the counselling process as the counsellor asks open-ended questions from a curious investigative stance, that then allow the client to begin to re-author unique stories and outcomes. as counsellors summarise and reflect back to clients’ life themes, and/or stories of resiliency within their narratives, clients are able to re-author the dominant narratives through which they perceive themselves and the world. furthermore, the role of emotion is not overlooked. the counselling relationship serves as an emotionally corrective experience to clients as they are allowed space to narrate and make sense of their emotions which facilitate emotional regulation and adaptive coping, which in turn, help clients successfully adapt to the career challenges they face (greenberg, 2004). establishing safety the first step in the process for providing trauma-informed career counselling is to create a safe space for clients to share their story. the relationship between client and counsellor is important in career construction counselling because it serves as a secure base for which clients feel comfortable in communicating their ideas and life stories (savickas, 2011). trauma impacts a client’s sense of safety and trust. therefore, establishing it at the onset of the career counselling process is vital (rosenbloom, pratt, & pearlman, 1995). this can be done in several ways that include clarifying the career counsellor’s role and expectations for counselling, grounding and mindfulness techniques, and demonstrating unconditional positive regard and empathy towards the client. firstly, career counsellors can establish a sense of safety by clearly defining the counsellor’s role in the career counselling process so that ambiguity and confusion are minimised. clients who seek career counselling have different expectations about counselling than those who seek personal counselling (lewis, 2001). they may expect the counsellor to be an expert or provide them with career advice. therefore, it is important to explain to the clients that they are the experts of their own lives and that the role of the counsellor is to provide a space and reflective audience to help the client hear their own voice, strivings, and strategies to adapt (savickas, 2011). open-ended questions such as ‘how can i be helpful? or how may i be useful today?’ set the stage for this collaborative relationship in order to formulate clear goals for counselling (savickas, 2020). just as the client can voice what they wish to gain from the career counselling process, counsellors also have a responsibility to clarify what they can and cannot do. for example, career counsellors do not give career advice, nor can they promise to resolve the client’s immediate existing problem if it goes outside the scope of career counselling. some traumatic experiences in the workplace, for example, may require the intervention of a trained trauma specialist if the counsellor recognises signs of significant post-traumatic stress (i.e. intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks) that altogether supersede the client’s existing career concern. career counsellors do not possess the necessary skills to address mental health disorders (ncda code of ethics a.1.b, 2015). career counsellors can, however, provide trauma-informed career counselling when the scope of the primary problem is directly related to a client’s career, as they possess the professional and therapeutic skills that differs from that of a career planner, advisor, or consultant. career counsellors can clarify that their role is to help clients adapt to unexpected work traumas that significantly disrupt their vocational identity or career path, so that they can confidently construct or design their future movements in line with their needs, interests, and goals. secondly, counsellors can establish a sense of safety at the beginning of the counselling session by letting clients know that they are in control of the counselling process as the expert author of their career story (savickas, 2005). clients who have experienced a traumatic or painful experience in the workplace are more likely to have experienced a sense of powerlessness (caplan, 2006). therefore, clients should be informed that they can control the pace at which they tell their story, what information they wish to share, and can stop the process at any time if they become too emotionally aroused during the session. grounding techniques (such as deep breathing, having a glass of water, or movement) help to engage one or more of the clients’ five senses and allows them to take a moment to reduce emotional arousal that can arise from discussing painful experiences (treleaven, 2018). counsellors who are trained in teaching mindfulness techniques (i.e. noticing one’s breath, bodily sensations) can help clients become aware of their surroundings and body throughout the counselling process to notice when they need to take a moment to slow down their emotional reactivity. it is important that trauma-informed career counsellors understand that it is difficult for clients to think or engage in career decision making when they are over-aroused (van der kolk, 2006). therefore, it is important to help clients regulate their emotional arousal in order to solve the problem. as a result, clients will feel empowered and emotionally safe. a final way to establish safety is for the counsellors to demonstrate warmth, empathy, and hope. many trauma survivors have experienced a diminished sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy (allen, 1995). research has found that individuals who have undergone a traumatic experience have lower expectations for empathy from their career counsellor. therefore, it is important that the career counsellor demonstrate empathy and support to clients at the beginning of the counselling session in order to build trust (coursol, lewis, & garrity, 2001). conveying warmth, empathy, and compassion also creates a sense of psychological and emotional safety for clients to cope with their maladaptive feelings of shame and guilt. additionally, it is important for counsellors to be hopeful for clients as many clients may struggle with a sense of despair or hopelessness as a result of their work trauma. career counsellors can cultivate hope by believing in the strength-based nature of career counselling to help clients imagine a future self and career possibilities. eliciting the narrative the next step in the counselling process is for the counsellors to draw out client narratives that relate to the client’s reason for seeking career counselling. the narrative surrounding the existing career concern is an important one, as counsellors are provided a window into how the client frames their perspective of the existing problem. career problems may involve a combination of challenges related to what to do in their current situation and how to construct a future career in line with their ideal self (savickas, 2005). clients may express difficulties related to career concern, control, curiosity, and/or confidence. these narratives also reveal how clients feel about their current situation. it is not uncommon for clients to be unsure as to what they need or how a career counsellor can help them. they may simply report feeling stuck or confused, but they now know exactly why is it so. trauma, in particular, can result in unstoried emotions which are undifferentiated and maladaptive emotional states which are not embedded in a narrative context (angus & greenberg, 2011). these narratives often fail to identify a specific cause or context for an emotional response as a person may not fully have insight into what their emotions mean. as a result, clients may make statements such as ‘i don’t know why i feel this way’. in response, counsellors can use emotional and content paraphrases to demonstrate patience and empathy as they help draw out the client’s narrative and clarify their career concern. additionally, counsellors can ask open-ended questions or utilise prompts to help clients who express difficulty knowing where to begin. when clients have experienced an abrupt disruption in their career development, it can be helpful to ask them to begin their story by picking a starting point when life made sense or felt normal to them. this helps the client organise their narrative in such a way that the arc, or episodic plotline, can be easily traced. it also enables counsellors to easily identify where the clash between two competing plotlines (the expected, or hoped for, and the emerging, or actual, plotline) exists (angus & greenberg, 2011). these disruptions can be identified by listening to how a client expresses their current career problem in before and after terms (i.e. ‘before this happened, i felt and or thought this about myself or others, but now i feel or think this’). deconstructing and reauthoring work trauma narratives after having elicited a client’s narrative, trauma-informed career counsellors can help clients make sense of their experiences by deconstructing narratives in order to co-construct new strength-based stories with the counsellor who facilitate personal agency to help clients adapt to their situation (merscham, 2000). this is done through the simultaneous process of deconstruction and re-construction, or re-authoring through a co-constructive process with the counsellor (savickas, 2011). deconstruction is the process of externalising one’s internalised discourse and opening up space in one’s story to understand how the clients make sense of themselves and their life experiences (brott, 2017, p. 97; white & epstein, 1990). because narratives are fluid, rather than static, they are open to interpretation and multiple meanings (besley, 2002). this allows for counsellors to co-construct new meanings and interpretations that can help clients move forward with respect to their career concern. this process of deconstruction within career construction counselling involves utilising the career construction interview (cci) or other qualitative career assessments, designed to identify themes related to a client’s perceived interests, abilities, skills, values and preferred work environment (savickas, 2011). within narrative therapy, (epston & white, 1991), deconstruction means externalising problem-saturated narratives by examining the context in which these narratives were first internalised and constructed. finally, within eftt, deconstruction, although not explicitly referred to as deconstruction, involves evocation and exploration of emotion in order for the client to express core primary memories and core interpersonal themes (i.e. self-doubt, feelings of failure) (angus & greenberg, 2011). the theme amongst each of these approaches is the process of breaking apart and analysing client narratives pertaining respectively to their vocational identity, problem-saturated stories that impact one’s vocational identity, career adaptability and emotional awareness in order to create space for unique outcomes and an alternative storyline. reconstruction is the complementary process to deconstruction whereby clients change or alter how their narrative, that is, how they make sense of their experiences and themselves (identity). in career construction theory and emotional focused therapy for trauma, reconstruction involves the integration of new narrative and personal meanings into pre-existing view of themselves or others or a radical reorganisation of one’s self-narrative (angus & greenberg, 2011; savickas, 2012). the process of reconstruction, however, differs between these two theories. career construction counsellors reconstruct narratives by reflecting back themes to help weave a tapestry of one overarching micronarrative to create a unifying of the self (vocational identity) plotted as the protagonist within their own life story. this process is called co-construction in which career counsellors form a cooperative alliance and function additional audience from which clients can co-construct a future story, or unique outcome that can then be enacted upon (mcmahon, 2017, p.228). on the other hand, emotion focused therapists seek to provide an emotionally corrective experience to clients through empathetic attunement (i.e. empathy, non-judging) (angus & greenberg, 2011). this allows for clients to feel safe to talk about their feelings and become aware of their primary emotions. narratives change as a result of creating a space whereby clients can slow down their emotional arousal, understand how emotions impact their structures of meaning-making, and give voice to unstoried emotions of pain. as a result, clients are reconstructing, consolidating, and assimilating coherent, new, and emotionally significant ways of viewing themselves or others. this simultaneous process of deconstruction and re-construction occurs within the context of co-construction with the counsellor. nevertheless, it is helpful to separate out these two processes by conceptualising the deconstruction process as creating space within narratives and reconstruction process as the integration of new narratives to help clients tell an adaptive and cohesive story that enables them to adapt. career construction counsellors work primarily to de-construct one’s vocational identity and help clients re-author who they are by weaving together a thematic story of one’s self. however, those clients who have experienced a work trauma often share problem-saturated storylines that impede career adaptability. therefore, it is helpful to begin the process by identifying problem-saturated narratives that reflect where a client’s view of themselves, their work situation, sense of safety, or sense of purpose has been disrupted in order to address those narratives that directly impede career adaptability. identifying problem-saturated stories problem-saturated storylines can be identified by several ways. firstly, these narratives often reflect confusion or loss surrounding one’s vocational identity or career trajectory. challenges reflected in problem-saturated narratives are often related to career readiness (concern for the future), career control (a sense of control over it), career curiosity (exploration of possible selves and social opportunities) and career confidence (to design an occupational future and execute plans to realise it) (savickas, 2020). clients who have experienced covid-19 related fatigue and stress as a result of their work might say, ‘i don’t know if this is where i’m meant to be any longer. i can’t keep continuing to work under these conditions’. furthermore, clients who have experienced an unexpected obstacle within their education or a job related to the covid-19 pandemic may say, ‘i don’t know what to do now with my life. i feel lost’. problem-saturated storylines often involve unstoried expressions of grief. work traumas create significant emotional distress because of the disruption of core representation models of the self and others. as a result, clients often experience feeling immobilised, helpless, panic, fear both during the traumatic experience and in the acute phase succeeding it if the threat to safety has not been neutralised (levers, 2012). anger, sadness, fear, and shame can persist as clients experience a lack of control over their situation. as a result, these problem stories can be identified because they tend to be narrow, thin storylines that reflect shame, anger, or sadness that rarely reflect the complexity and numerous contexts that influence a client’s behaviour, emotions, and cognitions. counsellors can identify these storylines, as well, by attending to where the greatest degree of emotional pain or arousal is present when the clients express their narrative. problem-saturated storylines can also be identified by attending to stories in which the clients often repeat over and over that reflect a contradiction between a core belief a client holds about him or herself in contrast to their behaviour, feelings, or thoughts. the inability to hold a cohesive storyline about one’s vocational identity indicates that a problem-saturated story is present. in order to adapt, clients must create a narrative that does not contradict core beliefs of themselves. finally, problem-saturated storylines can be identified by attending to the primary arc of the client’s storyline. mcadams (2006) identified two distinctive narrative scripts, namely redemption and contamination, that people employ when constructing their life stories and adapting to obstacles and transitions. in a redemption sequence, an individual narrates a transformation from a negative state to a positive one (mcadams, 2006). this sequence describes how an individual endures, seeks to reduce suffering, improve, or redeem heror himself in her or his present situation. redemptive scripts are associated with personal agency, self-efficacy, strength, and confidence (mcadams, 2006). this script is also associated with how an individual becomes the hero amidst his or her life trials. by contrast, a contamination script describes a loss of a once-positive state, one that has now become contaminated or ruined. deconstruction after the counsellor has identified key problem-saturated dominant narratives that reflect a significant disruption to how a client perceives themselves now in contrast with how they perceived themselves previously, it is important to help break apart or create space into these narratives through a process of inquiry by breaking down larger narratives into smaller ones, widening the audience, exploring the context in which these dominant narratives were first written, examining language, exploring exceptions to the current narrative, and exploring the role of emotion. each dominant narrative that poses a career adaptability problem for clients can be broken down into smaller narratives by asking clients to elaborate, explain, or provide details related to how they have made certain conclusions about themselves and others. later during the reconstruction process, the counsellor can reflect back values and interests that thematically run through a client’s career history, thus, clarifying the client’s guiding fiction or ideal self. this will allow them to evaluate future career decisions in light of this fuller narrative. exploring and expanding the client’s audience another way in which career counsellors can deconstruct narratives is to widen their client’s audience. a person’s audience includes significant individuals (i.e. family, friends, teachers, work colleagues, communities, culture) who influences how clients both shape and make sense of their vocational identity and career behaviour (del corso & briddick, 2015). the ‘self’ does not exist apart from the feedback of an audience. self-making is a task (savickas, 2011). counsellors can widen the audience by conducting an inquiry into past audiences, present-day audiences, and different audiences who have influenced or impacted the dominant problem-saturated narrative. the goal is to help the person deconstruct how the narrative was formed within a specific historical and developmental context. furthermore, they can begin to reflect on how individuals in their present-day audience perceive their situation. this inquiry allows clients to consider how their relationship or membership within a specific audience contributes to their emotional pain and distress. counsellors can intentionally invite new voices from a different audience into the conversation, including that of the counsellor, for consideration by the client. the goal is to open up space within a client’s rigid thin restrictive narrative. expanding a client’s audience allows space to explore how this audience influences each client’s interpretation of themselves, their choices, and their current career problem. this helps clients evaluate their narrative through the lens of various perspectives in order to help clients actively choose, rather than passively internalise, the feedback they receive from others. as a result of this inquiry, clients who have experienced burnout in the workplace as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, for example, may realise that the problem is not the type of work they are doing, but rather the audience, or employer, that they are working for. additionally, this deconstruction process allows clients to actively consider the motivation and the intent behind the feedback from others. as clients expand their audience and critically reflect on how they have formed key constructs about their vocational identity and career behaviour, they are able to employ more adaptable strategies by repositioning themselves relative to their career problem as they recognise their own influence over their self-narrative (savickas, 2020). exploring the role of emotion work traumas create significant emotional distress because of the disruption of core representation models of the self and others. as a result, clients often experience feeling immobilised, helpless, panic, fear both during the traumatic experience and in the acute phase succeeding it if the threat to safety has not been neutralised (levers, 2012). anger, sadness, fear, and shame can persist as clients experience a lack of control over their situation. consequently, emotion influences how narratives are written in several ways. firstly, individuals may narrate their experience in congruence with their emotional state. as a result, they may only attend to information that is consistent with their current feelings and discount information that does not. secondly, they may interpret the motivations of others or their situation in light of how they feel. if, for example, a client feels overlooked or discarded, they may conclude that it was an employer’s intention to make them feel this way because they (the employer) did not care. finally, undifferentiated states of high emotional arousal can make clients unable to affectively label internal emotional states or do so within the client’s limited range of feeling words. as a result, these narratives can appear disorganised. clients may also repeat words such as ‘hopeless’ without fully being able to label the underlying emotions of frustration, fear, and sadness. therefore, counsellors can work to help de-construct problem-saturated narratives by using externalising problematic affective states to help separate the client from the problem (merscham, 2000). when clients can externalise negative emotional states that impede adaptability by naming the problem (i.e. ‘the anger’, ‘the depression’, ‘the injustice’), it increases a client’s sense of agency by emplotting themselves as the dominant protagonist in their life story. it also helps clients facilitate reflexivity and differentiate from their emotional state by recognising that the nature of emotion is fluid and temporal. exception questions a final way to de-construct problem-saturated narratives is to inquire into areas of exceptions to when the problem is not occurring or present, because these exceptions are entry points into alternative stories (gonçalves, matos, & santos, 2009). trauma-informed career counsellors utilise strength-focused approaches to foster resiliency skills in their clients (samsha, 2014). exception questions are predominantly used with solution-focused therapy to help clients consider alternative stories or experiences that run counter to their narrative of the existing problem. this allows counsellors to create additional space within these problem-saturated narratives to consider an alternative story or narration of their experience. contradictory statements within the clients’ disorganised narratives are a helpful starting point for exploring exceptions to dominant storylines that impede adaptability. the counsellor can ask about times when the existing career problem is not present. are there times when the client does feel hopeful, trusting, or more confident? if so, what is different about those times? in addition, counsellors can ask clients who are struggling with hopelessness or defeat, exception questions related to times where they have experienced something impossible turning out to become possible, or a time when something turned out better than they expected. these types of hope-focused exception questions can instill hope and allow clients reflexively think about times, experiences, and stories within their past that have been overlooked (larsen, edey, & lemay, 2007). exception questions enable clients to articulate experiences and feedback from others that contradict his dominant problem-saturated story line, which in turn facilitates re-authoring new possible meanings and outcomes to facilitate successful adaptation. restructuring and reauthoring through co-construction as stated earlier, the complementary process to deconstruction is reconstructing or re-authoring client narratives through the process of co-construction with a counsellor. as counsellors deconstruct client narratives, they also seek to co-construct and re-author client narratives to facilitate adaptability by reflecting back to the client a new or expanded narrative to help the client gain an alternative awareness or meaning. whilst the process of deconstruction naturally leads to re-construction as the clients explore how they have made sense of themselves and their experiences, counsellors intentionally participate in the construction and re-authoring process in several ways. firstly, counsellors help clients organise their lived experiences into a larger unfolding life story, thus, participating in the client’s self-organising process. individuals who have experienced a work trauma often have difficulty accommodating these stories into their larger career story because of the disruptive nature of trauma (reisberg & hertel, 2004). therefore, career counsellors can help clients create a storied understanding of what happened, what was felt, and what it means (greenberg & agnus, 2011). this enables clients to cognitively process, organise, structure, and ultimately assimilate both their emotional experiences and work trauma into their unfolding career narrative (greenberg & agnus, 2011). during deconstruction, macronarratives are broken down into micronarratives and the language a client uses is elucidated and elaborated upon to provide a deeper understanding of how a client constructs and makes sense of their experience. during the reconstruction process, however, the counsellor helps weave together these micronarratives by intentionally reflecting back career themes related to a client’s interests, behaviour, career decision-making, motivation, skills, abilities, values, and needs across their vocational lifespan which can, in turn, help the client tell a unifying story about who they are (vocational identity), who they wish to be (future idea self-narrative) and how they seek to adapt (unique story outcomes) (hartung & santilli, 2016, p. 183; savickas, 2011).this is often done in career construction counselling by utilising the cci, whereby clients are asked to reflect on their role models, hobbies, favourite and least favourite school subjects, favourite television shows, books, stories, and magazines or websites that interest them (savickas, 2011). as clients answer these questions, themes appear. as these themes are reflected back to the client, it helps them organise their experience. secondly, counsellors help clients reconstruct narratives by not only intentionally inquiring about past and present audiences that impact the client’s current career concern but also as participating actively as another audience who helps a client tell the story about who they are and where they are going. the relationship between the counsellor and client is at the heart of constructivist career counselling as well as emotion-focused narrative therapy. constructing a sense of self involves an ongoing process both of identifying with and symbolising emotions and actions in a way that provides temporal stability and coherence (angus & greenberg, 2011). this is not done in isolation but within the context of a warm, empathetic, relationship in which a highly attuned therapist attempts to focus the client’s attention on emotions and experiences outside of their client’s awareness in order to offer meaning that will help the client clarify and co-construct new meanings (angus & greenberg, 2011). by assimilating primary emotions, such as sadness, clients can re-organise and re-author a dominant contamination script of loss into a redemptive script of growth and development. thirdly, counsellors help clients identify adaptive schemas and strategies where clients have used in the past or wish to use to in the future to overcome career adaptability challenges through the use of exception questions as well as expanding one’s audience to consider role models or fictional characters that have overcome similar hardships. clients are seen as change agents functioning as authors and actors within their life story who possess knowledge as to how to best adapt and adjust to their situation as experts of their own lives (bruner, 2004). as such, career construction counsellors believe that clients tell themselves the stories they need to hear (savickas, 2020). clients may not be able to make the connection between these stories and how they relate to their career concern as they often lie on the periphery of their consciousness. furthermore, for clients who have experienced a work trauma, it may be even more difficult for them to hear the advice and encouragement they are telling themselves because of emotion, anxiety, or disorganised thought patterns. therefore, counsellors are cognizant and mindful to use the client’s words and systems of sense-making whilst they reflect or ask questions to help clients hear their own voice (bruner, 2004). there are several ways to identify adaptive schemas. counsellors can ask clients to share a motto they live by, books or movies that resonate with them, or times in the past where they felt contrary to how they feel today. mottos, metaphors, and key stories that a client shares often reflect the advice a client has for themselves with respect to the work trauma they currently face. lastly, counsellors can help facilitate narrative change by presenting alternative storylines, meanings, and reflections that the clients may then choose to incorporate into their own autobiographical narrative. the goal is to reconstruct a shift within a client’s perception that prompts a new understanding by which they can construct an action plan that will enable them to make career decisions (savickas, 2020). for example, a counsellor might reflect back that they hear the story of a worker who has faced incredible challenges only to continue striving and who has not given up. in turn, the clients may choose to internalise the counsellor’s perception, thereby co-constructing a new narrative that enables them re-author problem-saturated narratives that impede adaptability. limitations of the study the review of current trauma-informed career counselling research is limited by the degree to which articles appeared in the selected search engines and university databases. the term trauma-informed career counselling is relatively new and therefore, relevant materials related to trauma and career counseling may have been excluded. this qualitative overview and recommendation for an integrated model is consistent with the author’s area of expertise and knowledge in the area of career construction counselling and may overlook efforts made within the field of trauma counselling or psychotherapy or social work to address work-related issues related to trauma. the integration of eftt was selected because of overlap in utilising client narratives to promote growth and healing. however, this can result in excluding other trauma therapies such as tf-cbt that may be integrated with alternative career theories such as happenstance and social learning theories of career counselling. implications for research, practice, policy, and future research there is a need for future quantitative studies to be conducted to test the efficacy of the integrated approach outlined in this article. in addition, empirical studies are needed to compare traditional with trauma-informed career counselling approaches in order to evaluate outcomes in comparison to the trauma-informed career goals (i.e. promoting strength, resiliency). conclusion few career counselling and development theories have integrated trauma-informed care into practice and provide a conceptual basis for addressing the emotional, psychological and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas experienced as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. counsellors can provide trauma-informed career counselling to clients who have experienced a work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic by integrating career construction counselling with eftt. both cct and eftt rely upon narrative processes that utilise strength-based, resilient approaches to help clients emotionally cope and adapt to problem-saturated narratives that impact career adaptability. this article explains how career counsellors can utilise the process of co-construction (eliciting narratives, de-construction, and reconstruction) to address work traumas that are associated with the covid-19 pandemic in a manner that is consistent with trauma-informed care principles (samsha, 2014). trauma-informed career counsellors can help clients make sense of their experiences by deconstructing narratives in order to co-construct with the counsellor new strength-based stories that facilitate personal agency for the clients (merscham, 2000). in conclusion, the field of career counselling and vocational psychology need to develop theories and trauma-informed career interventions to address trauma in the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions j.l. is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references agaibi, c.e., & wilson, j.p. 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(2009). child maltreatment and adult socioeconomic well-being. child abuse & neglect, 33, 666–678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.09.001 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) paul j. hartung department of family and community medicine, northeast ohio medical university, rootstown, united states of america jeannine m. taylor department of counseling, kent state university, kent, united states of america brian j. taber department of counseling, oakland university, rochester, united states of america citation hartung, p.j., taylor, j.m., & taber, b.j. (2022). affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. african journal of career development, 4(1), a58. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.58 original research affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness paul j. hartung, jeannine m. taylor, brian j. taber received: 18 may 2022; accepted: 21 june 2022; published: 11 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: cognition and reason have received substantial and inordinate attention relative to emotion and intuition in understanding and intervening to promote vocational behaviour and career development. objectives: towards redressing this situation, the present study examined positive affect (pa) and negative affect (na) as proxies for emotion with regard to their relationship with three career decision-making (cdm) variables. method: a total of 250 university students (183 women, 65 men; mean age = 23 years; 88% caucasian) responded to measures of affect, occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. results: the study results supported hypothesised positive interrelationships amongst the three cdm variables. as hypothesised, regression analysis indicated that pa positively predicted the three cdm variables. contrary to expectations, na also positively predicted occupational engagement and career decidedness, albeit to a lesser degree. conclusion: the present results indicate that emotions, both positive and negative, seem to be linked to important vocational processes and should be considered in career theory and intervention. keywords: career decision-making; career adaptability; occupational engagement; career decidedness; positive and negative affectivity. introduction various calls have been made for studies of emotional and intuitive processes in career development and decision-making (e.g. hartung, 2011; hartung & blustein, 2002; kidd, 1998, 2004; krieshok, black, & mckay, 2009). such calls, dating back to the work of parsons (1909), recognise that cognition and rationality have received substantially greater attention relative to emotion in the career literature (hartung & blustein, 2002; krieshok et al., 2009; mitchell, levin, & krumboltz, 1999). this fact exists despite the integral link between cognition and emotion generally in human behaviour and development (eds. dalgleish & power, 1999, 2008). the prizing of reason over emotion in career decision-making traces its roots to ancient and modern philosophy (solomon, 2008) and relegates emotion and subjectivity to lesser roles in human decision-making and behaviour (cacioppo & gardner, 1999). conventional wisdom and scientific inquiry suggest that emotion must be dampened and cognition amplified when it comes to making good and satisfying decisions. the belief is that higher-order processes such as thought, rationality and decision-making must not be ‘hijacked by the pirates of emotion’ (cacioppo & gardner, 1999, p. 194) that can compromise objectivity and adaptive behaviour. such a belief likely helps relegate emotion to a lesser role in vocational behaviour and particularly in career decision-making (cdm) processes, wherein reason likely gets favoured over emotion. yet a significant body of conceptual and empirical work supports the role of emotion in cdm (e.g. hartung & blustein, 2002; hartung, 2011; kidd, 1998, 2004; krieshok et al., 2009; porfeli, wang, & hartung, 2008; rottinghaus, jenkins, & jantzer, 2009). therefore, the present study sought to examine positive and negative emotions as predictors of three cdm variables: career decidedness, career adaptability and occupational engagement. these outcome variables were chosen because of their prevalence in the cdm literature and fundamental roles in the career choice and development process. positive and negative emotions generalised emotional expression comprises two independent dimensions: positive affect (pa) and negative affect (na) (watson, clark, & tellegen, 1988). positive affect is a generalised form of positive emotion reflecting enthusiasm, activity and extraversion (watson & clark, 1997). negative affect is a general form of negative emotion indicated by distress and displeasure and associated with anxiety, depression and neuroticism (clark & watson, 1991; silvia & warburton, 2006). personality research and theory suggest that individuals develop trait affect leading them to respond to situations with typically more pa or more na (e.g. bagozzi, 1993; cropanzano, james, & konovsky, 1993; thompson, 2007; wright & staw, 1999). emotion in career studies theoretical (e.g. hartung, 2011; young & valach, 1996) and empirical works (e.g. brown, george-curran, & smith, 2003; porfeli et al., 2008; rottinghaus et al., 2009; young, paseluikho, &valach, 1997) have gradually offered more concerted responses to calls made for considering emotion in career theory and intervention. for example, rottinghaus et al. (2009) found evidence for career-decided college students reporting significantly less depressed moods than undecided students. while neither pa nor na related significantly to career choice status, pa predicted significant variance in self-efficacy consistent with prior research. some research particularly considers the role of emotion in cdm (bubany, krieshok, black, & mckay, 2008; krieshok et al., 2009; porfeli et al., 2008; saka, gati, & kelly, 2008) and the affective component of subjective well-being (uthayakumar, schimmack, hartung, & rogers, 2010), involving a hedonic balance between positive and negative emotions that complements a cognitive dimension entailing global life satisfaction judgements. in much of this research, investigators have primarily used scales that measure affect as an indicator of emotions from individual differences and social-cognitive perspectives. more long-standing in the literature is attention to job satisfaction (eggerth, 2015; fritzsche & parrish, 2005). when emotion has been explored, it is typically from a work adjustment perspective, focusing on the emotions of workers in occupations. the present study aimed to redirect attention to the point of cdm and thereby examine emotion from the perspective of individuals facing career transitions and choices. to the authors’ knowledge, no other studies have specifically examined emotion with regard to the variables of career decidedness, career adaptability and occupational engagement as examined in the present study. emotion and career decision-making contemporary work in vocational psychology increasingly recognises the role of emotional and non-conscious factors in cdm. for example, krieshok et al. (2009) advanced adaptive decision-making as a trilateral process involving reason, intuition and occupational engagement. in this model, the adaptive decision-maker draws upon conscious rational thought, nonconscious intuitive emotion and exploratory behaviours and enrichment experiences that promote optimal engagement in the world generally and in the world of work specifically. such engagement has been found to promote effective cdm and career success. similarly, other theory and research advances career adaptability (savickas, 2011; savickas et al., 2009) as a construct central to effective cdm and career development. like adaptive decision-making, career adaptability involves developing and possessing the resources to willingly and ably make changes in self and situation to effectively navigate work and career (savickas, 2013). long-standing amongst these constructs of adaptivity and adaptability in the cdm literature is career decidedness. a principal life task for emerging adults involves deciding about career goals. such decidedness has been linked to outcomes such as lower levels of depression (rottinghaus et al., 2009) and increased subjective well-being (uthayakumar et al., 2010). research suggests that being decided about career goals has important vocational and overall mental health outcomes (paul & moser, 2009). purpose of the study in the present study, we examined engagement, adaptability and decidedness in terms of their relationships to each other and to pa and na as proxies for emotion as a factor in cdm. based on prior studies implicating a role of emotion in cdm, we expected that affective states would be related to important cdm processes of occupational engagement, career adapatability and career decidedness. occupational engagement refers to the level of involvement in exploration and enrichment activities that contribute to an individual’s fund of information and experience of the world that may contribute to making both imminent and future career decisions (krieshok et al., 2009). career adaptability means the extent of an individual’s resources for actively managing current and anticipated career-related tasks (e.g. exploring occupations), transitions (e.g. from school to work) and work traumas (e.g. job loss). career decidedness denotes the extent to which an individual is settled on his or her career choice or experiences indecision. using these three constructs, along with positive and negative affect as proxies for emotion, the present study’s aim was to test two hypotheses. firstly, as variables conceptually related to effective cdm, it was expected that occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness relate positively to each other. secondly, it was expected that pa positively predicts and na negatively predicts occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. method participants participants were students recruited from two educational institutions in the midwest united states of america. one institution was a large public university, including its branch campuses. the other institution was a small private college. a total of 340 students volunteered to participate in the study. of these, 90 students provided incomplete data and thus were not included in the analyses. therefore, the final sample consisted of 250 participants. most participants (n = 197) were students at the public university, and the remainder (n = 53) attended the private college. combined, the total sample comprised 183 women and 65 men, with two participants not indicating their gender. the age of the participants ranged from 17 to 58 years (mean [m] = 23 years, standard deviation [sd] = 7.05). with regard to ethnicity, 221 were european-american, 11 were african-american, three were asian-american, three were hispanic, 11 identified themselves as ‘other’ and one did not report ethnicity. in terms of college rank, 45 were freshmen, 50 were sophomores, 67 were juniors and 88 reported that they were in their senior year of college. all participants were undergraduate students enrolled in both universities, which served as the sole criterion for eligibility to be included in the study. no inclusion or exclusion criteria were based on age, gender or racial or ethnic origin. no participants characterised as vulnerable were included in the study. measures affect the positive and negative affect schedule (panas; watson et al., 1988) was used to assess participants’ affect. the panas consists of 10 positive and 10 negative emotional adjectives. for example, pa items include adjectives such as ‘excited’, ‘attentive’ and ‘proud’, whereas na items include adjectives such as ‘upset’, ‘guilty’ and ‘hostile’. respondents are asked to rate ‘how they felt the past week’ with regard to the adjectives on a likert scale ranging from 1 (slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). the cronbach’s α for the current sample was 0.92 for the pa scale and 0.85 for the na scale. the positive and negative affect schedule has demonstrated construct validity evidence (watson et al., 1988). career adaptability career adaptability was measured with the career adapt-abilities scale (caas; savickas & porfelli, 2012). the caas contains 24 items and uses a five-point likert response format by which respondents rate the extent to which they have developed various abilities, ranging from 1 (not strong) to 5 (strongest). the caas items measure the four dimensions of career adaptability with six items per dimension: concern (ability to plan an occupational future), control (ability to make career decisions), curiosity (ability to explore occupational options) and confidence (ability to deal with barriers to cdm). a sample item for each dimension includes, respectively, ‘thinking about what my future will be like’, ‘making decisions by myself’, ‘investigating options before making a choice’, and ‘performing tasks efficiently’. only the total scale score was used as an index of career adaptability in the present study. internal consistency reliability estimate (alpha) for the total scale in the present study was 0.92. the caas has demonstrated construct validity evidence (öncel, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012). career decidedness the level of career decidedness was measured by scores on the decisional process inventory (dpi; hartung, 1995; hartung & marco, 1998; marco, hartung, newman, & parr, 2003). the dpi contains 25 items designed to measure the level of career decidedness defined in terms of progress and problems in moving through the gestalt career decision making cycle (cdmc; hartung, 1995; hartung & marco, 1998). respondents rate all dpi items on a five-point scale with two anchors (e.g. ‘as far as being able to make a career decision, i am: unprepared 1 2 3 4 5 prepared’). exploratory factor analysis (hartung & marco, 1998) indicated the dpi assesses three latent dimensions of the gestalt cdmc: cdm orientation (cdo; 11 items dealing with readiness to make a career choice), cdm closure (cdc; seven items dealing with action to make a career decision) and cdm resistance (cdr; seven items dealing with thwarting the decision-making process). in the present study, scores on items 1–18 (cdo and cdc) were summed and added to the reverse-scored sum of items 19–25 (cdr) for a dpi total score, which could range from 25 to 125. higher scores indicate higher levels of career decidedness. prior research (hartung & marco, 1998; marco et al., 2003) suggests that the dpi demonstrates good convergent validity with other established measures of career decision status. occupational engagement the occupational engagement scale – student (oes-s; cox, krieshok, bjornsen, & zumbo, 2014) was used to measure participants’ engagement in experiential activities to enrich their knowledge about self and occupations. the oes contains 15 items and uses a likert response format ranging from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me). sample items include statements such as ‘i am actively involved in groups or organisations’, ‘i pursue opportunities in life because i just know they will come in handy’ and ‘i have contact with people working in fields i find interesting’. internal reliability estimate (alpha) for the scale was 0.89. the oes-s has demonstrated criterion-related validity evidence (cox, 2008; cox et al., 2014; mckay, 2008). procedure after obtaining requisite institutional review board approvals, web-based surveys containing all measures and a brief demographic questionnaire were e-mailed to a total of more than 2000 undergraduate students at the two institutions involved in the present study. enrolment was sought for a minimum of 150 respondents in order to meet the criteria for data analysis. follow-up e-mails were sent 7 and 14 days after the initial invitation letter. the follow-up e-mails reiterated the invitation to participate in the study, the purpose of the study and what their participation would involve. respondents who chose to participate in the study logged on to a secure website that contained the survey on a computer of their choice. there, they completed the informed consent document by clicking a box and then responded to the survey, which required approximately 30 min of their time. participants were informed that the survey would only be accessible for a 3-week period. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results table 1 lists descriptive statistics for all variables examined in the present study. it was first hypothesised that the three cdm variables of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness relate positively to each other. as shown in table 1, the results indicated positive correlations amongst the three variables: with r = 0.37 (p < 0.01) between career decidedness and occupational engagement, r = 0.43 (p < 0.01) between career decidedness and career adaptability and r = 0.46 (p < 0.01) between career adaptability and occupational engagement. these results support hypothesis 1. table 1: means, standard deviations and correlations of study variables. the second hypothesis indicated that pa positively relates and na negatively relates to each one of the cdm variables. as shown in table 1, the results indicated that pa is moderately related to career adaptability (r = 0.45, p < 0.01), career decidedness (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) and occupational engagement (r = 0.46, p < 0.01) in the expected direction. to a lesser degree, na related significantly to the career variables of occupational engagement (r = 0.13, p < 0.05) and decidedness (r = 0.20, p < 0.01). however, these relationships between na and the cdm variables were also positive and not in the expected direction. negative affect was not significantly related to career adaptability (r = 0.09, ns). these results lend partial support to hypothesis 2. to further test the hypothesis that pa would positively predict occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness, separate linear regressions were conducted. these analyses provided another way of examining the relationships amongst the variables and indicated amounts of variance that could be accounted for by them. as hypothesised, pa predicted occupational engagement (β = 0.46, p < 0.001), career adaptability (β = 0.45, p < 0.001) and career decidedness (β = 0.36, p < 0.001). positive affect accounted for 20%, 21% and 13% of the variance, respectively. contrary to the hypothesis, na positively predicted occupational engagement (β = 0.13, p < 0.05) and career decidedness (β = 0.20, p < 0.01). negative affect accounted for 4% and 2% of the variance, respectively. negative affect did not predict career adaptability (β = 0.09, ns). even though the results run counter to what was anticipated, it appears that na has a positive, though rather negligible, influence on occupational engagement and career decidedness. discussion recent years have witnessed increased calls for studies of emotion and intuition in career development and decision-making (e.g. hartung, 2011; hartung & blustein, 2002; kidd, 2004; krieshok et al., 2009). in response, conceptual work and some empirical research continue to make forays into understanding the role of emotion in vocational behaviour. the present study aimed to advance this line of inquiry by examining positive and negative emotions as predictors of three prominent and conceptually consistent cdm variables of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness amongst a sample of college students. these three variables were chosen for the study in relation to emotion because of their overlapping conceptual relationships and their prominent roles in cdm. consistent with the first hypothesis, the three cdm variables all proved positively and significantly interrelated. the present data indicate that individuals reporting higher levels of occupational engagement likewise report higher levels of career adaptability and career decidedness. thus, the present findings support empirically obvious conceptual links amongst engaged decision-making, ability to adapt by making changes in self and situation to promote one’s own career development and feeling more decided about one’s career choice. individuals more involved in career exploration and enrichment activities to increase self-knowledge and world-of-work knowledge also evinced more resources for coping with current and anticipated career-related tasks and transitions as well as more closure about their career choice. these results support prior studies indicating links between emotion and cdm processes (e.g. porfeli et al., 2008; rottinghaus et al., 2009). consistent with the second hypothesis, the present data indicated that positive affect. predicts greater levels of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. thus, individuals who reported more positive emotions also reported more engagement in activities to explore self and occupations, ability to plan, decide, explore and deal with barriers to their career choices and decisions, and also feel more settled on their career decisions. inconsistent with expectations and contrary to the second hypothesis, negative affectivity also positively predicted occupational engagement and career decidedness. it could be that negative emotions assessed by the panas, such as feeling upset, distressed and afraid, could serve as drivers of exploratory behaviour and also lead to more decidedness about career choices. perhaps negative emotions serve as a motivating force in the case of occupational engagement, leading to action to quell such feelings. negative emotions may, in effect, contribute to a state of tension about making a career decision that individuals seek to resolve through action. this interpretation seems consistent with the hedonic model of emotion that views emotions as having intrinsic motivational properties (hansell, 1989). future research, perhaps with mixed methods designs that include qualitative components, could further investigate this possibility and also examine individuals’ thought processes and experiences in responding to the affectivity and cdm measures. from a practical standpoint, the present data further support attending to emotion in career assessment and counselling (hartung, 2011; kidd, 2004). emotions may not so much represent barriers to vocational development. rather, they may benefit the motivational process of goal-striving whereby people seek to move from a place of tension (experienced anger, fear, guilt, sadness, inferiority, confusion and passivity) to a place of intention (purposefulness and goal-directedness) and ultimately to a place of retention (self-reintegration and new meaning). perhaps individuals use emotion to balance personal needs and environmental demands in a homeostatic process of organismic self-regulation. if so, it may be that, as damasio (1999) stated: at their most basic, emotions are part of homeostatic regulation and are poised to avoid the loss of integrity … emotions of all shades eventually help connect homeostatic regulation and survival ‘values’ to numerous events and objects in our autobiographical experiences. 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(1997). the role of emotion in the construction of career in parent-adolescent conversations. journal of counseling and development, 76(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1997.tb02374.x abstract introduction literature review research methods and design results discussion conclusions, recommendations and limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) doreen barigye international education development program, division of educational sciences, graduate school of humanities and social sciences, hiroshima university, higashi hiroshima, japan citation barigye, d. (2024). technical vocational education and training in uganda: career guidance and practices. african journal of career development, 6(1), a100. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.100 original research technical vocational education and training in uganda: career guidance and practices doreen barigye received: 20 july 2023; accepted: 20 nov. 2023; published: 16 jan. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: effective career guidance is critical in technical vocational education and training in uganda (tvet). the current career guidance practice is weighed down by lack of; funds, trained personnel, and policy. since many studies explore career practices in secondary schools, examining the specific approaches in tvet as an entity is new. objective: this study investigated the established career guidance practices for tvet in uganda and it also aimed to determine the definition and goal of career guidance in tvet, including the related activities, impacts, and challenges. method: a qualitative study using open-ended questions and interviews was employed. the questions were hosted on google forms. the questionnaire link was shared on the participant’s whatsapp group by a contact person. seventeen participants responded plus interviewees (3). the data was transcribed and synthesized in microsoft word with a three-column table to identify emerging patterns and themes. results: the findings reveal that career guidance is very vital in tvet as much as it is in secondary schools, and it needs funding, trained personnel, policy, and planning. in addition, a model for institutions to follow in implementation of career guidance is relevant to streamline the service to all students. as well as a categorical service that caters for each student’s ability, talent, interests, and growth. conclusion: the non-uniformity in career guidance implementation can be solved by creating a model that can be followed by all institutions. looking into the major setbacks such as poor funding, few trained personnel, and no policy framework is paramount. contribution: the current situation, engagements and potential of career guidance in technical vocational education and training in uganda was explored in this article. keywords: career guidance; school to work transition; technical vocational education and training; labour market; uganda; career guidance activities; career guidance definitions; information. introduction skilling ugandan people continues to be a buzz word, and vocational education is currently a national priority. this research expounds on the career guidance and practices in technical vocational education and training (tvet) in uganda. according to unesco (2001), the relevance of career guidance to tvet has been somewhat given attention but remains under-explored. for example, about 62% of the secondary schools in uganda have career guidance offices and officers (kabunga, 2020; otwine et al., 2018), whereas the data about career guidance in tvet institutions are combined within the other tertiary institutions and are barely itemised. nevertheless, as the enrolment in tvet in uganda keeps growing and the human development approach is being encouraged in tvet through global initiatives (kim, 2021), setting up working structures that offer and follow-up career guidance services is essential. human development approaches ensure that in addition to knowledge and hard skills there is support provided through counselling for the acquisition of life skills. secondary schools in uganda have individual methods of implementing career guidance, and the government does not follow-up on establishing their effectiveness (nsubuga & kronholz, 2018) much less in tvet institutions. the presence of operational structures for systematic implementation of career guidance in tvet in uganda are quite uncertain. therefore, this study expounded on the current endeavours and perceptions by the tvet institutions towards availing career guidance and information and equipping tvet students with confidence regarding labour market relevance, inclusion and independence for a smooth school-to-work transition. literature review definition of career guidance the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd, 2004), defines: [c]areer guidance as services and activities intended to assist individuals, of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training, and occupational choices and to manage their careers. (p. 19) the republic of uganda career guidance handbook (ministry of education and sports [moes], 2011) also defines career guidance as comprehensive efforts undertaken to help students access information about the available opportunities for education and making career choices and decisions regarding training institutions and courses alongside corresponding career developmental options and job prospects after completion. the oecd definition is accepted globally and is used by the world bank; furthermore, it uses the word ‘individual’ to refer to all people, whereas the ugandan career handbook definition specifies ‘students’ because career guidance services are currently concentrated in formal education. this is the reason why most of the literature about career guidance in uganda is in formal education settings. career guidance can be provided on an individual or a group basis, face to face or online, such as using helplines and other services (oecd, 2004). choosing how to administer career guidance depends on the availability of resources and skills and differs by country. career guidance provides a lens to understanding the country, as it spotlights the education and training and economic systems and the relationship between the two (watts, 1999). developed and developing countries have distinct patterns of career guidance administration. for example, in developing countries, such as uganda, these systems are in early stages of development. however, it might be possible to identify system priorities through their daily practices including choice of field of education, training and work, which are deemed important for the economy (watts, 1999). rationale of career guidance in technical vocational education and training the impact of career guidance on individuals, especially students, cannot be underestimated. for example, it helps individuals discover themselves, focus on crucial skill sets and reduce skills mismatches between supply and demand, allowing for the reintegration of marginalised and at-risk groups into education (sultana, 2004). in addition, it minimises gender-related disparities in tvet (peace, 2017). moreover, it is crucial in school-to-work transitions and throughout the study process to provide accurate labour market information that is constantly changing (kintu et al., 2019). this information is used to align the study content, allowing young people to evolve into potent, visionary, motivated, persuaded and desirable human resources that the country can depend on for productivity. therefore, this study is crucial because it highlights the criticality of establishing and enhancing career guidance structures not only in secondary education but also in tvet. functional career guidance systems could help students in three holistic ways: lifelong learning goals, labour market outcomes and social equity and social inclusion goals (figure 1). figure 1: holistic ways through which career guidance is vital. for over 20 years, countries in europe have deemed these three specific areas to be vital components of career guidance (sultana, 2004). they are evidence of how career guidance contributes to public policy goals. lifelong learning (lll) goals refer to continual consolidation, extension and renewal of knowledge and skills; labour market outcomes refer to all labour market issues, improving the outcomes and efficiency and supporting economic development goals and social equity and social inclusion goals cover issues relating to ensuring that no one is left behind (dandara, 2014). to ensure lll, european countries, such as germany, estonia and italy, employ career guidance to reduce failure, repetition and dropout rates (watts & sultana, 2004). this intervention falls under the global trends fostered by the united nations educational scientific and cultural organization and vocational education (2014), which indicates that young people in tvet need support to make informed choices, reducing the dropout rates during training. technical vocational education and training students qualify for employment; therefore, dropping out is a significant cost to the individual, sponsors and society at large. in uganda, tvet is open to the general public interested in skills. thus, lll may benefit a range of individuals across the age groups. moreover, career guidance can advocate for shortened graduation periods, expose all to individualised and diversified learning opportunities and promote in-depth learning through experiential learning (sultana, 2004). economists and policymakers have long recognised the potential of career guidance to improve labour market efficiency (dandara, 2014; ginzberg, 1971; sultana, 2004; van esbroeck et al., 2005; watts, 2008). through initiating a journey of self-discovery (mimura, 2016), career guidance helps people understand their strengths, interests and qualifications to search for fulfilling jobs where they can perform their best (oecd, 2004). career information helps people understand the longand short-term outcomes of certain career choices (oecd, 2004), get acquainted with changing job patterns and deal with the uncertain future (sultana, 2004). furthermore, it helps improve other work-related factors, such as salaries, working conditions and promotions (bereményi, 2022). as the push and pull factors arise from the labour market reforms and transformation of education systems and training in developing countries such as uganda (kabunga, 2020), the vitality of career guidance cannot be underestimated. gaps in career guidance in uganda in uganda, the pressure on tvet graduates during transition from school to work is evident. according to kabunga (2020), after graduation students get shocked by their changing roles. moreover, poor self-confidence resulting from lack of career information, counselling and professional guidance remains unresolved and requires urgent attention to help students with educational and professional choices. for post-graduate students, looking for ‘any job’ is demeaning to their years of training. rampant underemployment, redundant labour and struggle with workplace expectations suggest that career guidance enhancement is long overdue. with career guidance, tvet graduates could obtain relevant information and become equipped with the inherent capacity, innovation and confidence to assume a better future. a misperceived career choice that leads to wastage of individual efforts and resources and subsequent frustration is worse (kabunga, 2020). the school-to-work transition hustle presents an urgent justification for the need of career guidance in tvet. the urgent need for career guidance in the ugandan context is also justified by the fact that the country constitutes the world’s second youngest population, with approximately 78% younger than 35 years (world atlas, 2023). moreover, 55% of the population is younger than 18 years, and the overall unemployment rate is approximately 9.4% as of 2013 (uganda bureau of statistics, 2016). educating, guiding and proper preparation of these young people can greatly have an impact on the nation through human resource development. withal, the sustainable development goal 4 (sdg 4) states, ‘education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escape poverty’, particularly the need to ‘increase the number of people with relevant skills particularly technical and vocational skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship’ (united nations, n.d.). uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world (samuel & oates, 2006); therefore, for it to make strides economically, education coupled with career guidance is vital. uganda ran the business technical vocational education and training strategic plan 2011/2012–2020, vision 2040 (from 2007) and subsequently, the tvet policy of 2019. these national initiatives for in-country development were primarily for human resources revitalisation. they were even validated in the sdgs and created a strong back-up for tvet. however, in uganda, skills mismatch challenges (hawley, 2006) and school-to-work transition pressure remains rampant (kabunga, 2020). therefore, institutional capacity is important to focus on grassroot activities such as career guidance in tvet institutions to support young people within their process to develop relevant skills for the world of work. state of career guidance in uganda in 2008, a department of guidance and counselling was established at the moes to disseminate programmes that guide students in their careers and psycho-social concerns (otwine et al., 2018). these efforts were intended to provide personal, social, psychological, educational, career, vocational and spiritual guidance. this initiative showed slight developments towards building career guidance structures in uganda. career offices were established, and some teacher and student trainings were administered (otwine et al., 2018). approximately 4704 secondary schools and tertiary institutions were registered; 20% of them had career guidance structures (otwine et al., 2018). of approximately 260 tvet institutions, 38 (15%) provided career guidance structures. of 61 505 teachers country-wide, 714 trained as career teachers. funding was secured from the school management committees, parents teachers associations and boards of governors; technical support was provided by the moes by availing information, training, providing training manuals, coordinating programmes and monitoring and evaluation. furthermore, some established school activities include career days, career weeks, talking compounds with messages on personal values, talks during new student orientation and class meetings. although this department fostered promising initiatives, only a few schools offered career guidance services – predominantly government schools – and many activities remain suitable only for secondary schools, not tvet institutions. additionally, the percentage of career officers trained in tvet institutions country-wide is negligible (1%). moreover, while career guidance is an additional benefit in secondary schools, it is a dire necessity in tvet institutions. career guidance services are critical in tvet for creating awareness of courses and professions that profit the country long-term (okiror & otabong, 2015). considering the 9.4% unemployment rate in uganda (as of 2013), young people should be directed to priority sectors that will sustain the economy for a long time (vandenbosch et al., 2002). recently, the work environment for tvet graduates has experienced tremendous changes, creating pressure in the school-to-work transition. in some countries, such as the united states or japan, career services have been established for over 100 years, whereas no such concrete services exist in uganda to date (nsubuga & kronholz, 2018). in order to establish some of the services in tvet institutions, there is need to investigate from the tvet practitioners the distinct patterns of career guidance in tvet as an entity, given its (tvet) unique characteristics. the following research questions were posed: what is the current definition and goal of carrying out career guidance in tvet? how is career guidance being practiced in uganda’s tvet institutions? what is the impact of career guidance on tvet students? what are the major setbacks in implementing career guidance in tvet? what are the strategies for improving career guidance in tvet? research methods and design this research was explorative. it is commonly applied in the fields of education, administration, health, social work and counselling (merrian & tisdell, 2016). participants were found through a key contact person with access to the whatsapp group to which the targeted participants belonged. structured interview and structured questionnaire data-collection methods were used. the interview guide and questionnaire consisted of nine and 17 open ended questions, respectively. a team of experts validated the questionnaire (see supplementary file 1). this involved ascertaining that the questions effectively captured the topic and could be easily understood. some questions were refined to avoid biased answers, and some important questions that were previously omitted were added. additionally, the questionnaire structure was adjusted to remove any leading, confusing or double-barrelled questions. duplicate questions were deleted, some terms were changed to better suited ones, a preamble was added and the question order was changed for chronological flow. the expert team comprised one professor and three phd students – all professionals in [programme masked for blind review] at [location masked for blind review]. the team corresponded via zoom and email. study population and sampling strategy seventeen of 78 principals answered a structured open-ended questionnaire using a google form. to obtain detail and clarification, semi-structured interviews were conducted. three participants (w, y and z) were interviewed. the interviewees were selected by convenience sampling, a non-probability sampling method that was used based on the criteria that participants were willing to participate (etikan et al., 2016). interviewee w is a principal who actively promoted career guidance in his institution. he held some training courses on zoom and invited the author to one of them. interviewee y is an officer in charge of industrial training in one of the tvet institutions in the country. interviewee z is a principal of a tvet institute who, after answering the online questionnaire, reached out to the researcher to express his gratitude, stating, ‘career guidance is what we need in our institute’. of the 17 participants (see table 1), 16 were men and one was a woman. the participants were from different parts of the country (figure 2). figure 2: location of participating institutions. table 1: list of participants. data collection data were collected through questionnaire and interview methods from public tvet institutions’ principals, who provided information on career guidance in their institutes. the structured open-ended questionnaire was hosted on google forms. the questions prompted participants to provide information about career guidance in their own institutions about, for example, the perceptions, goals, activities, adequacy and challenges of career guidance. the link was shared on the principals’ whatsapp group by a contact person (one of the principals). although the information reached all group members, the response rate was approximately 22% because of issues of willingness and internet connectivity. cohen et al. (2016) recommended that a qualitative researcher retains the disposition to apply culturally sensitive ways of collecting data. therefore, multiple reminders were considered bothersome to the contact person and principals. however, the number of the people who answered the questionnaire (17), coupled with the interviews (3), were considered substantive because a small sample size is appropriate for an in-depth analysis as a fundamental factor in qualitative research (vasileiou et al., 2018). participants could answer the questions by themselves or delegate a key person in the institution to respond on their behalf. that is why the results consisted of different designations from respondents: principal (6), acting principal (2), deputy principal (1), head instructor (2), head of department (2), technical teacher (1), supervisor (2) and director of studies (1) (see table 1). data analysis the data analysis focused on the participants’ construct of the concept of career guidance in tvet. the data also centred on participants’ experiences described as activities they do or watch being done to foster career guidance in the institutions. this research used qualitative data from the interviews and questionnaires, merged and then encoded under corresponding sub-headings with clear linkage to the study questions and rationale. data triangulation was employed for the two data sets from interviews and questionnaire to ensure validity and data saturation (faulkner & trotter, 2017). data were organised into various stages on a microsoft word table. the first column was the research question, the second column the corresponding questionnaire and/or interview question number and the third column the emerging themes from the data. the next phase involved data synthesis, theorising, contextualisation and creating meaning, followed by filtering (morse, 1994). the analysis was presented in a three-column table (see table 2) in microsoft word. finally, the author made inquiries with the participants to discuss the emerging interpretations within the research cycle for validation to establish the credibility of findings before the final analysis (creswell & poth, 2018). table 2: data analysis. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from hiroshima university (hr-es-000970). results concept, purpose and definition of career guidance the research found out that the concept of career guidance is considered not to be straightforward because most institutions embed career guidance content in school activities such as fresher’s orientation, parades and small talks in between lessons. moreover, interviewee y thought that students need more career sessions and professional career advisors who are capable of not only providing career info but also psychological help as well. interviewee w felt that the government’s initiative to create awareness about tvet is making young people aware of opportunities of tvet especially in the oil sector but is killing their innovativeness on the other hand because students tend to only focus on what is available. hence, it is subsequently creating many skilled but unemployed people. when asked about the definition of career guidance, the participants coined it around the different endeavours to provide job-related knowledge, how to upgrade, remain focused throughout the school period and how to have a positive attitude for success in their career. in summary, the participants mentioned that the aims of career guidance are to create awareness among students about the importance of their type of education (tvet) and allow for an individual to exploit their potential, self-discovery, acquire skills necessary for the world of work, make proper and informed choices, as well as to encourage them to live in harmony with other persons surrounding them, respect all those in authority and emphasise good behaviour and discipline. the point-by-point list of the aims of career guidance is as presented in table 3. table 3: implementor’s aims of career guidance. career guidance activities and institutional level of implementation to understand how career guidance is practiced in uganda’s tvet institutions, this study examined activities and institutional level implementation. many institutions carry out career talks, alumni motivation, peer interaction, key stakeholders from academia and the world of work, assemblies, orientations, seminars and industrial training. some departments engage associations such as the plumbing association to interact with students. these previously mentioned activities were written down in the questionnaire; however, from the interviews only talks from people in the world of work and taking advantage of school events such as assemblies were mentioned. impact of career guidance data on the how career guidance impacts students were collected based on the implementer’s point of view. it was categorised by the researcher in three ways, attitude, self-discovery and school to work transitions. attitude the research found out that career guidance enhances understanding to build competences (skills, knowledge and attitude) especially required in the world of work. the participants acknowledged that students enrol into tvet sometimes as parents’ choice and therefore in order to feel comfortable in their pursuit, they need guidance, counselling, mentorship and leadership trainings. ‘tvet is still considered by many as a path for the destitute’, a participant said. interviewee z believes that the current career information is scanty; hence has no effect and that to have an impact, it should be continuous and consistent. however, interviewee y said, ‘the attitude changes once they realise their ability especially when they visit the industries and realise, they can do something’. self-discovery as mentioned earlier, participants coined out the discovery of hidden talents and abilities. for example, some career activities such as industrial visits expose students to hands on trainings that when students try out, they realise they can do it. the ‘i can do it’ attitude is almost everything a student needs to pursue a successful career. a participant who belonged to the woodworking department cited that students can be heard saying, i can make a door, bed or ceiling and this clearly motivates students. school to work transitions the results from this research revealed that only 7.7% (one person) of the participants strongly believe that the current practice of career guidance adequately prepares students for a smooth school to work transition. the rest (38.5) agree while the others (53.8%) disagree. this is probably why some participants acknowledge no existence of a transition plan; however, personal connections among teachers, students and companies help. in addition, the award of certifications for every profiled skill gives students confidence to approach the world of work. this is directly influenced by the new curriculum and is a great contribution to students’ future career according to the participants. however, interviewee z thinks that it does not help rather students need prior exposure to industries because most of the profiled skills are school related and yet work requires unique information. in fact, he continued to say that most are unemployed because of the mismatch. setback in implementing career guidance in technical vocational education and training the setbacks in career guidance were obtained by asking participants the challenges they face during implementation of career guidance. the research summarised the setbacks in two categories: need of a categorised career service and system challenges. the need of a categorised career service the research revealed that in tvet, girls have special consideration by the government for entry, regardless, the tvet trades still pose challenges for them. in this case, these girls need categorised information to suit their situation. yet the career guidance given is general and not considerate about different categories of students. system challenges these were quite a number including lack of budget allocation, few resourceful personnel, lack of legal framework such as policies and strategies, inadequate motivation for the trained persons, no training of career officers and the part time career officers who cannot understand the students’ issue within a limited time. how to improve career guidance the research, from the participants’ point of view, listed the different ways that career guidance can be improved in tvet. the interventions were categorised into long-term (policy), midterm (funding career guidance activities) and short-term (training of career officers, scheduling regular career days, categorised career services and establishing career offices in institutions). discussion the primary purpose of this research was to document the current practices and perceptions by the tvet institutions towards availing career guidance and information. the results revealed that the implementers are focused on individuals of schooling age for career growth, awareness of tvet, talent development, skills for work, confidence and to help them pursue individual dreams. although there are a lot of aspects that require improvement, most participants acknowledged the vitality of career guidance and the need to build a good system in tvet as an entity. the available career handbooks by the ministry of education (moes, 2011, 2015) have two major emphases: career guidance as a precursor to subject choice and career guidance as a promoter for training skill sets desired in the labour market. the research showed that students in tvet benefit more from the latter that includes endeavours that help them refine their skill sets in preparation for the world of work. according to the national planning authority (2013), the vision 2040 prioritises human resource development in hands on skills that are currently globally competitive. it also supports endeavours to reduce the skills mismatch in the country of which career guidance is primary. students in tvet courses still lack sufficient knowledge of the type of education they are pursuing, thus career guidance practices are very important to create this awareness. this is because historically, tvet in uganda has been marginalised and perceived to offer inferior skills for life as opposed to general education (kim, 2021). this is why people still carry an information gap, hence the dire need for career guidance in tvet. to understand how career guidance is practiced in uganda’s tvet institutions, this study examined institutional level implementation. it was found that many institutions take advantage of school events to provide some information. there are limited or no career programs in institutions. a thesis by otwine et al. (2018) provided a general view of career guidance in the country with historical information. this thesis had very little to no information about tvet but showed that the current activities are concentrated in secondary schools. as mentioned previously, tvet students need not only talks but experiences in the field as well. nsubuga and kronholz (2018) consider some of the current activities as merely ‘talks’. when the event is finished, the focus changes to something else until the next event. it is a challenge for tvet students to consolidate the information and put it to proper use. therefore, this requires streamlining career guidance into a process that allows students to gradually achieve a tangible outcome. when this process is streamlined, it entails holistic career guidance that provides an authentic experience characterised by not only the provision of career information, talent training and matching but also concern for an individual’s values, needs, interests, self-development, growth and decision-making abilities (watts, 2013). in the developed world such as japan they have been designing and trying out different career-guidance models including one that emphasised the teacher guidance function (watanabe-muraoka et al., 2001). it is therefore high time uganda also focuses on establishing a maiden model for tvet schools. about the impact of career guidance on tvet students, the research revealed that career guidance helps students to own their own education, especially when they get to discover their hidden talents and also after realising where the tvet education is taking them. it was also found that there is a subsequent related positive effect towards attitude, self-discovery and school to work transitions. in practice, measuring attitude requires examining social and contextual factors (carrasco & lucas, 2015). examining social and contextual factors is a practice done to explore people’s perceptions and measure how people respond to interventions. for example, during the research, a tracer study was cited. in tvet, tracer studies follow up on alumni to ascertain their wellbeing after school and measure the impact of some previous interventions (intrac, 2017). the participants revealed that students testified of the positive impact of career activities that helped them in school and even after school in the world of work. self-discovery is a key component in career guidance. it is the process of gathering information through various sources to expand understanding and insight regarding oneself (mimura, 2016). the 20th and the 21st century models of career guidance uphold self-discovery as a key component of career guidance. mimura (2016) held that it as vital for students to know themselves in the same way they look at themselves in the mirror. they should be close to and in touch with their inherent talents and abilities. however, this research found that this component needs enhancement and that the students need to be empowered. students should be empowered before they leave the formal training for the labour market. also, as additional life challenges occur within the labour market, people (students) should know themselves to be able to overcome challenges (mimura 2016). ideally, career guidance should have a model or step-by-step process (van esbroeck et al., 2005) that students go through that could smoothly lead them to the intended purpose, of self-discovery, instead of relying on haphazard events. in addition, the results show that in uganda’s career guidance in tvet, care for special groups was reported missing in career guidance in uganda’s tvet. participants revealed that tvet courses can be especially tedious for some groups of people, such as girls. in addition, the admission system accepts students from various backgrounds, with different realities and varying abilities (moes, 2023). therefore, each student’s category must be carefully catered for to achieve satisfactory results. last but not least, in practice, career guidance is underdeveloped in uganda because of several challenges. the research found several system challenges ranging from lack of budget, to no career policy, to lack of trained personnel. the labour market and the nature of work are changing (kintu et al., 2019), increasing the vitality of career guidance. these challenges therefore pose significant implications for individuals and the overall workforce. the lack of skilled career officers and confusion between psychological counsellors and career professionals hinder the provision of accurate and specialised guidance. moreover, the absence of categorical career guidance and poor infrastructure further restricts access to comprehensive services. these challenges limit individuals’ ability to make informed career decisions, potentially leading to mismatched skills and opportunities. it is crucial for uganda to prioritise addressing these challenges, allocating resources and establishing clear policies and frameworks to build a robust and effective career guidance system that supports individuals in navigating the evolving labour market landscape (ilo, 2021). conclusions, recommendations and limitations career guidance and its potential are widely known among tvet institutional principals and other tvet personnel in uganda. generally, even those who do not practice career guidance acknowledge its vitality. career guidance activities practiced in the institutions included weekly assemblies, orientation weeks, talks from alumni experts, industrial visits, inter-departmental exhibitions and career seminars. each institute implemented career guidance following its own scope and method, making it difficult to measure impact and gaps. therefore, a consistent plan (model) would facilitate effective and fair career guidance. this plan must reflect the uniqueness of tvet as a form of training and be easily adoptable at an institutional level. the plan should include career activities, career consultation, time allocation, career officers with their required skills, implementation style and assessment and evaluation. moreover, because of the nature of tvet admissions, categorical or specialised career guidance cannot be ignored. students require personalised tailor-made information or training and follow-up. although the ad-hoc method is cheap, it cannot create lasting effects for students. the current methods, activities and engagement of career guidance in tvet in uganda ensure provision of general information that students easily treat as counsel but cannot process as concrete life guidelines for concrete careers. the manner of dissemination of this information does not allow students to attach their personal interest, goals or perspectives to it. it remains mere ‘talk’ from adults. therefore, career guidance for uganda’s tvet requires authenticity that incorporates concern for people’s ideas, needs, interests, self-development, growth and ability to make decisions independently. further studies should investigate how a consistent implementation plan of career guidance services can be developed for uganda’s tvet. the limitation of this study is that it could not ascertain where the planning of the career guidance services initiative should best start (i.e. top [moes] or bottom [institutions]). the contents of career guidance and mode of implementation that would offer students an authentic experience considering available resources were also unclear. furthermore, as different institutions have different levels of career guidance implementation, proper career guidance services in tvet may require a systems overhaul. future studies should examine implementation methods. acknowledgements the author thanks her prof. mr. takayoshi maki for the valuable support. she also thanks her lab mates (703) at idec hiroshima university who helped her a lot in fine tuning her work till the last moment. lastly, the author appreciates mr. omo for helping her connect with various participants. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions d.b. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data are available on the link below. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ejvwvgsghkbauhd06dpun2hvmymyxrnwhz7rdbetmwq/edit?usp=sharing. this data set should only be accessed by an authorised person and the purpose should be for the sake of this research. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for 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(2023, september 24). 30 countries with the youngest populations in the world. world atlas. retrieved from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-youngest-populations-in-the-world.html abstract introduction transformation agenda and implications for career training and transforming practice research design and methods results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kamilla v. rawatlal department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation rawatlal, k.v. (2022). priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training. african journal of career development, 4(1), a59. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.59 project research number: hum025/0522 original research priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training kamilla v. rawatlal received: 11 june 2022; accepted: 24 aug. 2022; published: 28 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the call to decolonise and transform the curriculum for social responsiveness in south african higher education is seen as a priority. objectives: this study explores revising the career assessment and counselling curriculum on the professional masters (ma counselling psychology) programme. method: utilising a qualitative design and exploratory approach, the research aimed to address the objectives through gauging master’s students’ perceptions of the applicability of the course, through thematically analysing evaluation transcripts received during and 2021, were thematically analysed. patterns and themes that emerged indicate how the revised curriculum can support intervention at the individual and systemic levels. results: themes identified were the influence of traditional career counselling theory, accessibility to assessments, a need to expand theory to include social constructivism and post modernism at the individual level. at the systems level, engaging trainees as socio-ecological advocates, integration of mental health to intervene with ‘at risk’ groups, post the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic intervention and the 4th industrial revolution (ir) highlighted a need to adopt a public health agenda. conclusion: critical consciousness raising at the systems was highlighted as paramount to informing intervention and to strengthening counselling psychologist trainees’ identity to develop a sense of agency in promoting social responsiveness. contribution: the role of the training course to address transformation priorities, intervene with post-modern realities, such as the unstable job market in the 4th ir, in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, and assert the uniqueness of career counselling and assessment as a specialisation area of counselling psychology forms the basis of the study contribution. keywords: curriculum; higher education; transformation; public health agenda; critical consciousness; covid-19; 4th ir. introduction the focus in south african higher education in the 21st century is on the transformation of the curriculum. this is seen as necessary to address societal concerns such as socio-economic, educational, health disparities and intervene through addressing issues of access, equity and diversity. this study discusses revising the career counselling and assessment curriculum to address such societal concerns. career counselling realities in the 21st century that are regarded as societal concerns include high failure rates and drop out in higher education because of a lack of access to career counselling. in south africa disparities also exist in basic education delivery in the different provinces. career counselling and assessment provision have also been characterised by affordability and accessibility issues. another reality concerns the need to contextualise career development and intervention so that young people and citizens will be able to reconcile career pathing in the post-coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic phase. the aim is to support the training and development of student practitioners to address such systemic factors that influence career decision making through focusing on a revision of the curriculum. the university of pretoria (ogude et al., 2018) curriculum transformation framework refers to decolonising and democratising higher education to address issues of exclusion, marginalisation and social injustice. these are listed as key priorities in informing a more relevant teaching and learning curriculum and has implications for the country at large (ogude et al., 2018). the call to transform curricula is also seen as part of a larger vision of a return to the idea of the university as a space for discovery, critical inquiry, thinking and democratic public engagement (ogude et al., 2018). curricula are informed by the nature of the field or the discipline, the philosophical beliefs of the teacher, who the students are and the broader context in which the curriculum are enacted (rhodes university, 2018). the context of south african higher education is regarded as complex with inequality, lack of resources and personnel characterising much of the landscape. the inability of the curriculum to respond to local challenges is a vital reason behind the call for the decolonisation of the curriculum in south africa (teferra & fomunyan, 2017). moll (2004) argues that curriculum responsiveness is the ability of curricula taught in schools or universities to address student needs as well as societal circumstances. the curriculum, therefore, not only focuses on what happens in the classroom but also on what students do with what they learnt (moll, 2004). a transforming curriculum recognises local and global contexts, histories, realities and problems and adopts both a critical and self-critical stance (ogude et al., 2018). drivers of curriculum transformation in higher education, according to the curriculum transformation framework (ogude et al., 2018), include a responsiveness to social context. this includes critically examining the role of race, socio-economic class, gender, sexuality, culture, nationality, age and other categories. social transformation is prioritised by focusing on the ways in which disciplines can contribute to the development of society. a transforming curriculum envisages students and academics as thoughtful citizens, part of a diverse public who are able to contribute meaningfully to different communities and society. a transforming curriculum positions students as critical thinkers who acknowledge indigenous knowledge systems and world-views and also have the ability to draw from old and new frameworks and theories to inform intervention (ogude et al., 2018). transformation agenda and implications for career training and transforming practice in addressing issues of transformation and responsiveness this article discusses how the career counselling and assessment curriculum on the masters counselling psychology programme was revised to address such issues. in revising the curriculum to address systemic factors, the author pays homage to the work of maree (2020), who emphasises practitioners to adapt, innovate and contextualise their career counselling service to address societal needs. in informing a socially responsive, decolonised and transformative curriculum, the author now provides a summary of the systemic realities. in considering the education sector, the attrition rates of students in south african higher education is seen as a persistent problem. undergraduate drop-out rates are high (moodley & singh, 2015), and it is indicated that 52% of learners made their career selection after grade 12, while 34% made concrete career decisions during registration at tertiary institutions (fundiconnect, 2021). this, according to singh (2016), supports that many grade 12 learners have not made well-informed selections of what they want to study post-school. moodley and singh (2015) further contend that one in eight learners believes that because of the lack of career-related information at the relevant time, students did not make the correct career choice. okana (2010) also makes reference to how predictably the attrition of students from previously disadvantaged population groups may result in further racial and socio-economic disparity among future generations. this according to okana (2010) should also be the concern of education authorities. south africa, according to the world bank (2014), ranks among the world’s most socio-economically unequal countries and the practice of psychological assessment is seen to be directly impacted by such disparity (laher & cockroft, 2017). laher and cockroft (2017) further indicate that because of affordability issues, poor quality education and high levels of illiteracy, the majority of the population do not have access to the potential benefits of such assessment. assessment practice is also confronted with administration challenges. the majority of psychological assessments are only in english and afrikaans. there is limited practitioner proficiency in languages other than english. assessment settings are also identified as unsuitable and test materials are limited. there also exists a shortage of practitioners to develop new tests for the multi-cultural south african population (foxcroft & davies, 2008; johnston, 2015; laher & cockcroft, 2013; seedat & mackenzie, 2008). other priority areas to inform revising career assessment and counselling training include addressing how the changing career counselling needs of young people during the covid-19 pandemic can be met. maree (2021) refers to limited research conducted on the impact of covid-19 on career counselling and, especially, the contextualisation of career counselling to address the changing career counselling needs of young people during the pandemic. the pandemic, according to autin et al. (2021), has become to be viewed as a ‘vocational magnifying glass bringing knowledge of previous career development practitioners to the forefront of public life.’ the need for career practitioners is to be especially sensitive to workers’ basic survival needs, be knowledgeable about existing social welfare programmes and be prepared to serve populations that have reduced occupational choice (autin et al., 2021). research design and methods the study implemented a qualitative research design utilising an exploratory approach. the focus was on the revision and evaluation of a career assessment and counselling masters’ curricula and exploring students’ perceptions of the experience of the course. literature refers to curricula and the discipline in career counselling and assessment being traditionally informed by an objective, (positivist) perspectives (maree & beck, 2004). the need to revise curricula to support practitioners to also navigate systemic influences (discussed earlier) was thus deemed necessary. revision of the curriculum involved addressing competency development of practitioners in two different areas identified below: individual-level influences, whereby students were exposed to traditional theories and psychometric assessments (i.e. personality, values, interests and occupational matching). assessment, risk and intervention at the different systemic or societal levels. the aim was to provide empirical evidence of the need to revise the curricula to address individual-level intervention and systemic intervention in career counselling and assessment training. given the emphasis on revising curriculum for social responsiveness, addressing both levels was deemed necessary. individual-level (traditional theories and psychometric assessments) components at this level one cannot discount the formidable influence of traditional theories and models directed at exploring only individual-level characteristics such as personality and occupational types. reference is made to the work of, for example, parson’s (1909) talent matching and holland’s (1997) occupational matching. such individual-level theories provide insight into identifying development and shaping many career guidance programmes. the unit thus provided student practitioners with grounding in the foundations of career assessments based on parson’s (1909) talent-matching approach that later developed into the trait and factor theory of occupational choice. holland’s (1997) focus on personal characteristics and occupational tasks was also integrated. students were thus exposed to the administration, interpretation and report writing of the self-directed search (sds), value scale (vs) and the jung-type indicator (jti), given that most internship sites for trainees require exposure to such psychometric assessments. based on the critiques levelled at objective, ‘match and fit’ assessments that highlighted a need for a shift in the 21st century to understanding individuals developing their identity and constructing careers against the backdrop of different systemic influences (culture, socio-economic realities), the training unit was extended to incorporate post-modern interventions. post modernism stems from the view that ‘reality’ is created by entities that differ in terms of personal, historical and cultural contexts (hergenhahn, 2005). the incorporation of not only the objective but also the subjective meanings people attach to their career and life stories is central to successful career choices. positive compromise in the context of vocational and career psychology refers to exercising more control over a reality that is very often beyond human control (chen, 2014). systemic level components theron (2016) refers to career counsellors as socio-ecological actors who have relevance to the resilience process of south africa’s young people who are challenged by structural disadvantage. at this level, training referred to involving key role players (such as parents, teachers, practitioners and other service providers, community and cultural leaders and policy makers). these role players are seen to play a critical role in young people’s achievement of positive life outcomes (masten, 2014; ungar, 2013). this also emphasises the importance of integrating a socio-ecological perspective in training informed by a public health agenda. public health interventions can be classified into three types: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. in primary prevention, trainees were exposed to implementing intervention to reach the whole population or target ‘at risk’ groups such as unemployed and young people. trainees were exposed to developing proactive, self-directed, career counselling services that had outreach to schools, post-secondary preparation programmes and social skills development programmes for nongovernmental organisations (ngos). in secondary prevention, the practitioner’s role as an intermediary or intervener, providing early intervention or individual counselling, was highlighted. in tertiary prevention, the role of the practitioner in providing essential services to clients in need of individual counselling, crisis intervention and re-direction counselling was highlighted. an assessment of factors and/or issues that have an impact on their success was also incorporated at this level. at this level, the focus on training was on critical consciousness raising of practitioners. in transforming and decolonising the curriculum for relevance and social responsiveness, this component was seen as crucial as it aims for practitioners to consider what career development interventions have to offer individuals who are socially or economically disadvantaged, who are underrepresented in our educational systems, who may have limited access to meaningful employment or who remain unemployed in the labour market. aligned to this unit, the ma counselling psychology training programme also incorporates a separate module on professional identity of counselling psychologists. training was thus aligned to this focus and provided the space for the trainee practitioners to reflect on their professional identity as counselling psychologists. implicit is the need for counselling psychologists to return to their vocational roots to empower marginalised groups and/or clients and become critical of informing intervention to address 21st century realities. counselling psychology is seen to have its roots in the vocational guidance movement; however, neimeyer et al. (2011) indicate counselling psychology’s waning commitment to its vocational and guidance roots. validity and trustworthiness to support the validity of the research findings, the following strategies were implemented. firstly, the researcher was aware of her own bias as lecturer of the curriculum and coordinator of the professional training programme and attempted to bracket her own assumptions. according to guse (2010), in professional training research, this is necessary in presenting a neutral stance. secondly, this study presents two separate analyses (two different years of implementing the curriculum). according to krefting (1991), this strategy adds to the dependability of results. finally, peer debriefing (creswell, 2003) was used to review the study and enhance the accuracy of the findings. because of the exploratory nature of this study, the intention was not to generalise findings but to provide insight on curriculum areas for revision. study population the participants in the study were purposefully selected (creswell, 2003). all the students who were in their first years of study in 2020 and 2021 of the ma (counselling psychology) degree in the department of psychology at a gauteng university participated voluntarily in the study. the demographics were that the samples were female and their ages ranged from 22 to 43. five of the participants were african, three were white people and three were indian. an evaluation transcript from each student was received and thematically analysed. in contextualising students’ responses, it must be noted that the students were also exposed to providing a mental healthcare service at primary health care level, in which they receive clients and outpatients from the low-middle income economic demographic groups. data collection and analysis the data consisted of written accounts (evaluation forms) submitted by the participants. in these documents, the students reflected on their experience of being introduced to the 20-h unit as part of the core curriculum in the training programme. according to creswell (2003), documents often present data that are thoughtful, because participants could have given considerable attention to their compilation. the researcher was the lecturer responsible for facilitating the unit that occurred, once a week, over a period of four weeks. each session was the duration of five hours. the revision of the curriculum involved the alignment of content at the individual and systemic levels to ensure the relevance of the professional training for practising in the south african context. the research evaluation questions of the study sought to explore the below, post the training unit: students’ reflections and efficacy in applying interventions at the individual and systemic levels thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the documents. this included familiarisation with the data to search for meanings and patterns, while also attempting to bracket own assumptions to allow further themes to emerge. this was followed by generating initial codes, leading to the formulation and definition of themes and subthemes. to address the researcher’s bias as lecturer of the unit, she attempted to bracket her own assumptions and implore peer reviewing of the research findings. because of the exploratory nature of the study, the intention was not to generalise findings but to formulate hypotheses for further training and empirical research. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of pretoria faculty of humanities research ethics committee. informed consent to use these documents was obtained from the students, and participants’ identity remained anonymous. results in this section, the researcher highlights the different themes and subthemes that emerged at the different levels. the different levels and themes will be discussed in conjunction with direct quotes and will also be contextualised within existing literature. addressing individual-level influences theme 1: application of theory to practice (individual level) at the individual level, participants referred to the importance of foundational theory in practice. ‘they referred to how this [builds] confidence in career assessment and counselling development where there is still a reliance on objective, assessments. career counselling and development was also regarded as an area that was unfamiliar territory.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) ‘[b]efore we commenced the unit i was anxious as i wasn’t exposed to career counselling and assessment before (both personally and professionally). post the unit, i feel confident to conduct and administer a career counselling and assessment session in my internship.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘i’m able to make the links between how theory has informed the assessments that are being used and the importance of how to communicate the meaning of assessments to our clients and possibly their parents (to debunk the psychological jargon and clarify myths).’ (transcript 8, participant 8, 32 years old, female) ‘[i]n assessment report writing, i would always aim to give career recommendations that is informed by the client’s context and refer to their context to inform realistic recommendations. i look forward to combining both quantitative and qualitative methods (narrative, social constructivist) for viewing the individual holistically.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 2: views on accessibility to assessments administered at the individual level in exposure to intervention at the individual level, participants were able to become more critical of issues related to barriers to accessing career assessments and counselling services from their personal experiences. ‘some of the assessments are only available in english and afrikaans and therefore excludes and disadvantages other language groups in south africa.’ (transcript 3, participant 3, 26 years old, female) ‘career counselling and assessment services still remain a service largely unavailable to the larger community because they cannot afford the service.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 3: need to expand individual-level intervention to social constructivist and post-modern approaches through exposure to foundational theories at the individual level, participants shared the following reflections: ‘critical of contemporary issues in career development there is a need to shift to a more dynamic approach.’ (transcript 1, participant 1, 26 years old, female) ‘theories of career assessment and counselling are shifting from a narrow, linear path to career decision making to a more cyclical approach. this places emphasis on how people meet the demands of the changing world of work and ensuring that we as career psychologists remain relevant to such changing times.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘4th and 5th wave industrial revolution developments on the impacts on the relevance of individual career assessments and the recommendations we make in career assessment reports. it also impacts skills and competencies in provision of services in under resourced communities we work. in the post covid-19 period we are receiving clients/outpatients who have suddenly become unemployed and who now need job-searching skills etc.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) in addressing contemporary challenges in career pathing, after the covid-19 pandemic, there is a need to extend, post-modern and social constructivist concepts to support clients in managing such challenges. ‘we live in an ever-changing and evolving world where individuals and jobs are constantly changing. the reality is that people will not keep the same career for their entire working lives. therefore, career adaptability has become an important part of career counselling’ (transcript 8, participant 8, 32 years old, female) based on the critiques levelled at objective, ‘match and fit’ assessments that highlighted a need for a shift in the 21st century to understanding individuals developing their identity and constructing careers against the backdrop of different systemic influences (culture, socio and economic realities) that influence access, the training unit was extended to incorporate social constructivist, ecological and post-modern interventions. post modernism stems from the view that ‘reality’ is created by entities that differ in terms of personal, historical and cultural contexts (hergenhahn, 2005). the incorporation of not only the objective but also the subjective meanings people attach to their career and life stories is central to successful career choices. positive compromise in the context of vocational and career psychology refers to exercising more control over a reality that is very often beyond human control. in this sense, career choice and development for many individuals is not about reaching the most ideal state of affairs, but rather finding a better solution for a career problem (chen, 2014). addressing systemic levels (teachers, parents, nongovernmental organisation’s) theme 4: practitioners as socio-ecological actors and systemic change at this level, participants were able to identify their role as socio-ecological actors. ‘i have learnt how to make career information more accessible to our communities in new and innovative ways. working with npo’s, and schools i believe is a smart approach to working with existing challenging systems to further access our communities and also provide that element of psychoeducation around the pressures a student may feel when embarking on such a decision-making process (emotional factors). by doing so, making parents, teachers and students themselves aware of the emotional challenges they may face (providing a sense of normalization), a better understanding of how to handle them and for parents, methods to support.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘the unit exposed me to how important it is to present talks and presentations on career decision making that we could use at the community and group work level. it referred to the application of social constructivist theory to help identity and intervene on perceived challenges, barriers to career counselling created sometimes by parents expectations and knowledge in communities.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) theme 5: careers and mental health incorporating mental health in career counselling to address social responsiveness was also highlighted ‘in reflecting on this unit, i believe it would be important to incorporate strengths-based work and resilience as part of psychoeducation. this as the unit has exposed us to, influences sense of learners/client’s agency and resilience in an unstable job market in the 21st century.’ (transcript 11, participant 11, 29 years old, female) the importance of intervening with this group is also highlighted by other authors. young people (i.e. adolescents and young adults) are not only a key group for guidance services, but they are also the age group most likely to experience first onset of mental health conditions (robertson, 2013). he further indicates they are exposed to intense social and transition pressures, while biological maturation is not yet complete. given the evidence that the developmental effects of unemployment on mental health conditions are potentially serious and long lasting, this area must be of particular interest as a target for primary prevention (allen et al., 2007; monroe & harkness, 2005). career education and guidance interventions could strengthen identity and self-esteem in adolescence and promote pro-active behaviour and are associated with positive mental health. theme 6: addressing ‘at risk’ groups participants were able to identity the need to integrate mental health into career development in addressing vulnerable or ‘at risk groups. ‘[i]t is important to integrate both areas to motivate learners, to prevent drop-out or making poor career decisions. also, in the case of adults, due to the covid-19 pandemic who have suddenly become unemployed and experiencing the trauma of such an experience of loss it is particularly important.’ (transcript 9, participant 9, 27 years old, female) theme 7: a need for supervision to address systemic levels the importance of extended services to improve accessibility was highlighted; however, participants indicated the need for supervision, guidance to address this in their practice. ‘i am confident that novice practitioners, with supervision, would be able to provide greater intervention at the group and community levels.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 8: critical consciousness raising at this systemic level the importance of critical consciousness raising in developing practitioners as scientist-practitioner advocates to be socially responsive and address systemic change was highlighted. ‘being exposed to career intervention at the group/community level inspired me to make proper career information accessible to our communities at large, with the overall aim of empowerment. as a future professional, i acknowledge the need for innovative and creative means for making career counselling and assessment services accessible beyond an individual one on one basis.’ (transcript 9, participant 9, 27 years old, female) ‘there is great importance in what career assessments and counselling hold for empowering our youth. i hope to fulfil the potential it holds for providing guidance. my approach will be more group centred (systemic) as i enjoyed working with the approaches and find them relevant for addressing systemic realities.’ (transcript 10, participant 10, 28 years old, female) theme 9: relevance of the training on incorporating intervention at the individual and systemic levels ‘the teaching approach (engaging the multiple levels) resulted in critical reflection on the areas for concerns in career counselling and the challenges we could face. this, personally stimulated thought and focus on how to address such challenges and my professional identity as a counselling psychologist. i approached them as opportunities for change within the field of career assessment ad would capitalise on this to inform a more relevant service in the future.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female ) raising critical consciousness at this level was seen to strengthen distal level influences to ensure that a transformative agenda and social responsiveness is facilitated. distal level influences are seen as higher order cumulative influences that transcend indirectly from events and experiences. distal influences are seen to be relatively stable and necessary to drive agency to impact social change as opposed to proximal level influences (at the micro level) which are recognised to be more directed and immediate. theme 10: relevance of the unit to strengthening the professional identity of counselling psychology implicit in the need for a transformed curriculum based on principles of social justice, critical consciousness raising, the literature also identifies a need for practitioners such as counselling psychologists to return to their vocational and guidance roots. this study advocates the need for counselling psychologists to re-affirm their commitment to development in career development and counselling intervention by providing a more accessible, equitable and relevant career intervention service to south african citizens. ‘the unit allowed reflection on the importance and relevance of the work ‘counselling psychologists’ do and the importance of having a vision. using practical examples/scenarios aided this understanding. we were stimulated to develop a career vision that we hold for ourselves as gatekeepers of our profession.’ (transcript 1, participant 1, 26 years old, female) ‘the unit was relevant in my training as a counselling psychologist. career counselling and assessment is a major point of differentiation between the fields of counselling psychology and clinical psychology and it would be beneficial for students to be exposed to a module more extensively.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) ‘i am now aware of career counselling and assessment as a specialisation area in counselling psychology. it is something that i was largely unfamiliar with previously but am able to reflect on the important role cp’s play in career development.’ (transcript 7, participant 7, 28 years old, female) leach et al. (2003) also indicate that it would be best for counselling psychologists to maintain its independence from clinical psychology because of its unique philosophical emphasis on holism and intervention features such as career issues. the authors refer to the importance of training programmes in allowing the influence of counselling psychology to grow and exert its uniqueness in the future. discussion in revising a career counselling and assessment unit for master’s in counselling psychology training, to address social responsiveness and transformation goals, this article highlighted that the traditional (match and fit) psychometric assessments and theories can no longer be used in isolation. there needs to an integration of both the traditional approaches and theories that inform systemic level intervention to inform curriculum transformation. studies on curriculum transformation in career counselling and assessment are limited and it is hoped that this study (in a limited way) prompts future studies in the field. critical consciousness raising at the systems level was seen as paramount to driving sense of agency in developing practitioners to becoming scientist practitioner advocates. raising critical consciousness at this level was seen to strengthen distal level influences. there was an awareness that while individual-level interventions and the confidence of administering, one-on-one psychometric career assessments serve to increase proximal influences. they, however, do little to influence distal influences (critical consciousness) raising which provides the impetus for change and intervention at systemic levels. traditional quantitative assessments were highlighted as important so that trainee practitioners could feel confident in their assessment ability and better equipped to practice at their internship sites. krishnamurthy et al. (2004) highlight those surveys of assessment training practices in graduate programmes in north america also indicate a reliance on traditional tests and that although issues of multiculturalism were addressed, these needed to be expanded. the importance of a curriculum that combines both quantitative, objective assessments and qualitative, social constructivist approaches that address multi-culturalism and socio-economic realities was regarded as necessary given the limitations in accessibility and administration of career assessments discussed earlier. expanding the curriculum to include social constructivist and post-modern approaches to address the 4th and 5th industrial revolution and an unstable job market post the covid-19 pandemic is deemed necessary. post-modern interventions such as ‘positive career compromise’ (chen, 2004) were seen as relevant in confronting such realities. there is a need for counselling psychologists as autin et al. (2020) indicate to return to traditional career counselling practices like provision of job search skills (e.g. resume writing, networking skills), exploration of interests and values, and assessment of experience and expertise as these will continue to be important during the pandemic and recovery from it (autin et al., 2020). the authors caution that because of an unstable labour market, career counsellors should be especially sensitive to workers’ basic survival needs, knowledgeable about existing social welfare programmes, and prepared to serve populations that have reduced occupational choice (autin et al., 2020). deconstruction and reconstruction of career counselling and career theory may be worth the effort as constructivist approaches have a ‘greater capacity to accommodate the complex and dynamic processes of a rapidly changing society than theories underpinned by the logical positivist worldview’ (mcmahon, 2014, p. 18). further at the systems level, robertson (2013) highlights the importance of integrating a public health agenda to intervening with at risk population groups. this is identified as a key area to inform training of practitioners. many authors have begun to highlight how career guidance has the potential to promote public health by contributing positively to both the prevention of mental health conditions and to population level well-being (e.g. robertson, 2013). while practitioners recognise barriers to career counselling and the need for a public health agenda that intervenes at the different systemic levels, they often lack training on how to intervene at such levels. integrating a public health agenda in career counselling training thus has implications for transformation and social responsiveness in low-middle income contexts such as south africa. internationally as well, the need for additional curriculum content to address broader social and structural issues as key priority areas identified to inform the future of career counsellor education in countries such as canada have also been highlighted (e.g. burwell & kalbfleisch, 2007). other themes identified at the systems level in this study included the role of career counsellors in integrating career and mental health counselling interventions with clients impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. autin et al. (2020) identify that there will be an increased need for career development professionals who are proficient in trauma-informed care. according to barrow et al. (2009), trauma-informed career counselling approaches include: (1) establishing an environment of trust and safety, (2) assessing for trauma-related symptoms, (3) use of ecological frameworks to conceptualise associations between traumatic experiences and work, (4) developing healthy coping strategies and (5) promoting career adaptability (barrow et al., 2019). recommendations arthur et al. (2009) study on canadian career practitioners implementing ecological and social justice systemic interventions abroad identify a lack of support from supervisors, lack of training, insufficient funding, insufficient time to spend on social justice and systemic interventions. the exploratory study provides preliminary findings from the reflections of trainees on ways in which the traditional focus on objective, traditional approaches resulted in restricted roles and responsibilities in career service provision. an integrated approach, with different levels of interventions was seen to provide possibilities for disadvantaged groups. further research is thus needed to explore the utility of the curriculum training revision in application to the different institutional/practice settings counselling psychologists in south africa are placed in and the administrative and logistical support required. research exploring practitioners’ experiences in implementation at the different levels could also serve to further inform training and supervision. limitations although this study discusses preliminary findings that may inform training, there are certain limitations for consideration. firstly, there was a connection between the researcher and the students, often referred to as ‘backyard research’ (creswell, 2003), which may have influenced the students to provide biased or compromised data. secondly, documents (evaluation transcripts) were used as data, which could be incomplete as there was no opportunity to ask participants to elaborate on their responses; this could have provided more and richer data. the findings also cannot be generalised to the experiences of students in other training programmes. conclusion in informing a curriculum for social change and responsiveness, facilitating training of practitioners as critical consciousness raisers through engaging them as agents of social ecologies is paramount. according to seccombe (2002), the role of social ecologies in career development should engage practitioners in proactively ‘changing the odds’ that obstruct the wellbeing of young people. the training of practitioners to intervene at different ecological levels enables what seccombe (2002, p. 384) refers to as ‘beating the odds’. this highlights the dual role south african career counsellors have in intervention. firstly, they should make contemporary, culturally relevant career interventions (as documented by ebersöhn, 2012; maree, 2013; maree et al., 2006; morgan, 2010; savickas, 2012) available to young people in disadvantaged communities. secondly, south african career counsellors need to make it their business to expose clients to the multiplicity of employment trajectories shifting youth focus away from narrow stereotypical career expectations. heightening individual clients and community awareness of 21st-century opportunities and career paths based on technical and vocational education and training (tvet) (diale, 2015) have an important role to play in this endeavour. counselling psychologists in south africa have a significant role to play in the development of culturally sensitive models of career psychology to address issues of transformation and social responsiveness. to accomplish this, however, requires a recommitment of counselling psychologists to affirm their specialisation area in vocational counselling. this draws attention to the role of the curriculum in ensuring relevance and thereby influencing the growth and professional identity of counselling psychology. this article provides a systematic way of revising curriculum content to address both these objectives. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the students who participated in the study. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contribution k.v.r. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data retrieved will remain in the researcher’s possession at the university of pretoria. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references autin, k.l., blustein, d.l., ali, s.r., & garriott, p.o. 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(2014). south africa economic update: fiscal policy and redistribution in an unequal society. retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20339043/southafricaeconomic-update-fiscal-policy-redistribution-unequalu-society abstract introduction background literature review methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boitumelo m. diale department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation diale, b.m. (2022). ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education african journal of career development, 4(1), a62. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.62 original research ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education boitumelo m. diale received: 07 july 2022; accepted: 25 aug. 2022; published: 30 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the study explored indigenous knowledge systems’ role in tutoring first-year first-generation african students (fyfgas) transitioning from high school to higher education. during this process, tutors and students implicitly engage in indigenous knowledge systems (iks) that allow for enculturation and holistic support for fyfgas. objectives: drawing on schlossberg’s career transitioning theory as an underpinning framework, the researcher explored how fyfgas experienced tutoring sessions as a positive conduit towards their successful transition into their first year at university, embedded in the tutor’s use of iks processes. method: this article adopted a phenomenological qualitative design within an interpretive paradigm. data were collected using a semi-structured individual interview schedule with six participants who were first years and the first generation to attend universities in their families. these included four females and two males between the ages of 19 and 21 years. five of the participants were black south africans, and one was originally from zimbabwe but a naturalised resident of south africa. data were analysed through inductive thematic analysis. results: the findings revealed that tutors were role models to fyfgas as they transitioned. tutors further acted as agents of empowerment, thus fulfilling the role of change agents. students believed that tutoring sessions promoted active learning. through their active engagement, students developed problem-solving and knowledge-acquisition skills. conclusion: there is a need for higher education institutions (heis) to build systems that embrace the diverse iks in supporting the fyfgas. developing a holistic understanding of iks and using these practices during the tutor sessions of fyfgas will help transform hei spaces and fully embrace diversity. this will allow these students’ career transitioning to be inclusive. contribution: the study contributes towards guiding higher education institutions on how to embrace and support students who are the first generation in their families to attend university. it brings further insight to the university leadership on the lived experiences of these students and h ow universities can adapt their first year experience programs to be more inclusive of these students keywords: indigenous knowledge systems; tutoring; higher education; first year; first-generation students; career transition. introduction transitioning from high school to higher education institutions (heis) is challenging for some youth. however, since the dawn of democracy, most youth entering heis in the south african context are from previously disadvantaged contexts and thus find themselves underprepared in their transitioning because of socio-economic, historical, political and community circumstances (council on higher education, 2013). research has shown that most south african students need additional support when entering heis to persist through their first year of study (lombard, 2020; motsabi, diale, & van zyl, 2020b). there is literature on career transitioning from high school to higher education (lombard, 2020; meehan & howells, 2018) first-generation students’ persistence in higher education (engestrom & tinto, 2008; motsabi, diale, & van zyl, 2020a; o’shea, 2016) the use of indigenous knowledge systems (iks) and tutoring in higher education (pidgeon, 2016; stahl, mcdonald, & stokes, 2020) and the value of tutoring programmes in higher education (carnow et al., 2020; rodríguez & ossola, 2019). however, there is a scarcity of research focusing on the use of indigenous knowledge practices supporting first-year first-generation african students (fyfgas) in their career transition to higher education within the south african context. this study explores indigenous knowledge practices used during tutoring sessions to support fyfgas as they transition to higher education. in this study, fyfgas are black south african students, as classified in the south african population registry (mda, 2011), whose parents have no higher education qualifications (mehta, newbold, & o’rourke, 2011) and who are the first in their family to attend university (bangeni & kapp, 2005). they come from families where the understanding of academic norms, expectations and demands differs from families where at least one parent attended higher education (heymann & carolissen, 2011). first-year first-generation african students are more likely to come from low-income families, poor socio-economic backgrounds, under-resourced basic education and schooling systems and poor communities. some of these students grow up in families where the grandmother is the main breadwinner, and all grandchildren look out for each other (mtshali, 2015). for these students, the family system, including parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, becomes an important source of support; thus, they never become fully break up from the rules of the family and learn to become independent from these systems (covarrubias, valle, laiduc, & azmitia, 2019; motsabi et al., 2020b), affirming the african proverbs that ‘ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ [a person is a person through other people] and that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. the combination of the act of ubuntu and the indigenous practice of a ‘village’ is needed in their first year of study as they transition to higher education, which can be embedded into the tutoring system. background compared to international, first-generation students from minority groups, fyfgas in this context come from the black south africans that are the majority of the population. they are from diverse contexts ranging from families where parents have no education or only primary or secondary education and come from townships or rural contexts; others are caregivers in child-headed households, thus facing multiple psychosocial adversities during their first year of study in heis, yet are able to succeed (naidoo & van schalkwyk, 2021; van breda, 2017; wills & hofmeyer, 2018). for these students to persist in higher education, academic, economic and social support are important. the first year is a transitional year from basic to higher education. it is generally the most difficult year for most students and a year where students find it easy to drop out. according to the council on higher education in 2013, the attrition rate of first-year students was 33%. most of these students were african and most probably the first generation. first-year first-generation african students need all forms of academic and social support for them to be able to navigate higher education and persevere through the challenging first year. tutoring programmes have proven effective in transitioning from high school to university. the intensity of the interactions during these sessions and the relationships between tutors and students lead to academic knowledge acquisition (rodríguez & ossola, 2019). integrating indigenous african ways of learning during the tutoring sessions further enhances academic development as it draws from the ways of being that they are familiar with. they provide access, participation and support for first-year students to manage their transition into university life. given the changing demographics in south african heis, universities must develop systems that consider students’ identities in becoming socially integrated and attaining learning and generic skills and qualities such as critical thinking and intellectual rigour (tinto, 1993). this process has far-reaching implications for educational thought and practice. to cater for this adjustment, heis must set clear transformational goals to redress past inequalities, serve a new social order, meet pressing national needs and respond to new realities and opportunities (chipunza & gwarinda, 2010). higgs (2008) further argues for a need for a philosophical framework that respects diversity, acknowledges lived experiences and challenges western forms of universal knowledge. before an institution can take steps to enhance student success, it must first understand who they are, what they have been prepared to do academically and what they expect from the institution and themselves. it further needs to take into consideration the current student profile within the institution. in the case of the institution under investigation, the students’ profile is mostly african, with first-generation students from predominantly poor socio-economic backgrounds who have not been adequately prepared for higher education as expected and are faced with adjusting to cultural capital and institutional habitus that are alien to them. higher education institutions must take into consideration that the first years of a degree allow for an opportunity for both students and academic institutions to create learning opportunities (leibowitz, van der merwe, & van schalkwyk, 2009). according to tinto (1993), the first year of university is the most likely year that a student will leave. for students to persist, institutional conditions should encourage a smooth transition. tinto (2012) believes that students persist when conditions within an institution are conducive to success; therefore, heis should create environments that enable students to succeed. against this background, this article argues that in an institution where first-year students are predominantly african, indigenous ways of tutoring should be integrated into the current western tutoring systems to support and enhance the programmes implemented by the institution, thus creating an inviting experience (siegel, 2010) for fyfgas and assisting them in adjusting to the complexities of higher education. the tutoring programme can be empowering, nurturing and supportive if managed correctly. it can consider the students’ knowledge, positively impacting first-year students’ personal, social and academic outcomes (mcgowan, saintas, & gill, 2009; o’shea, harwood, kervin, & humphry, 2013; rogers, 2011). the tutors provide academic and personal support to students by encouraging participation and allowing for guidance. conditions are set to promote a reciprocal relationship, a learning relationship and a nurturing relationship. this enables the students to adapt, acquire the required competencies and learn from their experiences. this relationship becomes mutually beneficial as both tutor and the tutee learn from each other. literature review indigenous ways of tutoring owuor (2007) states that indigenous knowledge includes the society’s means of learning and knowledge accumulation. furthermore, demssie, biemans, wesselink and mulder (2020, p. 4) define indigenous knowledge as ‘a comprehensive system of a particular society that encompasses its worldviews, practices, laws, holistic know-how and guidelines regarding interrelationships within the society’. it is largely communitarian as the discovery, experimentation, transmission and knowledge sharing are collective rather than individualistic endeavour within a community (emeagwali, 2003, higgs & van niekerk, 2002). according to pidgeon (2016), to reconcile systemic and societal inequalities, it is the responsibility of heis to decolonise education, leading to the meaningful inclusion of indigenous knowledge as an integral part of the institution’s tutoring programmes. carnow et al. (2020) define tutoring as an intervention to improve students’ academic performance. this intervention is facilitated by high-achieving senior students appointed to guide and support novice students to be actively involved in their learning and development and gain cognitive skills that will lead to their success (carnow et al., 2020). tutoring typically happens as experienced people recognise and develop new beginners who seek to explore their talents through the counsel of knowledgeable elders. in the african culture, the ancestors knew that if the family wants to survive, the children must learn the ways used by the tribe in order to survive. as they learn, they are tutored in the skills, the ceremonies and the ways of life of the tribe. thus, tutoring ensured cultural survival for the people. tutoring is important in transmitting knowledge and skills (azevedo, moraes, & lira, 2021), and learning how to learn is the key element in education. tutoring in indigenous education promotes skills such as listening, observing, experiencing and intuition, all of which play an important role in learning. in transmitting knowledge, the emphasis of learning is to allow for the uniqueness of the individual learning style and to encourage the development of self-reliance and self-determination (cajete, 1994). the tutors are found in the various developmental stages of young people, and the relationship promotes learning through the emulation of an experienced practitioner and supervised guidance. these wondrous relationships mirror the processes of the wisdom of indigenous knowledge and tutoring, such as preparing, asking, making, understanding, sharing and celebrating between the mentor and the mentee. it is important to acknowledge that in the south african context, where we have nine official languages with different cultural practices, there are general common practices across these cultures, one of them being the role of mentors in the developmental stages and the coming to age of children and youth. whilst the author acknowledges that participants are from different cultural backgrounds, it is beyond the scope of this article to use examples from all cultural groups. thus, the author chose to use the amazulu cultural processes as an example of relating the role of iks in the tutoring of fyfgas. however, in the data analysis section, the terms used for mentees or mentors in the participants’ cultures will be mentioned where possible. the amazulu culture places a lot of emphasis on tutoring, hence the proverb indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili [you can only ask directions from those who have travelled the path before you]. learning takes place in a group situation, and sharing opinions is valued. for example, in the amazulu culture girls who have gone through teenage hood and are presumed to still be virgins are called amatshitshi and are placed under the mentorship of older, matured female called iqhikiza. the role of iqhikiza is that of a guiding mentor who will help amatshitshi negotiate this transition period. during this period, the young girls are taught how to navigate the robes of becoming young adults, including lessons on what to expect, what to do and how to behave. iqhikiza prepares them for adulthood and acts in place of parents (in loco-parentis) (vilakazi, 1965). she must lead by example, as the young women will emulate her behaviour. she allows them to question and freely discuss their experiences, and she engages their curiosity in a way that allows them to feel part of their development. a major role played by the mentor ‘iqhikiza’ is that of a nurturing, supportive and protective leader to her protégés. in the isizulu culture, the practice of mentoring is used not only with girls but also with boys during their developmental stages. the male mentor, igoso lezinsizwa [a leader of young men], is a grown-up mature male who is a leader of the younger group of boys said to be ibutho. the role of the leader is to teach his protégés how to use sticks for fighting, approach girls and deal with rejection. in this way, he helps them gain insight into their subculture and develop. during the tutorship period, the men are taught skills of hunting, raising a family and general manhood ways. this helps clear misunderstandings and conflicts, especially amongst boys in the same group. idiomatic expressions such as injobo ithungelwa ebandla [a problem is solved by a community] (nxumalo, 2021) encourage sharing information and joint problem-solving. therefore, according to indigenous culture, learning occurs through interaction, transference and emulation. this leans more on the tutoring system as a favoured methodology. this study capitalises on using indigenous systems during tutoring sessions with fyfgas. to this end, the study sought to answer the following main research question: how are iks utilised to support the fyfgas during the tutoring sessions in an hei in south africa? theoretical framework this study is underpinned by schlossberg’s transition theory (1995), which focuses on the transitions that individuals experience throughout life and how they cope and adjust (schlossberg, waters, & goodman, 1995). schlossberg describes the transition as ‘any event or non-event that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles’ (goodman, schlossberg, & anderson, 2006, p. 33). to understand the meaning of transition for fyfgas, the transition type, context and impact must be considered carefully (killam & degges-white, 2017). according to chickering and schlossberg (1995), transitioning can be anticipated, unanticipated or non-event. in this article, fyfgas transitioning from high school to hei can be considered an anticipated transition (bailey-taylor, 2009). thus, the student should be able to prepare for a successful transition adequately. however, for most fyfgas, this transition is not smooth as they face myriad challenges that threaten their success in higher education. for those who can break through the first hurdle of challenges and make it to heis, they are likely to face unanticipated events when they get to heis, such as under-preparedness, socio-cultural shock, lack of financial support or realising that the hei context is completely different from their experiences – thus finding themselves not able to adjust to the transition. finally, a non-event for fyfgas can relate to a situation where they are ready to transition but, because of various contextual reasons, the transition to higher education does not occur. this transition theory further posits that four factors affect an individual’s capacity to cope with a transition, situation, self, support and strategies (schlossberg et al., 1995). killam and degges-white (2017) explain the situation factor in schlossberg’s transition theory as encompassing precipitation, timing, control, role modification, duration, experience in similar transition, concurrent stress and evaluation. the self encompasses the fyfgass’ personal (age, gender and ethnicity) demographic and psychological (ego-development, commitment and values, coping aids and self-efficacy) resources that are important enablers in the transitioning phase. the support factor of schlossberg’s transition theory stresses the importance of fyfgas social relationships as support structures constructed by family members, peers, community members and support services from hei. this factor plays an important role in the indigenous tutoring systems of many fyfgas as an institutional support mechanism. the final factor focuses on strategies that can be used in heis to modify their situations through various institutional strategies such as tutoring and on-boarding of fyfgas (killam & degges-white, 2017). the diagram (figure 1) explains four major sets of factors that influence an individual and are likely to determine fyfgas ability to cope with a transition (schlossberg et al., 1995). figure 1: schlossberg’s four ‘s’ factors of transitioning concerning first-year first-generation african students in higher education institutions in south africa. through schlossberg’s four ‘s’ factors (situation, self, support and strategies), the researcher hoped to understand better how using indigenous knowledge and practices in the tutoring sessions could enable a smooth transition to higher education. methodology research design this study adopted a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design focused on the essence of a lived experience or phenomenon open to observation or perception by diverse individuals with diverse viewpoints (tomaszewski, zarestky, & gonzalez, 2020). it also focuses on the depth and complexity of phenomena (guest, namey, & mckenna, 2017), which is the role of iks in the tutoring of fyfgas in higher education. the researcher aimed to yield a systematic reflection of the participants’ lived experiences (guest et al., 2017) of the tutoring system as fyfgas. hence, information about the use of indigenous systems during the career transition into higher education and their deeper understanding and meaningful indigenous learning during the tutor sessions were sourced from students as participants. participants and sampling using purposive sampling, participants were sourced from a class of 35 students from racially diverse backgrounds registered for an elective support module at the bachelor of education undergraduate degree level. from this diverse group, 16 identified as african students. although all 16 were willing participants, 10 students did not meet the inclusion criteria as either their parents or elder siblings had previously attended heis. only six participants were involved as they met the criteria of being fyfgas. all six came from previously disadvantaged family backgrounds and were the first to attend any form of higher education beyond grade 12 in their family systems. table 1 describes the participants and their parents’ educational backgrounds. pseudonyms were used to conceal their identities. table 1: biographical information of participants. tutors are seen as senior matured students in their second, third or fourth year of study at university, and tutors are appointed by academics in different modules based on their excellence in performance. their role is to tutor these year students and assist them in transitioning into higher education and also mentoring and coaching them outside the formal academic sessions. data collection and analysis for this study, data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with six participants to allow them an opportunity to express themselves in a ‘safe’ space. the interview schedule covered the students’ experiences and therefore covered the following: (1) describe your experiences of the tutoring sessions as facilitated by your tutors; (2) how do these sessions relate or identify with your indigenous knowledge practices as an fyfgas? (3) as an fyfgas, what benefits did you experience from the tutoring sessions? (4) what skills have you found that relate to your indigenous skills and values during the tutoring sessions? all data were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. maree’s (2017) process of cross-checking and comparing the transcribed data with the audio recordings was followed to ensure trustworthiness. creswell’s (2014) guidelines of reading through the data, dividing data into segments of information with codes, reducing and overlapping the redundancy of codes and collapsing the codes into themes were followed to analyse data. to ensure the study’s trustworthiness, the transcribed data were cross-checked with the recordings (yin, 2017). ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, faculty of education research ethics committee and permission to conduct the study was granted by the faculty in which the participants were registered as first-year students, and participants also signed consent forms. the research is part of a larger project on career transitioning (ethics clearance sem 2-2020-055). the researcher asked to address students in one of the colleague’s classes where they did not teach to avoid biases and students feeling coerced to participate. all ethical protocols were adhered to, and participants were informed of the right to withdraw at any stage without repercussions should they feel uncomfortable continuing. results presentation of findings the findings yielded three main themes from the individual interview discussions. each theme yielded subthemes. the overarching themes and subthemes are presented in figure 2. all these themes contributed to the benefits experienced by fyfgas during tutoring sessions as they transitioned to higher education. verbatim quotes are used as evidence of the presented results. the following section discusses each theme and the subthemes with supporting quotes from the fyfgas. figure 2: themes and subthemes derived from data. theme 1: tutors serve as role models participants in this study attested to how their tutors were role models for them, and this inspired them as they became self-aware of their potential to succeed in higher education despite being first-generation university students. a male participant from kwazulu-natal commented: ‘for someone like me who comes from the deep rural natal and being the third of four children in the family to come to uni[versity], my tutors acted as my mentors and role models for me. they reminded me back home of my elder brothers who guided me through manhood when i went to the mountain to become a man, and although they did not go further in schooling, i can relate to their lessons in some of my tutors’ sessions.’ (sizwe, 18-year-old, male, from the amazulu ethnic group) when probed further about the guidance through manhood, he explained: ‘you know ma’am, in my culture, as teenagers, we go to the mountain to transition into manhood. during this period, we have young men [igosolezinsizwa], similar to my tutors, and older men, similar to my lecturers, who teach us ways of being. the young men become our mentors as they had gone through this path before and were taught by the older men. this prepares us better for manhood and practices such as ukushela [proposing love to a girl]; ukulahlwa [rejection] and nokulwa ngezinduku [stick fighting]. these lessons made me preserve, and i will still use them here [smiling]. i, therefore, relate tutoring to this as my tutors prepare me better for university studies.’ (sizwe, 18-year-old, male, from the amazulu ethnic group) this comment indicates that tutoring sessions allowed the participant to relate to his indigenous practices of transitioning from one stage of life to the next with the help of those who had gone through the path before him; thus the idiom ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili,’ loosely translated as, ‘you can only ask for direction from those who have travelled the path before you.’ alluding to the experience of tutors providing inspiration and corroborating sizwe’s experience, a female participant who is an orphan and was brought up by her grandmother said: ‘for me, my education studies tutor has been my inspiration to do my best. i spent two years at home after my matric as my granny could not afford registration fees. so, i find myself a bit older than my classmates, who are between 17 and 19 years. this initially made me feel awkward and out of place, but when my tutor, who is much older and from zimbabwe, told us her story in the tutor session, i felt inspired and belonged.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) tsakani’s experience can be related to the indigenous ways of mentoring where she sees her tutor as mudyondzisi [a female mentor] in the matsonga culture similar to iqhikiza [older female mentor] who is nurturing, supportive and protective of izintombi [younger females], her protégés. these experiences are similar to the indigenous practices the fyfgas know and can relate to, which helps them transition better into higher education, increasing their persistence and decreasing the possibility of high attrition rates and dropout. similarly, a 19 yeard old female from the batswana ethnic group, mpho, said, ‘most of my tutors inspire me to do my best’ whilst mfundo added that, ‘they make this seem all possible and doable, they are a true inspiration and remind us of our african way of being, that is to look after each other and learn from those who have gone before us, that is the way of being ma’m, they show true ubuntu.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) according to the participants, tutors provided them with the support they needed to manage their first year successfully. they also helped them understand the material taught in class by their lecturers and made it simple and ‘digestible’ [tsakani]. tutors played the role of being their guides. a participant explained their experience as follows: ‘my tutors [in setswana called bakaedi] remind me of back home, where my elder cousin was my inspiration and guide to success. even though she did not finish school, she was a successful businesswoman and was the reason i was inspired to finish school and come to university. my tutors’ support reminds me of the support i got from her as she was a good example for me that i can succeed as a black girl.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) the above experiences can be related to schlossberg’s transitioning process of the fyfgas’s ability to control and manage their transition because of the support they receive from their tutors. it further alludes to aspects of the self as some are self-conscious of the personal characteristics they bring into the situation, such as age, gender and ethnicity. theme 2: tutors act as agents of empowerment when participants were asked about their understanding of the benefits of tutor sessions and the role tutors played in their transitioning, their responses alluded to the role of their tutors as agents of empowerment. in her response, tsakani explained her experience with her history tutor as follows: ‘she allows us to question freely and share our stories and experiences, something i am scared to do in class with my lecturers. when she validated my opinions and allowed me to express myself in my home language even though she did not know it and asked others to help interpret, i knew there and then that she has my back and it’s possible to make it.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) refiloe supported tsakani’s statement and indicated that ‘i can express my personal views in the mentor session’ and said, ‘as students, we feel valuable.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) her opinion was further supported by thato, who stated, ‘i feel that i have valuable contributions to make in the mentor session.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) participants felt that they were allowed to express their opinions even if they did not agree with the others. this thought was passionately shared by mfundo, who explained that there was a debate around the former president of zimbabwe in the session, and his personal opinions differed from the class as a zimbabwean. he felt whilst the rest of the group was talking from a third-person perspective, he had a first-hand lived experience from his home country. his experience of how the tutor handled the ‘hot debate’ was ‘my opinions are considered important in the mentor session, and i feel validated by my tutor. for me, he is a true agent of empowerment.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) the experiences shared by participants allowed them to transition without feeling insecure, as their tutors assisted in building their self-confidence. because of this positive experience, participants were willing to go the extra mile to succeed in their studies. this relates to schlossberg’s second ‘s’ of self. through the mentor sessions, they were enabled to develop their egos, coping aids, values and self-efficacy and be fully committed to their holistic development. moreover, the fourth ‘s’ of strategies was used by fyfgas to adapt to higher education through peer engagement, debates and critical discussions. this process can only occur in smaller tutor sessions versus the big lecture classes. theme 3: mentor sessions promote active student participation the tutoring sessions enabled participants to participate in their learning and development actively. the active participation was indicated by three participants who said: ‘the mentor session promotes participation which boosts my self-confidence.’ (mpho, 19 year old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) ‘i enjoy taking part in discussions during the mentor session because i can express myself without fear or favour as a zulu boy.’ [with a smile] (sizwe, 18 year old, male, from the amazullu ethnic group) ‘the mentor encourages all of us as students to participate actively.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) when asked about skills, they found that related to their indigenous skills and values during the tutoring sessions, participants’ responses indicated two major skills: problem-solving and knowledge acquisition. they indicated that they had been taught these skills as children by their grandparents, parents and other elders in their villages and communities. in explaining problem-solving skills, tsakani explained: ‘the mentor session teaches me to think critically not only about my studies but about life in general. this reminds me of my granny who used to say to me as a little girl, “tsakani,” [and i knew when she calls me by name, there is something wrong i have done as she called me makhadzi, meaning aunt as i was named after her aunt], you don’t just do things, you think first. otherwise, you will always be in trouble and will never succeed.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) tsakani alluded to this indigenous knowledge by her grandmother as a lesson she has taken throughout her whole life. mfundo alluded that the mentor session ‘promotes problem-solving.’ when asked to explain further, as school is thought to be the place where problem-solving is taught, he argued and said: ‘you see, ma’am, doc, school is supposed to do this, but it doesn’t; all you guys do with your western knowledge is to make us do “cpf,” and that does not teach us to problem solve; it actually makes us forget the skills we learned from the home of problem-solving, and the tutor sessions at least try to bring this skill back.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) as i was uncertain what cpf means, i asked mfundo to explain, but he rolled his eyes and laughed out loud, and said: ‘serious, doc,’ to which i nodded my head. mfundo’s response was: ‘teachers and lecturers make us “c”cram, “p”-pass and “f”forget. they don’t engage us in those big classes thus, we are unable to critically think, but if you focus during the tutor sessions, you learn a lot as these sessions provide the opportunity to critically think and problem solve.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) mfundo further explained that as a boy back in zimbabwe, he and his siblings and cousins were raised by his grandfather as he did not know his father. his grandfather would give them challenging tasks when they took his stock out for grazing, and the one who came up with solutions would receive incentives and privileges over the others. as he puts it: ‘this continuously kept us on our toes to find solutions; thus, i found my own solution of coming to south africa to study, with no one’s help [smiling].’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) one could tell from his facial expression how proud he was about the lessons learned from his grandfather, and mfundo was one of the top students, not only in my module but in the programme. thato corroborated mfundo’s narration in saying: ‘the mentor session teaches me to look at things from a different point of view.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) given the challenges students who are fyfgas and from disadvantaged contexts face, heis need to provide a conducive and student-friendly context that will allow students to develop knowledge-acquisition skills and provide the support that will bridge the gap that emanates from the poor schooling system they come from. it was evident from the data provided that fyfgas found tutor sessions provided them with the opportunity to develop knowledge-acquisition skills that they needed to cope with learning at a university. to support this assertion, participants stated that: ‘i learn new skills in every mentor session.’ (mpho, 19 year old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) ‘the mentor session gives me the ability to achieve set outcomes.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) ‘the mentor session teaches me to apply the theory i have learned.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) discussion according to karcher (2008), students require good role models to guide them to navigate the new school environment successfully. coyne-foresi, crooks, chiodo, nowicki and dare (2019) also indicate that tutors can serve as role models for individual mentees in tutoring programmes. in previous research, tutoring was shown to promote a strong relationship between students and tutors (tolbert, 2015). klinck et al. (2005) note that in the indigenous tutoring system, it is important for mentees to have good role models that will guide and support them in their journey towards personal growth. karcher (2005) shows that a mentor’s (tutor) behaviour, such as attendance rate, can directly affect mentees’ self-management of behaviour, skills and self-esteem, thus agreeing with the four ‘s’s of schlossberg’s transition theory (schlossberg et al., 1995). karcher (2009) suggests that having tutors with positive attitudes and connectedness that foster student achievement is essential to a tutoring programme’s success. indigenous tutoring holds many benefits for students. the indigenous tutoring system is useful for improving educational aspirations and reducing educational disparity amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds (bodkin-andrews, harwood, mcmahon, & priestly, 2013). previous studies indicate that the indigenous tutoring system can foster student learning outcomes and is a mechanism for student empowerment, knowledge acquisition and skill improvement (o’shea, mcmahon, priestly, bodkin-andrews, & harwood, 2016; priestly, lynch, wallace, & harwood, 2015; reano, 2020). o’shea et al. (2013) observe that tutoring can foster imaginative thinking about university education amongst students and serve as a tool for improving students’ access to and participation in university education. also, burgess and dyer (2009) observe that tutoring provides students with the opportunity to rise above their disadvantaged situation. windchief and brown (2017) suggest that indigenous tutoring programmes can help to address the educational gap and enable students to succeed in pursuing higher education without losing their cultural identity and values. mangan and trendle (2019) show that tutoring can increase student programme completion rates. also, another study suggests that learners who have been tutored are less likely to drop out of a training programme than those without tutors (trendle, 2013). karcher (2009) observes that a tutoring programme can enable students to gain knowledge, skills and attitudes that could assist them in comprehending better and respecting themselves and others. researchers like peralta, cinelli and bennie (2018) show that tutoring can be used to increase the engagement of indigenous students. hackett et al. (2016) recorded improvements in students’ confidence, knowledge and skills after participating in a tutoring programme. tutoring fosters connectedness amongst students by providing them with the opportunity to bond socially and experience belongingness (karcher, 2005). according to karcher (2008), tutoring is a mechanism for transmitting values to students, instilling in them hope for the future as well as improving their academic skills. this is further supported by carnow et al. (2020) who assert that the cooperative nature of tutoring allows students to engage with peers and exchange learning experiences and success strategies. these values, experiences and strategies support the fyfgas to transition easily, taking cognisance of their personal characteristics, psychological resources and support structures as outlined in the transition theory (schlossberg et al., 1995). tutoring greatly benefits disadvantaged youths by providing them with a forum for developing competence and school bonding (zand et al., 2009). coyne-foresi et al. (2019) show that tutoring contributes positively to students’ self-development, cultural connectedness and interpersonal relationships. kram and bragar (1992) emphasise that tutoring helps in skills development amongst mentees. indigenous tutoring programmes can help increase mentees’ skill levels (vujcich, thomas, crawford, & ward, 2018). furthermore, tutoring enhances students’ experience in the university; it enables them to develop confidence, create a group identity, appropriately navigate the school environment, develop good communication abilities and support one another in difficult times (mills et al., 2014). tutoring is an effective learning and teaching tool for improving student retention in the university environment (shields et al., 2012), allowing students to develop and sustain beneficial relationships and engage in reflective thinking (mills et al., 2014). it allows mentees to collaborate, solve problems and share ideas with others (mills et al., 2014; palermo, hughes, & mccall, 2011). tutoring is a practical approach to mastering essential life skills and ensuring positive changes in youth’s academic, behavioural and vocational outcomes (du bois, portillo, rhodes, silverthorn, & valentine, 2011; ware, 2013). however, paasse and adams (2011) note that for the indigenous tutoring programme to be successful, its structure must be flexible and informal and should be able to adapt to the skills and knowledge of the local community and their services. the most profound finding of the study is that all participants acknowledged the indigenous lessons they learned from their homes and communities that they could overtly or covertly observe and experience during the tutor sessions, which helped them persist through the first semester of the year. all six participants experienced tutor sessions positively. this indicates that if we are to truly transform higher education and decolonise its curriculum, embedding iks should not be a tick box exercise only. the transitioning of fyfgas should be an intentional and institutionalised priority in all programmes, and tutors must be empowered to play this role. however, it also talks to academic staff about being prepared to transform their ways of being and doing, as they are the mentors of the tutors in their programmes. limitations of the study there are some limitations to be considered in this study. the study focused on students from one of the small modules in the faculty as it is perceived by many as a methodology-related module that is not a school curriculum subject but more of a support role subject. thus, getting a teaching post in most township schools is difficult. there were only six participants who met the inclusion criteria as the subject is perceived to be difficult by most african students as it is neurodiversity. because of the small number of participants, the study results cannot be generalised. a future study based on a mixed-methods approach and taking large samples of students from different modules could be undertaken. recommendations a future study based on a mixed-methods approach and taking large samples of students from different modules could be undertaken. conclusion failure by academia to embrace indigenous ways of knowing and doing for fyfgas will continue to deepen existing inequalities in heis. to address issues of equality, decolonisation of education, social justice and embracing the diverse student population, heis need to ensure that they not only mark the box of policies in their spaces but are actively engaging to ensure that fyfgas are fully integrated into their institutions as they transition. this integration goes beyond equity statistics. it also includes fully embracing the socio-cultural, historical and iks and practices diverse african students bring into the classroom, including preparing their tutors to engage in practices that validate and acknowledge these knowledge systems. only then can we begin to talk about transforming the higher education system that prepares students for the world of work where they can fully be adaptable without losing their sense of identity and the rich knowledge they bring from their contexts. although this was a small group of participants, this study acknowledges the role played by the tutors who practice indigenous ways of mentoring in the tutoring processes that validated the fyfgas and thus allowed them to engage in their learning, leading to their active persistence. developing a holistic understanding of iks and using these practices during the tutor sessions of fyfgas will help transform hei spaces and fully embrace diversity. this will allow these students’ career transitioning to be inclusive. acknowledgements the author would like to thank ms nikki watkins, dr eseadi chiedu and dr soraya motsabi for their assistance and support while writing this article. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author contribution b.m.d. is the sole author of this article. funding information the author received financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article from the university of johannesburg (urc). data availability the author is willing to make data that supports this study available upon request taking into account issues of privacy or ethical restrictions. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references azevedo, v., moraes, a., & lira, h. 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(2023). intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals. african journal of career development, 5(1), a81. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.81 original research intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals lindokuhle m. ubisi, wandile tsabedze, eduard fourie received: 20 apr. 2023; accepted: 04 july 2023; published: 22 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in searching, entering and adapting into a career, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other non-conforming (lgbtqia+) individuals must consider how an organisation’s cultural norms will not only affect their work but also their gender and sexual identity. this includes actively seeking welcoming workspaces, employing coping strategies against minority stressors or having to exit a work environment because of prolonged homophobia. however, it is not constructive to immediately assume that this will be the career trajectory of all lgbtqia+ individuals. objectives: this review sought to explore how lgbtqia+ individuals navigate intersections of gender and/or sexuality diversity in varied work environments. methods: a desktop review of qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted to search for publications to answer the following question, what are lgbtqia+ individuals’ experiences of gender and sexuality diversity within various work environments? results: given limited scholarship in this area in south africa, local and international studies were consulted to further the body of knowledge. evidence suggests that while lgbtqia+ individuals have found much visibility and accommodation within most organisations, they still encounter discriminatory practices including minority stressors, such as racism, queerphobia and marginalisation. conclusion: as such, it is suggested that most lgbtqia+ individuals will either exit or risk experiencing strain or burnout under such conditions of multiple oppressions. contribution: an immediate call for mental health services is required to buffer adverse wellbeing for lgbtqia+ individuals in the work environment. anti-discriminatory guidelines are recommended to promote gender and sexual diversity for lgbtqia+ individuals in the work environment. keywords: career trajectory; gender and sexuality diversity; lgbtqia+ individuals; queerphobia; homophobia. introduction south africa is said to have africa’s most protective rights for minority groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming (lgbtqia+) individuals (andam & epprecht, 2019; beatriz & pereira, 2022; ibrahim, 2015). for example, de vos (2000) maintains that south africa is among the first to have an equality provision in its constitution (section 9(3)), which forbids discriminatory practices such as genderism, sexism or exclusion based on sexual orientation (the bill of rights of the constitution of the republic of south african, 1996). however, as it stands, many workplace organisations still have a culture of prejudice such as racism, misogyny, queerphobia or prejudice based on several overlapping social categories (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). these attitudes might cause fear, anxiety and uncertainty for marginalised groups such as lgbtqia+ individuals when searching, entering or choosing to stay within a particular career (eliason et al., 2018; maree, 2014; uttarapong et al., 2021). the work environment does not operate in a vacuum devoid of any pre-existing gender or sexuality norms (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). as butler (1990) has previously asserted, conformity to gender performativity is rewarded, while deviance to normativity often results in marginalisation. as such, it is commonplace for most organisations to adopt a compulsory heterosexuality, culture within their policy strategies (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). compulsory heterosexuality refers to the overpreference or overreliance of heteromasculine or feminine roles, identities or experiences at the neglect of other non-normative gender or sexualities (francis, 2021). a similar pattern is evident when cisgendered men enter female-dominated occupations such as nursing, early childhood education and social work. kalemba (2020), khunou et al. (2012) and petersen (2014), for example, reported that genderism still ‘pushes’ cisgendered men out of female-concentrated professions. genderism involves drawing gender binaries, such as assumed gender roles for men and women based on biological sex. at the same time, williams’ (2013) glass escalator strategy suggested that cisgendered men enter the work environment with privilege, which they may use to gain more status, higher positions and better employment conditions over women in the same occupation. however, this was not applicable to non-white and gay men (williams, 2013). more importantly, it is important to note that global movements, such as the hashtags: (1) #metoo, (2) #blacklivesmatter, and (3) #blackqueerlivesmatter movements, have caused transformations for the world of work to reconsider their stances towards disenfranchisements such as racism, misogyny and queerphobia (zeng, 2020; zulli, 2020). for instance, mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020) systematic reviews of entry of lgbtqia+ individuals into the labour force suggest that the absorption rate has gradually increased in entry level but not significantly within management or senior positions. as such, it may be necessary to also explore whether lgbtqia+ persons may enjoy greater visibility and acceptance within certain workspaces (maake et al., 2021). for this reason, this review asked, what are the experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals in navigating gender or sexuality diversity in various work environments? research methods and design a desktop review was consulted to peruse for literature within this area. publications (e.g. special issues, journal articles, books, chapters, briefs, editorials, workplace guidelines, annual reports and so on) from multiple search engines (google scholar, psychnet, world of science journals, online journals, provincial and governmental departmental websites, among others) were consulted to search for studies available within this body of knowledge. selection criteria the search for both qualitative and quantitative publications utilised certain keywords, such as ‘gender and sexuality diversity’, ‘lgbtqia+’, ‘work environment’, ‘homophobia’, ‘transphobia’, ‘queerphobia’ and other variants of similar key terms. reference lists from consulted publications were followed to snowball for more publications. because of the scope and word limit of this review, the search was limited to publications from the period of 2000–2023. data were analysed using braun and clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis as well as the population (or participants), concept and context (pcc) framework (pollock et al., 2023). table 1 shows how the pcc framework was applied during the data analysis process. data saturation was reached after finding a duplication of themes from the authors individually analysing the retrieved data with a cross-checking of an external moderator. all in all, 800 articles were retrieved, but only 239 sources could be included based on this selection criteria for analysis. as such, the study might have missed publications outside the stipulated time period, keywords or consulted search engines. table 1: how the population (or participants), concept and context framework was applied during the data analysis process. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa college of human sciences’ research ethics review committee (no. 90352025_june_crec_chs_2023). results table 2 presents findings reported as clustered themes reporting on the experiences of gender and sexual diversity during entry, adjusting and choosing to stay in various work environment by lgbtqia+ individuals. the gaps identified from the review are that few studies (both qualitative and quantitative) are available locally around the intersection of gender and sexual diversity regarding the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals. for example, no studies were available of how lgbtqia+ individuals experience the interviewing process. there were no available research that studied the phenomenon from a longitudinal approach to understand the problem from entry to exit. another gap was few studies that focused on the positive experiences of entering, coping and staying in tolerant and accommodating work environments for lgbtqia+ individuals. for this reason, the study opted to consult with local and international literature around the intersection of gender and sexuality diversity in the work environment. table 2: experiences of gender and sexuality diversity during entry, adjusting and choosing to stay in various work environments by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming individuals. discussion the review established that there are various challenges encountered by lgbtqia+ individuals as they attempt in seeking employment, coping while in the job, or in some cases had to leave an unfavourable work environment. the findings showed that stigma and discrimination are still a reality faced by lgbtqia+ individuals during various phases of employment. the discussion is separated into these various phases, namely: (1) entry into the work environment; (2) adjusting to the work environment; and (3) exit or remaining in the work environment. entry into the work environment in terms of searching different work environments, although most work environments have attempted to address gender and sexual diversity in their recruiting, hiring and workplace cultures (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022), the results show that not all work environments are accommodating for lgbtqia+ individuals to enter (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). one reason for this is that certain career fields (e.g. medicine, engineering and nursing) are heteromasculine or feminine in nature (kalemba, 2020; khunou et al., 2012; petersen, 2014). in turn, their job descriptions are designed with gender roles in mind (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). for example, kalemba (2020), petersen (2014) and khunou et al. (2012) posit that certain job roles have built in assumptions based on gender binaries, such as the ability to make decisive decisions (e.g. medicine), showing physical strength in harsh conditions (engineering) or possessing compassion to care for others (nursing). as the evidence shows, these assumptions serve to discourage and exclude non-normative gender and sexual identities from entering such fields (eliason et al., 2018; maree, 2014; uttarapong et al., 2021). however, because being gainfully employed plays an integral role in our lives, such misconceptions force individuals such as lgbtqia+ individuals to respond by denying, hiding or delay ‘coming out’ about their gender and sexual identity, especially during the entry phase of their careers (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). adjusting to the work environment lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming individuals are aware that most workplaces operate within a system of entrenched discriminatory practices such as homo-, trans-, queerphobia, or a combination of transphobia and racism to maintain their reputational and organisational standing (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). as such, astle et al. (2023), cheng et al. (2017) and thuillier et al. (2022) suggest that most lgbtqia+ individuals will enter such organisations aware of the microaggressions (e.g. hateful comments, insults, assaults) faced by minority groups such as lgbtqia+ individuals. francis (2021), kalemba (2020) and khunou et al. (2012) maintain that because voluntary disclosure of gender and sexual identity is often seen as a lessor or secondary option to obtaining employment, non-disclosure prevents strategic dialogue and intervention to accommodate individuals who identify with non-normative gender and sexual identities. with the lack of organisational support, kalemba (2020), khunou et al. (2012) and petersen (2014) state that lgbtqia+ individuals become compelled to develop coping strategies (e.g. adopting a passive-aggressive attitude, absenteeism, substance abuse) to manage psychosocial stressors such as fatigue, strain and burnout, which present from such toxic work environments (cheng et al., 2017). for this reason, prolonged psychosocial stressors may force lgbtqia+ individuals to reconsider whether they wish to stay or exit such work environments (astle et al., 2023). exiting or remaining in the work environment as table 2 shows, one of the reasons for lgbtqia+ individuals in exiting queerphobic work environments was, among others, to avoid psychosomatic symptoms such as exhaustion, depression and other stress-related medical conditions (zeng, 2020; zulli, 2020). according to mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020), the inability of securing organisational support, work stress affecting well-being and hopelessness remained among the common motivations for leaving queerphobic workspaces. within certain conditions, the dual experience of racism and queerphobia was reported as provocations for not staying within such work environments (maake et al., 2021). for those who chose to stay within these unfavourable work environments, similar strategies aligned to butler’s (1990) gender performativity of regulating the body according to the expected gendered and sexualised norms were reported. for example, mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020) systematic reviews reported how lgbtqia+ individuals regulated aspects of their mannerisms, dress and body movements by ‘passing’ or ‘acting straight’ to avoid being ‘outed’. however, such denial of their gender and sexuality presented with other complications such as feeling disconnected to their colleagues or organisational goals (maake et al., 2021). conclusion this review attempted to explore the experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals in navigating gender or sexuality diversity in various work environments. findings suggest that despite global strides to increase the visibility and accommodation of lgbtqia+ persons, homo-, trans-, queerphobia remain significant experiences encountered by most gender and sexuality conforming individuals during entry, adjusting or deciding to exit certain work environments. for lgbtqia+ individuals, the study suggests that a combination of racism may further exacerbate their experiences. furthermore, the study showed that those who remain within these workspaces relied on regulating their gender and sexuality to avoid being sidelined. a limitation of this study was the given word cutoff and limited scope of desktop reviews; only certain studies and their findings could be elaborated. future research could explore the phenomenon from a triangulated approach such as a mixed-methods approach reporting on both quantitative and qualitative findings. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m.u. perceived the idea and, together with w.t. and e.f., edited the drafts. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references andam, k., & epprecht, m. 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(2020). evaluating hashtag activism: examining the theoretical challenges and opportunities of# blacklivesmatter. participations, 17(1), 197–215. abstract significance of work background objective of the research method results discussion research limitations and directions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i.l. (2019). employer requirements and employability mindsets influencing graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment. african journal of career development 1(1), a4. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.4 original research employer requirements and employability mindsets influencing graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 14 july 2019; accepted: 28 aug. 2019; published: 09 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: little is known about when (under which mindset conditions) graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. objective: the current study explored the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. method: the study was exploratory and cross-sectional in nature, involving (n = 153) predominantly black african (71%) graduate-level workers employed in the south african services industry. results: hierarchical moderated regression analysis showed significant moderation effects on the mindsets of entrepreneurial orientation and marketability. conclusion: the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of the prospective employee’s own mindset in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment, while also triggering extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link with employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. keywords: employability; graduate worker; graduateness; employability qualities; mindsets of employability; marketability; entrepreneurial orientation; networking/job search behaviour; self-confidence in gaining employment. significance of work in the current study, we add new knowledge to the existing literature on graduate workers’ employability. the objective is to explore the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindset regarding marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. our study extends research on the role of graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities in their employability. we go beyond the study of mere skills and personal qualities to make a new contribution to the research literature through our exploration of the mindset conditions that influence individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. specifically, the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of professional purposeful mindsets such as entrepreneurial orientation and marketability in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment, while also triggering extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link with employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. as such, our research fills an important gap in the employability research literature. background prolific changes in the professional world along with the competition for graduate jobs have become fierce in an economic climate characterised by high levels of uncertainty and unemployment (beaumont, gedye, & richardson, 2016; maree, 2019). the ability to find and/or create a job or some form of employment is an integral aspect of individuals’ careers and psychological well-being (baruch, 2017; de cuyper, van den broeck, & de witte, 2017). research indicates graduate adult workers’ self-confidence as a key barrier in gaining sustained employment (beaumont et al., 2016; dacre pool & sewell, 2007; norman & hyland, 2003; yorke & knight, 2007). scholars in the field of careers and employability suggest that people with self-confidence are able to successfully present their employability qualities and graduateness in situations such as job searching (dacre pool & sewell, 2007; kim, kim, & lee, 2015; onyishi, enwereuzor, ituma, & omenma, 2015). it is therefore argued that increasing adult workers’ self-confidence is an important motivational strategy for facilitating a sustainable career and livelihood in a complex employment market (beaumont et al., 2016; qenani, macdougall, & sexton, 2014). in the context of the present research, adult workers are seen as career actors who participate in the career ecosystem (baruch, 2017). within the career ecosystem, employers represent the internal labour market that generally offers, through employment in an organisation, the psychological space within which the adult worker’s career and personal development unfolds and evolves (baruch, 2017). adult workers have come to understand that there is neither career stability nor a promise of future employment. they have also come to realise that their ability to craft a meaningful livelihood relies on their ability to confidently grow and develop, and adapt and adjust to an ever-changing labour and work environment (baruch, 2017). moreover, adult workers increasingly regard employers’ perceptions of their graduateness (i.e. the quality of personal growth and intellectual development of the graduate; barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012) and employability qualities (i.e. personal attributes and skills that provide the individual with a competitive advantage in the labour market; finch, peacock, levalett, & foster, 2016) as important factors to consider for their sustainable participation in the labour market. according to clarke (2018), working adults have become more concerned about sustainable employability themselves. it appears that the effects of the labour market’s inconsistency and competitiveness have been compounded by greater levels of job insecurity. these conditions seemed to have weakened working adults’ confidence in terms of finding a job or employment (clarke, 2018). some factors that were shown to influence individuals’ confidence in gaining employment include employers’ competition for highly qualified graduates with strong employability qualities, the need for graduates with work experience, employers’ perceptions of the quality of the degree, individuals’ graduateness and academic qualifications, economic conditions and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment (beaumont et al., 2016; coetzee, 2012). however, more knowledge is needed about the mindset conditions that may contribute to an individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment (beaumont et al., 2016). employability research is regarded as an emergent and crucial research area with the bulk of studies published after the year 2000 (mcarthur, kubacki, pang, & alcaraz, 2017). research on links between perceived employability and other factors such as self-efficacy, self-confidence, personal employability skills and education and academic qualifications has been evident in the employability literature (beaumont et al., 2016; dacre pool & sewell, 2007; finch et al., 2016; kim et al., 2015; onyishi et al., 2015). exploratory research also shows links between adult workers’ graduateness and their employability prospects (franham, 2017; moolman, 2016; sin & amaral, 2017; tomlinson & holmes, 2017). however, more research is needed to gain deeper insight into the mindset regarding employability that explains an individual’s self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. unfortunately, little is known about when (under which employability mindset conditions) individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. in the present study, we explore the interaction effects between two employer variables (perceived importance attached to the adult worker’s graduateness and employability qualities), and three individual employability mindset conditions as moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. we propose that a positive link between perceived employers’ importance attached to the adult worker’s graduateness and employability qualities and the worker’s enhanced levels of self-confidence in gaining employment is conditional upon high levels of perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation. below, we discuss the various constructs, highlighting the untested assumptions concerning the moderating role of perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation by presenting the conceptual research model. we then discuss the research method applied in testing the interaction effects of the employer and individual variables in explaining individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. employer requirements for graduateness and employability qualities the present study focuses on perceived employers’ importance attached to employees’ graduateness and employability qualities. graduateness relates to employers’ perceptions of the quality of personal growth and intellectual development employees acquired through their graduate academic studies (barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012). a worker’s graduateness enhances the ability to find an employment opportunity, use it and become a valued employee (franham, 2017; moolman, 2016; sin & amaral, 2017; tomlinson & holmes, 2017). some of the attributes that employers regard as important indications of graduateness include the ability to quickly acquire new knowledge; being educated, trained and proficient in the relevant occupational field; having job-specific knowledge and skills; the ability to apply universal, global knowledge, principles, philosophies and paradigms to solve job or work challenges; the ability to communicate in english; and the ability to work in teams with people from culturally diverse backgrounds (coetzee, 2012, 2018). employability qualities relate to personal attributes or traits that characterise a person, either innate or learned, but typically not taught by university. these ‘soft skills’ are often in higher demand than occupational skills and provide the individual with a competitive advantage in the labour market (finch et al., 2016; mcarthur et al., 2017). the employability qualities that are regarded as important by employers include a range of abilities pertaining to being able to work under pressure; managing and using time efficiently or productively; adapting to changing conditions; following through and delivering results; keeping one’s knowledge and skills relevant and updated; being client or customer service oriented; managing one’s own career development; and engaging in continuous life-long learning activities (chhinzer & russo, 2018; coetzee, 2018; finch et al., 2016). rapid transformation of work and an extremely competitive labour market have transformed the nature of employers’ requirements for workers’ employability. the primary reason employers increasingly demand working adults with high levels of graduateness and sustainable employability qualities is attributed to factors such as the change in the economy, the increase in globalisation and the need for a highly skilled workforce to deal with the current and future global technology-driven business market challenges (bates, rixon, carbone, & pilgrim, 2019; clarke, 2018; clements & kamau, 2017). from the employers’ viewpoint, skilled working adults with a high level of graduateness are seen as key role players who add value to products and services (tomlinson & holmes, 2017). employability is viewed as part of a new kind of psychological contract, and employers continue to recognise the importance of investing in, and increasing the academic-level qualification and graduateness, as well as the employability qualities of employees through education, training and development efforts (bernstrom, drage, & mamelund, 2019). workers’ graduateness represents their intellectual resources, which, when successfully combined with employability qualities, maximise their value for employers and differentiate them from other graduate workers (finch et al., 2016). previous research demonstrates a strong link between the intellectual resources (denoted by individuals’ graduateness) and their employability across a variety of occupations and contexts (finch et al., 2016; scherbaum, goldstein, yusko, ryan, & hanges, 2012; stiwne & jungert, 2010). research also shows that workers who display both graduateness and employability qualities signal enhanced employability to employers (coetzee, 2012; finch et al., 2016). individuals’ marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation gaining and sustaining employment is an important career outcome. individuals’ mindsets about their careers guide their approach to managing the complexities of both the external labour market and the internal labour market represented by the organisation (baruch, 2017; bates et al., 2019). a mindset denotes a predisposition to perceive and reason in certain ways which creates certain psychosocial conditions that influence individuals’ employability confidence (bates et al., 2019). bates et al. (2019) propose the notion of a professional, career-specific and purposeful, driving the need to develop personal resources that enable the pursuit of career goals in the employability context. bates et al. (2019) argue that the concept of a professional purposeful mindset extends the notion of employability beyond the limitations of a purely skillsor attributes-based approach (i.e. as denoted by an individual’s graduateness and employability qualities). drawing from the theory of bates et al. (2019), the three constructs of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation are regarded as an important, generalised, professional, purposeful, employability-related mindsets in career self-management and job or employment search behaviour. building further on the basic premises of bates et al.’s (2019) theory, we propose that the three mindsets (i.e. marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) reflect individuals’ intrinsic motivation to purposefully engage in behaviours that support the development of a professional future that is personally meaningful to them. these behaviours function as important mindset conditions that enhance self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. in the context of the present research, it is argued that employers’ importance attached to graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities will positively contribute to higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment when the purposeful mindset conditions of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation are present. as such, we formulated the following two research hypotheses: h1: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to graduateness and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. h2: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to employability qualities and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. figure 1 provides a conceptual overview of the research model. figure 1: conceptual model of the research: interaction effects of predictors of graduate workers’ self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. marketability relates to beliefs about the labour market’s view of the credibility of one’s qualification, and the acceptability and relevance of one’s mix of personal qualities, competencies and work experience. individuals’ entrepreneurial orientation reflects their beliefs about their ability to find or create a job or employment through their entrepreneurial competencies. the mindset of proactivity in networking and job search behaviours involves beliefs about the importance of purposeful, active engagement in activities that broaden one’s employability scope. such beliefs include, for example, one’s proactivity in networking with professional societies and communities, attending conferences and seminars and using social networks or the internet to actively search for employment opportunities and familiarise oneself with employer requirements and market trends (coetzee, 2018). the literature highlights networking, entrepreneurial orientation and marketability as important mindsets for sustained employability (bates et al., 2019; bridgstock, grant-iramu, & msalpine, 2019; jorre de st jorre, elliott, johnson, & bisset, 2019). in similar vein, we argue that the mindset of marketability alludes to beliefs about having a competitive advantage as a graduate because of the credibility and quality of one’s degree and the personal qualities, skills and experience one obtained through one’s higher education studies. we propose that this belief may be associated with higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. the mindsets of entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation allude to the use of entrepreneurial thought and social networks and resources (i.e. social influencing and relational capital) that drive employability and the achievement of professional purpose career goals. drawing from the theory of bates et al. (2019), both of these two mindsets also reflect a degree of proactive curiosity and exploratory behaviours which may help reduce uncertainty and drive employability confidence. as such, we propose that these two mindsets will also be associated with higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. research has also shown positive links between social or relational career capital and perceived internal and external marketability and career success (dickmann, vesa, & wurtz, 2018; latzke, schneidhofer, pernkopf, rohr, & mayrhofer, 2015). objective of the research in the current study, we seek to add to the existing literature on graduate workers’ employability. the objective is to explore the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. our study extends research on the role of graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities in their employability. we go beyond the study of mere skills and personal qualities to make a new contribution to the research literature through our exploration of the mindset conditions that influence individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. as such, our research fills an important gap in the employability research literature. method participants the sample was represented by (n = 153) predominantly black african (71%) graduate-level workers employed in the south african services industry. white people (18%), mixed races (8%) and asians (3%) were in the minority. the participants were pursuing a postgraduate qualification in industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management through an open and distance learning higher education institution. female participants represented 69% of the sample (male participants = 31%). the mean age of the participants was 38 years (sd = 9.15). measuring instruments the graduateness or employability survey instrument developed by coetzee (2018) was used to measure the following constructs: self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (overall construct measured on a four-point likert type scale: 1 = not confident; 4 = highly confident); perceived marketability (five items; e.g. ‘i have the right personal qualities that employers are looking for’) and perceived entrepreneurial orientation (five items; e.g. ‘my entrepreneurial competencies help me in finding or creating employment’) measured on a four-point likert type scale (1 = not at all; 4 = definitely); perceived networking or job searching orientation (four items; e.g. ‘i use the social network or internet to search for employment opportunities, and familiarise myself with employer requirements’); and employer perception of: (1) importance of graduateness (10 items; e.g. ‘being proficient in your occupational field’); and (2) personal employability qualities (eight items, e.g. ‘ability to keep your knowledge and skills updated and relevant’) measured on a five-point likert type scale (1 = very low importance; 5 = very high importance). initial construct validity has been established by means of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (coetzee, 2018). internal consistency reliabilities for the various subscales ranged between 0.60 and 0.90. procedure data were collected by means of an online web survey to which participants received an electronic link via email. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss (statistical package for the social sciences) file for data analysis purposes. ethical consideration ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the research institution (ethics certificate: ref#:2018_crerc_004 fa). the participants were invited to voluntarily participate in the research study. the online questionnaire included an informed consent form. the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured. the participants gave informed consent that the data could be used for research purposes. data analysis a regression-based hierarchical moderated analysis using the process version 3.00 for spss procedure developed by hayes (2018) was performed to test the research model. the preacher and hayes (2008) bootstrapping procedure (bootstrap samples = 5000) was applied to test the proposed conditional indirect effects. bootstrapping is a more stringent bias-correcting procedure that involves resampling and building a non-normal sampling distribution of the indirect effect from which confidence intervals can be constructed. this approach reduces the likelihood of type i error (hayes, 2013, 2015, 2018; preacher & hayes, 2008). the 95% lower and upper confidence interval levels (llci and ulci) were used as threshold for examining the significance of direct and indirect effects. following the guidelines of shrout and bolger (2002), llci and ulci ranges that did not include zero, provided evidence of significant direct and indirect effects. concerns about multicollinearity were addressed by using mean-centred values for the predictor variables before computing the interaction terms in accordance with the guidelines of aiken and west (1991). tolerance (less than 0.1) and the variance inflation factor (vif), above 2.5, were also utilised to assess multicollinearity concerns. results table 1 reports the descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. the internal consistency reliability coefficients ranged between 0.60 and 0.90. the cronbach’s reliability coefficients of 0.60 (perceived entrepreneurial orientation) and 0.65 (confidence in finding or creating a job or employment) were below the threshold value of 0.70. table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations (n = 153). however, because of the broad, exploratory group-based nature of the research design, the reliability of the subscales was considered adequate for research purposes. the significant positive bivariate correlations ranged between r ≥ 0.16 and r ≤ 0.55 (p ≤ 0.05; small to large practical effect). perceived employer’s importance of graduateness and employability qualities did not correlate significantly with perceived network or job search orientation. tables 2 and 3 report the hierarchical moderated regression analysis, while figures 1–3 illustrate the significant interaction effects. table 2: moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of graduateness, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (n = 153). table 3: moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of employability qualities, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (n = 153). moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of graduateness, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment table 2 shows the three models that were computed to test the interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to graduateness and the three moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. all three analysis of variance (anova) models were significant: model 1: f = 5.62; p ≤ 0.0001; model 2: f = 9.43; p ≤ 0.0001; model 3: f = 5.20; p ≤ 0.01. the practical effect of the models was small (r² ≤ 0.10). only model 2 (with moderating variable perceived entrepreneurial orientation) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 5.23; p = 0.05; ∆r² = 0.03; small practical effect; f2 = 0.19; moderate practical effect). table 2 further shows that the independent variable and moderating variables had significant main effects on the dependent variable. figure 2 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to graduateness and adult workers’ perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 2 that those participants who had high perceived entrepreneurial orientation and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their graduateness had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their graduateness, and who had low levels of perceived entrepreneurial orientation, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. figure 2: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of graduateness and perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. the results provided partial evidence in support of hypothesis 1: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to graduateness and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of employability qualities, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment table 3 shows the three models that were computed to test the interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and the three moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. all three anova models were significant: model 1: f = 5.64; p ≤ 0.0001; model 2: f = 8.42; p ≤ 0.0001; model 3: f = 3.57; p ≤ 0.05. the practical effect of the models was small to moderate (r² ≤ 0.15). model 1 (with moderating variable perceived marketability) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 5.59; p = 0.05; ∆r² = 0.04; small practical effect; f2 = 0.12; small practical effect). model 2 (with moderating variable perceived entrepreneurial orientation) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 7.31; p = 0.01; ∆r² = 0.04; small practical effect; f2 = 0.18; moderate practical effect). table 2 further shows that the independent variable had no significant main effect on the dependent variable, while the three moderating variables had a significant main effect on the dependent variable. figure 3 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and adult workers’ marketability in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 3 that those participants who had high perceived marketability and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their employability qualities had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their employability qualities, and who had low levels of perceived marketability, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. figure 3: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of employability qualities and perceived marketability in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. figure 4 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and adult workers’ perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 4 that those participants who had high perceived entrepreneurial orientation and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their employability qualities had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. figure 4: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of employability qualities and perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their employability qualities, and who had low levels of perceived entrepreneurial orientation, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. the results provided partial evidence in support of hypothesis 2: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to employability qualities and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by an individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. discussion the study explored the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and their own mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. the results showed that the professional purpose mindset of entrepreneurial orientation significantly explained the positive link between perceived employers’ importance attached to the participants’ graduateness and employability qualities and their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. graduateness (employers’ perceptions of the graduate workers’ intellectual resources gained from postgraduate studies; barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012) had both a main, and in interaction with the graduate worker’s entrepreneurial thought, a positive effect on levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. employability qualities had no main effect on participants’ self-confidence. however, in the interaction with the professional purposeful mindset of entrepreneurial thought (orientation), higher levels of self-confidence were positively explained. drawing from the professional purposeful mindset theory of bates et al. (2019), it appears that entrepreneurial thoughts about one’s employability enhance both the extrinsic and intrinsic functions of self-confidence (beaumont et al., 2016). firstly, the mindset seems to create a psychosocial motivational condition that raises the extrinsic (i.e. others or employers’ perceived confidence in the graduate worker’s ability to gain employment) function of self-confidence in gaining employment. secondly, an entrepreneurial orientation seems to trigger the intrinsic (i.e. link with the graduate worker’s beliefs about successfully achieving personal career goals and plans) function of individuals’ self-confidence. research shows that a lack of extrinsic and intrinsic self-confidence limits individuals’ employability ambitions and the actions they may take to improve their employment prospects (beaumont et al, 2016). in this regard, the mindset of entrepreneurial thought seems an important condition for strengthening the motivation for, and self-confidence in sustained employability. research also demonstrates strong links between a mix of intellectual resources (denoted by individuals’ graduateness) and employability qualities in enhanced perceptions of employability (coetzee, 2012; finch et al., 2016; scherbaum et al., 2012; stiwne & jungert, 2010). the present study provided additional new insights by showing the role of entrepreneurial thought in further strengthening self-confidence in sustaining employability through employment. the mindset of marketability also appears to trigger the extrinsic and intrinsic functions of self-confidence in the interaction effect between perceived employers’ importance attach to employability qualities (i.e. extrinsic confidence) and self-confidence in gaining employment. marketability denotes a belief (i.e. intrinsic self-confidence) in one’s competitive advantage in the marketplace (i.e. having a credible qualification, and the right mix of personal qualities, competencies and work experience; coetzee, 2018). research also shows links between perceived internal and external marketability and career success (dickmann et al., 2018; latzke et al., 2015). the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of professional purposeful mindsets such as entrepreneurial orientation and marketability in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment. the findings showed that these two mindsets are psychosocial conditions that may trigger extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link between employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. these findings may have implications for practice. firstly, the findings may help explain why some graduate workers have low levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. secondly, the findings suggest that employers can help cultivate graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining or sustaining employment by developing professional purposeful mindsets of entrepreneurial thought about their employability and their marketability. in order for these motivational conditions to function effectively in raising self-confidence in employability, graduate workers also need to understand employers’ requirements for graduateness and desirable employability qualities. such awareness may help raise the extrinsic function of self-confidence. research limitations and directions for future research the potential implications for practice must be considered in light of the limitations of the current study. the relatively small sample size and cross-sectional exploratory research design of the study limits the generalisability of the findings. the study also involved postgraduate-level working adults from the south african organisational setting. the research design was appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research because little is known about when (under which employability mindset conditions) individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. future studies could explore the constructs in various occupational and industry settings and from a longitudinal point of view to be able to assess cause and effect relations. conclusion the study opens up avenues for gaining deeper insight into how employer requirements and employability mindset conditions explain individuals’ self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. non-withstanding the limitations of the research design, the present study helps foster an understanding of the role of important mindsets of professional purposefulness in employability research and practice. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions all authors contributed to the data collection. m.c. assisted with the data analysis and interpretation. all authors contributed to the conceptual framework and writing up of the research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aiken, l.s., & west, s.g. 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(2007). evidence-informed pedagogy and the enhancement of student employability. teaching in higher education, 12(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510701191877 abstract introduction theoretical background research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) gloria marsay department of practical and missional theology, faculty of theology and religion, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation marsay, g. (2024). perspectives of south african adolescent girls making decisions for their future. african journal of career development, 6(1), a113. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.113 note: topical collection: advancing career intervention in developing countries. original research perspectives of south african adolescent girls making decisions for their future gloria marsay received: 01 mar. 2024; accepted: 11 june 2024; published: 18 july 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: poverty, inequality and unemployment interfere with adequate education and training in south africa. young people need to be empowered and enabled to navigate their way through education into the world of work to earn a sustainable livelihood. objectives: the aim of this article is to capture life-experience and perspectives of adolescent girls who participated in a multifaceted group intervention to develop both fundamental hope and social emotional learning (sel) skills, as they make decisions regarding their future education and training. a purposive sample of adolescent girls (n = 116) who were making decisions regarding their future education and training participated in a multifaceted group intervention. methods: a qualitative case study approach was used. data were collected by an open-ended questionnaire. raw data were coded and emerging themes were identified using an iterative recursive approach. results: the emerging themes are illustrated using direct quotes from participating girls, against a background of theoretical context. the findings highlight: the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills; listening to narratives from people who have conquered adversities; and, the suitability of a culturally and contextually relevant group-based multifaceted intervention. conclusion: in the global south, youth need to be enabled and empowered, with sel skills using the constructs of hope as a foundation. furthermore, youth need to be exposed to work opportunities available to them in context. contribution: this study makes a valuable contribution to social-constructivist indigenous knowledge by giving voice to life-experiences and perspectives of adolescent girls who participated in a multifaceted group intervention. keywords: social emotional learning; hope; south africa; future readiness; decision-making; world of work; gender inequality. introduction the department of higher education in south africa (dhet, 2016) acknowledges three pervasive challenges faced in education: poverty, inequality and unemployment. more than half the population of 62 million live below the poverty line (francis & webster, 2019; plagerson, 2023; world bank, 2022). forty per cent of south african students do not finish grade 12 and the dropout ratio for each grade escalates in grades 10, 11 and 12 (businesstech, 2023; hartnack & vale, 2022). entrenchment of inequalities in south african schools by race, gender and socio-economic status, despite successive waves of policy reform, is well documented (bassey & bubu, 2019; spaull & jansen, 2019). the digital divide is profound. economic growth has been thwarted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, and state capture (kleptocracy) has had a crippling impact on the economy, business and education. recent power outages disrupt the normal function of society, exacerbating crime and unemployment (parliament of the republic of south africa, 2023). disempowering dominant discourses have a negative effect on learners who struggle to bridge the gap between education and work. a total of 62.1% of youths between the ages of 15 and 24 years and 40.7% between 25 and 34 years are unemployed (stats sa, 2022). youths are discouraged and have lost hope of finding employment. hence, youths, especially girls, need to be empowered and equipped with personal and marketable skills to prepare them for the future. the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (stem) skills are taking the lead in the modern world of the fourth industrial revolution as important marketable skills. furthermore, evidence from literature shows how hope (boesak, 2014; dreyer, 2011; freire, 1992; hooks, 2003; krafft et al., 2023; solberg et al., 2020) and social emotional learning (sel) skills equip young people with fundamental for future success (durlak et al., 2022; zins et al., 2003). to compete globally, south africa must empower its youth with the necessary future ready skills. recently, scholars including cipriano and mccarthy (2023) and durlak et al. (2022) discuss the need to focus on programme design and implementation, based on research findings to determine the efficacy of school-based interventions to develop future ready skills. hooley and sultana (2016) and ribeiro (2020) assert that programmes should be culturally and contextually relevant to be effective. a qualitative approach, giving voice to students’ perspectives, is useful to inform appropriate design and implementation of interventions to be culturally relevant. the focus of this study is to understand the lived experience of girls struggling to navigate the disempowering discourses of their context and their perspective of the group-based multifaceted intervention. the study explores the lived experience of grade 9 girls’ decision-making regarding their future education and choice of subjects. theoretical background context should be considered when designing, evaluating and implementing work-related interventions for young people. people of different cultures require a different approach to learning, which is relevant for them in context. the following contextual issues and theoretical background are discussed. career guidance versus empowering and enabling for a sustainable livelihood the concept of career is often misplaced in a country where unemployment is high and opportunities are limited. furthermore, the term career guidance, which implies an authoritative power imbalance, is inappropriate in a context with a history of oppression. in a country where unemployment prevails, and where the formal sector accounts for only 69% of the employment, it makes sense that youth should be empowered and enabled to use their skills and the available resources to meet the needs of the community in context and earn a sustainable livelihood (marsay, 2014, 2020b; marsay et al., 2021; solberg et al., 2020). bantu education under the oppressive bantu education act (1953–1996), people of mixed race were discriminated against (christie & collins, 1982; wills, 2011). the bantu education act focused on producing manual labourers and narrowing the school curriculum – eliminating the teaching and learning of mathematics and science. there were separate institutions for education and training for black people (bantu) whose education and training were limited to developing skills for manual labour. parents and teachers of present-day youth were educated during this time. furthermore, certain occupations were reserved for white people. in 1994, this segregated approach to education became unconstitutional and dismantled in 1996 in accordance with the south african schools act. however, the disempowering discourses of inequality and gender bias prevail in education (albertyn, 2011; zuze & beku, 2019) and the workplace (https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=16533) despite the democratic ideals set in 1994. young girls are less confident about achieving academically and are at risk of dropping out of education. dropout learner dropout rate is currently high (businesstech, 2023; daily maverick, 2023; hartnack & vale, 2022; van der berg et al., 2019) and can be attributed to both internal factors (difficult learning environments) and external factors (peer and family pressure). reasons for dropping out of school differ by gender. family commitments are a common reason for girls to stop attending school, while boys stop attending school because they have lost hope in education (stats sa, 2022). relevant subjects teaching and learning of mathematics (jojo, 2019) and physical science (ogegbo et al., 2019) are problematic in south african high schools. although maths is a compulsory subject, many students do maths literacy (practical application of numeric calculations), which is not recognised for further stem education. furthermore, students are not always able to choose physical science because it is not a compulsory subject (gatticchi, 2022). in 2021, a low percentage of learners, who wrote the final exams, achieved an adequate pass mark to be accepted into stem education. maths and science are critical subjects, not only to gain access to further stem education and training but also to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. learners need to have confidence in their ability to achieve in maths and science (çiftçi, & yildiz, 2019). abe and chikoko (2020) emphasise the three key factors (interpersonal, intrapersonal and career expectancy outcomes) that influence students’ decision to study stem subjects. hope a great deal of scholarship has accumulated around the concept of hope in times of oppression and despair, and the importance of hope for future success has been well documented worldwide (diemer & blustein, 2007; dreyer, 2011; freire, 1992; hirschi et al., 2015; hooks, 2003; scioli & biller, 2010; solberg et al., 2020). scioli and biller (2010) identify four constructs of hope: attachment, mastery, survival and spirituality. hope is intersubjective and difficult to define objectively. recently, there has been a rekindling of discussions around hope in south africa (cherrington, 2020; groener & land, 2022; khau, 2021; marsay, 2020a, 2020b; savahl, 2020; solberg et al., 2021). in the south african context, savahl (2020) explains hope as a set of cognitions focused on children’s agency to contemplate workable goals, to identify pathways to achieve those goals, and the intrinsic beliefs about their capacity to activate sustained movement towards those goals. for purposes of this article, the constructs of hope (scioli & biller, 2010), namely attachment, mastery, survival and spirituality, are intertwined with sel skills, as fundamental for future success. social emotional learning skills social emotional learning skills can be defined as the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. (casel, 2020) the five constructs of casel model are self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, and relationship building. these skills are critical for preparing youth for the new workplace of the fourth industrial revolution, especially those from culturally diverse communities (jäckel-visser et al., 2021; jagers et al., 2019; marsay, 2022; marsay et al., 2022; solberg et al., 2020). one aspect which is not included in sel skills is spirituality. spirituality, one of the constructs of hope, is an important part of african culture and addresses beliefs and values of self within community (boesak, 2014). as researcher in practice in south africa, i wish to suggest the need to combine development of both hope and sel skills to enable and empower youth. figure 1 illustrates the connection between these constructs. figure 1: illustration of connection between hope and social emotional learning skills. research methods and design in diverse cultures of the global south, it is necessary to engage in intercultural dialogue about educational interventions. decisions should be communal rather than unilateral (hooley & sultana, 2016; ribeiro, 2020). a qualitative case study research approach informed by merriam (1998), denzin and lincoln (2005) and yin (2017) was used with an ethnographic lens, allowing for a constructivist epistemology in natural settings to understand and make meaning of the lived experiences of adolescent girls from an emic perspective. yin (2017) asserts that case studies are useful for explaining the links between intervention and outcome. the benefit of interventions can be evaluated by listening to participants’ perceptions and experiences. procedure and ethics procedural ethics were governed by human sciences research council code of ethics (hsrc). principles of informed consent, confidentiality, the right to withdraw, privacy and the scientific use of the data were followed. informed consent was given by parents to the school for participation in the intervention. answering the questionnaire was voluntary and confidential. i, as researcher, developed the intervention in collaboration with various stakeholders (school principal, teachers, faith-based organisations assisting school communities, and corporate business) over a period. the questionnaire was co-constructed by relevant stakeholders. position of researcher i acknowledge that insights from adolescents should be central to how we use research and practice to develop useful interventions. the social constructivist approach emphasises context and highlights the role of culture and knowledge derived from social processes. for the past 20 years, i have worked as an educational psychologist, in three roles: registered psychologist in private practice, psychologist consulting to schools, and researcher exploring alternate ways of assisting adolescents to become future ready for the world of work. participants a sample of grade 9 girls, attending an all-girls’ school in johannesburg, south africa, was purposively selected. the girls are from a low socio-economic background, born of parents who were educated during the years of bantu education. the average age of 116 participants who completed questionnaires was 14.3 years. to conclude, for the purpose of clarity regarding the verbatim responses from participants, the socio demographic characteristics of all participants (number 1 to 116) are the same, namely age is 14 years old; gender is female; and background is low socio-economic income group. the intervention the unique foundation for this intervention was to awaken hope and develop sel skills to enable young girls to make choices for their future education, empowering them to become future ready for the workplace. group-based interventions, which are cost and time-effective using a blend of individualist and collectivist strategies, are suitable to meet the needs of youth within collectivist models in the global south. the main objective for the intervention was to equip adolescent girls with necessary personal skills to become future ready. the key aims were multifaceted: to explain and develop constructs of hope (attachment, mastery, survival and spirituality) and sel skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship building, and responsible decision-making). to discuss the value of different school subjects (including core maths and physical science), which will allow girls to have wider possibilities within the workplace. to empower the girls with skills to resist gender bias in work roles by listening to stories of those who have succeeded despite the dominant discourse of gender bias. to showcase a variety of different work opportunities available in the corporate world. to equip girls with responsible realistic decision-making skills to think carefully about choosing subjects and set realistic goals. the multifaceted group-based intervention began with a description of the changing world of work and skills needed for the fourth industrial revolution, specifically the hard (technical market-related skills) as well as the soft (hope-based sel skills). a self-directed booklet with a variety of introspective reflective exercises to develop hope and sel skills was given to each participant. the girls were encouraged to answer questions, to make notes, and to keep the booklets for continued reflection and reference. some of the exercises in the booklet were completed individually. other activities took the form of interactive discussions with peers. the third facet involved listening to narratives of several women, who work in the corporate world of an international mining company. they shared their personal narratives about how they navigated their journey to become successful independent women. these sessions, designed to introduce girls to different work roles, were interactive. there were several breaks for private reflection, as well as time for peer discussion. the intervention took place on a friday, before the weekend break. on monday morning, allowing for a period of self-reflection, the principal of the school, as an objective observer, handed out an open-ended questionnaire for each girl to complete. the principal executed this step of the process to address response bias. the principal explained the rationale behind the questions posed and emphasised that answering the questionnaire was voluntary and anonymous. data collection an open-ended questionnaire was used instead of individual interviews because it is time and cost-effective. the purpose of the questionnaire was twofold. firstly, to prompt introspective reflective thinking for the participants. secondly, to gain greater understanding of the life-experiences and perspectives of the girls, to improve interventions. each participant was prompted to answer the following questions: what do you think will help you to reach your goals? what are you most afraid will get in the way of you reaching your goals? what do you think we should do more of to help you in an intervention like this? what about this intervention helped you the most? please write any further comments. data analysis an inductive approach was used for analysing data (lincoln & guba, 1985; merriam, 1998). a strict audit trail including field notes and a journal of process, was followed during this iterative and recursive process. dependability and confirmability were addressed by coding and recoding raw data by two independent coders. triangulation and credibility were achieved through the collection of multiple sources of data (116 participants). an independent objective peer review, using a thick description of findings illustrated by direct quotes, was reflected against a backdrop of literature, providing triangulation from theory. the responses were coded and organised into two visual displays by both the researcher and an independent analyst. codes were clustered and themes emerged. the frequency of each theme was calculated. patterns were matched and discussed comparing and contrasting two independent visual-displays, which were merged into one comprehensive display. emerging themes and actual patterns were matched against a backdrop of theoretical knowledge of predicted patterns. the question constantly posed during the process of coding and matching was ‘do we have this right?’ a thick description of the intervention and discussion of findings, illustrated with verbatim quotes from participants, allows the reader to make their own interpretations, and consider the efficacy of the intervention. ethical considerations all ethical considerations were adhered to during the collection of data. there was no risk to participants. data were collected using an anonymous questionnaire. participation was voluntary. privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of participants were upheld. the questionnaire invited the participants to share their perception of the multifaceted intervention, which took place as part of the school curriculum on school premises during school hours. results the findings are discussed next and compared with findings from literature. the quotes are verbatim, and no alterations were made to the language used. question 1: what do you think will help you to reach your goals? the three most frequent themes that emerged from this question were: hard work (33%), determination (18%), and setting realistic goals (15%). the following quote encapsulates all three themes and highlights the important need for sel skills, specifically self-management skills: ‘hardwork, determination and having a realistic goal.’ (participant 68) this finding resonates with the results of a study, which revealed that educators in south africa regard self-management skills as the most important skill for learners to achieve success, followed by relationship building and social awareness (marsay, 2022). the following quote illustrates the need for self-confidence (13%) and resonates with the findings of çiftçi and yildiz (2019) who assert that learners need to have confidence in their ability: ‘telling myself i can do it, not letting anything get in my way, full dedication.’ (participant 24) the following quotes confirm the need for social awareness and social support (10%). several miscellaneous themes made up the remaining 11%: ‘getting all support and putting strengths and belief to achieve goal.’ (participant 64) ‘support from family and friends, hardwork and doing research.’ (participant 33) ‘right friends to encourage me.’ (participant 12) ‘asking for guidance from experienced people.’ (participant 15) in summary, these quotes emphasise the relevance of intrapersonal and interpersonal sel skills and illustrate the interconnectedness of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship building, which are enablers to making responsible decisions about the future. question 2: what are you most afraid will get in the way of you reaching your goals? thirty-eight per cent of participants fear the impact of negative people and disempowering discourses, which may impede their progress as discussed: ‘people who don’t want me to succeed in life – family and friends.’ (participant 2) ‘when i am terrified about reaching my goal – and other peoples’ opinion will sidetrack me – negative thoughts about my goals.’ (participant 29) failing academically or dropping out is a worry for the participants in this group (24%): ‘failing is what i am most afraid of getting in the way of reaching my goals.’ (participant 20) ‘i am most afraid of not getting the results i want and feeling disappointed in myself.’ (participant 66) it is not always family and friends who form the support group for these adolescent girls. hence, the adults in the learning environment play a powerful role in supporting, mentoring and providing a safe place for youth, who might otherwise be at risk of dropping out. the authoritative attitude of parents could be an obstacle to reaching personal goals. ten per cent of the girls mentioned that their parents’ expectations are sometimes different from their own: ‘my parents might not agree about my career and my subject choice.’ (participant 85) distractions may cause failure (10%). this quote illustrates the importance of self-management skills: ‘i think it is the lack of myself pushing harder and being okay with little success that i achieve instead of me working harder and distraction that interfere with me reaching my goals.’ (participant 10) interestingly, difficulty with finances was not seen as a major obstacle (10%). and it is noteworthy that the external factors are not the most frequent difficulty. internal factors experienced in a difficult learning environment were most frequently mentioned as obstacles: ‘not having enough money to get into the career i want – failing a grade.’ (participant 1) the following quotes describe other fears mentioned by these participants (8%): ‘robotics are taking over and i have a feeling that robots will take my dream away.’ (participant 95) ‘i have fear of the unknown and what the future holds.’ (participant 104) ‘there might be times when i really struggle and have no idea how to get back up.’ (participant 67) the emergence of these themes resonates with the findings of hartnack and vale’s study (2022) and van der berg et al. (2019), which suggests that although adults looked outside the school environment for causes of dropout, the learners themselves experienced academic challenges, bullying, pressure from parents and teachers, and the lack of a caring and supportive school culture, contributing to their disengagement. in summary, developing and implementing hope and sel skills in schools and communities to create positive supportive learning environments, is important. question 3: what do you think we should do more of to help you in an intervention like this? a large proportion of responses (62%) suggest that interventions should include more information about different fields of work and possible work opportunities: ‘i think you should give more information about each and every career and explain carefully what happens in that field.’ (participant 2) ‘maybe bring ladies of different careers in different industries e.g. music, art, dance, agriculture, law and accounting.’ (participant 75) the importance of relationship building is illustrated in the following quote, which is an example of several quotes asking of individual consultations (18%) illustrating the need for both group and personal interventions resonating with findings from jäckel-visser et al. (2021) who advocate the need for one-on-one or group engagement with the self-directed intervention: ‘i think the people from the workshop should have oneonone sessions to discuss with the children and help them find solutions.’ (participant 16) the relevance of institutional support and encouragement emerged as a theme from the responses to this question (11%): ‘keep motivating us and encouraging us to do better – keep inspiring us with real life stories.’ (participant 68) difficulties in the learning environment were also referred to again (9%). in summary, the responses highlight the fact that there is not enough individual support around future readiness to empower youth to navigate their pathways, overcome challenges and circumvent obstacles they confront giving testimony to the difficulties in the learning environment. these comments are useful to consider when trying to improve the relevance of the intervention and resonate with suggestions that interventions need to be multifaceted (abe & chikoko, 2020; ungar &theron, 2020). the most noteworthy result illustrates the need for knowledge about possibilities in the workplace, in context, to support decision making. the responses to this question guide us, as researchers and practitioners, to listen to the perspectives and opinions of the youth by giving them voice. question 4: what about this intervention helped you the most? as writer, i give the reader the opportunity to listen to the voices of the participants without comment. i have clustered the responses into themes and selected quotes to illustrate the themes to provide some structure for the reader. gained self-knowledge (54%): ‘the process helped me discover who i really am and what my interests actually are.’ (participant 32) knowledge of career world (13%): ‘it helped me see more than just one career but more careers and that i can do more than i expect.’ (participant 48) narratives of working women (16%): ‘the speeches helped me because motivation from experienced people plays a huge role in pursuing one’s dream.’ (participant 16) inspiration and motivation (14%): ‘the speakers have shown me that only i have the power to do something special.’ (participant 73) ‘it helped me realise that girls can do anything. we may not be stronger physically, but without us the world would fall apart. also no dream or goal is too big or too small. to believe in yourself.’ (participant 28) other (3%): ‘the book about careers for girls helped me narrow down my decision.’ (participant 33) ‘the fact that we got little booklets that assisted us in our subject choice and being able to discuss with your friends about your hopeful future career.’ (participant 78) the responses resonate with abe and chikoko’s (2020) findings that interpersonal, intrapersonal and career expectations are factors that influence students’ decision-making about choosing study pathways. undirected instruction: please write any further comments this instruction was posed to allow safe space for participants to raise their own perspectives without prompt. not all the participants responded to this instruction. the following quotes illustrate the girls’ perspective of the group-based multifaceted intervention: ‘i have a dream. i will go for that dream and no one will stop me, get in my way or demotivate me.’ (participant 45) ‘i found the workshop very inspiring and an inspiration to every girl out there who doesn’t believe that she can make it.’ (participant 71) ‘i think they should do more of these workshops because it helps you and gets you thinking.’ (participant 4) ‘i think every grade 8 and 9 in the world should get to attend this program because it shapes who you will become tomorrow.’ (participant 32) ‘i am really grateful for this opportunity and i hope you do more for other schools.’ (participant 66) these quotes illustrate difficulties in the learning environment: ‘teachers shouldn’t give up on their students.’ (participant 105) ‘you should talk more about social career and environmental careers not just based on maths and science.’ (participant 111) ‘deciding with friends that know me was really helpful. always try until you succeed.’ (participant 28) these quotes refer to content and context: ‘it was upbeat and interesting. they know what kind of audience they have.’ (participant 33) ‘thank you for the motivational speakers, hearing about their background and what they wanted to do really helped me realise that when one door is shut, the other one opens.’ (participant 8) these comments resonate with cherrington’s findings (2020) suggesting that collective hope is fostered when a group of people with a shared sense of commitment create a common vision for a better future and then are determined to make it happen. thus, emphasising the efficacy of multifaceted group interventions. discussion the intention of the author is to stimulate thought and dialogue among educators, policymakers and organisations involved in education and training. there is much to learn from the voices of adolescent girls about their life experience and the impact of dominant disempowering discourses. this research approach reveals knowledge that may be useful for future development and implementation of effective interventions to ameliorate difficulties faced by young girls entering the world of work. key factors which these adolescent girls acknowledge as important enablers are both intrapersonal (self-awareness and self-management) skills and interpersonal (social awareness and relationship building) skills, as well as knowing more about different opportunities in the world of work. the findings of this study resonate with the findings of abe and chikoko’s study (2020). it is important to notice that success stories from others, who have similar contextual backgrounds, are inspiring and motivating for youth who have limited experience and knowledge of the workplace. the importance of intertwining these facets should not be underestimated when designing multifaceted interventions for youth. merriam (1998) reminds us that reality is holistic, multidimensional and ever-changing. there was only one school involved in this study and the study focused on listening to the experiences of adolescent girls from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. thus, excluding many voices. there is a need to replicate this study to gain deeper understanding of the critical factors for useful multifaceted interventions. the intervention was carried out just prior to covid-19 pandemic, and there was great difficulty doing a follow-up investigation to explore whether the girls found it easier to make choices regarding tertiary education and training. a follow-up investigation would have been useful. i have tried to be fair in illustrating the emerging themes and acknowledge author bias. the life experience of these girls may influence their comments and therefore cannot be generalised. the comments of this group of adolescent girls represent their context at a particular time. however, valuable lessons can be learnt from taking note of comments from different groups of youth, so that a deeper understanding of general needs may arise. further research involving different groups is recommended so that findings may be compared. conclusion the interconnectedness of the constructs of sel skills (self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship building and responsible decision making) is made evident. we may conclude that these are important skills for adolescents to develop as they navigate their future. these skills, together with explicit knowledge of the opportunities in the workplace, enable these young girls to make realistic decisions. self-critiquing reflexivity is an important dimension for transformation for both participants and research practices. participants referred to the internal and external distractions that may interfere with their progress. once these distractions and disempowering discourses are identified, youths are enabled to recognise them and can develop skills to circumvent them. evidence of the intangible assets that emerged from responses, illustrates the transformative nature of this study. in the global south, where poverty, inequality and unemployment are major challenges, youths need to be enabled and empowered, with both central hard skills (technological and market-related skills) and with tangential soft skills (sel skills using the constructs of hope as a foundation). furthermore, youths need to be exposed to work opportunities available to them in context. we can conclude that multifaceted interventions are necessary to empower and enable young people to navigate their way to a successful future. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions g.m. is the sole author of this article. funding information the author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, g.m. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references abe, e., & chikiko, v. 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(2019). gender inequalities in south african schools: new complexities. in n. spaull & j. jansen (eds.), south african schooling: the enigma of inequality. policy implications of research in education, vol 10. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5_12 abstract introduction using queer theory in camagu’s case study research methods and design results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) obakeng kagola primary school department, foundation phase division, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation kagola, o. (2024). positive inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring male foundation phase teacher. african journal of career development, 6(2), a144. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.144 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research positive inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring male foundation phase teacher obakeng kagola received: 15 may 2024; accepted: 17 july 2024; published: 16 sept. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: much work has been done to realise the discourse of diversity and gender equality in the perceived feminised foundation phase (fp) of teaching and learning. part of the work was done through the inclusion of males in fp teaching to provide learners and teachers alike with diverse learning experiences. in south africa, most research focuses on why fp teaching remains a feminised space, the marginalisation of few male fp teachers. however, less is known about male fp teachers’ positive inclusive experiences. objectives: to contribute to the discussion by presenting camagu’s case study, a same-sex desiring male fp teacher, and his positive inclusive experiences in a conservative context in the eastern cape province, south africa. methods: a qualitative single case study methodology employing photovoice to elicit camagu’s positive inclusive experiences in fp teaching. results: findings revealed positive inclusive practices implemented by the school, discussed under two themes: finding a sense of belonging through school structures and ‘it’s nice to have someone as different as you in the school …’ learners’ perspective. conclusion: the study suggests a need for increased support for school leadership and teachers to promote inclusive policies and practices affirming diverse identities of all learners and teachers. contribution: camagu’s experiences offer new research dimension by sharing best practices for fostering inclusive school environments. the study challenges deeply rooted gender norms in south african education, particularly in fp teaching. it advocates for inclusion and acceptance of male teachers, regardless of their diverse gender and sexual orientations, promoting gender diversity. keywords: inclusive experiences; male fp teacher; single case study methodology; same-sex desiring; queer theory. introduction in south africa and globally, gender equality remains a priority, and creating a gender diverse equitable professional environment is essential. three decades later within a democratic south africa and globally, we have experienced a shift in the inclusion and celebration of women in previously traditional occupations suited for men (bhana & moosa, 2016; brownhill et al., 2015). however, for men, it is still frowned upon for them to occupy previously female professions, especially in spaces such as education, particularly in the learning and teaching of young children between the ages of 5 and 9 years, where males are underrepresented globally (bhana, 2016; bhana et al., 2022; msiza & kagola, 2023). moosa and bhana (2018) together with msiza (2020) postulate that the teaching of young children in the foundation phase (fp) is a guarded space that reinforces heteronormativity because teachers themselves reinforce the idea that childhood education is gender-specific work. bhana (2016) and msibi (2019) argue that fp learning and teaching as part of the larger schooling system is no acceptance to the fact that schools are microcosms of societies in which they are located, where gender is an important marker that determines individual positionality. for instance, msiza (2020) found that males who participate in the teaching of young children in fp in the mpumalanga province of south africa reproduce hegemonic masculine behaviour and practices, through distancing themselves from any activity that is perceived to be feminine. msiza’s findings show how fp male teachers reinforce the females as feminine and males as masculine and anything that is in between as deviant and positioning schools as unsupportive structures for diverse genders and sexual orientations (msibi, 2019). this is notable in kagola and notshulwana’s (2022) study in the eastern cape province of south africa and in martino’s (2008) study in canada; these scholars in their respective studies regarding same-sex design fp male teachers had to construct their professional identities within heterosexual ways of being because of the fear of being marginalised or violated. for instance, in kagola and notshulwana (2022), the same-sex fp male teacher distanced himself from any curriculum topic that required him to engage in sexuality-related issues, fearing to be perceived as recruiting learners to non-normative ways of being. according to davies (2021) and warin (2018), openly same-sex desiring men within the feminised context of fp are caught between failing to embody hegemonic streams of masculinity because of their perceived feminine gender identity, while in most contexts, the recruitment of males in fp learning and teaching is premised on ‘masculinising’ the female-dominated fp settings. interestingly, with this dilemma of how male teachers construct their identities in fp contexts, it has been argued that the placement of male teachers in fp irrespective of their sexual orientation opens possibilities of a diverse and inclusive learning environment (bhana et al., 2022; davies, 2021; msiza, 2020). providing a window of opportunity to construct a different stream of masculinity that is caring and nonviolent in a world faced with gender-based violence (martino, 2008; ratele, 2014). while in south africa much work has begun to explore facets of how fp male teachers have been recruited and retained in this educational phase. within the south african context, much of the research done focused on why there is still under-representation of males in fp, male teachers sustaining heteronormativity to reproduce hegemonic streams of masculinity and how it is socially unacceptable for ‘real men’ to teach in fp by in-service teachers (bhana & moosa, 2016; bhana et al., 2022; moodley & moosa, 2023; msiza, 2020). there is still a dearth and unevenness in the south african literature and globally, as the current research touches on certain aspects of the holistic inclusion of males in fp teaching. however, there is a need to create a balance through research that explores positive inclusive experiences of fp male teachers irrespective of their sexualities. therefore, this article fundamentally explores positive inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring male fp teacher to counter the current narrative surrounding the phenomenon of fp male teachers by shedding light on the positive inclusion experiences of fp male teachers. using queer theory in camagu’s case study this article uses queer theory as its theoretical lens, as it offers a valuable lens through which to interpret the positive inclusion experiences of camagu, a self-identifying same-sex desiring fp male teacher, within a conservative context in the eastern cape province. queer theory, as defined by stein and plummer (1994), challenges the traditional conceptualisation of sexuality, emphasising its fluidity and the problematisation of sexual and gender categories. it recognises the dynamic nature of sexual identities and desires, intertwined with power relations, and acknowledges the fluidity and complexity of gender performativity (mccann & monaghan, 2019; stein & plummer, 1994). camagu’s experiences of positive inclusion are subjective and situated within his specific schooling context. therefore, queer theory enables a nuanced understanding of his experiences by acknowledging the fluidity of sexual identities and the intersections of power dynamics within institutional spaces (msibi, 2019). it allows for the analysis of how power informs subjective experiences and circulates within wider institutional contexts, beyond limiting binary constructions of sexuality and gender (grzanka, 2019; stein & plummer, 1994). moreover, queer theory highlights the contestation and resistance present within schooling cultures, challenging the normalisation of heterosexuality and problematising the essentialisation of sexual orientation as the sole governing feature of identity (grzanka, 2019). it makes visible the performed nature of identification, encompassing intersections of sexuality with race, class, disability and other forms of identification (grzanka, 2019: msibi, 2019). by adopting queer theory, this article aims to shed light on camagu’s positive inclusion experiences, acknowledging the complexities and fluidities of identity construction within a conservative educational setting. it underscores the importance of understanding issues of sexism, racism and heterosexism as intersecting factors that shape experiences of difference and inclusion. moreover, queer theory emphasises individual agency and perceives schools not merely as sites of normalisation but also as arenas for contestation and resistance against hegemonic norms (grace & benson, 2000; grzanka, 2019). in navigating these spaces, camagu’s experiences elucidate the intricate interplay between restrictions and possibilities inherent in fostering inclusive environments within conservative educational settings such as fp teaching. furthermore, queer theory rejects the essentialisation and prioritisation of sexual orientation as a sole determinant of identity, advocating for a more holistic understanding that encompasses intersections with race, class and disability (rudoe, 2010). research methods and design this article emerges from a broader qualitative study (creswell & creswell, 2017) aimed at exploring how male fp teachers in the eastern cape province construct nurturing masculinity (kagola, 2023). here, i focus on data generated from the photovoice presentation by one participant who identifies as same-sex desiring, aligning with the special issue theme of promoting queer representation and positive messaging within contexts. the article introduces camagu, a grade 3 fp male teacher, who shared positive experiences about his inclusion as a same-sex desiring fp male teacher. camagu works in a primary school in the sarah baartman district, an urban-rural area in south africa’s eastern cape province. this article adopts a single case study methodology to delve into camagu’s inclusion experiences within the conservative schooling context of the eastern cape. a single case study methodology involves exploring an individual’s experiences in their own words and visualisations (baxter & jack, 2008; plummer, 2001). it is important to note that the findings of this study cannot be generalised, as it employed a single case study methodology (plummer, 2001). this approach is deemed necessary for this study because my approach to research is based on understanding that methods provide insights into the ways we can see social identity as a tool people use to create personal narratives. these narratives give meaning and a sense of continuity in individual lives. situated within the transformative paradigm, according to flanagan and christakis (2010), multiple realities exist. for instance, there are various gendered versions of reality, and therefore these realities should be critiqued as they might perpetuate inequality. this study aims to advance social justice practices and foster change in conversations around positive inclusion experiences of fp male teachers. camagu and other participants gave consent to record, with assurances of confidentiality. the methodology employed multiple data generation methods, including photovoice and semi-structured focus group conversations (fgcs). focus group conversation data were transcribed and translated from isixhosa to english, with systematic thematic analysis conducted to extract camagu’s inclusive experiences. my reflection on the methodology revealed a wealth of data, leading to challenges in data selection. as such, the article presents large vignettes to capture the richness of camagu’s experiences. vignettes were selected to succinctly convey camagu’s inclusive experiences and address the research question: what are the inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring fp male teacher? results the data generated for this study used a photovoice method and a semi-structured fgc, which created space for further probing and allowed camagu to further explain what his photovoice meant. figure 1 shows camagu’s photovoice and caption of what it means. in the two themes, namely, (1) finding a sense of belonging through school structure and (2) it’s nice to have someone as different as you in theschool…learners said, explained in the subsequent sections, i focus on the photovoice and its meanings because it illustrates camagu’s positive inclusive experience as a self-identifying fp male teacher and then uses some of the vignettes from the fgc data to add to the photovoice meaning: ‘as a male teacher in the foundation phase, i see myself as the deep blue dark full of life sea/ocean…. i give life to plants, the soil, animals, and people…i hide many secrets in my many compartments. i move graciously, in me you find the perfect imbalance. i am in constant motion, though at times it may not seem like it… many things govern me and many things influence who i am, my spirituality, my fluid sexuality, and my manhood… through the support and encouragement i get from the community at school, and the community…i am content with my everchanging identity….’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) figure 1: camagu’s photovoice and what it means. theme one: finding a sense of belonging through school structures understanding how guarded that space of fp is, camagu positions himself as the ocean that provides many positive benefits to the people around it. he posits, ‘i hide many secrets in my many compartments’, meaning that just like msibi’s (2019) participants, he develops ways of managing his gender performance and possibly his sexuality by hiding parts of himself that do not fit into the heteronormative schooling systems such as being same-sex desiring. according to martino (2008) and msiza (2020), fp male teacher identity has been centred around positive role modelling to reproduce compulsory heterosexuality, which means that within conservative heteronormative contexts, any non-normative identities stand the chance of being marginalised. in the fgc, camagu further explained: ‘many things govern me and many things influence who i am, my spirituality, my fluid sexuality, and my manhood…through the support and encouragement i get from the community at school, and the community…i am content with my everchanging identity….’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) camagu further elaborated on his photovoice caption by sharing how his self-perceived hidden sexuality was embraced by the principal of the school where he was employed as a novice fp teacher, he said: ‘as a young gay teacher, it was very difficult for me to fully embrace who i am including my sexuality at work…that’s why i say i hide many secrets in my many compartments… but one thing i realised about the principalship of my school is they are very supportive…one day was a general meeting, teachers were being introduced… some male parents started to do whistle when i was to be introduced…my principal was so angry at those parents but he managed to contain himself and used that opportunity to talk to parents about diversity and how we need to respect and acknowledge that we are all not the same… ever since that moment i felt like i belong….’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) camagu here shares an incident that exemplifies the challenges faced by non-heteronormative bodies in social settings such as schools, homes and churches (msibi, 2019). to some extent, the whistle can be interpreted as an act of homophobia, reinforcing the notion that same-sex individuals are not fully accepted or respected within society (kagola & notshulwana, 2022). however, the response of the principal to the incident offers a moment of resistance against homophobia and heteronormativity (bhana, 2016; msibi, 2019). by using the opportunity to educate them about diversity and respect, the principal challenges the dominant social norms and advocates for a more inclusive school environment (rudoe, 2010). this intervention not only affirms camagu’s identity but also signals to the school community that discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation will not be tolerated. part of the responsibilities of the school principals as outlined in the south african standards for principals (2015) is to promote inclusion and work with and/or for the community in acknowledging diversity as part of creating an enabling environment that respects individual differences. camagu’s subsequent feeling of belonging provides possibilities for the transformational potential of inclusive leadership within the school setting. when school leaders actively support and advocate for non-heteronormative teachers, it creates a sense of safety and acceptance that is essential for personal and professional growth. however, it is important to recognise that while individual acts of support are valuable, systemic changes are necessary to address the root causes of discrimination and marginalisation faced by same-sex desiring teachers. camagu’s aforementioned vignette illustrates the realisation of policy implementation and positive inclusion practices that open possibilities for courageous conversations that sometimes might be difficult to conduct: ‘my school’s smt comprises of old people many of them do not understand this lgbt+ issues and what they mean…. but they are learning my hod in fp and deputy principal would sometimes ask me about how some girl and boys behave like the opposite sex and what could that mean… my hod she would seek advice on issues of inclusion…like when we discuss themes in the curriculum like “my family” and the like we also had to change the admission form on parents details….’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) the queer theory offers us the possibility to understand the dynamics at play in camagu’s experiences described in the aforementioned vignette, particularly how he has navigated the institutional structures and cultural norms concerning gender and sexual diversity (grzanka, 2019; stein & plummer, 1994). moreover, camagu’s vignette also highlights a process of learning and adaptation within his school’s leadership. for instance, courageous conversations with him, the head of department (hod) in fp and the deputy principal when seeking advice from camagu regarding issues of inclusion suggest a possible willingness to engage with and learn from diverse perspectives. moreover, these courageous conversations represent a shift from the rigid structures of power that often characterise educational institutions, offering opportunities for collaboration and dialogue across hierarchical lines to create inclusive learning and teaching environments (davies, 2021; kagola & notshulwana, 2022; msiza, 2020). the discussions around learners behaving ‘like the opposite sex’ and themes in the curriculum such as ‘my family’ reveal how aspects of gender and sexuality intersect with broader educational practices. moreover, rigid curriculum materials and institutional forms may reinforce binary understandings of gender and family structures, which can marginalise same-sex desiring learners and families (see kagola & notshulwana, 2022). however, the willingness of the school to adapt, such as by changing admission forms to be more inclusive of diverse family structures, demonstrates a commitment to challenging normative assumptions and promoting greater visibility and acceptance of diverse identities. in essence, this vignette illustrates the tensions and negotiations that occur within educational institutions as they grapple with issues of gender and sexuality. it underscores the importance of ongoing dialogue and education within school leadership to foster environments that are inclusive and affirming for all students, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. theme two: it’s nice to have someone as different as you in the school…learners said msibi (2019) and bhana and moosa (2016) postulate that the policing of identities to conform to heteronormativity has the potential to deny learners the opportunity to experience the perceived inclusive nature of the schooling systems, meaning that schools should embody the diverse nature of the society within which it is situated. camagu in the following vignette shares how his presence and advocacy for the acknowledgements and respect for diverse gender and sexual identities have provided positive inclusive experiences for the learners in his school: ‘hee yazi (you know)… at the school few older learners came and said… we like you and its nice to have someone as different as you in the school…you dress differently, talk gentle and you always stand up for us…i didn’t think that being a prefect coach could contribute that much to my learners…most of the time i treat learners the way i wished my teachers could done with me…i was always a joke in their eyes…i wished they could have looked or treated me just like a normal learner in the school…so i try to be kind and caring for learners questioning their sexuality in my school… they need to know it’s okay not to know your sexuality.’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) learners’ acknowledgement that camagu is ‘different’, and their positive experiences and reception of him underscore the importance of visibility and representation for marginalised identities. camagu’s nonconformity to traditional gender norms, expressed through his different sense of dress and gentle demeanour, disrupts normative expectations of hegemonic masculinity within the school environment. this is in opposition to msiza’s (2020) fp male teachers who distance themselves from homosexuality through embodying superiority as a stream of masculinity. in doing so, camagu challenges the binary constructions of gender and the perpetuation of heteronormativity that often dominates educational settings, illustrating the potential for same-sex desiring bodies and expressions to subvert normative structures. bhana (2016) states that teachers often reproduce their childhood experiences in their teaching practices and possibly work towards changing the narrative by doing things differently. this is visible in camagu’s vignette; through his embodying kindness, care and acceptance, camagu provides a counternarrative to the experiences of marginalisation and ridicule that he endured during his time as a learner. this pedagogy of care not only fosters a sense of belonging for learners questioning their gender and sexual identities but also challenges heteronormative assumptions about who belongs and who is deserving of respect within the school community. camagu’s experience of being a joke in the eyes of his teachers remains in his memories, and he is determined to ensure that no student ever feels that way in his classroom. because of his childhood experience, camagu argues that in his classroom, there is no such thing as ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’. instead, every identity is celebrated and affirmed, and he said: ‘in my class learners sit in alphabetical order…even when it’s line-up time…yhooo i was once in trouble but was worth it…we were doing the topic “the jobs people do” and one boy child said he wanted to be a girl, so i asked him what he meant by being girl. i indirectly affirmed to him it’s okay to want to be a girl… but asked him and the class about what it means to be a girl or boy? is it a job?…a few days later two parents came to me seeking advice because their children who are in my class are asking a lot of uncomfortable questions so they needed advice on responding to those questions….’ (camagu, fp male, teacher) camagu’s decision to arrange learners’ sitting arrangement in alphabetical order reflects an attempt at organisational fairness, yet it also highlights the rigid structures that often govern educational environments. according to stein and plummer (1994), queer theory encourages the interrogation of such structures, questioning how they may reinforce normative expectations and restrict the expression of diverse identities. moreover, camagu’s inclination to challenging norms becomes evident when he recalls a moment of ‘trouble’ that was ‘worth it’. when a student expressed a desire to be a girl during a class discussion on ‘the jobs people do’, the teacher seized the opportunity to engage with the topic of gender identity. by asking the student what it means to be a girl and inviting the class to reflect on gender roles, the teacher subtly affirmed the validity of the student’s feelings and opened a dialogue about gender diversity. kagola and notshulwana (2022), in their study, found that same-sex desiring male teachers tend to distance themselves from conversations that are centred around issues of gender and sexual diversity, fearing to be perceived and marginalised for recruiting learners to their non-normative behaviour. however, in camagu’s case, the intervention reflects the principles of queer theory, which advocate for the recognition of all identities as valid and deserving of respect (grzanka, 2019). subsequently, parents seeking advice on responding to their children’s questions further highlight the importance of inclusive education, where stakeholder participation is important for the holistic development of learners. moreover, the occurrence of parents seeking guidance from camagu suggests some form of recognition of his expertise in navigating issues of gender and sexual diversity in his classroom and the school community. this collaboration between teachers and parents is essential for creating a supportive environment for all learners, irrespective of their diverse gender and sexual orientations. conclusion this study aimed to shed light on the positive inclusive experiences of camagu, a self-identifying same-sex desiring fp male teacher, in order to shift the narrative in research about the phenomenon of fp male teachers in conservative and often under-researched provinces such as the eastern cape. the finding highlights the importance of supportive leadership and inclusive practices in fostering a sense of belonging for same-sex desiring teachers. the narratives shared by camagu underscored the transformative potential of inclusive leadership in challenging heteronormativity and creating environments where all individuals feel valued and respected. the second theme about positive inclusion for gender and sexually diverse learners emphasises the crucial role that teachers play in creating safe and affirming spaces for learners to explore and express their identities. through their advocacy, empathy and willingness to challenge normative assumptions, teachers like camagu contribute to the creation of inclusive learning environments where every student feels seen, heard and valued. based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations can be made to support the positive inclusion of gender and sexually diverse learners in educational settings: leadership support: foster supportive leadership at all levels, focusing on promoting inclusive policies and practices that affirm the identities of all learners and teachers alike. community engagement: schools to create partnerships with parents, caregivers and community organisations to promote understanding and acceptance of gender and sexual diversity and provide resources and support for families of gender and sexual diverse learners. learner support: create workshops for school-based support teams (sbsts) to support gender and sexually diverse learners, including peer support groups, and access to affirming resources and literature. moreover, life skills and life orientation teachers can implement curriculum revisions, for a more contextual and culturally sensitive curriculum implementation. by implementing these recommendations, educational institutions can work towards creating environments that are welcoming, affirming and inclusive for all students, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. through collaborative efforts between teachers, leaders, learners and communities, we can strive towards a more equitable and inclusive future for all. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions o.k. is the sole author of this article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of the free state, general/human research ethics committee (ghrec) (no. ufs-hsd2021/1447/22). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, o.k. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references baxter, p., & jack, s. 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(2018). men in early childhood education and care: gender balance and flexibility. springer. abstract introduction career-adaptive attributes of career self-reactiveness career-adaptive attributes of career self-reflectiveness research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references appendix a about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa headman n. mbiko department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., & mbiko, h.n. (2023). the positive mutually reinforcing dynamics of career-adaptive attributes in career human agency. african journal of career development, 5(1), a71. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.71 original research the positive mutually reinforcing dynamics of career-adaptive attributes in career human agency melinde coetzee, headman n. mbiko received: 05 jan. 2023; accepted: 01 aug. 2023; published: 11 sept. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: empirical research on career-adaptive attributes that elucidate the dynamic interplay between resources of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness in career human agency theory (chat) is scant. objectives: the objective of the study was to assess the simultaneous interplay between constructs of career self-reactiveness (career adaptability, psychological capital, career agility) and constructs of career self-reflectiveness (career resilience and career satisfaction). methods: the cross-sectional canonical correlational design of the study involved a random sample of black african employees (n = 412) in a south african public service government organisation. results: adaptive readiness, goal-directed adaptability and career forethought and intentionality in goal achievement emerged as four common synthetic themes that illustrated the mutually reinforcing dynamics among the study variables. conclusion: the reciprocal associations among the study variables offer promising support for career counselling interventions that apply the chat. the findings may guide the use of career assessments for career-adaptive behaviours that help cultivate career human agency. contribution: the study contributed to career development in the african context by enriching understanding of the role of individuals’ adaptive readiness, goal-directed adaptability, career forethought and career intentionality in agentic career goal achievement. keywords: career adaptability; career agility; career human agency; career resilience; career satisfaction; psychological capital. introduction the increased instability and unpredictability of the contemporary career landscape caused a heightened demand for human agency in career construction (chen & hong, 2020a; nalis et al., 2022). lifelong learning and career-adaptive attributes are essential resources of human agency; such attributes help individuals respond to and cope with continuous and rapid changes in the work world (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b; nilforooshan, 2020; öztemel & akyol, 2021). some of these changes allude to the rise of boundaryless careers, virtual and contingent work, temporary job positions, time-limited projects and frequent job transitions (coetzee et al., 2022a; zhu et al., 2019). career human agency is about adapting, self-regulating and facing challenges to achieve career goals despite adversity (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b). individuals exhibit a psychological resource set that enables them to intentionally navigate changing conditions in the pursuit of career goals. individuals can negotiate alternative paths to achieve desirable goals when obstacles hinder plans (chen & hong, 2020a; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). human agency in career adaptation has been associated with job search self-efficacy, career success, satisfaction and proactive career behaviours such as career planning, exploration and skill development (guan et al., 2013; johnston, 2018; nilforooshan, 2020; zacher, 2014). the present study draws from career human agency theory (chat: chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b) as theoretical lens. the aim of this study was to assess the reciprocal interconnectedness between career adaptive attributes associated with two pillars of career human agency, namely career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. career self-reactiveness alludes to the self-regulated ability to proactively and intentionally adapt to and cope with fortuitous career-life events and circumstances (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b). on the other hand, career self-reflectiveness denotes a confluence of individual career behaviour, the external environment and individuals’ work world knowledge. individuals appraise contextual influences on their career success in the light of their personal career needs, goals, values, interests, beliefs and efficacy, including interpersonal situations (chen & hong, 2020a). savickas (2016) explains that reflexivity fosters agency within the self-awareness that emerges from self-reflectiveness. self-awareness flows into intentional (self-reactiveness) career adaptive behaviours. career human agency theory (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b) posits a simultaneous dynamic interaction between the pillars of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. both these two pillars of career human agency are in interplay with individuals’ career intentionality (i.e. consciously formed career plans and actions) and career forethought (i.e. career self-efficacy in goalsetting and outcome expectations: chen & hong, 2020a). chen and hong (2020a) highlight curiosity, flexibility, optimism and risk-taking as general skills and attitudes of career self-reactiveness including work world and self-knowledge as attributes of career self-reflectiveness. attributes of career self-reactiveness enable individuals to stay motivated and follow through on goals and plans in the face of unpredictability. attributes of career self-reflectiveness help individuals gauge career outcomes in the light of contextual influences that may hinder success (amundson, 2005; bandura, 2006; chen & hong, 2020a). however, empirical research on career-adaptive attributes that elucidate the chat description of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness is scant. the present research fills this gap in research by assessing the simultaneous, mutually reinforcing correspondence between attributes of career self-reactiveness (career adaptability, psychological capital, career agility) and attributes of career self-reflectiveness (career resilience and career satisfaction). these study constructs are known to incorporate psychosocial career resources that help clients enact proactive agency in the modern-day work world (coetzee, 2022; han et al., 2021; johnston, 2018; klehe et al., 2021; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017; matsuo, 2022; öztemel & akyol, 2021; peeters et al., 2022; spurk et al., 2015). the findings may enrich the chat (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b) by empirically demonstrating the reciprocal link between career adaptive attributes of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness in career human agency. the findings may potentially inform career counselling interventions focused on raising individuals’ agency in career adaptivity. clients may gain a deeper understanding of how their career self-reflectiveness (career resilience and career satisfaction) influences their intentional use and development of career self-reactiveness resources (career adaptability, psychological capital and career agility) and vice versa. this awareness may help clients to develop and confidently apply the career resources they need for career success in changing work contexts. career-adaptive attributes of career self-reactiveness in the present study, the constructs of career adaptability, psychological capital and career agility denote a composite set of psychological resources that collectively reflect career-adaptive attributes of career self-reactiveness (i.e. proactive and intentional self-regulation in adapting to and coping with fortuitous career-life events and circumstances: chen & hong, 2020a). career adaptability comprises: (1) individuals’ motivation to prepare for the future through career planning (career concern), (2) agency in one’s career development and decidedness (career control), (3) envisioning and exploring future work selves (career curiosity) and (4) self-efficacy in solving unfamiliar and complex problems to achieve goals (career confidence: klehe et al., 2021; savickas & porfeli, 2012; tokar et al., 2020). psychological capital (psycap) constitutes individuals’ self-efficacy, hope, resiliency and optimism (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). these psycap attributes synergistically facilitate the positive appraisal of circumstances and the likelihood of succeeding in a situation (baluku et al., 2020). individuals are intrinsically confident and motivated to take action to succeed (self-efficacy); they exhibit goal-directed, agentic motivation and perseverance to succeed despite circumstances (hope); they can adapt to changing demands and bounce back from adversity, uncertainty, risk or failure (resiliency) and they have positive expectancies that they will achieve their goals despite adverse situations (optimism: del castillo & lopez-zafra, 2022; luthans et al., 2007; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). career agility reflects: (1) individuals’ flexibility and optimism towards accelerated technological development that is perceived to bring new job and career opportunities for career growth (technological adaptivity); (2) an eagerness to search for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve career and job success (agile learning) and (3) a willingness to navigate the environment for new career opportunities, take advantage of and remain informed of changes and opportunities in the technology-driven job market (career navigation: coetzee et al., 2021). research provides evidence of the distinctiveness of and dynamic interplay between career agility (adaptive readiness or willingness to proactively adapt to changes in the technology-driven career and job environment) and career adaptability (self-regulatory, psychosocial career resources that help individuals cope with current, unpredictable and anticipated changes in the life-career: coetzee et al., 2020; johnston, 2018; klehe et al., 2021). psycap resources are known to enhance individuals’ sense of control and intentionality in developing adaptability strategies for agentic goal pursuit in changing contexts (baluku et al., 2020; del castillo & lopez-zafra, 2022; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). career-adaptive attributes of career self-reflectiveness in the present study, the constructs of career resilience and career satisfaction stand for a composite set of psychological resources that collectively reflect attributes of career self-reflectiveness (i.e. confluent appraisal of contextual influences on personal career success in the light of one’s career needs, goals, values, interests, beliefs and efficacy, including interpersonal situations: chen & hong, 2020a). career resilience reflects the confident appraised integration and alignment of inner career needs and outer opportunities for career advancement and success in changing work circumstances. the confluent appraisal involves the agentic persisting, adapting and thriving in one’s career despite changing work conditions and disruptions over time (han et al., 2021; peeters et al., 2022; tokar et al., 2020). individuals reflect on: (1) their self-efficacious agentic adaptation to job changes and the extent to which they seize opportunities for new skills development and career goals for their future working life (self-reliance); (2) the extent to which they proactively adjust career and skills development goals in response to changes in the company’s structure and strategy (personal resilience) and (3) the extent to which they proactively embrace turbulent changing technological and work conditions as an investment in their career growth (work resilience: coetzee et al., 2015). career satisfaction denotes individuals’ reflection on the degree of career success they have achieved, and their progress towards meeting overall career goals for advancement, income and skills development (greenhaus et al., 1990; matsuo, 2022; spurk et al., 2015). both career resilience and career satisfaction reflect an agentic mode of optimal functioning denoted by individuals’ positive appraisal of their careers in a work context. research further indicates positive associations between psychological career resources, career resilience, career success and career satisfaction (coetzee et al., 2022b; han et al., 2021; peeters et al., 2022). drawing from the basic premises of chat (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b), it was assumed that the attributes of career adaptability, psycap and career agility function as a collective set of career self-reactiveness resources that reinforce individuals’ career resilience and career satisfaction as a collective set of career self-reactiveness resources, and vice versa. in line with chat (chen & hong, 2020a), individuals leverage the resources of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness in a mutually reinforcing way; proactive, agentic career-adaptive behaviours are fostered as a result. to this end, confirmation of the following research hypothesis was expected: hypothesis 1: individuals’ career adaptability, psycap and career agility (i.e. attributes of career self-reactiveness) positively correspond with their career resilience and career satisfaction (i.e. attributes of career self-reflectiveness), and vice versa. research methods and design participants a random sample of (n = 412) black african employees in a south african public service government organisation participated in the study. the sample comprised women (54%) and men (46%) in staff (70%) and departmental managerial (30%) level jobs. most of the participants had up to 10 years (66%) and more than 10 years (34%) of job experience. the mean age of the participants was 38.79 years (standard deviation [sd] = 9.68). measures career adaptability participants’ career adaptability was measured by the 24-item career adaptabilities scale (caas) (savickas & porfeli, 2012). the caas measures four facets of career adaptability on a five-point likert-type scale (1 = not strong; 5 = strongest): career concern (6 items; e.g. ‘planning how to achieve my goals’); career control (6 items; e.g. ‘making decisions by myself’); career curiosity (6 items; e.g. ‘investigating options before making a choice’) and career confidence (6 items; e.g. ‘solving problems’). the caas has acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity in the south african organisational context (coetzee et al., 2020). psychological capital participants’ psychological capital was measured by the 24-item psychological capital questionnaire (pcq-24) (luthans et al., 2007). the pcq measures four facets on a on a six-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree): self-efficacy (6 items; e.g. ‘i feel confident analysing a long-term problem to find a solution’); hope (6 items; e.g. ‘at the present time, i am energetically pursuing my work goals’); resiliency (5 items; e.g. ‘when i have a setback at work, i have trouble recovering from it and moving one’) and optimism (7 items: ‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’). the pcq has acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity for the african organisational context (baluku et al., 2020). career agility participants’ career agility was measured by the 18-item career agility scale (cas) (coetzee et al., 2021). the three cas facets were measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree): technological adaptivity (7 items: e.g. ‘i search for job roles that evolve with changing technological conditions because they offer opportunities for growth and creativity’); agile learning (5 items, e.g. ‘i feel it is important to search for new and better growth opportunities’) and career navigation (6 items, e.g. ‘i regularly scan the environment for new career opportunities’). the cas has acceptable consistency reliability and construct validity in the south african organisational context (coetzee et al., 2021). career resilience participants’ career resilience was measured by the 15-items adapted version of the career resilience questionnaire (crq) (mogale, 2015). the three crq facets were measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree): self-reliance (5 items: e.g. ‘continuous improvement in one’s job skills by engaging in development opportunities offered by one’s employer is important to me’; personal resilience (4 items; e.g. ‘frequent changes in work assignments are worthwhile opportunities for career growth’) and work resilience (6 items, e.g. ‘i feel comfortable having to learn new technology every six months’). the crq has good internal consistency reliability and construct validity in the south african public service context (coetzee et al., 2015). career satisfaction the five-item career satisfaction scale (css) (greenhaus et al., 1990) measured participants’ career satisfaction as a global construct on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). examples of items included: ‘i am satisfied with the progress i have made towards meeting my goals for the development of new skills’; ‘i am satisfied with the success i have achieved in my career’. the css has proven internal consistency reliability in the south african organisational context (coetzee et al., 2022b). procedure random sampling involved calculating the required sample size from the total population by using the qualtrics (2023) online calculator (95% confidence level; 5% margin error; 0.50 sd; required sample size = 412). after assigning a random sequential number to each participant in the population, the microsoft office’s excel spreadsheet application’s rand formula assisted in generating a random number from the total population for the final selected sample. the main researcher invited participants via the company’s intra-email system to voluntarily complete the research questionnaire. participants received a no-reply url link to the research questionnaire. the lime survey facilities of the research institution were utilised for the url link. ethical considerations ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the research institution (erc ref: 2020_cems_iop_033). permission for the study was provided by the management of the organisation. completion of the questionnaire was voluntary, anonymous and confidential. the participants gave informed consent that the data may be used for research purposes. data analysis descriptive and bivariate correlation statistics were performed with the ibm corp (2021) spss statistics version 28.0 software package. a multifactor confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) with the maximum likelihood robust (mlr) estimator was conducted with the jasp (2022) computer software package to assess the distinctiveness of each of the 15 construct variables measured by the caas, pcq, cas, crq and css. in line with guidelines of hair et al. (2019), the following rules of thumb (threshold values) were applied for good model fit and construct validity: chi-square/df ≤ 3; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) ≤ 0.06 or ≤ 0.08; standardised root mean squared residual (srmr) ≤ 0.05; comparative fit index (cfi) ≥ 0.90. canonical correlation analysis (cca) was performed with the sas (2013) software program to calculate a multivariate statistical model that assessed the co-relationship between two sets of latent variables that each comprised multiple variables. canonical correlation analysis allowed for exploring what is common among two sets of canonical variate variables as well as which variables contributed the most in explaining the links between the two sets of variables (guarino, 2004). the wilk’s multivariate criterion lambda (λ) was used to assess the practical significance (1 – λ = r²-type metric of effect size) of the full canonical model (sherry & henson, 2005). results preliminary statistics the multifactor cfa had good model fit that pointed to the distinctiveness of the 15 construct variables and minimised concerns about multicollinearity: chi-square = 5651; df = 2996; chi-square/df = 1.89; p < 0.001; rmsea = 0.048 (90% confidence interval [ci] upper bound); srmr = 0.048; cfi = 0.90. as per the guidelines of rönnkö and cho (2022) for assessing discriminant validity, the cfa paired factor co-variances were inspected. all estimates were positive and the upper confidence limit intervals (uclis) were all below 0.80 (see table 1-a1). these estimates indicated evidence of acceptable discriminant validity between the construct variables. table 1 shows that the construct scales had acceptable (0.69) to high (0.94) internal consistency reliability. the construct variables had significant and positive associations at p ≤ 0.000 (r ≥ 0.24 to r ≤ 0.61; small to large practical effect). all correlations were below <0.80 and diminished concerns about potential multicollinearity. table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. canonical correlation analysis table 2 shows that the full canonical model was statistically significant across four dimensions (functions). the wilks’ lambda statistic (λ) of 0.27, f = 13.98, p ≤ 0.0001 had a r² metric (1 – λ [1 – 0.27]) effect size of 0.73 (large practical effect). the canonical correlation of the first function was 0.81 and it already contributed a substantial proportion (rc² = 0.66: 66%) of the variance shared between the two sets of canonical variate variables. the first function was therefore regarded as being practically the most relevant for interpreting the links between the two sets of variables. table 2: canonical correlation, eigenvalues, multivariate statistics and f approximation. table 3 shows the structure coefficients for the first canonical variate explaining which variables contribute most to each composite set of variables. the three career agility variables (rc ≥ 0.83 – 0.95; large practical effect) had the greatest influence in positively explaining the career self-reactiveness canonical variate (labelled as v1), followed by career curiosity, career confidence and hope (rc ≥ 0.71 – 0.73; large practical effect). career control, career concern, optimism, self-efficacy and resiliency also had a positive and large practical effect (rc ≥ 0.51 – 0.69) on explaining the canonical variate (v1). according to the redundancy analysis in table 4, the v1 variables accounted for a large proportion of variance (0.52; large practical effect) in the v1 canonical variate. table 3: canonical function 1: canonical correlation structure analysis. table 4: canonical function 1: canonical redundancy analysis. self-reliance (rc = 0.91) and work resilience (rc ≥ 0.92) had the greatest influence (large practical effect) in positively explaining the self-reflectiveness canonical variate (labelled as w1), followed by the positive, large practical effect of personal resilience (rc = 0.78) and career satisfaction (rc = 0.56). according to the redundancy analysis in table 4, the w1 variables accounted for a large proportion of variance (0.65; large practical effect) in the w1 canonical variate. in terms of the canonical cross-loading, table 3 and figure 1 show four clusters of the career self-reactiveness canonical variate (v1) variables that varied in the degree of variance explained in the career self-reflectiveness canonical variate (w1) variables: (1) the career agility variables of career navigation, technological adaptivity and agile learning had the highest positive, practical large effect cross-loadings (rc ≥ 0.66 – 0.77: 44% – 59%) with the w1 variables; (2) the career adaptability variables of career control, career curiosity, career confidence and the pcq hope construct had a similar range of positive, large practical effect cross-loadings (rc ≥ 0.56 – 0.59: 32% – 35%) with the w1 variables; (3) caas career concern (rc = 0.54: 29%) and pcq optimism (rc = 0.53: 28%) and (4) pcq self-efficacy (rc = 0.46: 21%) and resiliency (rc = 0.41: 17%) had a relatively lower range of positive and large practical effect cross-loading correlations with the w1 variables. overall, the career navigation variable had the largest correlation (rc = 0.77: 59%) with the w1 variables. according to the redundancy analysis in table 4, the v1 variables accounted for a large proportion of variance (0.43; large practical effect) in the w1 canonical variate variables. the w1 variables accounted for a large but lower proportion of variance (0.34; large practical effect) in the v1 canonical variate variables. figure 1: empirical model of the canonical correlation cross-loading results function 1. the w1 variables of work resilience (rc = 0.75: 56%; large practical effect) and self-reliance (rc = 0.74: 55%, large practical effect) had the largest and positive cross-loading correlations with the v1 variables, followed by personal resilience (rc = 0.63:40%, large practical effect) and career satisfaction (rc = 0.45:21%, large practical effect). overall, career satisfaction had the lowest link with the v1 variables. the results further suggest that relative to the career adaptability and psychological capital variables, the career agility variables had the strongest association with the career resilience variables and vice versa. the psychological capital variables of resiliency and self-efficacy, including career satisfaction, accounted for the least for the reciprocal associations between the v1 and w2 variables. the results provided evidence in support of research hypothesis h1. discussion the results corroborated the chat (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b) premise that career-adaptive attributes are interconnected and mutually help to reinforce career human agency. four synthetic common themes arose from the reciprocal correspondence among attributes of career self-reactiveness (career adaptability, psycap and career agility) and attributes of career self-reflectiveness (career resilience and career satisfaction). these four themes illustrate the mutually reinforcing dynamics among career-adaptive attributes of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. the first common theme points to the dynamics of adaptive readiness towards the digital-era work world. the findings confirm the premise that career self-reactiveness (the ability to proactively and intentionally act in ways that enable coping and adapting to unpredictable and fortuitous conditions) interacts with the ability to gauge contextual influences on career goals and successful adaptation to changing workplace conditions (career self-reflectiveness: chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b). the findings highlight career agility (readiness to proactively manage one’s adaptation to changes in the technology-driven career and job environment) as an important attribute of career self-reactiveness. individuals’ optimism towards and readiness to adapt to and embrace technological development as offering new opportunities for career, job, personal growth and skills development (technological adaptivity, agile learning, career navigation: coetzee et al., 2021) seemed to correspond with career self-reflectiveness operationalised as career resilience and vice versa. self-reliance and work resilience reflected participants’ appraisal of their self-efficacious agentic adaptation to changing technological and work conditions as investment in career growth and opportunities for skills development (coetzee et al., 2015). the confluent appraisal denoted by self-reliance and work resilience corresponded with participants’ adaptive readiness or willingness to proactively adapt to changes in the technology-driven career and job environment (career agility) and vice versa. the findings seem to support research that demonstrated positive associations between employees’ career agility and their appraisal of the organisation as fulfilling its obligations to supply supportive conditions that make adaptation, learning and upskilling possible in changing work contexts (coetzee et al., 2022a). the second common theme pertains to the dynamic interplay among attributes of goal-directed adaptability in career self-reactiveness (operationalised as career control, career curiosity, career confidence, hope) and career self-reflectiveness (operationalised as personal resilience). the findings suggest that agentic career decidedness (career control), envisioning and navigating future work selves (career curiosity), self-efficacious problem solving to achieve goals (career confidence: johnston, 2018) and an agentic goal-directed motivation to succeed in changing conditions (hope: luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017) corresponded with personal resilience. reciprocally, personal resilience (proactive adjustment of career and skills development goals in response to changes in company structure and strategy: coetzee et al., 2015) corresponded with goal-directed adaptability as denoted by the attributes of career control, career curiosity, career confidence, and hope. the research highlights goal-directed adaptability in the form of decidedness about goals one strives to pursue (career control), exploring both self and the environment in goal pursuit (career curiosity), and persisting towards achieving career goals (career confidence) as important resources of career-adaptive behaviours (klehe et al., 2021). this study further indicates positive associations between hope (i.e. positive goal-directed agency in pathways for achieving goals) and self-directed career management, career self-efficacy and the goal-directed behaviours of career adaptability (baluku et al., 2020; douglas & duffy, 2015; johnston, 2018; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). the third common theme elucidated career intentionality towards goal-achievement as a core dynamic among career self-reactiveness (operationalised as career concern and optimism) and career self-reflectiveness (operationalised as career satisfaction). the findings seem to speak to chen and hong’s (2020a) view of career intentionality as a third pillar of career human agency. they explain intentions direct one’s purposeful preparation and planning for the achievement of career goals. career concern (intrinsic motivation to prepare for the future through career planning: johnston, 2018; klehe et al., 2021) and optimism (positive expectations of achieving goals despite adversity) (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017) corresponded with career satisfaction. reciprocally, the positive appraisal of progress towards career-life goals (career satisfaction: spurk et al., 2015), corresponded with participants’ career concern and optimism. the findings indicate that an optimistic future orientation, attitudes of planfulness and motivation to prepare for the future are important features of career satisfaction. on the other hand, career satisfaction can be explained by the motivation to prepare and plan for the continual achievement of future-oriented career goals and a positive expectancy to achieve these goals. previous research shows in this regard that optimistic, future-oriented individuals adapt better in career transitions and exhibit satisfaction (baluku et al., 2020). the fourth common theme pertained to career forethought in goal achievement as suggested by the positive association between self-efficacy and resiliency (career self-reactiveness) and career satisfaction (career self-reflectiveness). the findings seem to relate to chen and hong’s (2020a) view of career forethought as a fourth pillar of career human agency. they explain that individuals have the ability to set goals and anticipate outcomes, which motivates the achievement of goals. self-efficacy (intrinsic confidence and motivation to put in the effort to succeed at challenging tasks) and resiliency (determination to go beyond the normal in adapting to changing demands and bouncing back from adversity to attain success: del castillo & lopez-zafra, 2022; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017) corresponded with positive cognitive appraisal of progress made towards life-career goal achievement (career satisfaction). research generally suggests that success experiences stimulate the development of self-efficacy and that psycap attributes moderate the impact of job conditions that may result in higher levels of satisfaction (del castillo & lopez-zafra, 2022; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). this study further shows that, reciprocally, the positive appraisal and satisfaction of career goal achievement involve the conviction that one can mobilise the motivation and courses of action needed to succeed (self-efficacy) and bounce back from adversity or perceived obstacles and setbacks (resiliency) towards the successful achievement of career goals. career forethought and self-efficacious intentionality direct individuals’ career human agency through purposeful preparation and planning for the achievement of career goals (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b). implications theoretically, the findings added richness to the chat (chen & hong, 2020a, 2020b) by going beyond mere theory. the findings provided empirical evidence of career-adaptive attributes that help explain the simultaneous interaction between the human agency pillars of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. the observed correspondence among the study constructs that denoted these two chat pillars included the presence of adaptive readiness, goal-directed adaptability, career forethought and career intentionality as characteristics of career human agency. practically, career counselling interventions that apply the chat (chen & hong, 2020a) may use the findings to measure career-adaptive behaviours that help cultivate career human agency. career conversations may utilise assessments of the study constructs to guide clients’ career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness for greater self-awareness and intentionality in career adaptation. table 5 summarises the core implications for career counselling. table 5: practical implications for career human agency counselling. limitations and future research the exploratory cross-sectional research design limits the generalisability of the findings to the study sample. moreover, no cause–effect relations could be established. the cca approach maximised the associations between the two variable sets, which may not necessarily be reproduced among the variables in another data set. future replication studies in various occupational and socio-cultural contexts may help to verify the study findings or point to different themes relevant to career human agency. future studies could also use multivariate multiple regression and structural equation modelling to model the relationships between constructs of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. conclusion the study extends the understanding of adaptive readiness, goal-directed adaptability, career forethought and career intentionality in agentic goal achievement. taken together, these career-adaptive attributes show a dynamic, mutually reinforcing correspondence between career human agency attributes that relate to career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness. given the importance of human agency in the unpredictable technology-driven work world, it is important to continue research on attributes that foster career-adaptive behaviours. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the participants of the study and their consent to use their data for research purposes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data 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(2019). career construction in social exchange: a dual-path model linking career adaptability to turnover intention. journal of vocational behavior, 112, 282–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.04.003 appendix a table 1-a1: summary of the confirmatory factor analysis paired factor co-variances estimates and confidence levels. table 1-a1 (continues): summary of the confirmatory factor analysis paired factor co-variances estimates and confidence levels. abstract introduction research question research methodology race and career development gender and career development conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) indira pillay department of anthropology and archaeology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation pillay, i. (2022). race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review. african journal of career development, 4(1), a53. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.53 original research race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review indira pillay received: 24 dec. 2021; accepted: 10 mar. 2022; published: 21 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: on 12 july 2021, riots broke out in the kwazulu-natal and gauteng provinces of south africa. regardless of the various political theories, the issue surrounding these riots had the theme of inequality and poverty below the surface. the reality is that many people live in poverty, have no jobs and are desperate. it is, therefore, necessary for us to look at the issue of work and career development in a way that addresses the deepening poverty crisis in south africa. specifically, it may be helpful to consider how the evolution of career development led to the deep-seated inequality that we see today, with race and gender being key considerations. objectives: in this article, the author draws primarily from the existing literature to explore how evolutionary developments and globalisation influenced career decision-making and the roles that social forces and agents of power have played, especially in the context of race and gender. method: the author conducted a brief literature review. issues relating to the social, political and systemic influences in the evolution of career development and decision-making were incorporated into this review, with special focus on race and gender. results: as the historic literature was analysed, the role of social factors such as race and gender on the evolutionary path of career development came to the fore. colonisation, apartheid, race and gender discrimination were dominant. conclusion: race and gender issues played significant roles in hindering career-development, with especially destructive consequences. as we proceed further into the 21st century, focus needs to be on advancing career-development initiatives for marginalised groups. keywords: career; career development; evolution; gender; race. introduction on 12 july 2021, the lives of people in kwazulu-natal and gauteng provinces in south africa were drastically disrupted for at least a week. following the #freezuma protests, which began shortly after the arrest of former president jacob zuma, riots and civil unrest broke out across the two provinces under the guise of protesting the imprisonment of the former president because of his failure to testify at an anticorruption commission of enquiry (ericsson, 2021). after the looting and destruction of several shopping malls and warehouses in these provinces, and as the dust settled, we are able to think critically about the events. among these reflections must be concerns about poverty, unemployment and how the bleak career development prospects affected communities. people who were involved in the looting told journalists that they were looting because of a lack of income, the inability to find decent work, and one made it clear that she resorted to looting to get food for her child (mlaba, 2021). granted, not all the individuals who took part in the #freezuma riots lived in poor communities, because news footage revealed a few people loading their stolen goods into luxury cars, such as the man loading stolen goods into a mercedes-benz coupe (sonjica, 2021). however, there is little doubt that factors such as poverty, unemployment, race and gender inequalities, other social ills, and coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) contributed to the civil unrest. it is important to note that little focus has been placed on the socio-political issues that influence career development within minority groups. research question the author was interested in the evolution of career development and the major demographically related factors (such as race and gender) influencing career development over the centuries. these may possibly relate to the riots that affected kwazulu-natal and gauteng in july 2021, given the underlying role that poverty and unemployment appear to have played. the author was also concerned about how marginalised communities in south africa and similarly placed economies were affected. because this is a vast area, the focus was mainly on race and gender. where possible, connections were also made to similar communities in a global context. research methodology to answer the research question, the author conducted a brief review of relevant literature, using the internet, google scholar and google (siddaway, wood, & hedges’, 2019). databases were searched for information on the broad demographic factors influencing career development over history. all published and unpublished articles that aligned with the author’s research question were located and read for relevance. the author was interested specifically in the effects race and gender have on career development. the author also took into account the socio-economic and political issues that influence race and gender have. the obtained data were critically examined and analysed in terms of their possible relevance and contribution to thematic areas. the emerging themes are presented below. race and career development the july 2021 riots and earlier experiences showed the themes of unemployment and racism as contributory factors to poverty. if we consider race and employment, we see that statistics south africa (2021) cites the expanded unemployment rates as 48.7% for black african, 36.7% for mixed race, 19.5% for indian or asian people, and 8.6% for white south africans. this inequality has resulted from years of apartheid and colonialism. racial discrimination severely affected the career opportunities of black people for hundreds of years. as colonialism by european settlers gained momentum globally, the marginalisation of african, asian, native american and south american people intensified. as a way of securing better jobs for the settler groups, the racist strategy of career demarcation and job reservation was born. it was described as one of the worst apartheid laws that hung over the heads of hundreds of thousands of south africans of colour, and was a threat to their economic security (hepple, 1963). history reveals many examples of career demarcation and job reservation. for example, in the early 1930s, while in the eighth grade at school, the american political activist malcom x was discouraged by his teacher from becoming a lawyer because of the colour of his skin (duncan, 2005). the teacher, encouraged him to rather pursue a trade-like carpentry, in order to align with the sociopolitical reality of the society in which he lived, and especially the stereotyped role prescribed by the authorities. later, malcom x reported having heard the same teacher encourage white students to pursue any career field they wanted, regardless of the fact that many were not as intellectually endowed as malcom x. despite his academic ability, this destructive interaction and the prevailing expectations dampened his dreams, and led to him dropping out of school. this is an understandable response, having been told categorically that there was no point in black children pursuing higher education (biography.com editors, 2014). it is important to note that the north american and european countries that are considered to have more stable economies also have significant race issues. for example, studies conducted in france and germany revealed little intervention with ethnic minorities with regard to assisting with career development and decision making (al ariss, vassilopoulou, özbilgin, & game, 2013). south africa witnessed the same type of experience suffered by african americans and people elsewhere who were marginalised through colonisation and imperialism. riots relating to poverty and economic opportunities, hinged on race, are well known in history, for example, the riots of the 1960s in the united states of america where the deeper causes were identified as poverty, unemployment, racism and related social factors (emeka, 2021). the july 2021 riots in south africa need to be viewed in a similar way, given the historical marginalisation suffered by black south africans and the hardships endured to this day. both the colonial rule and apartheid stringently opposed the advancement of people of colour by systemic educational deprivations and job reservation. pillay (2020) observed that psychologists actively participated in the process, promoting this ideology using biased ‘psychological tests’ to suggest that black people were unsuitable for professional, academic and intellectually-oriented careers. this strategy was used to keep black people in manual labour positions and exclude them from professional careers. psychologist martin fick (1939) used flawed methodologies to suggest that ‘intelligence tests’ proved that black south africans would not benefit from academic education and should be considered only for manual labour. this is one of many examples in history, of how so-called ‘scientists’ misused the scientific method to achieve their own aims and support the ideologies of an extremist government. tucker (2007) observed that the most common way in which science has been used to further the policies of oppression and racial discrimination has been through claims that certain groups in the society are inherently deficient in some way, whether it is in terms of cognition, behaviour or some other characteristics. this type of rationale is then presented as ‘evidence’ representing a scientific approach, whereas it is not. the american sociologist du bois (1939) observed a similar discrimination in the united states of america where african americans were considered less capable of academic and professional education and careers. he noted that ‘[t]here was a time when the ability of negro brains to do first-class work had to be proven by facts and figures …’ (p. 332), and that even though he was part of the movement to put forward the accomplishments of african americans for the world to see, it was a ‘disbelieving white world’ (pp. 332–333). clearly, the historical situation demonstrated that people of colour had their life scripts given to them and they had little say in it, including their career path. the lack of choice in the occupational sphere among marginalised groups started centuries ago by the colonial and imperialist powers through slavery and similar labour practices (pillay, 2020). we must also consider here the large groups of indentured labourers taken by the british and other colonisers, often under false pretenses, to labour in other parts of the colonised world, including south africa, kenya, uganda, mauritius, trinidad, guyana, malaysia, ceylon, and fiji. according to anitha and pearson (2013), these individuals, who were recruited from india, china and the pacific, ‘signed’ a contract (usually using a thumb print because of illiteracy) that many did not understand, and were meant to receive wages, a piece of land, and some were promised a return passage home after the contract, but not all promises were kept. for example, indians were taken under the guise of a better life to work as labourers on sugar plantations; however, their lives and living conditions were little more than that of slaves, with 14–16 h work-days, corporal punishment and restricted movement even after working hours (persad, 2008). in a variation of slavery and indenture, south africa’s western cape region saw the dutch wine farmers, led by jan van riebeeck over 350 years ago, giving alcohol to workers as part payment for their labour. this came to be known as the dop system, and was outlawed only after the fall of apartheid. commenting on south africa’s alcohol abuse problem, vice (2020) noted that the problem goes back centuries, to the dutch settlers’ treatment of slaves in the colony: ‘the first cargo of slaves brought to the cape – 174 souls stolen from angola – arrived on the dutch east india company ship amersvoort on 28 march 1658. eleven days later, jan van riebeeck wrote in his journal of the pressing matter of the education of the newly acquired property. “to animate their lessons and to make them really hear the christian prayers, each slave should be given a small glass of brandy and two inches of tobacco, etc. within a few days these slaves will be brought under a proper sense of discipline and become decent people”’. (online) the dop system was a cunning attempt by employers to further systemic racism and domination. it was aimed mainly at workers identified as ‘coloured’ who were resident in the western cape region and who were dependent on the wine farms for employment and an income. the destructive system worked in conjunction with colonial forces and apartheid policies, and served to strengthen the racist ideology characterizing people of colour inferior by encouraging substance abuse. in fact, the system was developed and implemented as a form of social control (london, 1999). it increased alcohol dependency, employer profits and was designed to keep the labourer a loyal servant who would come back for more. the employers, who were expert in alcohol production and its addictive properties, were obviously very aware of the effects the system would have on workers, their family lives and their communities. the dop system created a dependency that intensified the power dynamic that existed between the worker and the employer, especially within the existing racial power imbalance, resulting in workers feeling a sense of powerlessness (falletisch, 2008). even though the system has now been outlawed, the inter-generational effects of this human-rights abuse are still evident over three centuries later. the impact on the region’s communities is significant, with the incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder reported to be the highest in the world (may et al., 2019). in their efforts to produce some best wines in the world, employers deliberately exploited workers, damaged their health and family lives, and because the workers were people of colour, the prevailing governments allowed these abuses to continue. the extent to which the july 2021 riots in parts of south africa was fueled by poverty-related desperation, inadequate food and health care, must be considered, as the country moves forward in its analysis of the unrest. vhumbunu (2021) observed that while the cause of the riots included a combination of social, economic and political factors, the enabling conditions were the levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality that are rife in south africa. these are just some examples of how race influenced the world of work and career development, and constitute forms of systemic violence that impede the educational and career aspirations of marginalised groups (epp & watkinson, 1997). they show the kind of thinking that characterised colonial, imperialist and apartheid forces in creating and enforcing job reservation practices and suppressing the career aspirations of marginalised groups. although career opportunities for people of colour have increased today, the structural inequalities in many parts of the world continue to hold people back. weller (2019) noted that, in the united states of america for example, despite some improvements in educational and career opportunities, african americans continue to struggle to get good, well-paying jobs. in south africa, the legacy effects of educational disadvantages and a depressed job market mean unemployment and poverty for many. we must remember that south africa is the most industrialised economy on the african continent, but it is now regarded as having the highest unemployment rate in the world among 82 countries monitored by business analysts (naidoo, 2021). in addition to racial prejudice, we find discrimination occurring on the basis of social class in many parts of the world. often referred to as classism, it is ‘the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen the dominant class groups. it’s the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on social class’ (class action, 2021). in rural india, for example, the caste system, dictated the type of occupation that citizens were allowed to enter and the career paths to which they could realistically aspire (anderson, 2011). the broader effect of such a discriminatory system is poverty and social deprivation that inevitably affects the lower classes. as a result, this becomes a vicious cycle with the lower classes remaining poor and this pattern continuing through the generations. although rooted in a religious belief system that is over 2000 years old (meharia, 2020), the practice is a serious violation of the rights of people to determine their future, and to live in a just and equal society. gender and career development in the times of cave dwellers, work conditions appeared relatively straightforward, apparently designated by strengths, weaknesses and gender. however, contrary to earlier notions that women were assigned work as gatherers (while men were hunters), based specifically on perceived physical strength, recent research suggested that women were also hunters (elsesser, 2020). while women performed duties of caring for children and the elderly, gathering plants and fruit, they also performed some of the duties that men engaged in, namely hunting. milks (2020) noted that this idea goes against the old ‘man-the-hunter’ model, which suggested that big-game hunting was primarily undertaken by men. fairly recent discoveries have challenged those early ideas on gender and work. researchers in the peruvian andes uncovered a burial site that would change the thinking about ancient hunter-gatherer communities. hidden in one of the burial chambers of a woman, the archaeologists and anthropologists found tools used for hunting (muzdakis, 2021). this discovery changed the thinking about ancient gender roles and challenged the way we think about gender and specific jobs in history. of course, the extent to which this finding applies to other ancient communities in the global context is not yet known. what is known, however, is that gender played a significant role in career opportunities, which is still evident today in most parts of the world, sometimes to great disadvantage to women. despite these findings that challenged our thinking about women and work in early history, the role of women as carer and nurturer in families has been a traditional one that dominated history. this is also related to the patriarchal system in which many societies evolved, with girls being more located within the ‘feminine’ service roles of caring and nurturing (hadjar & aeschlimann, 2015). for example, yellen (2020) points out that historically many women had to leave work after getting married as a result of the sociocultural norms, as well as the types of jobs that were available to them. she noted that even today we must examine to what extent structural issues such as the challenge of combining family responsibilities and work may be hindering the progress of women in their career development. at the turn of the 20th century changes in ideas around the traditional roles of women began to strengthen. traditional gender roles such as being a homemaker and primarily being viewed as child rearers were beginning to be questioned by women (herr, 2001). since early in history, conversations gained momentum about moving into the workforce outside of the home and pursing previously ‘male only’ careers, with protests for the equality of women and human rights taking place. even the ‘job’ of fighting for human rights, was one that women took on eagerly and quickly. they did not leave this important ‘job’ solely in the hands of men, and also did not view their role as a purely domestic one. even though in the early years women were kept out of leadership positions in the liberation struggle, they came forward as activists, and as their husbands and children were arrested or killed they took on leadership roles (ardoin & hartnett, 2020). one protest, in particular, in south africa stands out, namely the 1956 women’s march in pretoria. thousands of women of all races and backgrounds protested against the pass laws that affected black women, men and their families. their protest, which shocked the apartheid government and its prime minister, who took cover elsewhere to avoid receiving the women’s petition, reflected the determination of women to fight for human rights. unlike the many protests seen through the years in south africa, and the recent (july 2021) civil unrest, this protest took on a rather unusual form. anti-apartheid activist, lillian ngoyi suggested that the group of women stand together in silence for a half an hour (south african history online, 2011). this small act spoke wonders about the power that the women possessed and demonstrated the women’s determination to fight for freedom and rights. it is protests like these by women that made significant strides for the upliftment of women and girls across the world, including the world of work and career development. the brave stand taken by young girls for the right to education is another example of the state of the world with respect to women’s education and we have seen that several celebrities have joined this fight (rodriguez, 2018). michelle obama, and singers meghan trainor, jennifer hudson and others have added their voices to the call for girls’ rights to education. we need to see this in the context of the way that girls’ education and career aspirations have been given a back seat in many countries, including in africa, asia and elsewhere (unicef, 2021). in many countries, girls are prevented from receiving education and they are discouraged or not allowed to enter a career and the world of work outside of the home. in india and certain other countries, the birth of a girl is not necessarily a joyous occasion, because the girl child is seen as a financial burden for the family in terms of marriage traditions, the absence of work prospects to support the family, and hence, they are not prioritised for education. a report published in the lancet has shown an increase in the selective abortion of girls after a first-born girl in india (jha et al., 2011). the world knows very well the story of malala yousafzai of pakistan who, together with her friends, protested for the rights of girls to get an education. she was shot in the head and severely injured by an extremist group because of her activism for girls’ rights to be educated and have a career (malala fund, 2021). the fight for the education of girls is a sad reality and a fight that should not be needed in 2021. however, it is still happening and unicef (2021) reports that about 129 million girls around the world are not in school. they also note that 49% of countries in the world have achieved gender parity in primary schooling with only 24% having gender parity in upper secondary schooling. this is a shocking statistic and contributes to the huge disparity in career development between men and women. according to jang, pak and lee (2019), gender inequality shows itself early into a new career path as it serves to test all preconceived ideas of ‘appropriate’ career paths for men and women. girls and women are often disadvantaged in the early stages of their education and career, where they face prejudice and stereotyping regarding what their role should be. we are still quite a distance from creating an equal world for men and women, where women are not having to work twice as hard as men to prove their capabilities or to access decent work opportunities. yellen (2020) points to the absence of mentors, discrimination and unfavourable attitudes that hinder women’s success in work contexts. in 2014, the national gender summit was held by the south african commission for gender equality to look at some of the issues. although celebrations were held to commemorate just how far the country has come since the fall of the apartheid government, prioritisation of the hurdles left to climb in attaining the gender equality is yet to take place (aschman, 2014). during the hiv epidemic, many girls ended up leaving school to take care of household chores and to look after younger siblings in what became known as ‘child-headed households’. pillay (2016) argued that children from child-headed households are faced with serious challenges, including being marginalised, socially disadvantaged and discriminated against with respect to their dignity and human rights, because they do not have parents or other adult caregivers. this experience has resulted in their education and career prospects diminishing, together with their hopes of moving out of poverty. in addressing the ‘make poverty history’ campaign in london, nelson mandela (2005) said ‘overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. it is an act of justice. it is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life’ (webpage). in this context, we must consider the situation of girls having to leave school to be an injustice. this injustice occurs because women are traditionally viewed as nurturers, and results in society pushing them into this role, even when they are too young to assume the responsibility, while encouraging boys to continue their schooling. by girls having to leave school, they are deprived of a childhood and the related protections of childhood (mkhatshwa, 2017). the automatic removal of the girl child from the school seems to suggest a belief that boys are not capable of performing caring, nurturing roles, that they should be prioritised for education and career development, and that girls’ education and career aspirations can be sacrificed. all of these assumptions are flawed. apart from having to leave school, the burden of having to provide food for the family falls more on the shoulders of girl children. many spend their days trying to source food, and their education takes a back seat. this has been found in research in africa, south asia and elsewhere (international hiv/aids alliance in india, 2006; mkhatshwa, 2017). it is almost as if girls in these contexts have been transported back in time to the role of being the ‘gatherers’ again, while boys have been allowed to continue educational pursuits. it is one of the many examples of structural violence that hinders the education of girls, and significantly hampers their progress and career development (osler, 2006). covering the july 2021 riots enquiry, shange (2022) discussed reports of the role of children in gathering food and other goods in the looting. although this phenomenon is subject to various interpretations, it again reveals how poverty forces children into positions that are not consistent with their developmental level. women have been under-represented in various careers, which has been a concern globally, although in some spheres of work there has been attempts at addressing the problem (avolio, chávez, & vílchez-román, 2020). a good example is in the healthcare fields such as medicine, psychology and others where these professions were historically dominated by men. women had to fight quite a battle to level the playing field and get a foot in the door. as an example of the extent to which women fought to qualify and work as medical doctors, dr miranda barry posed as a man using the name james barry, and worked for many years as a medical doctor in britain without her gender being discovered (hurwitz & richardson, 1989). it was the only way that she was able to get accepted into the profession. even though women have been involved in healing roles, mainly informally throughout history, they were not formally allowed into the medical training programmes and, hence into the profession of medicine until the late 19th century (jefferson, bloor, & maynard, 2015). these authors observed, however, that there has been a ‘feminization’ of the medical profession in recent years, with women now constituting the majority of medical students and general practitioners in the united kingdom. this is similar to the south african finding of pillay and kramers-olen (2014) who reported a substantial increase in the proportion of women trained in clinical psychology, from 50% to almost 80% over a 30-year period up to 2010. this is an interesting development is various ways. firstly, it is a positive step in increasing the numbers of women in the profession. secondly, however, it has ‘feminised’ the profession to the point where not many men are entering the field, and the broader impact of such a development is yet to be seen (richter & griesel, 1999). thirdly, there is the risk of perpetuating the stereotype of women in the caring and helping roles. the career aspirations of girls and women is an issue that needs attention, together with the broader opportunities that are available for women in the workplace (hadjar & aeschlimann, 2015). there is no doubt that more opportunities must be made available for women in the workplace, and that programmes of equal opportunity are promoted. these developments must work to strengthen the place of women in careers, without negatively impacting women’s career status in the professions. conclusion the way that career development and work opportunities have evolved over the years is interesting and also concerning, especially considering the extent to which they are entwined with critical demographics, such as race and gender. as the literature shows, although the world has come some way in addressing the issues of gender and race within the context of career development, there is still a very long way to go. like with so many other aspects of life, race and gender are influencing factors in social, economic and work life. systemic and structural barriers affect the education and career development opportunities for women, people of colour and marginalised groups. it is important that these issues be kept under the spotlight so that governments and society are constantly aware of the difficulties faced by certain groups in attaining education and the pursuit of decent work. it is also necessary that we are not blinded to the fact that countries with economic stability also have serious issues surrounding race and gender in the career development context, and that global attention is needed. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions i.p. is the sole author of this article. ethical considerations this study followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references al ariss, a., vassilopoulou, j., özbilgin, m.f., & 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(2024). foundation phase teachers’ diverse sexual orientations and job experiences: a south african study. african journal of career development, 6(2), a132. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.132 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research foundation phase teachers’ diverse sexual orientations and job experiences: a south african study roy venketsamy, zijing hu, nashua naicker received: 02 may 2024; accepted: 05 july 2024; published: 29 aug. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: sexual orientation discrimination impacts teachers’ well-being in school environments. the prevention of discrimination and promotion of equality act of 2002 prohibits discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, granting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (lgbtq) individuals many of the same rights as their cis-gender, heterosexual peers. despite this, many lgbtq teachers still face problematic, uncomfortable, and tension-filled experiences in schools. traditionally, the foundation phase (fp) of education was gendered, but this is changing. however, there is a perception that male fp teachers are primarily queer with a “gay agenda.” the authors used the class psychological stressor strain theory to explore the negative experiences of queer-identifying teachers. objectives: this article examines the effects of foundation phase teachers’ sexual orientation on their work environment experiences. methods: this qualitative study, grounded in an interpretivist paradigm, explored the lived experiences of three queer-identifying teachers in the gauteng province through individual face-to-face interviews. results: the findings reveal that schools are not adequately addressing discrimination. teachers often face marginalisation and discrimination. conclusion: this article explored a sensitive issue faced by teachers whose sexual orientation differs from society’s norms. it highlighted the discrimination and harassment lgbtq teachers face in the foundation phase in public schools in south africa. contribution: by unveiling these issues, the article aims to reduce the stigma, bias, and prejudice commonly faced by lgbtq foundation phase teachers in the teaching profession. keywords: discrimination; foundation phase; harassment; job experiences; lgbtq teachers; wellbeing; workplace. introduction and literature review discrimination based on sexual orientation persists in most schools and adversely affects the wellbeing of teachers in south african public schools. sears et al. (2021) state that discrimination and harassment targeting diverse sexual orientation employees impact their wellbeing and health negatively, thus leading to decreased job commitment and satisfaction. the prevention of discrimination and promotion of equality act of 2000 prohibits discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation (department of justice amendment, 2000). therefore, meer et al. (2017) state that many individuals who identify as queer can enjoy similar rights and privileges as their cis-gender, heterosexual peers. tompkins et al. (2019) found that many queer-identifying teachers continue to face problematic, uncomfortable, and tension-filled experiences in schools. this article aimed to explore the workplace experiences of queer-identifying foundation phase (fp) teachers in gauteng province. bhana (2012) states that most south african schools and communities are homophobic, and these homophobic attitudes have filtered into the school environment. ferfolja and stavrou (2015) reported that many queer-identifying teachers have experienced some form of discrimination, silencing and invisibility. drydakis (2019) agrees with ferfolja and stavrou (2015) that negative attitudes towards employees with different sexual orientations are concerning for the workplace. they agree that discrimination affects individuals’ wellbeing, workplace costs, productivity, and the development of a queer-positive culture. ferfolja and stavrou (2015) found that individuals identifying as queer experienced workplace discrimination significantly in comparison to heterosexual individuals. furthermore, guijarro-ojeda et al. (2021) stated that there has been widespread interpersonal and institutional discrimination against teachers, generalist educators, and academics who identify as queer. in their studies, drydakis (2019) and owens et al. (2022) found that participants faced ridicule, verbal abuse, physical and sexual assault, property damage, demeaning actions, homophobic jokes, and unequal access to employment rights. furthermore, drydakis (2019) found most queer-identifying employees report incidents of harassment and discrimination. this finding concurs with that of sears et al. (2021) who pointed out that 45% of queer-identifying workers in the usa experience unfair treatment, including being fired, not hired, or harassed because of their sexual orientation. over 30% of them claimed to experience ongoing discrimination and harassment, while 57% state that discrimination was motivated by religious and cultural beliefs. to avoid discrimination and harassment, ullman and smith (2018) found that many queer-identifying individuals claim to engage in behaviours to avoid discrimination and harassment in the workplace. in a british study, edwards et al. (2016) reveal that lesbian teachers are cautious about coming out at work, as these teachers feel it is unwise and dangerous. therefore, ortillo and ancho (2021) propose that there is a need to implement employee wellness programmes in schools to ensure the psychological wellbeing of teachers. teachers play an essential role in teaching and learning, and for too long, the fp in south africa has been a gendered phenomenon (moosa & bhana, 2017). moosa and bhana (2017) state that women are over-represented in the fp as females are perceived as more nurturing, motherly, and affectionate compared to males. until recently, south african males were allowed to teach in the fp (msiza, 2021). however, there exists a perception that male teachers in the fp are mainly homosexuals or bisexual (petersen, 2014). de beer (2020) states that most queer-identifying teachers work in a difficult environment because they are often wrongly perceived as having perverse intentions or promoting a gay agenda. she found that queer-identifying teachers are often viewed negatively by colleagues, students, and school management, resulting in low confidence, poor work performance, and potentially being overlooked for promotions. according to mashiya et al. (2017), there exists a perception among african people regarding child-rearing practices that females are the best educators for young children in the fp. therefore, male teachers are negatively viewed as they believe that males in the fp are either homosexuals or bisexuals (petersen, 2014). for this reason, sears et al. (2021) state that queer-identifying teachers are targets of workplace discrimination and harassment from different stakeholders. for this reason, the authors aimed to explore the lived experiences of fp teachers who identify as queer in gauteng schools and who experienced discrimination or harassment. theoretical framework individuals may be subjected to discrimination and harassment from various sources and individuals in the workplace. this study applied the classic psychological stressor-strain theory. this theory highlights the intense detriment to victims’ wellbeing which causes psychological stressors and impacts their lives (lazarus et al., 1985). discrimination, harassment, and prejudicial treatment of individuals identifying as queer within the workplace often lead to detrimental psychological effects resulting in low self-esteem and confidence. according to matthiesen and einarsen (2010), workplace discrimination can take various forms such as passive and active bullying, victimisation, verbal abuse, and incivility. as a result of these psychological stressors, individuals’ health and wellbeing are affected, thus leading to low workplace productivity. therefore, herschcovis and barling (2010) assert that workplace discrimination can significantly stress victims, and it includes systemic denial of rights based on gender, religion, sexual orientation, race, and culture. as this article focuses on workplace discrimination and harassment of fp teachers who identify as queer, this theory is significant in exploring their lived experiences. methodology research design the authors used a qualitative approach within an interpretative paradigm to uncover the lived experiences of queer-identified fp teachers. their study aimed to illuminate the discrimination and harassment these teachers encounter (creswell, 2018; maree, 2020). this methodological framework enabled an exploration of how these teachers navigate daily life within school settings interacting with colleagues, students, and other stakeholders. participants in this case study, purposive sampling was employed to select teachers who self-identify as queer (maree, 2020). only those participants who reported experiencing discrimination and harassment were included. three participants from fp schools in gauteng province met these criteria. because of the sensitive nature of the study, the authors chose individual face-to-face interviews to protect participants’ identities and capture rich detailed information about their experiences. for reporting purposes, participants were anonymised as p1m (participant 1; male), p2m (participant 2; male), and p3f (participant 3; female). data collection and analysis the authors employed a semi-structured interview approach with an open-ended schedule to gather data, ensuring sessions took place after school hours. data analysis followed an inductive approach with themes identified directly from the raw data. prior permission was obtained for audio recording and its use in the article. transcriptions of the recordings ensured no details were overlooked (maree, 2020). the data were analysed and used to inform the discussion (creswell, 2018). the researcher cross-referenced multiple data sources including policy documents, audio recordings, and interview schedules to identify common themes (creswell, 2018). ethical considerations an application for full ethical approval was made to the university of pretoria, faculty of education research ethics committee and ethics consent was received on 30 november 2021. the ethics approval number is ec19/20/02. results and discussions this section presents the results and discussion of the findings. experiences of homophobic innuendoes from work colleagues schools are public spaces that should be safe, non-threatening, and conducive to teaching and learning (venketsamy & hu, 2022). people who identify as queer often experience harassment or discrimination in their workplace (sears et al., 2021). according to p1m: ‘i experience homophobic innuendoes from my colleagues in the staff room. i often feel stressed and isolated and try not to go to the staff room to avoid these colleagues.’ this statement concurs with the findings of herschcovis and barling (2010) who also found that workplace discrimination is a significant cause of psychological stress on individuals. they therefore isolate themselves and often become recluse. p2m mentioned: ‘my colleagues do not communicate with me and see me as a “contamination”; that i will make them “gay.” these teachers perceptions caused me to see a psychologist’. de beer (2020) found that queer-identifying teachers are negatively viewed in their schools, thus affecting their self-confidence and esteem. ‘my behaviour is seen as unnatural; deviant and not according to social norms’, said p3f. because of their sexual orientation, many teachers experience negative attitudes and behaviours from colleagues, resulting in poor confidence levels and a lack of enthusiasm to teach confidently. for this reason, ortillo and ancho (2021) believe that schools should implement employee wellness programmes and psychosocial support to their staff. according to bhana (2012) and sears et al. (2021), homophobia can take many different forms including negative attitudes and beliefs about aversion to or prejudice against queer-identifying individuals. p1m stated: ‘the staff questioned me as to why i became an fp teacher. they always said that only “ladies and mothers” teach in the fp’. he further mentioned that he had to defend his career choice constantly about being a male in the fp. this statement concurs with msiza (2021) who states that females were known to be motherly, nurturing, and loving in comparison with males and therefore dominated the fp. furthermore, mashiya et al. (2017) state that the african culture does not support males in the fp and therefore resorted to victimisation of male fp teachers. name-calling has become a common form of insult and harassment within the work environment. p2m said, ‘i was called moffie; coffee; gay-bitch; bean queen; faggot and queer’. m3f mentioned that her colleagues called her a, ‘dyke, baby-butch and lessie’. furthermore, p2m was told, ‘you dress fashionable; but very effeminately and flamboyantly’. as a result of these name calling and comments, participants experienced much distress and psychological stress. the psychological stressor-strain theory highlights the fact that workplace stress can affect the wellbeing of individuals, causing psychological harm and often leading to suicide ideation. edwards et al. (2016) believe that people who engage in harassing and discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (lgbtq) people are scared or uncomfortable with these identities. they further state that it is often based on irrational fear and misunderstanding. furthermore, de beer (2020) states that some people’s homophobia may be rooted in their conservative religious beliefs and culture. in this study, the authors found that all three participants were victims because of their sexual orientation. they experienced the use of ‘mean’ language and name-calling in their schools. learners and parents impacting the emotional and psychological wellbeing of gay and lesbian teachers teachers’ wellbeing has received increased attention from the south african democratic teachers’ union (sadtu, 2018). many teachers have reported to have become victims of passive and active bullying from learners and parents in their schools and communities. multiple studies have underscored the psychological and wellbeing challenges that lgbtq individuals face (moya & moya-garofano, 2020). the participants in this study reported that they experienced emotional and psychological torture in their schools. they stated that they were exposed to continuous discrimination, harassment, ill-treatment, and exposure to inappropriate behaviours. one of the participants in this study, p1m, mentioned the following: ‘i am a target to the intermediate and senior phase learners in my schools. they show no respect and often “giggle” or “mock me” while i am on ground duty.’ p3f said: ‘i received notes with verbal abuse and picture of “lesbians’ under my door.” i feel that this is coming from more senior learners or even colleagues. these notes and pictures have left me humiliated and sad.’ p2m stated: ‘my grade 1 learners would come to me and say; “teacher a bad word is written about you in the toilet.” this was very embarrassing to me as a teacher’. p3f mentioned that she taught, ‘creative arts in the intermediate phase’ and that the learners in her class would often ask her if she was a ‘man’ or ‘woman’. p3f said she had to repeatedly inform her learners that she is a ‘woman’. one learner brazenly asked her if she liked to ‘kiss girls only’. p3f indicated that she felt nauseous at these questions and remarks from the learners. when such questions are posed, other learners often laugh, and the lesson is disrupted. she indicated, ‘i hate going to school on a thursday. school is no longer a happy place for me’. p1m, p2m, and p3f also mentioned that the parents were also traumatising and harassing them. according to p1m: ‘[a] group of grade 1 parents came to school and slandered him with abuse. they said that he was a paedophile and that they did not want their children to be taught by him. they want to him to resign or his life will be threatened.’ p2m also had similar experiences. the parents from his community said that african males do not have a right to teach young children. it is a job for the ‘females’. they said that he is an ‘isitabane’ and should not be with their children. he will make all their young children to be ‘isitabane’. p2m also mentioned that: ‘their parents told him that according to their religion and culture; “isitabane” is a deviant behaviour. it is a sin; therefore; he does not have a right to work with children. these parents also told him that christianity condemns homosexuals and labelled homosexuality as an abomination.’ all three participants mentioned that they were emotionally and psychologically traumatised. they regretted their decision to become fp teachers. furthermore, they stated that they felt like running away from their schools or resigning from teaching because the emotional and psychological trauma was becoming challenging to them. apart from dealing with face-to-face issues on a daily basis, all participants (p1m, p2m and p3f) mentioned that they received anonymous disturbing cell phone messages. they suspected the parents and learners were sending these messages to frustrate and torment them. p3f said: ‘one night; i received about ten messages about my sexual orientation and that if i did not resign; they would post pictures of me on the internet’. this caused p3f to experience extreme anxiety, stress, and fear as she had no control over who was sending her these messages. according to guijarro-ojeda et al. (2021), teachers identifying as queer often feel unsafe at work thus affecting their wellbeing and destabilising their key psychological traits. they frequently experience insecurity, a lack of self-confidence, and persistent anxiety and fear in their daily lives. south african democratic teachers’ union (2018) states that teaching is classified as one of the professions with the highest stress levels and attrition rate. south african democratic teachers’ union (2018) states that this situation is worsened for those whose sexual orientation differs from the community. in some african communities, religion and culture play a significant role, and therefore, parents are intolerant of gays and lesbians (mashiya et al., 2017). mashiya et al. (2017) further state that some religious scriptures and doctrines are interpreted to forbid any form of homosexuality. therefore, the tension between the parent community’s beliefs often leaves queer-identifying individuals with psychological stressors such as depression, continual fear of damnation, low self-esteem, and feelings of worthlessness. p1m and p2m both indicated that suicide ideation crossed their minds. for this reason, they had to seek psychological help from professionals to deal with the trauma. bias in professional and career development opportunities south african democratic teachers’ union (2018) states that sexual discrimination is a person’s way of treating or behaving towards individuals or groups of individuals unequally based on gender or sexual orientation. school can be a hostile place for lesbian, gay, and bisexual teachers, as many of them experience victimisation, discrimination, and marginalisation regularly (de beer, 2020). discrimination against fp teachers’ sexual orientation is becoming prevalent in most public schools. the study participants noted that they were denied access to professional development opportunities such as training sessions, workshops, school excursions, and leadership roles like head teacher, programme coordinator, and subject heads. p1m, p2m, and p3f experienced professional and career development bias. according to p1m: ‘my principal refused to allow me to go on a training workshop. he said that his parents have been complaining about his sexual orientation and lifestyle. therefore; he will not be employed for long at his school. he also indicated that the workshop is mainly for female teachers and that he can get information from the teachers who attended the workshop.’ from the above statement, p1m is discriminated against because of his sexual orientation and complaints from his parents. it appears that he is not receiving support from the school principal. p2m teaches life orientation to the grade 7 class. his school manager refused to allow him to attend a workshop on comprehensive sexuality education (cse) organised by the department of basic education (dbe). the principal mentioned that he would resist any form of cse education in his school. he noted that the parents are against the teaching of cse, and therefore he does not need to attend the training. p2m told the principal: ‘in the life orientation curriculum; we need to teach cse content; which is important for me to attend’. his principal responded: ‘you were not supposed to teach cse content to grade 7 learners. you will be promoting sexual activities among these boys and girls’. this study’s findings concur with sears et al. (2021) that teachers who are discriminated against in their career development because of their sexual orientation experience reduced job commitment and satisfaction. in this study, all participants indicated that they lost confidence in their school leaders to support them with harassment and bullying and in their application for professional and career development. moya and moya-garofano (2020) found that individuals who prefer to avoid job satisfaction often leave the organisation to pursue other careers and job opportunities. venketsamy and hu (2022) argue that the school principal is responsible for ensuring a safe, conducive, and a productive work environment for all staff irrespective of their sexual orientation. conclusion and recommendation this article explored the lived experiences of teachers identifying as lgbtq in the fp. the findings revealed that teachers experienced significant distress, harassment, discrimination, and bullying in the workplace from colleagues, learners and parents. the findings also revealed that these challenges have negatively impacted their social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. this study also found that schools are not doing enough to address discrimination. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer teachers are often marginalised and discriminated. it is envisaged that by unveiling some of the issues, this article will help to ease the stigma, bias, and prejudice so typically attached to lgbtq teachers teaching in the fp. based on the findings, the following is recommended: the department of basic education should ensure that all schools have implemented the policy of discrimination in the workplace. all schools or districts should have an ‘employee wellness programme’ to ensure the wellbeing of teachers so that they can perform their roles and responsibilities in a safe and conducive environment (ortillo & ancho, 2021). tolerance and acceptance education should form part of the school’s philosophy of respecting each individual’s uniqueness. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.v. was responsible for conceptualising, analysing, and writing of this article, while z.h and n.n. contributed by analysing, reviewing and editing. z.h and n.n. also provided critical guidance in strengthening the arguments. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, r.v., on reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references bhana, d. 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(2022). school leaders’ roles and responsibilities in creating a conducive learning environment during covid-19. perspectives in education journal, 40(2), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593x/pie.v40.i2.2 abstract introduction methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) xuebing su department of social work, hong kong baptist university, kowloon, hong kong victor c.w. wong department of social work, hong kong baptist university, kowloon, hong kong citation su, x., & wong, v.c.w. (2020). map of self-perceived growth for reviewing user journey and negotiating career transitions. african journal of career development, 2(1), a18. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.18 original research map of self-perceived growth for reviewing user journey and negotiating career transitions xuebing su, victor c.w. wong received: 17 june 2020; accepted: 16 july 2020; published: 15 sept. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there exist very few participatory research tools to facilitate youth to review and archive their user journey in a systematic manner for negotiating their career transitions. objective: the purpose of this study was to examine in what way the map of self-perceived growth (mspg) was used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised youth for negotiating their career transitions and for drawing implications for career interventions and research. method: the mspg template was used for conducting individual interviews with ex-users for mapping out their user journey with the use of nine emoji icons and a 10-point likert-type scale. a thematic qualitative analysis was applied to study three sampled sets of transcripts and participant-constructed maps. results: the youth participants were able to map out their user journey with departure point, turning points and future career aspirations. the participant-constructed maps can visualise both psychological ownership and work volition and the use of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment, which were found helpful for strengthening the agency of youth in negotiating career transitions, and showing embedded career interventions for drawing implications for both career interventions and research studies. conclusion: the study result suggests using the mspg for reviewing and archiving user experience and articulating youth’s career aspirations, which can help inform youth’s negotiating career transitions. further research studies on using the map template and the participant-constructed maps for strengthening agentic negotiations and career interventions are recommended. keywords: user journey; career transitions; youth agency; career interventions; participatory research. introduction the term ‘user journey’ addresses the processes and experiences of service users as seen from the user perspective (liu, 2019). each user journey is characterised by a dynamic and interactive process positioned in between a starting or departure point and an end point of the entire course of service delivery. therefore, user journey stories constructed by users or ex-users are able to show the embedded career interventions they went through and tell if the latter were effective in facilitating positive user change. user journey constructed by users or ex-users may comprise a few dimensions, including plotting of user experiences, identification of feelings, facts and findings from user experiences, personal encounters with other people or significant others and emphasis on critical incidents associated with user changes and growth, etc. however, ex-users who had experienced a relatively longer rather than a transitional spell of status of not in education, employment or training (neet) of 5 months or above (su, wong, & to, 2020) may need a tool or a space to tell their user journey stories embodied with different relational, service and experiential encounters to consolidate their user experience. an archived map of user journey is considered helpful for acknowledging users’ actions and abilities and relevant for generating sustainable impact, as it lasts longer than the use of the service itself (farrell & nielsen, 2014). user journey stories used to reach insight into user experiences (crosier & handford, 2012) can also help inform or improve the design of career support services as well. user journey stories can be constructed through ongoing reviews or reflections conducted in a retrospective manner on an individual basis alone or on a one-to-one or small group basis facilitated by an interviewer (allen, 2018). however, the conventional approach to conducting individual interviews tends to place youth participants in a relatively passive position (karabanow, kidd, frederick, mcluckie, & quick, 2018), which has aroused a few major concerns as follows. first, interviewer-led interviews guided by a structured interview guideline tend to put youth participants in the position of answering questions in an inflexible manner. semi-structured interviews can help but there is room to make further improvement for tapping personal experience outside the service scope and self-appraising one’s growth experience during the service journey with some more facilitation. second, the practitioners are not able to receive a copy of evaluation study report immediately after the interview. the time lag would end up preventing practitioners from taking prompt and appropriate actions to address the needs of their service users as necessary. third, the participants would not be able to effectively learn about the mechanisms leading to their own individual learnings, changes and aspirations, as the findings and discussion shown in the research report are presented in an anonymous and collective manner apart from the aforementioned time-lag problem. exercise of youth agency in mapping out user journey an emerging trend taking place in participatory research is to emphasise the exercise of agency of youth participants in reviewing their own journey of growth and examining the favourable factors leading to their positive changes (borda, 2006). the dialogue between the participant and the interviewer is informed by the guiding principle of ‘leading from behind’ (savickas, 2005) with which the participant is treated as the focal person of the semi-structured interview as well as the storyteller of the user journey. a core principle of participatory research is to provide young people with tools or frames to narrate and evaluate their life experience in the process of generation of knowledge (borda, 2006). prior studies have suggested some creative methods such as lifeline exercise, storytelling, drama and drawing to serve as constructivist tools to assist research participants to describe and reflect their experiences (literat, 2013). these participatory research methods involving research participants have the advantages of: (1) lowering mere dependence on linguistic proficiency to narrate their experience, (2) introducing an entertaining component to make the research process more enjoyable and (3) cultivating a sense of ownership and contribution during the research process (amsden & vanwynsberghe, 2005; literat, 2013). however, as participatory drawing relies primarily on visuals rather than texts, a valid interpretation of findings is arguably a significant concern. against this backdrop, how to provide viable means to youth participants to facilitate their visualisation of their experiences, relations and learnings and yet give them room to narrate their own unique user journey is a real challenge. map of self-perceived growth informed by the expanded notion of work–values, attitudes, skills and knowledge (enow–vask) framework (wong & yip, 2019) with an emphasis placed on acknowledging users’ untold or implicit vask identified from their enow experiences, including a wide spectrum of paid and unpaid work activities (wong, 2015), the first author developed the original map of self-perceived growth (mspg) template and worked with the second author to fine-tune the template and write up a manual for interviewers to use this new participatory research tool. the mspg was developed to visualise the experiences of youth participants and capture what they achieved over the user journey in terms of identifying their self-perceived growth, exploring the factors and mechanisms leading to positive changes and examining the effectiveness of career interventions. by using the mspg template during the individual interview and giving the participant the original copy of the hand-drawn map and the practitioner another copy for reference, it is possible to address the loopholes caused by the time-lag problem discussed here. moreover, using both participant-constructed maps and interview transcripts is consistent with using methodological triangulation in qualitative research studies. purpose of the study this study aims to examine in what way the mspg template and the participant-constructed map were used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised youth with a prior status of neet for enhancing their ability to negotiate career transitions ahead and discuss the implications for informing the practice of career practitioners and researchers. methodology this study invited 26 ex-users of a career service project as research participants to attend an individual semi-structured interview and map out their self-perceived growth experiences, achievements, learnings and aspirations, which is titled career and life adventure planning project for youth (thereafter the project) funded by the hong kong jockey club charities trust. this 5-year long project launched in 2015 is targeted to youth aged 15–21 years who are neet or neet-at-risk. amongst the 26 participants, 5 of them did not report their spell length as neet, 5 of them were longer-term neet (≥ 5 months) and 16 were transitional neet (< 5 months). amongst the 21 participants who reported their spell length as neet, 7 participants reported having special educational needs (sen) amongst which one of them reported having other vulnerability as well, and 14 participants reported having no clear goals for career and life development. to cover a wider range of sociodemographic factors including spell length as neet, that is, longer-term versus transitional neet, single versus multiple vulnerabilities, and both genders, the study sampled 3 participants out of the 21 participants for this study: the first was a transitional neet, the second was a longer-term neet with multiple vulnerabilities and the third was a transitional neet with sen. each interview including both conversations and mapping-out in cantonese, the mother tongue of the participants, lasted for about 2 hours. during the interviews, interviewers asked open-ended questions according to a semi-structured interview guideline. the participants were encouraged to share about their personal experiences within and beyond the service scope and evaluate their own growth experience during the user journey. at the end of each interview, the interviewer gave the original copy of the constructed map to the participant and asked for a consent from the latter to share a copy to his or her practitioner. this article adopted a qualitative method to examine interview transcripts and participant-constructed maps using a thematic analysis approach. participants table 1 presents the sociodemographic information of the three participants. to assure personal privacy and confidentiality, gender-specific pseudonyms are, respectively, assigned to the three participants as elsa, roger and alex. table 1: sociodemographic information of the three participants. instruments the interviewers used a semi-structured interview guideline and a mspg template to facilitate the participants to tell their user journey. the interviewers asked the participants open-ended questions including the following areas: (1) prior status and presenting concerns before using the service, (2) critical incidents and significant others or relationship they encountered and their growth and changes during the entire service journey they perceived, (3) current status and identity at the time of interview and finally (4) personal aspirations for future career and life development. an audio recorder was used to record the interviewing and mapping-out process. some example interview questions are cited as follows: what were the problems you encountered at that time? during the user journey, anybody you met that changed your life? were there any special moments that made yourself aware of your own changes? how do you describe your current status or identity? what are your long-term goals for your career and life development? can you foresee your status or identity in 6 months, 9 months, a year or even longer? the basic structure of the mspg template is detailed as follows. first, the horizontal axis outlines the temporal dimension of participants’ experience, their current status or identity and their career aspirations at the time of interview. second, the vertical axis is a 10-point likert-type scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is of the lowest rating and 10 the highest. third, four fs are used to denote facts, feelings, findings and futures (greenaway, 1992) for reviewing their self-perceived growth in accordance with the 10-point likert scale. fourth, nine emoji icons including ‘critical incident’ (),‘significant others/relationship’ (), ‘positive changes’ (), ‘negative changes’ (), ‘challenges’ (), ‘values/beliefs’ (), ‘attitudes’ (), ‘skills’ () and ‘knowledge’ () are provided for the youth participants to elaborate and archive their achievements and learnings in every significant experience in a visual manner. fifth, a curve to be drawn in the map represents the self-evaluation of the youth participants over the entire user journey. the ups and downs of the mspg refer to the progression, regression and stable situation in relation to self-perceived growth. the interviewer prepared some tools for the drawing, including a pencil, an eraser, a ruler, a mspg template with two axes and nine emoji icons for briefing the participants about the basic features of the map and another blank template with only two axes. procedures three interviewers including a researcher who was the first author and two other trained-up interviewers conducted the research interview with the three participants on a one-to-one basis. two other interviewers attended a training workshop provided by the project team before the interview. prior to the study, the research team obtained ethical approval from the research ethics committee of the university where the authors work. after explaining the purpose and scope of the study to the participants, informed consent was collected from each of them prior to the commencement of the interview. all data collected were treated as confidential and only the research team could access the data. data analysis to answer the question in what way the mspg template and the participant-constructed maps work to help ex-users review and archive their user-journey stories for negotiating their career transitions ahead, three layers of data were used for this study: layer 1 – data available from the transcripts; layer 2 – data collected from the participant-constructed maps; and finally layer 3 – notes taken by the researcher about the process of using the mspg. thematic analysis of qualitative data was used to explore the themes and meanings embedded within the collected narratives and maps. specifically, narrative analysis (riessman, 2008) was used to understand participants’ interpretation, visualisation and narration of user journey and any meanings and reflections assigned to their experiences (lam & chan, 2004). qualitative data used for this study included the interview transcripts and the participant-constructed maps collected from the three sampled cases. all recordings were later transcribed into chinese by the researcher. the transcripts and the participant-constructed maps were analysed in chinese, rather than english, in order to better identify nuances in the language and to better represent the participants’ lived experiences and perspectives. transcripts were read and reviewed by the authors who analysed the content of transcripts and identified the meaning units and themes embedded within the narratives and maps. next, common or related meanings were categorised and grouped together to constitute an initial theme, which is a ‘recurrent pattern of human intention’ and make up ‘the level of story concerned with what the characters in the narrative want and how they pursue their objective over time’ (mcadams, 1993, p. 67). related themes were then connected and compared. the structure of narratives was also examined (riessman, 2008). in this study, with the aid of transcripts and participant-constructed maps characterised by a mix of selected icons and brief messages, plot development was identified by considering how the participants selected, connected and sequenced separate episodes of experience within and beyond the user journey (see papathomas, smith, & lavallee, 2015). in addition, the cultural resources and broader interpretive frameworks that the participants may have used to make sense of their user-journey experiences and self-constructed maps were also considered. emergent themes and their potential connections were continuously reviewed in preparation for writing up the finalised themes to describe in the findings section. finally, representative verbatim quotes were labelled, translated into english and reviewed by the authors to ensure accuracy. ethical consideration all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the research ethics committee of hong kong baptist university and with the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. this article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. results figure 1 presents the participant-constructed map of elsa with original participant-written texts and translation in english as a representative sample. a total of four themes were identified by analysing the three layers of qualitative data, which explained the mechanisms through which the mspg template and the constructed map as a final product worked as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised neet youth for negotiating their career transitions. figure 1: a user journey mapped out by elsa. theme 1: applying a temporal dimension to review and archive user journey the participants started mapping out their user journey by recalling their prior disadvantaged status and presenting concerns in different yet similar expressions such as ‘a lack of goals’ (alex, a transitional neet with sen), ‘no purpose in life’ (elsa, a transitional neet) and ‘seclusion at home’ (roger, a longer-term neet with multiple vulnerabilities) at the ‘departure’ point in the mspg template before receiving career support service. using the temporal order of the story plot for reviewing, the participants were able to consolidate different types of experiences they went through during the user journey. the participants were guided to tell their user experiences from the first selected episode of user experience to the next one and then the last one they perceived important along the horizontal axis of the map. for example, elsa recalled that she tried some interest classes at the beginning of her user journey: the first interest class that she joined was delivered by a blogger. it was about writing articles for the website on the project’s blog with support from other service users, and the second one was a leather-making class run by an interest-class instructor who is a serious leisure devotee committed to the promotion and production of leather handicrafts. another major type of activities she had joined was a series of job placements highlighted in a sequential order over time. the placement as a receptionist at a social service centre came first; the placement at an insurance company came second; the placement at an amusement resort park was the third; the placement at a western cuisine restaurant was the fourth; and the last one was at a ferry company. after reviewing a series of career support services, participants’ focus changed from the past to the present by marking their current status or identities in their maps. for example, elsa marked her current status as ‘enjoying the current job’, and alex marked ‘studying a bachelor’s degree programme in social work’, whereas roger used ‘serious leisure devotee’, ‘employee’ and ‘social activist’ to describe his current status or identities. based on the shared experiences and explicit current status or identity, the participants were well able to map out their career aspirations. elsa aspired to keep working in the current ferry company with a sense of confidence and fulfilment through reviewing her participation in a series of activities with her social worker. alex found his passion in music and expanding his horizon along the user journey, such as writing a proposal to apply for a youth award scheme to support his music programme, attending a semi-structured programme about animal caring, taking a job placement in a kitty café. alex was thinking ahead of studying a short course in first aid during his undergraduate study and a diploma in music therapy after working for a few years as a social worker following the completion of the bachelor’s degree programme in social work, which was about to start in a few weeks’ time. all these endeavours planned in advance and to be pursued step by step can better equip him to serve teenagers and children with sen in the long run. regarding roger’s aspiration, his dream job was to become a district councillor, as he was fond of politics when he was very small, and even when he was trapped in self-seclusion at home for a protracted period of time. according to roger’s sharing, he was given a task that interested him to take photos for a floor curling competition in the first place, a role to form a playing team for a floor curling competition, and then a position as a coach for a series of floor curling competitions, and also a horizon-broadening chance to try out wheelchair escort service for wheelchair users who were either older people or people with a disability. all these activities appeared to help roger experience success in working with his peers and teammates. roger also had the opportunity to draw learnings ‘to get rid of egocentricity, care for others and act for group-interest’ in his own words. theme 2: achieving a sense of psychological ownership towards user journey and career transitions the concept of psychological ownership emerged in psychological theories about people’s territorial behaviours, which refers to the feelings held by individuals that they own a specific target (avey, avolio, crossley, & luthans, 2009; pierce & jussila, 2011). individuals’ psychological ownership towards a certain target will influence their attitudes and behaviours in relation to the target. theories and empirical work suggest that people with a higher level of psychological ownership towards a target show a higher level of affective commitment for the target and act in a proactive manner to pursue positive outcomes for the target (avey, wernsing, & palanski, 2012; bullock, 2015; mustafa, martin, & hughes, 2016; peng & pierce, 2015). according to the ownership theory, there are three routes to foster the formulation of psychological ownership: experienced control over the target of ownership, intimate knowledge of the target and investment of self in the target (pierce, jussila, & cummings, 2009). the mspg template and the constructed map supported the participants to build up their psychological ownership towards their user journey and career transitions through establishing the aforementioned three routes to psychological ownership in the following ways. first, the participants were free to decide and select which experiences were significant to put up into their maps, to choose any wordings to describe their feelings, facts, findings, and/or futures in relation to their experiences and select any emoji icons to articulate their achievements and learnings from their experiences. second, with the detailed briefing delivered by the interviewers, the participants were well informed about the purpose and components of the mspg template. the questions raised by the interviewers facilitated the participants to recall their experiences in a thorough manner, and therefore, their intimate knowledge of their user journey was enhanced during the interview and mapping-out process. third, the visualised participant-constructed map allowed the participants to acknowledge their own investment in each specific episode of experience in the user journey. elsa used some emoji icons to describe her own performance in the ferry company: a circle to represent her serious attitudes for delivering customer service, a star to represent her professional skills as a ticket seller, a value icon to represent her value of caring for others and an icon of ‘significant others’ to represent a colleague that she modelled after for picking up the skills of banknote-counting. when elsa recognised her own investment into her job at the ferry company, she felt fulfilling about her career transition. alex witnessed his own improvement during his internship at the kitty café and recorded his positive changes with relevant emoji icons in his map: ‘when people asked if i like this job or not, i would say “yes!” i have done so much for this job and i can really make it! other job placements that i tried were not my cup of tea. this is my job. i just love it. if possible, i would like to work longer a day to make more money from this job.’ (elsa, tn11, 23 march 2019) ‘i didn’t know how to complete tasks and what kind of attitudes i should maintain. i was uncertain what’s going to happen. after all, i gradually became competent… some of the customers talked to me nicely. i know how to handle the kittens, how to take orders and handle the floor works.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) finally, to foster the psychological ownership of the participant, the interviewers made a photocopy or took a photo of the participant-constructed maps and gave the original participant-constructed maps to the participants for their own record. the participants were suggested to revise their constructed maps on their own in the future as necessary. theme 3: visualising turning points and work volition the user journey shown in each of the participant-constructed maps was filled with ups and downs. a strong turning point from a lower score of self-perceived growth to a much higher score in particular was quite eye-catching in the participant-constructed maps. a strong turning point in participants’ user journey is deemed important, as it can be interpreted as a practice of volition in their user journey, which has implications for negotiating their career transitions ahead. work volition signifies a person’s perceived capacity to make occupational choices despite constraints (duffy et al., 2012). elsa described her prior job placement experience at the amusement park before the strong turning point as a nightmare; however, she regained her confidence after going through the last placement at the ferry company. theoretically, when faced with the need for career adaptation, proactive individuals are likely to successfully prepare for and negotiate career-related changes when they are able to identify opportunities for improvement and create work environments that are congruent with their vocational needs (bateman & crant, 1993; seibert, crant, & kraimer, 1999; tolentino et al., 2014). elsa showed her work volition in making up her decision to accept the job offer and take working in the ferry company as a pier assistant as an important platform for negotiating her career transitions ahead: ‘i don’t mind working in the early morning or working till late into the night. the supervisors are much nicer here. at least they will not force me to study english. they did teach me some task-related skills … i watched them when they were handling a task and i listened. then i learned a lot’. (elsa, tn11, 23 march 2019) roger demonstrated his work volition by negotiating obstacles against pursuing his dream job as a district councillor. not only did he learn about caring for others through joining various activities to craft his own character but also negotiate his pathway to get his dream job. as marked in his constructed map, he joined a political organisation and made use of his job at a canteen to practice his influence in the community, which were considered relevant to achieving his political and career aspirations. he even planned about becoming an assistant of a district councillor to realise his dream job one day: ‘in this political organization, i am a member who focuses on transportation issues. i give opinions about transportation because i am a fan of buses. my opinions include but are not limited to bus lines, or issues about community planning. through this political organization, i can influence the society. moreover, my job at the canteen provided me opportunities to communicate with customers there, therefore i know about their needs and expectations about politicians.’ (roger, ltn02, 08 march 2019) alex’s work volition was highlighted in his reflection about his failure to receive an award to attend a music programme he opted for. he still resolved to pursue his music dream through an alternative pathway in spite of acknowledging his own constraints: ‘i did not do anything meaningful about music other than playing music and singing at home before joining the project. i have amblyopia and encountered difficulties of all kinds. however, by writing the proposal, i realized that there is a belief in the back of my mind: i want to bring music to others. i want to go to taiwan to play street music and learn about the local musical culture.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) theme 4: emphasising the use and strengthening of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment the idea of psychosocial resources denotes a person’s resources to cope with contextualised tasks, transitions, challenges and traumas (savickas & porfeli, 2012). psychosocial resources held by an individual are not static traits but accumulated competencies gained through both education and experiences (savickas & porfeli, 2012; sullivan & sheffrin, 2003). however, young people who are deprived of formal education, training or working experiences as a result of a longer spell of neet status are susceptible to the lack of psychosocial resources to cope with transitions, tasks and traumas encountered in their career and life development journey (su et al., 2020). the emphasis of the aforementioned enow–vask framework is not only placed on the here-and-now context but also on the there-and-then context as long as young people are able to recall those adventurous, whether fruitful or less satisfying, memories where they can draw learnings from. all this is beneficial to help young people as ex-users to imagine the future and attempt to use their future aspirations to make sense of their present career-pathway mapping. given the environment around is enabling and empowering enough, young people can re-read their experiences with their constructed map to strengthen their psychosocial resources. the three participant-constructed maps were filled with emoji icons of vask and positive changes. elsa used a positive-change icon to represent her regaining confidence in the job placement in the ferry company. alex used the icons of values, knowledge, skills and positive change to archive his learnings from the semi-structured programme about animal caring, including values of caring for others, knowledge about animal caring and animal food, communication skills and perceived holistic positive self-changes. roger used the icons of vask to describe his psychosocial resources developed from the wheelchair escort service: ‘if we did not try to accompany the wheel chair users in daily life, we would never know they are having such an inconvenient life… for example, there is a strict standard for the gaps width of the drain covers, for the slope of ramp, and for pedestrians crossing, and handrails. i paid attention to these things, which would be strongly related to my dream of being a district councilor.’ (roger, ltn02, 08 march 2019) the mspg template and the constructed map itself encouraged the participants to archive their own psychosocial resources as well as the social support they gained from others during their user journey. for elsa, her significant other was her supervisor in the ferry company, who had taught her some useful skills. alex marked an icon of ‘significant others’ to represent his caseworker in every selected episode of experience. according to alex, his caseworker had been playing an important role in influencing his career decision-making: ‘i can feel the presence of my caseworker throughout all four stages of my growth experience in this project. he led me to the job placement at the café and supported me from day 1 … he has taught me how to handle various situations at work.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) upon receiving the public examination results, alex found himself at the crossroads of making his own decision, which was different from his family’s aspirations for him. after talking with his caseworker, he was able to tell his family his decision in taking the social work degree programme offered by a non-publicly funded tertiary institution rather than a non-social work degree programme offered by a publicly funded university. discussion this study showed that the mspg template and the final product of participant-constructed map were used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of disadvantaged youth through four interlocking mechanisms: (1) providing a temporal dimension for ex-users to review and archive their user journey and reach insight into their future career aspirations, (2) enhancing a sense of psychological ownership of participants towards user journey and career transitions ahead, (3) visualising turning points throughout user journey and work volition for negotiating future career transitions and (4) emphasising the use and strengthening of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment for achieving career aspirations. after mapping out their user journey, the three participants were able to articulate their future directions for career pursuit and they appeared to draw an in-depth consolidation regarding their acquisition of psychosocial resources, which are helpful for strengthening their readiness and ability to negotiate career transitions and achieve career aspirations. each piece of participant-constructed map can be used as a means to strengthen individual agency for coping with career hurdles and negotiating career transitions through ongoing reflections on and continuing narration of preferred identities and actions with a good sense of career adaptability. the narration is neither a precise nor a truthful account of the life course itself but ongoing interpretation, reinterpretation and attribution of significance assigned to events and contexts that one subjectively finds important for the life course, the current situation and the ways to achieve aspirations (illeris, 2017). participants mapped out their life experiences, their subjective interpretations of their experiences and their own definition of their experience-driven identities in their constructed maps. participants’ constructed identities in the maps are coherent entities, which are not only reinterpreted in accordance with their reconstruction of experiences but also informed by their aspirations for future career and life development. informed by the constructed identities, ex-users are prepared to exercise agency and take proactive actions to negotiate their career transitions by taking future-career-informed actions. according to the field notes of the researcher in this study, the caseworker of roger asked the researcher for a copy of the map constructed by her ex-user, as she planned to hold a follow-up meeting with roger in a week or two. this request was made possible after receiving consent from roger. the maps constructed can thus support practitioners to deliver quality career support service in two possible ways: first, practitioners can seek permission from the participants for receiving a copy of their constructed maps for having a follow-up meeting with ex-users as necessary. second, participants may take proactive actions instead to seek further guidance from their caseworkers by sharing with them their constructed maps. with the collection of participant-constructed maps, practitioners are able to develop insights into their career interventions so as to take relevant actions to work with service users with similar needs. although the participants of this study were all ex-users of a career support service, the mspg template is considered applicable to current users as well as non-service users. with support from practitioners, current users can use the mspg template to review and map out their user journey in relation to achievements and learnings so far and jot down their hopes and aspirations for the future. career practitioners may discuss with their current users about the latter’s constructed maps and draw insights for next-step interventions. by enjoying access to available mspg user guideline and video clip, practitioners can map out their own professional journey by using the mspg to review their professional practice on their own for consolidating practice wisdom, reaching practice insights and imagining practice possibilities. finally, the mspg template and the constructed maps are shown as an effective tool for researchers to engage ex-users in participatory research for the sake of enhancing the agency of young people in the interviewing and mapping-out process. by using the mspg, researchers are able to take up a bridging role between service users and their practitioners on the one hand and on the other hand enable the participants to share about their perceived growth experiences in a visualised manner and facilitate the practitioners to reflect on their career interventions for making further improvement. however, there are some limitations of the present study. first, this study only examined the practice of using the mspg with ex-users who were transitional or longer-term neet youth. future efforts are suggested to explore the use of the mspg with other user groups such as adults or older people or non-service users such as practitioners. second, as three interviewers were involved in this study, it is not sure if there was any unintended personal influence on the participants during the interview process, which might lead to any bias for or against using the mspg. finally, this study is only focused on a thematic analysis of three ex-users’ constructed maps and reflections of the researcher. future research studies are recommended to examine the outcomes of using the mspg for three interrelated parties, that is, participants, practitioners and researchers. for example, a longitudinal study is needed to investigate how career practitioners refer to the participant-constructed maps to review their interventions and support their service users. moreover, more relevant studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of using the mspg for other practitioner and user groups. conclusion to conclude, this study demonstrated how to use the mspg template and participant-constructed maps to help ex-users who were neets to review and archive their user journey in a career service project and revealed the mechanisms through which the mspg template and the final product of participant-constructed map can function as an effective participatory research tool that is able to generate more sustainable impact for ongoing reviews and reflections. implications for using the mspg template and participant-constructed map for achieving both research and practice purposes were discussed in relation to three different yet interrelated stakeholders, that is, users, practitioners and researchers. future practice of using the mspg with different target groups is recommended, and further empirical research studies are needed to examine if these research and practice implications can be realised. acknowledgements the authors would like to give special thanks to all the 26 participants for sharing their user journey stories and the funding support from the hong kong jockey club charities trust. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions the authors contributed equally to the writing up of the article. funding information this work was supported by the hong kong jockey club charities trust 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(2019). ‘promoting change’ the ‘expanded notion of work’ as a proactive response to the social justice issues in career development practice. in t. hooley, r.g. sultana & r. thomsen (eds.), career guidance for emancipation: reclaiming justice for the multitude (pp. 64–80). london: routledge. abstract introduction problem statement research question method discussion overall results implications limitations conclusion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) brandon morgan department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation morgan, b. (2022). psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short. african journal of career development, 4(1), a57. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.57 original research psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short brandon morgan received: 31 mar. 2022; accepted: 27 june 2022; published: 22 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the south african career interest inventory – short (sacii-short) is used in research settings to measure holland’s six interest factors. conclusions reached in studies using the instrument are subject to the measurement properties of the sacii-short items and scales. objective: this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the sacii-short items and the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. method: secondary data from south african university students and working adults (n = 673) were used. the graded response model was used to investigate the measurement properties of the items. factor analysis was used to investigate the circumplex structure of the item and scale scores. results: most of the sacii-short items showed satisfactory measurement properties. some concerns were observed with the item locations of the realistic and social items. the item and scale scores showed satisfactory fit to circumplex structure. the wording of some of the items could be reconsidered to increase the applicability of the content to the south african work context. conclusion: the sacii-short demonstrates satisfactory psychometric properties for use in research settings. these psychometric properties support the validity of results obtained from studies that have used the sacii-short scale scores as a proxy for vocational interests. keywords: measurement; reliability; validity; sacii; circumplex; vocational interests. introduction vocational interests – defined as preferences for activities or environments (hansen & wiernik, 2018) – have a long history of use in organisational and counselling settings (e.g. moore, 1921; parsons, 1909). at the start of the 20th century, organisational psychologists enthusiastically used interests to understand workplace behaviours (hansen & wiernik, 2018). however, by the mid to late 20th century, this enthusiasm had waned, with the measurement and interpretation of vocational interests becoming the primary domain of career counsellors (dawis, 1991; hansen & wiernik, 2018). in recent years, organisational psychologists have encouraged the reintroduction of interests in understanding workplace behaviours and outcomes (e.g. nye, su, rounds, & drasgow, 2012; wiernik, 2016) because of promising findings linking interest–environment fit with, amongst others, job performance, satisfaction and well-being (hoff, perlus, & rounds, 2019; van iddekinge, roth, putka, & lanivich, 2011; wiernik, 2016). in this regard, wiernik (2016) argued that ‘the best decisions can be made (in organisations) when interests are combined with measures of personality traits and ability’ (p. 156). researchers investigating the utility of interests in organisational settings have typically used sample groups and occupations from the united states of america (usa). interests and their interaction with the environment are contextually bound (einarsdóttir, rounds, & su, 2010; tang, 2009), potentially limiting the generalisation of existing results outside the usa. the utility of interests in organisational settings in south africa has received little research to date. this lack of research makes it difficult to determine if interest measurement and interpretation can be used to understand workplace behaviours in organisations in south africa. recent research using south african data has shown that interest–environment fit is related to burnout (pillay, 2020) and job-hopping motives (hall, morgan, & redelinghuys, 2022). these studies suggest that results from the usa might generalise to organisations in south africa and that interests are a potentially useful predictor of workplace behaviours in this context. problem statement vocational interests are a latent construct that exists as a theoretical abstraction or pragmatic fiction (see yarkoni, 2022). their latent status means that an indirect measure is required to obtain observable scores that can serve as a proxy for the unobservable latent scores. these proxy scores and their validity are directly tied to the psychometric properties of the measure used to obtain them (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; yarkoni, 2022). proxy scores obtained from measures with poor psychometric properties can seriously reduce the trustworthiness of conclusions in research that has used these scores. the two studies mentioned previously obtained interest scores via the short version of the south african career interest inventory (sacii-short) – a south african measure of john holland’s six interest factors, which are labelled as realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (riasec). several studies have supported the psychometric properties of the original 142-item version of the sacii in south africa (e.g. morgan, de bruin, & de bruin, 2015; rabie & naidoo, 2019; van vuuren, 2022). however, little research is available on the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. research question studies that have investigated the psychometric properties of the sacii-short have focused almost exclusively on the validity of the riasec scale scores (hall et al., 2022; morgan & de bruin, 2019). this exclusive focus is a problem because it is necessary to investigate the measurement properties of the items in addition to the scale scores to obtain a complete understanding of the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. against this background, i set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of the sacii-short items using the graded response model (grm) and (2) the structural validity of the sacii-short items and scale scores. this investigation holds important implications for the validity of results from studies that have used the sacii-short to operationalise interests and for continued use of the sacii-short in research. holland’s riasec interest factors the sacii-short measures john holland’s six riasec vocational interest factors. holland (1958, 1959, 1997) believed that the riasec interest factors are a mixture of personal adjustments, values, attitudes and motivation and thus represent a broad set of adjustive orientations towards the environment (holland, 1958, 1997). the broad nature of these six factors means that they capture general similarities across more fine-grained interest factors and environments (see wiernik, 2016). it is comparable to using the five personality factors instead of facets of these factors. i do not want to create the impression here that the riasec interest factors are the best way to conceptualise the interest space. there are advantages and disadvantages when operating in low-dimensional versus high-dimensional latent space (see wiernik, 2016). the riasec factors are simply one way that can be used to measure broad tendencies – dimensions that capture shared variance of many similar basic interests – that may or may not be helpful depending on the needs of the researcher, counsellor or client (see morgan et al., 2019). circumplex structure of the riasec interest factors the riasec interest factors and their indicators have a circumplex structure (see glosenberg, tracey, behrend, blustein, & foster, 2019; wiernik, 2016), which holland called a hexagon. circumplex structure means that the interrelationships between the riasec correlation coefficients of the scale scores show a pattern of rising and falling (guttman, 1954) as one moves away from and then towards the riasec correlation matrix diagonal. this pattern implies that the interest factors are located on the circumference of a circle in a two-dimensional space (fabrigar, visser, & browne, 1997). most of holland’s model and theoretical predictions depend on this circumplex structure and the correct riasec ordering holding. for example, congruence (i.e. interest–environment fit) is based on the distance between a person’s riasec interest scores and the environment riasec interest scores in the interest space (holland, 1997). differentiation and consistency, two derived markers of interest clarity, also depend on circumplex structure and the correct riasec ordering (holland, 1997). development of the south african career interest inventory morgan and de bruin (2019) used data collected by morgan (2014) for the 169-item version of the sacii to develop the sacii-short. a random sample1 of 1000 participants from the 1543 participants in the data set was selected to investigate the sacii item functioning. the authors applied the rasch partial credit model and principal components analysis. the rasch partial credit model was used to investigate the category functioning, item fit and item difficulties or locations of the items within each scale (i.e. the item measurement properties). hereafter, principal components analysis was used to reduce the item correlation matrix to three orthogonal linear components representing the general factor and the two circumplex factors (see tracey, 2000). the component loadings on the second and third linear components were transformed from rectangular to polar coordinates, giving each item’s angular location and vector length (morgan & de bruin, 2019). the vector length is the square root of the communality coefficient on the circumplex factors and thus represents the distance from the origin to the circle’s circumference. polar coordinates are used to select items that match the theoretical riasec ordering and have the largest vector length (see tracey, 2000). the rasch partial credit model showed that 17 items were too easy or difficult to endorse and that 34 items did not fit the rasch model. no items had angular locations that deviated markedly from the other items in their respective scales, and 29 items had vector lengths < 0.30 (approximately 9% variance). morgan and de bruin (2019) used the information above and theoretical considerations to select five items for each riasec scale. reliability coefficients ranging from 0.80 to 0.89 were found for the six scale scores. morgan and de bruin then obtained a new sample group of 183 participants to cross-validate the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short scale scores. circumplex structure and riasec ordering also held in the second sample group, although the reliability coefficients of the scale scores were lower, ranging from 0.72 to 0.83. the rasch model was not applied to the items in this second sample group. therefore, the measurement properties of the items within each sacii-short scale remain relatively unknown. emoji response format the sacii-short initially used a likert-type response format ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’, where a participant indicated the extent to which ‘i am interested in and would like to do the following activity in my job’ (morgan & de bruin, 2019). phan, amrhein, rounds and lewis (2019) suggested that interest items use an emoji response format instead because of the inherent affective or emotional aspect involved when rating interest activities (e.g. silvia, 2001; strong, 1943). the response format of the sacii-short was changed to a dislike–like rating scale. in this scale, a participant indicates their preference for each of the activities in the items below according to the emoji response categories (see naidu, 2020 for more details). the emoji faces are presented alongside their corresponding interpretation (i.e. strongly dislike, dislike, unsure, like and strongly like). naidu (2020) found slightly better reliability of the emoji item scores and a somewhat better fit of circumplex structure to the riasec scale scores than the likert-type response format. pillay (2020) found support for the circumplex structure in a different sample group who completed the likert-type response format. naidu (2020) found reliability coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.90, and pillay (2020) found reliability coefficients ranging from 0.82 to 0.94. juliana and gunawan (2021) translated the sacii-short to indonesian. they investigated the convergent validity of the scale scores with the o*net interest profiler, a measure of the riasec interest factors developed in the usa. the authors reported reliability coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.90 and correlation coefficients of the riasec scale scores with the o*net interest profiler scale scores ranging from 0.73 to 0.79. summary the sacii-short is used in research to measure john holland’s riasec interest factors. the validity of these riasec interest scores depends on the measurement or psychometric properties of the sacii-short. this study therefore set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of the sacii-short items and (2) the structural validity of the sacii-short item and scale scores. method sample i used secondary data of participants who completed the emoji response format of the sacii-short. makhura (2022), naidu (2020) and strydom (2022) collected the primary data.2 these three studies used the emoji response format of the sacii-short. the secondary data consists of 673 south african participants. the participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 61 years, with a mean and standard deviation of 24.76 and 7.16 and skewness of 2.15. the sample consisted of slightly more self-identified women (n = 342, 59%) than self-identified men (n = 233, 41%). most of the participants identified as black african (n = 504, 76%), followed by indian and asian (n = 65, 10%), white (n = 50, 8%), mixed-race (n = 38, 6%) and middle eastern (n = 2, 0%). approximately one-third of the participants indicated that they had full-time employment (n = 203, 30%), with the remainder either having part-time employment, contract employment, self-employment or no employment (n = 465, 70%). procedure the three previously mentioned studies used different procedures. naidu (2020) collected data from university students and working adults using physical copies of the sacii-short. makhura (2022) and strydom (2022) used digital copies of the sacii-short hosted on google forms. for the former, permission was obtained from the relevant higher education institution to advertise participation in the study on the institutional student learning platform. a google forms link was included in the advertisement. the latter research obtained participants via the prolific platform. these participants were paid approximately r30 to participate. instrument the sacii-short was previously discussed and is therefore not presented here. items are available in the online supplement (https://osf.io/hbkmt/?view_only=cb84a73eb7c74c45b3d805347b40a562). analysis the measurement properties of the sacii-short items were investigated using the grm (samejima, 1969). this model is a polytomous generalisation of the two-parameter logistic model for ordered item responses. i first investigated the slope or discrimination parameters (a) and the threshold parameters (bij). to assist in interpreting these threshold parameters, i also included the item response function generalised item difficulty as a measure of the central location for each item (ali, chang, & anderson, 2015). i then inspected the item and test information to determine the reliable range of the latent trait measured by the items. this inspection used the area under the curve for the information function bounded between –4.00 and 4.00 units. the fit of the model to each item was investigated using the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic (chalmers & ng, 2017) and the signed χ2 test (orlando & thissen, 2000) and local dependence was investigated using yen’s (1984) q3 statistic. bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrapped confidence intervals (bca) using 5000 random samples were used to determine the statistical significance of the q3 statistic. recommended adjustments to the expected value of the q3 statistic were made. the fit of circumplex structure to the item responses was investigated indirectly by fitting a full-information factor analysis (i.e. multidimensional grm) with three factors extracted. the unrotated factor loadings were then rotated to an orthogonal target matrix with targets on the first factor, given as 0.71, and targets on the second and third factors, given as the sine and cosine rectangular coordinates to the hexagonal model. the fit of the model to the items was only investigated using the signed χ2 test because the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic are not available for multidimensional models. the rectangular coordinates on the second and third factors were converted into polar coordinates to obtain the item angular locations and the communality coefficients on these two factors. the fit of a circumplex model to the riasec factors was investigated using browne’s (1992) stochastic circular modelling approach (ccsm). expected a posteriori factor scores from the grm model applied to each riasec scale were used in the analysis. i used one free beta parameter in the fourier series function (i.e. m = 1) and allowed scaling parameters, angular locations and unique latent riasec variances to be freely estimated. maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (mlr) was used to obtain the parameter estimates. all analyses were conducted using r version 4.1.3 (r core team, 2021). the grms were fit in the mirt package version 1.35.1 (chalmers, 2012) using em estimation. the ccsm was fit in the lavaan package version 0.6-10 (rosseel, 2012). bca were estimated using the coxed package version 0.3.3 (kropko & harden, 2020). ethics makhura (2022), naidu (2020), and strydom (2022) received ethical clearance from the college of business and economics or the department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee to collect data for their studies. this study obtained ethical clearance from the department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee to use the secondary data. the ethical clearance codes were cberec18jbs11, ippm-2020-420(m), ippm-2021-515(m) and ippm-2021-477. more information on the ethical considerations can be obtained from the three previously mentioned studies. participants were provided with a detailed participant information sheet explaining the nature and purpose of the study and the conditions of participation. those who agreed to participate were also required to complete a consent form. no personally identifiable information was collected so that all respondents could remain anonymous. results table 1 presents the model fit statistics and reliability coefficients for the five sacii-short scales. the model fit statistics were mostly satisfactory for the realistic, artistic and enterprising scales and somewhat less satisfactory for the investigative, artistic and conventional scales.3 the marginal reliability coefficients ranged from 0.80 to 0.88, with a mean marginal reliability of 0.84. similar results were obtained when calculating the coefficient omega total on the raw item responses, with these coefficients ranging from 0.77 to 0.88 and having a mean coefficient omega total of 0.84. table 2 presents the grm parameters and item fit statistics for the six sacii-short scales. table 1: riasec model fit statistics and reliability coefficients. table 2: graded response model item parameters and item fit. realistic scale the item slope parameters of the realistic scale ranged from 2.08 (item r1) to 3.29 (item r4), with a mean slope parameter of 2.91. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item r1, with a generalised difficulty of 0.53, and item r4, with a generalised difficulty of 0.89. the mean generalised difficulty was 0.72. items r1 (p = 0.020) and r5 (p = 0.033) showed statistically significant misfit.4 the item wordings for these two items are ‘do routine maintenance of machines’ and ‘weld metal parts together’. inspection of item and response characteristic curves showed that participants who scored low on the realistic trait tended to score higher than expected on item r1, and that misfit was evident in the first three response categories. the item characteristic curve showed little observable misfit for item r5. however, the category characteristic curves showed some misfit for the fourth and fifth response categories. the realistic items showed the most test information between approximately –1.00 and 3.00 units on the latent trait, with item r1 having the lowest item information with an area under the item information curve of 5.47 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items r1 and r2 (q3 = 0.16), r1 and r3 (q3 = 0.20), r2 and r4 (q3 = –0.14) and r3 and r5 (q3 = –0.16). investigative the investigative item slope parameters ranged from 1.62 (item i3) to 3.00 (item i2), with a mean slope parameter of 2.33. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item i1, with a generalised difficulty of –0.10, and item i4, with a generalised difficulty of 0.69. the mean generalised difficulty was 0.21. item i4 (p = 0.015) showed statistically significant misfit. inspection of the item and response characteristic curve showed that participants who scored near the mean on the investigative trait scored lower than expected on i4 and that misfit was evident for the fourth and fifth response categories. item i3 did not show a statistically significant misfit (p = 0.058). however, visual inspection of the response category curves showed a misfit for the first three response categories. the item wordings for these two items are ‘study insects in a laboratory’ and ‘research ancient monuments’. the investigative items showed the most test information between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait. items i3 and i4 had the lowest item information, with areas under the item information curve of 3.63 and 4.69 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items i1 and i2 (q3 = 0.24), i1 and i4 (q3 = –0.17), i1 and i5 (q3 = –0.13) and i2 and i3 (q3 = –0.12) and large local dependence between items i2 and i5 (q3 = –0.24), i3 and i4 (q3 = 0.29), i3 and i5 (q3 = 0.29) and i4 and i5 (q3 = 0.29). artistic the slope parameters for the artistic items ranged from 1.14 (a1) to 2.23 (a5), with a mean slope parameter of 1.74. the easiest item to endorse was item a3, with a generalised difficulty of –0.89, and the most difficult item to endorse was item a5, with a generalised difficulty of –0.18. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.45. none of the artistic items showed a statistically significant misfit. however, an inspection of item characteristic curves showed that for item a5, participants who scored lower on the trait scored lower than expected on the item and those who scored higher on the trait scored higher than expected on the item. the wording for this item is ‘write poetry’. the artistic scale items showed the most test information between approximately –2.50 and 2.00 on the latent trait. item a1 had the lowest item information, with an area under the curve of 2.19. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was little to no local dependence. social the item slope parameters for the social items ranged from 1.34 (s2) to 3.03 (s5), with a mean slope parameter of 1.81. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item s2, with a generalised difficulty of –1.53, and item s4, with a generalised difficulty of –0.43. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.99. no items showed a statistically significant misfit. however, an inspection of item characteristic curves showed that for item s5, participants who scored lower on the trait tended to score lower than expected on the item and that participants who scored high on the trait scored higher than expected on the item. inspection of the response characteristic curves for this item showed a misfit in the first and fourth response categories. the wording for this item is ‘teach people life skills’. the social items showed the most test information on the latent trait between approximately –3.00 and 2.00 units. item s2 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 2.91 units. yen’s q3 statistic showed that there was little to no local dependence. enterprising the enterprising item slope parameters ranged from 1.68 (e5) to 3.24 (e2), with a mean slope parameter of 2.45. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item e1, with a generalised difficulty of –1.39, and item e5, with a generalised difficulty of –0.54. the mean generalised difficulty was –1.01. item e2 (p = 0.036) showed statistically significant misfit. inspection of the item and category characteristic curves showed little observable misfit for this item but that there was a slight misfit for the first response category. the wording for this item is ‘increase efficacy of a business’. the enterprising items showed the most test information between approximately –3.00 and 1.50 units on the latent trait. item e5 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 4.03 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items e2 and e4 (q3 = –0.18) and large local dependence between items e4 and e5 (q3 = 0.35). conventional the conventional item slope parameters ranged from 2.11 (c1) to 3.20 (c4), with a mean slope parameter of 2.57. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item c2, with a generalised difficulty of –0.26 and item c1, with a generalised difficulty of –0.05. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.13. none of the items showed a statistically significant misfit. inspection of category characteristic curves suggested some misfit for the first response category across all the conventional items. the conventional items showed the most test information between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait. item c1 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 5.56 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items c2 and c5 (q3 = –0.19), c3 and c4 (q3 = –0.23), c3 and c5 (q3 = –0.13) and large local dependence between items c2 and c3 (q3 = 0.51), c2 and c4 (q3 = –0.29) and c4 and c5 (q3 = 0.32). item locations and vector lengths the three-factor model produced an m2 statistic of 3313.03 on 348 degrees of freedom and an rmsea with 90% confidence intervals of 0.11 [0.11, 0.12]. the standardised root mean residual (srmr), tucker–lewis index (tli) and comparative fit index (cfi) were 0.07, 0.81 and 0.84, respectively. table 3 presents each item’s target rotated factor loadings, polar coordinates, multidimensional discrimination indices, item rmseas and signed χ2 fit statistic p-values. the items showed a circular structure with the correct riasec ordering. the communality coefficients (i.e. h2) of the items on the two circumplex factors ranged from 0.08 (item s3) to 0.55 (item r5), with a mean communality coefficient of 0.25. the multidimensional discrimination index ranged from 0.82 (item s3) to 3.33 (item r5), with a mean multidimensional discrimination index of 1.82. none of the items showed a statistically significant misfit. table 3: target-rotated full information item factor analysis of the 30 sacii-short items. riasec circumplex structure figure 1 presents the estimated riasec angular locations and communality coefficients (i.e. h2). inspection of this figure shows that the circumplex model had a good fit to the data and that the correct riasec ordering emerged (fit statistics are reported in the figure note). the communality coefficients ranged from 0.28 (realistic) to 0.72 (investigative), with a mean communality coefficient of 0.52. as seen in figure 1, the communality coefficient of the realistic and social factors was relatively low compared with the other four factors. this suggests that the fit of a circumplex model to the realistic and social factors was somewhat wanting in this sample group and that these two factors had more unique variance than circumplex variance. the general factor accounted for 55% of the common variance, and the circumplex factors accounted for 45% of the common variance. figure 1: riasec angular locations and communality coefficients. discussion this study set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties and (2) the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. in the following sections, i discuss the results for the sacii-short as a whole and then discuss the results for the sacii-short scales and items. overall results the overall results provide evidence in support of the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. the sacii-short items showed mostly satisfactory reliability, given that each scale consists of only five items (e.g. nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the grm generally fit the items well and inspection of item and category characteristic curves did not show any serious concerns. the circumplex model fit the riasec factor scores well, and the correct riasec ordering of these factor scores was observed. the realistic and social factors did show relatively low communality coefficients. morgan and de bruin (2019) found low communality coefficients for the realistic scale in their first sample but not in the second sample and low communality coefficients for the social scale in their second sample but not in their first sample. it is therefore unclear if this is a problem with the realistic and social scales or if it is a sample-specific finding. the general factor accounted for just over half of the common variance in the circumplex model in this study. similar results were obtained by morgan and de bruin (2019). the relative dominance of the general factor over the circumplex factors is not unexpected, as vocational interests are known to have a large interpretable general factor (e.g. tracey, 2012; wiernik, 2016). results for the scales and items most sacii-short items appeared to have satisfactory measurement properties, supporting the overall reliability and validity of the sacii-short scale scores. there were, however, a few concerns that should be considered. the first concern is that coverage of the latent trait for some scales could be improved as indicated by the information functions. the sacii-short items should ideally be reliable (i.e. provide information) between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait, because this range would cover most trait scores in the population (about 95%, assuming a normal distribution of the latent scores). items in the investigative, artistic and conventional scales showed satisfactory coverage of the latent trait in this range. in contrast, the realistic items provided little information at the lower end of the trait and the social and enterprising items showed little information at the upper ends of the trait. the mean generalised difficulties showed that the realistic items were generally too difficult to endorse and that the social and enterprising items were generally too easy to endorse. these generalised difficulties are one explanation for the limited trait coverage over the –2.00 to 2.00 range. similar results have been obtained for the sacii (e.g. morgan, 2014; morgan et al., 2021). it is therefore possible that this is a problem inherited from the sacii. increased trait coverage of these scales in the sacii-short could be addressed by including easier or more difficult-to-endorse items. the second concern is that approximately seven of the sacii-short items were potentially problematic. three of these items were from the social scale. these three items generally had lower slope parameters, meaning that they did not adequately discriminate between those who scored low and high on the latent trait or lower communality coefficients on the circumplex factors, meaning that there was a relatively large proportion of unmodelled variance not attributed to the three-factor model in these items. morgan and de bruin (2019) did not find problematic communality coefficients for these items in their first sample group. however, they used principal components (all of the variance) analysis rather than factor analysis (the common variance), which means that the communality coefficients cannot be directly compared. items i3 (‘research ancient monuments’) and a1 (‘act in a play’) consistently emerged as potentially problematic items. the term ‘ancient monuments’ is intended to serve as a proxy for archaeology activities (morgan, 2014). alternative terms that could be considered are fossils or bones, origins of human life and cultures. the term ‘play’ in item a1 is intended to refer to theatre productions (morgan, 2014). however, it has a possible dual meaning, as it could refer to play as an activity, playing games or play as in a stage performance. it might be preferable to use theatre, or musical productions or performing arts. a third concern is that the enterprising and conventional items and factors cluster relatively close together on the circle. the same clustering was found by morgan and de bruin (2019) and in other studies that have used the sacii (e.g. morgan, 2014; morgan et al., 2021). the problem with this clustering is that it makes it difficult to distinguish between these two interest factors in a person’s responses (e.g. multicollinearity). for example, a person who scores high on the conventional interest might score this way because of an overlap with a high score on the enterprising interest rather than because of a true conventional interest. it also has implications for calculating congruence coefficients that rely on an approximate hexagon or regression-based statistical techniques that obtain profile patterns. that said, it is unclear if this clustering represents the riasec structure in south africa, if it is sample related or if it is because of the enterprising and conventional items in the sacii-short and sacii. each of these options has different implications and solutions. implications the results from this study support the use of the sacii-short in its current form for research purposes. this in turn supports the trustworthiness of the riasec scale scores obtained from the sacii-short in the past research (e.g. hall et al., 2022; naidu, 2020; pillay, 2020). however, the results also show that the sacii-short could be improved in at least three ways. firstly, easier or more difficult items should be added to the realistic, social and enterprising scales to increase coverage of the relevant trait. as it currently stands, the mean of the raw social and enterprising scale scores will almost always be higher than the mean for the realistic scale scores. it is unclear whether these differences represent real trait differences or are because of differences in the difficulties of the items. regardless, it would be advisable to standardise (centre and scale) the scale scores, depending on the statistical techniques used and the purpose of the data, before using them as-is. this standardisation is especially important when using the scale scores to calculate congruence coefficients. secondly, there is evidence that some items should be removed or reworked, as they are somewhat detrimental to the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. thirdly, clarity should be obtained on potential reasons for the enterprising–conventional clustering so that corrections can be made to the sacii-short if necessary. however, this is more of a theoretical investigation of the riasec structure in south africa than a sacii-short investigation. limitations the data collected on the sacii-short thus far have used sample groups exclusively from the adult population. this means that there is little to no evidence for the psychometric properties of the sacii-short in adolescent sample groups. therefore, researchers should be hesitant to use the sacii-short with adolescents in research settings without obtaining preliminary evidence for its psychometric properties and fit of a circumplex model to the riasec item and scale scores. the sample group used in this study, as with most other studies conducted on the sacii, tended to over-represent occupations in the social–enterprising and enterprising–conventional spaces. the problem with this over-representation is that the realistic, investigative and artistic scale scores are subject to potential range restriction. this range restriction in turn can have implications for the statistical techniques used in this study, such as reducing the amount of statistical information available when analysing specific model parameters. conclusion this study set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of and (2) the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. results support usage of the sacii-short scale scores for research purposes when using adult sample groups. acknowledgements the author would like to thank ms naidu, mr makhura and ms strydom for access to their data and prof. wiernik for his assistance with analysing circumplex models. competing interests i am an editorial member of the african journal of career development. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee. 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(1984). effects of local item dependence on the fit and equating performance of the three-parameter logistic model. applied psychological measurement, 8(2), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662168400800201 footnotes 1. random numbers were generated in excel. 2. makhura was investigating the relationship between interests and career indecision of university students, and strydom was investigating the relationship between interests, burnout and job crafting. strydom’s data included participants from four countries. i only used the responses from south african participants. 3. fit statistics should not be over-interpreted, as there are no universal cut-off criteria for what constitutes acceptable fit. 4. i only inspected the statistical significance of the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic across all the unidimensional models. ajcd_vol 6, no 1 & 2 (2024)_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contentspage i of ii table of contents original research technical vocational education and training in uganda: career guidance and practices doreen barigye african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a100 | 16 january 2024 original research dual sport career experiences of student-athletes studying in south africa and the usa louis j. van zyl african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a96 | 02 february 2024 original research shifting professional and personal identities of the cisgender scholar doing lgbt research anthony brown african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a82 | 23 february 2024 original research exploring factors that influence students’ career decision making at a south african university maria r. fernandes, kamilla v. rawatlal african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a99 | 29 february 2024 original research curriculum implementation challenges and responses during the covid-19 pandemic in a rural secondary school in south africa tholakele c. dlamini, free-queen b. zulu african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a73 | 08 april 2024 1 10 19 27 38 vol 6, no 1 (2024) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research increasing graduates’ employability skills through rational emotive career coaching mkpoikanke s. otu, maximus m. sefotho african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a106 | 27 may 2024 original research the need for structured career guidance in a resource-constrained south african school aretha farao, marieta du plessis african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a116 | 17 july 2024 original research understanding the relational well-being of primary school teachers in rural south africa sasabona maseko, shingairai chigeza african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a115 | 30 august 2024 original research the psychological factors influencing youth moving from unemployment to employment in south africa daphne j. pereira, noorjehan joosub, pieter basson african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a118 | 26 september 2024 original research where does it all start? gender-differences in athletes’ intention to pursue a coaching career refiloe majake, alliance kubayi african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a155 | 13 december 2024 48 58 71 82 91 original research emotional intelligence predicting subject-specific academic success: eq-i youth in south africa anneke stols, petro erasmus, wandile f. tsabedze african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a114 | 16 july 2024 original research perspectives of south african adolescent girls making decisions for their future gloria marsay african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a113 | 18 july 2024 97 108 original research career adaptability as an instructional scaffold for career education in south african schools marlene algra, hermien olivier african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a123 | 11 december 2024 116 vol 6, no 1 (2024): advancing career intervention in developing countries, guest edited by dr kamilla v. rawatial vol 6, no 2 (2024): queering the role of educators in the workplace, guest edited by prof anthonoy brown editorial from the margins to the mainstream: lgbtq+ professionals’ lived experiences in the education workplace anthony brown african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a156 | 28 november 2024 128 original research balancing faith and duty: challenges in teaching inclusive sexuality education jane rossouw african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a131 | 22 july 2024 131 https://ajcd.africa open access table of contents original research foundation phase teachers’ diverse sexual orientations and job experiences: a south african study roy venketsamy, zijing hu, nashua naicker african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a132 | 29 august 2024 original research to advocate or assimilate: lessons of queer educators navigating their high school space siphesihle n. maseko african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a134 | 11 september 2024 original research out in the classroom: self-disclosure as a ‘pedagogical tool’ anthony brown african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a142 | 11 september 2024 original research positive inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring male foundation phase teacher obakeng kagola african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a144 | 16 september 2024 137 142 148 155 original research queering the role of hostel carers within the sexuality education of visually impaired learners lindokuhle m. ubisi african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a133 | 30 september 2024 original research teaching sexuality in a climate of ambiguity: namibian life skills teachers negotiating intersectionality erwin r. awarab, anthony brown african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a143 | 22 november 2024 original research on the crossroads: gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee boitumelo m. diale african journal of career development | vol 6, no 2 | a139 | 25 november 2024 162 168 175 page ii of ii vol 6, no 1 (2024) reviewer acknowledgement african journal of career development | vol 6, no 1 | a154 | 31 october 2024 181 abstract introduction foundation of the curriculum curriculum conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hande sensoy-briddick department of counseling and human resource development, faculty of counseling and human development, south dakota state university, brookings, sd, united states william c. briddick department of counseling and human resource development, faculty of counseling and human development, south dakota state university, brookings, sd, united states citation sensoy-briddick, h., & briddick, w.c. (2022). their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives. african journal of career development, 4(1), a63. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.63 original research their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives hande sensoy-briddick, william c. briddick received: 11 aug. 2022; accepted: 16 sept. 2022; published: 12 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: despite the consensus on the significance of early career development, we still know little about the best-or-evidence-based practices for this demographic. searching the keywords career development and marginalised populations and/or communities within the pychinfo, we found that 11% of articles were related to children, while only 1% of them were related to marginalised children. this indicates a strong need for scholarly attention on children of colour and their career development. objective: this manuscript outlines the construction of a curriculum developed to be used by counsellors in facilitating the career development of children, particularly those from minoritised communities. we hope that the curriculum will contribute to the scholarly discussion on best practices for career intervention in childhood. methods: rooted in the narrative, social construction perspectives, the curriculum was prepared by assembling career and life narratives of culturally diverse exemplary models. these narratives of persistence provided children with various strategies exemplary models implemented to overcome barriers that challenged their sense of agency. collaborating school counselling staff used three stories within the curriculum with the hope of increasing children’s sense of agency and adaptability. students were third graders from a high-need elementary school. about one-fourth of the student body represented diverse cultural backgrounds, including indigenous, latino/a and black communities. results: initial feedback from the counselling staff indicated that the curriculum lessons were well-received by the children. they were able to engage in age-appropriate narrative analysis via questions asked by the counselling staff. conclusion: although the effectiveness of the curriculum is yet to be determined, the curriculum shows promise for assisting children in increasing their own sense of agency and in crafting their own career narratives. contribution: this manuscript provides a unique and promising approach to facilitating the early career development of children. keywords: children; career narratives; curriculum; resilience; exemplary models. introduction the 21st century, often called the digital age, has been characterised by globalization and a significant reliance on ever-changing technology. these changes have transformed the world of work (hughes & kashefpakdel, 2019), and infused uncertainty into the future. the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) sharply demonstrated the transformative impact of unpredictability on our lives. in the spring of 2020, the world we knew then changed drastically. within two weeks in the united states of america (u.s), teachers and students, both in kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12) and higher education, were forced to leave their brick-and-mortar schools for cyber-classrooms. transitioning to online platforms was fast, and the adaptability of children and teachers was admirable across numerous settings. however, a significant number of underprivileged children were left behind during the transition, furthering the existing academic and opportunity gaps between them and their more privileged peers. once again, the fears that the playing field is not level were confirmed. although we eventually transitioned back to our traditional educational environments, we were not surprised to see that the new learning spaces, practices and tools had become permanent features of 21st century schools. while students have sat next to each other in their classrooms, the learning has taken place in google classrooms and other virtual configurations. all of these unpredictable changes have elicited a certain level of existential anxiety about the future. preparing children for their adult lives has become more of a formidable task (kirschner & stoyanov, 2018; peila-shuster, 2018). the lack of predictability surrounding the future has increased the importance of scholarly work related to children’s career development. sadly, despite the consensus on the significance of early career development (gottfredson, 1981; hartung, 2013; howard & walsh, 2010, 2011; maree, 2021; mcmahon & watson, 2017; patton, 2017; super, 1957; tiedeman & o’hara, 1963; vondracek et al., 1986; watson & mcmahon, 2005, 2018), we still know little about the best-or-evidence-based practices for this demographic (hartung et al., 2005; vondracek, 2001; watson et al., 2015). searching the keywords career development, we found that between the years 2000 and 2022, there were a total of 16 522 published articles within pychinfo. of those, only 11% of the publications were related to children. when we further screened them by adding the keyword marginalised population and/or communities, the number of articles fell to 209, only 1% of publications. the results reveal that a strong need for scholarly attention focused on children in general, and on children of colour, particularly. without a substantial body of literature, effective interventions to facilitate children’s career development are lamentably compromised. marginalised children face additional challenges in dealing with powerful structures of exclusion, preventing them from first imagining and then pursuing fulfilling career paths (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). thus, developing skills, such as familiarising themselves with the dominant culture’s worldview, developing navigation skills to find and secure scarce resources (cooper, 2018; ivers et al., 2012), and nullifying oppressive messages that constitute a threat to their identity, are essential competencies for these children (peila-shuster et al., 2019). cathy park hong (2020) in her recent book vividly described how as a first-generation child in a korean family, she was forced to ‘split myself into the first and third person’. to recognise myself, as sartre writes, “as the other sees me”’ (p. 77). similarly, du bois (1903/1969) discussed the double consciousness with which african americans can see themselves through the eyes of the dominant group. necessary for survival in an antipathic environment, the balancing act of managing this split or double consciousness is significant to the psyche of children. to be successful, any career intervention needs to include strategies to free the impacted child from the internalised gaze of the privileged. this article hopes to address the concerning gap in the literature on promising practices in children’s career development, with a special focus on children from minoritised communities. we will describe the development of our culturally responsive, psychoeducational curriculum along with its initial introduction to third graders in a high need elementary school. the curriculum was created to prevent immature and often unconscious circumscription and compromising processes that take place early in childhood (gottfredson, 2004). when uncontrolled these processes can lead to the elimination of possible future careers, since children can come to believe that particular careers are ‘socially unacceptable for someone like themselves’ (gottfredson, 2004, p. 12). such beliefs can entrap children in a prescripted story, often referred to as a master narrative, primarily drafted for their cultural group. we used the concept of exemplary models (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022) to impact these elimination processes. temple grandin, sonia sotomayor and dr. martin luther king jr. are among the models included in the curriculum, as their personal narratives demonstrate how they successfully dismantled widely held master narratives imposed on them, owing to their social identities. toni morrison defined a master narrative as an ‘ideological script that the people in authority are imposing on everyone else’ (moyers, 1990). we believed that studying the narratives of exemplary models, which can be described as counter-narratives, would strengthen students’ sense of agency while freeing them from internalised enfeebling messages about themselves and their potential. three lessons from the curriculum were delivered in a high-need elementary school located in the northcentral region of the united states of america. feedback from the school counselling staff indicated that the curriculum was well-received by the children. foundation of the curriculum in designing the curriculum, we attempted to capture the epistemological changes that have been transforming the field of psychology and career counselling. situated in a narrative perspective, the curriculum emphasises narrative formation. we examined the career counselling literature on children with a particular focus on its evolving conceptualization of the construct of ‘self’. although we borrowed from the traditional theories of the 20th century modernist era, self-construction and authorship in narrative development are what is emphasised in the curriculum. since elementary school children have not yet fully developed the abstract thinking skills necessary to conceptualise their ‘self’ as an evolving construct, we simplified or materialised this process by introducing narratives of culturally diverse exemplary models to children. class discussions about the exemplary models included questions centred around authorship, agency and persistence. the concept of role models, thus, constituted the second foundational construct upon which the curriculum rested. epistemological changes and new perspectives in career counselling with children kuhn (1962) in his landmark publication, entitled the structures of scientific revolutions, claimed that paradigm shifts happen when existing theories fail to explain observed phenomena. this leads to scientific revolutions that revamp our existing epistemologies leading to the emergence of new theories. savickas (2007) masterfully identified the epistemological changes that have occurred in psychology since the modernist era and the subsequent rippling impact on vocational psychology, particularly regarding to the concept of ‘self’, one of the main constructs of psychological inquiry. career choice and self as an object savickas argued that the positivist approach during the modernist era conceptualised the self as an ‘object’, exposed to scientific inquiry via various types of testing (savickas, 2007). trait factor theory (parsons, 1909) and holland’s theory of vocational personalities and work environments (holland, 1997) reflected this view of the self. both approaches have relied significantly on assessment to measure various traits or characteristics of the self, including values, interests and aptitudes. during this era, limited attention was given to children, perhaps because the focus of career interventions centred around career choice and career fit rather than career development. career development and self as a subject the emergence of the humanistic approach with its emphasis on human development and self-actualization drew career counsellors’ attention to the developmental processes through which individuals achieved competencies critical to make informed educational and career decisions. while developmental theories established self-actualization as the final outcome, career maturity became the final destination for career counselling clients. the humanistic approach impelled us to see the self as a ‘subject’ capable of optimal growth (savickas, 2007) while placing children in a new position of interest for career intervention. similar to erikson’s psychosocial theory (1964, 1968), super’s lifespan, life-space approach (super, 1990; super et al., 1996) proposed a career development model with five stages and corresponding developmental tasks, successful completion of which led to career maturity in individuals. gottfredson (2004) offered a developmental approach using cognitive development as one of the foundations of her theory. she highlighted specific ways children and adolescents eliminated career options, often unconsciously, because of social factors such as poverty and social identities such as gender. gottfredson identified self-agency as an important goal in career development and charged career counsellors with the responsibility of providing ‘experiential lessons in recognizing and beneficially exploiting self-agency’ (gottfredson, 2004, p. 35). during this time period, various comprehensive career counselling models for school-age children emerged (e.g. gottfredson, 2004; super, 1990) to prepare them for the world of work. in addition to considerable progress made in understanding the career development process, accumulated evidence confirmed the significance of career interventions with children. niles and harris-bowlsbey (2017, p. 276) rightfully claimed that ‘ignoring the process of career development in childhood is similar to a gardener disregarding the quality of the soil in which a garden will be planted’ (as cited in maree, 2021, p. 433). similarly, hartung et al. (2008) considered childhood as ‘the dawn of vocational development’ that required for the attention of researchers and practitioners (p. 64). career narrative and self as a project the insecurities and uncertainties impacting the world of work and our lives (taber, 2019) decreased the relevance of some of the traditional theories of the 20th century. predictability, singularity, homogeneity and objectivity, core principles of modernism, were challenged by postmodernist epistemology (gergen, 1990). what is perceived as universal facts are degraded to ‘locally shared realities of human experiences’ (gergen, 1990, p. 32). the neutrality of science has been questioned by feminist scholars who pointed out the androcentric biases that saturated scientific reports (gergen, 1990, p. 27). qualitative research has emerged as an alternative method of inquiry for unexplored realities of marginalised communities (solórzano & yosso, 2002). the construct of self, known in a singular form for decades, transformed into possible selves (markus & nurius, 1986). david tiedeman has been identified as the first social constructionist scholar in our field due to his emphasis on the process of self-construction (savickas, 2008). tiedeman’s concept of self-reconceptualization emphasised that the active role a person plays in continuously revamping one’s self in response to new experiences and anticipated future expectations (savickas, 2008, p. 220). within the postmodernist era, the self was transformed into an ever-evolving project. the process of self-construction and its critical elements of reflexivity, autobiographical agency and adaptability have become the focus of new career approaches, such as life design (hartung, 2019; savickas, 2012; savickas et al., 2009) and narrative career counselling (cochran, 1997). although their significance for children is repeatedly emphasised by scholars, such as hartung et al. (2005) and maree (2021), programmes or models that include these theoretical concepts are still scarce in the literature. while briddick et al. (2018) and sensoy-briddick and briddick (2019) developed a widely used curriculum for elementary school children in turkey, other publications have described programmes developed mainly for adolescents (see, e.g. nota et al., 2016). our new curriculum differs significantly from the first one, as it focuses on fostering authorship in children. the role models and their importance in children’s development the concept of exemplary models derives from the extensive literature, highlighting the importance of role models in children’s growth and development. defined by gibson (2004, p. 136) as ‘cognitive constructions based on an individual’s needs, wants, and ambitions,’ role models are found to have a considerable impact on young people’s development (bandura, 1977, 1986; erikson, 1968; gibson, 2004; krumboltz, 1996), their career choices, motivation (fagenson, 1989; salanova & schaufeli, 2008; valero et al., 2019), sense of agency (taylor et al., 1994), work and academic engagement and academic identity (buunk et al., 2007; zirkel, 2002). identification and social learning theories have used the construct often, each emphasizing its different functions (gibson, 2004). role models in identification theories identification of theories focuses on the aspirational influence of role models and their critical impact on identity development and construction (erikson, 1968; savickas, 2019). savickas (2019) noted that our role models provide us with meaning and thus a means of making sense of our lives. savickas explained: role models inspire young people because they show a way forward. so, the choice of role models is indeed a decision about self-construction and the role one prefers to play as a social actor in life’s drama. (2019:92) the relatability of role models has been found to be critical in the identification process. in other words, people often choose their role models based on their similarities to them with regard to their racial, gender and other social identities (basow & howe, 1980; gibson, 2004; giuliano et al., 2007; lockwood, 2006). for example, kivel and kleiberc (2000) found that gay, lesbian and bisexual (lgb) youth relied on media role models to learn about glb identities. these models, despite their distance from the youth, were particularly instrumental in decreasing the youth’s sense of isolation while increasing their hope for a successful future (gomillion & giuliano, 2011). role models in social learning theories social learning theories, on the other hand, emphasised the importance of role models with regard to the acquisition of critical skills. bandura and wood (1989) claimed that individuals learn various skills and competencies while watching others to perform them. the famous bobo doll experiment demonstrated that even children as young as 37 months learn new behaviours by observing others (bandura et al., 1961). role models, in other words, are critical to what bourdieu referred to as habitus formation, the embodiment of cultural capital in the form of habits, dispositions and behaviours (wainwright & turner, 2003, p. 4). what we embody creates certain vulnerabilities or invincibilities. this is particularly true for marginalised children, whose scarce resources and limited access to various capitals diminish their chances for social and class mobility (yosso & garcia, 2007). thus, it is not surprising that role models of colour have been found to be particularly impactful in helping marginalised youth learn about effective ways to address various stereotypes and discrimination that interfere with their success (cheryan et al., 2013; marx & roman, 2002; wang & degol, 2017). studies conducted in stem fields, for example, have repeatedly highlighted the impact of relatable role models in increasing minoritised women’s persistence in these fields (cheryan et al., 2013; marx & ko, 2012; marx & roman, 2002; stout et al., 2011; wang & degol, 2017). within bourdieu’s concept of capital, there resides the possibility that role models can be a form of critical social capital for minoritised children in assisting them to embody essential skills to thrive despite oppressive systems and institutions. exemplary role models: role models as social capital in a previous article, we discussed the impact role models can have on ‘self-building, identity shaping, and overall career construction’ (briddick & sensoy-briddick, 2012, p. 329). different from role models who are critical building blocks of one’s identity, exemplary models are individuals whose life narratives are saturated with perseverance, persistence and resilience (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). in other words, exemplary models are the individuals who have successfully dismantled the master narrative and created a counter-story that is more in alignment with their own desires and interests. we join others (e.g. zirkel, 2002) in their concern about the lack of a sufficient number of diverse models who can provide minoritised children with ways to deal, not only with life challenges but also particularly with oppressive, systemic issues. as we indicated previously, we consider role models as critical social capital. we regard facilitating children’s access to these exemplary models’ inspiring narratives as an important social justice intervention. as solórzano and yosso (2002) declared, sharing the counter-stories ‘can help strengthen traditions of social, political, and cultural survival and resistance’ (p. 32). in a seminal article, yosso (2005) expanded bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and offered a new concept, community cultural wealth (ccw). community cultural wealth consists of various assets, often unacknowledged by scholars in social sciences, in the form of six capitals that communities of colour use in their resistance to oppressive systems. yosso and burciaga (2016, p. 2) identified the overlapping capitals as aspirational (maintaining hopefulness in the face of adversities), familial (having a sense of community and history), linguistic (skills associated with using multiple languages and/or language styles), social (social network), navigational (skills and knowledge necessary to successfully navigate institutions) and resistant (actions to challenge inequity). our curriculum included counter-narratives that highlighted various capitals associated with the ccw. we hoped that analysing the narratives of exemplary models would foster confidence within children that they, too, are capable of and may well already have some of the necessary capitals to start constructing their own counter-narratives. curriculum the purpose of the curriculum was to invite students to examine the lives of accomplished individuals from diverse backgrounds, referred to as exemplary models (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). we chose children’s books that clearly demonstrated the challenges each character encountered, along with coping strategies and various capitals that were instrumental in helping them to create a narrative of persistence. although persistence and resilience were our focus, we ensured that what is presented in books was age-appropriate and avoided introducing information that could possibly be upsetting to children. although we provided information about narratives of persistence and resilience elsewhere in the article, perhaps, it is important to briefly revisit their significance in this era. characterised by uncertainty and insecurities (taber, 2019), this century requires individuals to demonstrate a high level of flexibility and adaptability to changing environments. thus, it is critical for children to develop strong sense of agency, characterised by a firm belief in their capacity to respond to the pressing economic conditions and challenging social demands while maintaining strong confidence for their ability to pursue their own passion for making a significant contribution in the world around them. we hoped that the stories of persistence included in the curriculum presented how exemplary models responded to barriers and challenges, they encountered in their own lives without giving up their passion in life. brad meltzer, author of the ordinary people change the world series, concisely articulated a definition of resilience similar to our own. in addition, his words described how we hoped that these selected stories could impact our young audience of the curriculum lessons. in an interview with a mighty girl, meltzer noted: jane goodall’s story is not just about animals, it’s not just about that she was a woman, it’s not just about that she was bold or daring, but it was about that she really, in her own way, had this amazing impact that we can all apply to our lives when someone says no to you. i mean it is to push forward and to blaze your own trail and that thing you love and to find what you love and keep pushing forward and what you do … my daughter may want to start reading jane goodall because she loves animals, she loves our dog, but when she finishes, she is charged up to change the world because she’s thinking, she would never take a no for an answer. (a mighty girl staff, 2018) the curriculum included a total of 15 lessons based on the various books, most of which were written by authors brad meltzer (ordinary people change the world series) or maria isabelle sánchez vagara (little people big dreams series). each book highlighted a theme or two associated with the main character of the book. for instance, the book on amelia earhart (meltzer, 2014) emphasised her courage, self-reliance and ability to collaborate with others. these were critical in earhart’s success in dealing with various social barriers that discouraged women from assuming non-traditional roles, such as becoming a pilot, during the era in which she lived. our lesson emphasised these three themes while also addressing associated standards drafted by the american school counselor association (asca, 2021). given the age and attention span of the children participating, each lesson was completed with an engaging colouring activity. children were asked to colour the picture of the main character while responding to a question as to how they were similar to and different from the exemplary model. we borrowed this question from savickas, who uses it in processing role models with his clients during the career construction interview (savickas, 2015, 2019). we believed that the time devoted to self-reflection would positively impact children’s self-perception and their skill for reflexivity, both of which are important competencies in self-authorship. diversity and inclusiveness we wanted to ensure that we had children’s books about various influential persons with diverse backgrounds. in alignment with the current literature, we broadened the definition of diversity to include women, lgbtq+ individuals, race, ethnicity, disabilities, poverty and various other backgrounds. the intersectional identities of some of the exemplary models were a strength of the curriculum. for instance, we included the story of sonia sotomayor, associate justice of the supreme court of the united states of america (meltzer, 2018). her intersectional identities of first-generation college graduate + latina + woman identities presented her with unique barriers that required different coping mechanisms. providing a contextual perspective could be important to capture the attention and the interest of the students. judge sotomayor is the only latina judge who has achieved this most distinguished honor. although about 18% of the u.s. population consists of latino, or latina, individuals, only 3% of sitting judges on federal courts are latina. sonia sotomayor has overcome barriers associated with her gender, as well as her ethnic background. her story contains and demonstrates a successful use of linguistic, navigational and familial capitals (yosso, 2005) in achieving her career success. another book was about dr. martin luther king jr. by brad meltzer (2016). the iconic american civil rights leader, dr. king, had an intersectional identity of being a male and african american. the book clearly demonstrates how his early experiences with racial inequity shaped his future career narrative. from a career construction perspective, his early preoccupation with injustice became his occupation later in life (savickas, 2005, 2011, 2019). his love for ‘big words’ along with his strong value to ‘love everyone’ led to a predictable initial career in ministry. later, he became a community organiser, then a political activist so he could work with larger groups of similarly minded individuals to bring peace and equity to the u.s. his life story demonstrates a successful use of aspirational, resistant and navigational capitals (yosso, 2005). children who experience similar types of discrimination can learn about the powerful skills that dr. king used to address such injustices. his narrative of persistence clearly shows children how to continue to dream even when they encounter discouraging situations that challenge their sense of hope. considerations related to facilitators being able to successfully lead classroom discussions requires facilitators to have an understanding of elementary school students, skills to manage group dynamics and preparation in career development and planning, as it relates to children. the skills of the facilitator are critical to the delivery of the curriculum. the lessons selected were delivered by a certified school counsellor and their intern. both of them had backgrounds in classroom management, curriculum development and delivery, as well as coursework in career development and counselling. during each 30 min lesson, the school counselling staff read the book aloud and then defined the themes of persistence and resiliency associated with the model in the book. the staff used a number of the following questions to facilitate class discussions. although at first glance, these questions might appear rather abstract for third graders, the response from the school counselling staff indicated that children were able to understand and respond to the questions without any difficulty. the following were the questions utilised by the counselling staff: what characteristics of the main character in the book inspired you the most? what were some of the challenges the main character in the book faced along the way in their life? what did they do in order to deal with these challenges? in other words, how did they persist in the face of difficulties? how are you similar to and/or different from the main character in the book? in addition to these questions, facilitators can generate their own questions they feel are appropriate and useful for the children they are working with at the time. although both series are accessible in english via youtube, where the books are read aloud by the authors, the counselling staff who delivered the three lessons indicated that the best way to process these books in the classroom is to read them aloud to the students. this approach allows the facilitator the freedom to screen any material that might be deemed age inappropriate. initial trial three sample lessons from the curriculum were implemented by a certified school counsellor and their intern during the spring of 2022 to approximately 40 third-grade students. these lessons were incorporated into the pre-existing social emotional learning (sel) curriculum that the school counsellor had been using. different from the existing curriculum, these new lessons introduced children to exemplary models, their narratives of persistence and future possibilities for them. the initial feedback we received from the school counselling staff was positive. they indicated that the children were excited about the lessons. children were able to not only recognise but also articulate the various strategies used by exemplary models in navigating the challenges they faced while writing their career narratives. the counselling staff also revealed that the teaching staff, who had some of these books within their classroom collection, noticed increased excitement among their students toward these books. it is not appropriate to make any claims with regard to the effectiveness of the curriculum at this time. more carefully designed studies will provide better insight into the potential of the curriculum for empowering children in shaping their own narratives. based on the initial results, we believe that this kind of curriculum can be a possible blueprint for practitioners in many places regardless of where they might be in the world. in our earlier work on role models, we noted: every society has its own model examples, stories and cultural scripts readily available to its members. whether these examples are human or nonhuman, factual or fictional does not matter. the aforementioned are generalizable enough for individuals to apply to their own life, constructing and designing who they want to be via these sources of self. (briddick & sensoy-briddick, 2012, p. 331) what is true for role models is true for exemplary models, with both offering unique possibilities for us and for those we serve in the work that we do. conclusion as we conclude, the united nations cites 1.2 billion youth ages 15 – 24 comprising 16% of the world’s population. in 2030, this population will reach 1.3 billion (united nations, n.d.). the world economic forum’s website provided a cautionary piece of writing entitled, pandemials: youth in an age of lost opportunities (world economic forum, 2021). citing two major crises of the first two decades of this century they note: the outlook for this generation had already been diminished by environmental degradation, rising inequality (of many types – gender, intergenerational, economic and ethnic), varying degrees of violence, and social disruption from the tech-enabled industrial transformation. while the digital leap forward unlocked opportunities for some youth, many are now entering the workforce in an employment ice age. (para. 2) the youth of our present is also our world’s tomorrow. some elementary school students of today will join the previously mentioned demographic, ages 15 – 24 by 2030. there is an open window of opportunity for intervention that suggests urgency. there is likewise the realization that behind the present youth are generations of youth to follow. where we go from here is critical in meeting the existing challenges, as well as those awaiting us ahead. innovative and thoughtful responses, embedded in relevant theoretical models (e.g. social constructionism) and best practices that address the barriers to progress, combined with existing foundations can make a world of difference in the current era of global uncertainty. our most recent contribution and suggestions for a curriculum-based intervention are by no means the answer but rather one possibility among others that address the unique needs of younger generations, as they look to their futures and plan the work they hope to do in our world. it is also an invitation for colleagues across disciplines and many landscapes to join us in meeting the challenges we face and those that have yet to appear. maree (2020) offered insightful recommendations to our field in his response to an appeal to members of the international association of applied psychology by, then chair, paul hartung. hartung asked members to provide up to three ideas or challenges deemed relevant to the field of career psychology. maree’s response was sage advice in the present, with implications for the future. his reply included certain words placed in bold print. these words are shown in quotation marks here for the reader. maree noted that our field should ‘join hands internationally’ also reminding us that it is key to ‘think innovatively; differently than before’. he called us to ‘help vulnerable people’ and finally he encouraged us to ‘be innovative and continue to centre on challenging accepted “truths”’ (p. 282). as boldly go these words, so too may we all go in the work ahead of us. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions h.s-b. and w.c.b. meet the criteria and have written and published previously on the topics of curriculum, role models, exemplary models, career construction and life-design. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability there is a small amount of data, but it is not publicly available data. these data are not used in the writing of this manuscript. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references a mighty girl staff. 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(2007). ‘this is no slum!’: a critical race theory analysis of community cultural wealth in culture clash’s ‘chavez ravine’. aztlán: a journal of chicano studies, 32(1), 145–179. zirkel, s. (2002). is there a place for me? role models and academic identity among white students and students of color. teachers college record, 104(2), 357–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9620.00166 abstract introduction methodology data collection and analysis findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation brown, a. (2024). shifting professional and personal identities of the cisgender scholar doing lgbt research. african journal of career development, 6(1), a82. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.82 original research shifting professional and personal identities of the cisgender scholar doing lgbt research anthony brown received: 25 apr. 2023; accepted: 02 july 2023; published: 23 feb. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: scholars researching the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual and gender minorities (lgbt) are being denounced as performers of ‘dirty’ work and promotors of ‘immorality’. such scholars face obstacles in the workplace, such as difficulties in obtaining ethical approval, scarcity of funding, bullying, denial of promotion and unacknowledged scholarship, among other struggles. objectives: this article intends to highlight the unintended, unanticipated and often overlooked impact that certain lgbt research interests have on the professional and personal identities of the scholar. method: this exploratory qualitative study uses a reflexive dialogical single case study approach to understand how katlego (a pseudonym), a cisgender heterosexual researcher, is affected by his interest in lgbt studies. continuous supervision notes that enable thoughtful reflexive practice in qualitative research shaped the basis of this article. results: this article shows how katlego’s lgbt research interest resulted in him being policed, his professional intentions questioned, his bodily expression scrutinised and personal conflict being blamed on his allegedly ‘disgraceful’ research interest. furthermore, it demonstrates how the conflation of katlego’s interest in lgbt research with pervasive negative assumptions of non-heteronormative sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions has resulted in a shift in his professional and personal identities. conclusion: this article calls for awareness of the issues faced by all researchers interested in lgbt research and support strategies for navigating the professional identity, workplace environment and social ecologies within a frowned-upon research field. failure to do so could compromise their career trajectory, well-being and safety in compulsory heterosexual environments. contribution: this article illustrated how gender regimes position the researcher as an active creator of knowledge; therefore, the research process experiences can neither be made invisible nor neutralised. researchers must overtly consider and prepare for situational and unanticipated ethical issues. keywords: cisgender; gender regimes; gender stereotypes; lgbt; workplace discrimination. introduction drawing on the concepts of gender regimes, this article explores the professional and personal experiences of a cisgender heterosexual (cis-het) scholar with a research interest in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (lgbt) studies. outsider researchers undertaking studies with disenfranchised and vulnerable communities are predominantly concerned about aspects of access, ethical conduct, validity and trustworthiness within the writing of the research report (mathijssen et al., 2023). there is silence, however, about the effects that research of this nature may have on the work environment of the researcher. levine et al. (2004) define vulnerable and disenfranchised populations as categories of people who are increasingly susceptible to discrimination, harm and/or injuries in some way or who are emotionally violated or offended. south africa, despite its most progressive constitution that affirms and protects those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, through its sociopolitical ecologies, paradoxically produces uncontested discrimination, dehumanisation and violence, which leads to fatalities (sutherland et al., 2016). heterosexuality, the pervasive benchmark by which everyone is measured, remains systemically produced and valorised (matebeni et al., 2018). i firstly wish to draw attention to a narrative that heterosexuality is under attack. this view that particularly emanates from traditional and religious fronts (borras guevara et al., 2023; jodamus et al., 2022) requires critical examination and contestation. the belief that heterosexuality is under attack often stems from a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of efforts to promote equality and inclusivity for marginalised communities, such as the lgbt community (francis, 2021b). advocacy for lgbt rights is not an attack on heterosexuality but rather a push for recognising and affirming the rights and dignity of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity (de wet, 2017). it is about challenging discrimination and creating a society where everyone can live authentically and without fear. non-heterosexual lifestyles in south africa continued to be inscribed in common discourse as a deviation of traditional social norms, evil, abhorrent and un-african (human dignity trust, 2020; van heerden, 2017). individuals who are seen to espouse lgbt safety and social inclusion are subjected to personal and professional censorship and vilified similar to those for whom they advocate (roberts, 2014). i am also foregrounding that in the realm of sexuality and gender studies, the majority of research studies tend to primarily focus on achieving their research objectives, often overlooking the critical examination of the research processes and experiences themselves. as a consequence, there is a scarcity of updated literature sources that delve into the nuanced aspects of conducting research in this field as is the case in this article. this gap in the literature further prompted the motivation for conducting this study. by reflecting on the actual research processes and experiences, i aim to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by shedding light on the challenges, insights and nuances encountered during the research journey. through this exploration, i seek to offer a valuable resource for researchers and scholars interested in gender and sexuality, providing them with an updated understanding of the research landscape and potentially inspiring further investigations in this field. scholars conducting lgbt research are being denounced as performing ‘dirty work’ and as promotors of immorality (irvine, 2014). such scholars face obstacles in the workplace, including difficulties in being granted ethical approval, a scarcity of funding, bullying, denial of promotion and unacknowledged scholarship (irvine, 2014, 2015). the rigorous control of ethical approval for scholars in lgbt research is often used as a gatekeeping tool to discourage scholarship with lgbt populations (irvine, 2014). ethical clearance applications for lgbt research have been subjected to intense censorship under the disguise of heightened concerns for the vulnerable’s safety, respect and support needs (irvine, 2014; mccormack, 2013; meezan & martin, 2009). considering the focus of this study, this dilemma seems to be common among scholars with interest in lgbt research in many parts of the world, for example, australia (dowsett, 2014), china (cui, 2022), new zealand (keene, 2021), south africa (msibi, 2014) and the united kingdom (mccormack, 2013). while these concerns are valid to an extent, little is known about the safety and well-being of the scholars in lgbt studies and their preparedness for often dangerous and uncomfortable fieldwork. shaw et al. (2020, p. 278) explain that ‘the everyday, situational and unanticipated ethical issues that occur when doing research with others’ (such as lgbt populations) have long-term implications on their personal and professional paths if not well planned. they refer to these issues as ‘ethics in practice’. scholars in lgbt studies are continuously exposed to intense, traumatic narratives of violence and discrimination. others must deal with aggressive relatives of participants of queer identities (lasala, 2003) and social agents such as religious bodies (asante, 2020) or traditional leaders (ntlama, 2014) who do not support sexual and gender diversity. in-depth interviews and disclosure in lgbt research have led to unintended consequences of trust and emotional closeness (råheim et al., 2016). scholars conducting lgbt studies have also faced instances of participants who misinterpret their role as that of a therapist or as a member of the population and potential romantic partner (roberts, 2014). for these reasons, this article draws attention to the unintended, unanticipated and often overlooked impact that certain subjugated research foci such as lgbt studies have on the professional and personal identities of the scholar. against this background, an account is given of a single case study of the experiences of a cis-het scholar who has assumed an lgbt research interest. theoretical framework this discussion draws on gender regimes and gender performativity in analysing the personal and professional lives of cis-het scholars researching lgbt studies. academic scholars have increasingly raised questions regarding sex and gender registration. they aim to expand the definitions of male and female or eliminate the fixed binary construction of gender and sexual orientation. gender regimes are used as a key theoretical concept to interrogate the structures, processes and beliefs in which customary gender roles and categories are produced and reproduced (connell, 1987). gender regimes can be defined as the ‘structural inventory’ (connell, 1987, p. 99) of ‘gender relations in a given institution’ (connell, 1987, p. 120). connell (2002) cites four main components to social constructions within gender regimes: symbols of representation, power relations, the gendered division of labour and the modes of interindividual interaction. acker (2006) describes four similar points of gendered processes, referring to the fourth as identity and the making of the self as an adequate and gendered, organisational performer. the fourth component aligns with butler’s (1997) notion of gender performativity. butler (1997) argues that performativity can be explained as a repetition of norms that subsequently constitute the subject. as these norms appear self-evident, necessary and naturalised, they become regulatory (butler, 1990). sex and gender segregation are pervasive forces that serve a primary formal and informal organising principle that marginalises and oppresses those who do not fit these fixed boxes. in addition, butler (1990, 1997) argues that heterosexuality is given the normative, compulsory and dominant status of sexuality in society, often referred to as heteronormativity. heteronormativity refers to the assumption that heterosexuality is the only legitimate and normative form of sexual orientation (marchia & sommer, 2019). those who transgress ‘normal’ heterosexuality are punished in the foucauldian sense (see foucault, 1978). these binary sex and gender constructs become important in employment and labour, as specific occupations are built on deep-seated social ideas about gender and sex (mennesson, 2012). in the south african context, the theory of gender regimes provides a valuable framework for understanding the complex dynamics surrounding gender and sexuality. this theory recognises that while legal advancements have been made to affirm and protect the lives of lgbt individuals in south africa, there still exist repressive and pervasive gender constructions that socially subject them to discrimination and marginalisation (francis, 2021b). one aspect of gender regimes in south africa is the persistence of heteronormativity. under colonial and apartheid rule, patriarchal structures were reinforced and maintained, as power was concentrated in the hands of white males to uphold white, heteronormative family structures (carolin et al., 2020). the rigid gender roles and expectations that emerged from these systems served to maintain social control and reinforce racial hierarchies. women, particularly black women, were systematically marginalised and subjected to various forms of oppression, including economic exploitation and sexual violence (klausen, 2022). in the context of gender and sexuality, colonial and apartheid era laws and policies enforced heteronormativity and criminalised non-normative sexual behaviours (mbasalaki, 2020). homosexuality was stigmatised, and same-sex relationships were criminalised, further marginalising and oppressing individuals whose sexual orientations and gender identities did not conform to societal norms (hove & ndlela, 2019). the enduring impact of colonialism and apartheid on south african society is evident in the persistence of societal attitudes and power structures that privilege whiteness, heterosexuality and traditional gender roles (francis, 2021a). this normative framework perpetuates the social marginalisation of lgbt individuals, often relegating them to the margins of society and denying them full acceptance and inclusion. despite legal protections, lgbt individuals can still face stigmatisation, prejudice and exclusion from various social, familial and religious contexts (human dignity trust, 2020). historical legacies of apartheid and colonialism have influenced societal attitudes and power structures, which can intersect with gender and sexuality to produce unique challenges (francis, 2021b). for instance, black lesbian women in townships and rural areas are particularly vulnerable to violence and corrective rape, as they face discrimination on the basis of their gender, sexuality and race (gaitho, 2022). the theory of gender regimes helps us understand the impact of colonialism and apartheid on south african society, particularly in relation to gender and sexuality. the historical legacies of these oppressive systems have influenced societal attitudes and power structures, perpetuating discrimination and marginalisation. by recognising and addressing these challenges, we can work towards a more inclusive and equitable society that respects and celebrates diverse gender identities and expressions. methodology research design this exploratory qualitative study used a reflexive (brookfield, 2017) dialogical (frank, 2005) single case study approach (gaya & smith, 2016) to gain an understanding of the ways in which a cis-het researcher has been affected by his interest in lgbt studies. this is congruent with the belief that the self cannot be separated from the research (cuenca, 2010). reflexivity on research processes creates opportunities to develop, adapt and refine the related processes (calderhead et al., 2012). as a supervisor for postgraduate studies, i prioritise creating a nurturing and inclusive environment for all my students. while reviewing the supervision notes for katlego, who identifies as heterosexual, i came across instances where his sexual orientation had been inaccurately assumed to be different from his self-identified heterosexual status. recognising the significance of this issue, i embarked on a thorough examination of the supervision notes and engaged in additional conversations with him to gain a deeper understanding of his experiences. drawing upon this comprehensive understanding, i have utilised the supervision notes as a valuable resource to write a reflective article on the misclassification of katlego’s sexual orientation. participant this case study focuses on the experiences of a single participant, who is assigned the pseudonym ‘katlego’ for anonymity. to provide context for the discussion, it is important to reflect on the background of the participant. katlego identifies as a heterosexual african man who embraces hegemonic masculine patriarchal and indelible evangelical religious values. he initially qualified as a teacher and, upon pursuing postgraduate studies, asked the author to supervise his master’s in inclusive education research. i was upfront that my research focuses solely on school inclusion for lgbt youths. katlego insisted that he wished to explore the field of lgbt school youths, as he claimed this was a concern at the school where he taught. he, therefore, expressed an interest in learning more, even though this contradicted his personal and cultural beliefs. by virtue of his identity, katlego became, by default, an outsider researcher in lgbt studies. as a supervisor, the author had no insights on how to prepare him for ethics in practice (shaw et al., 2020). i was conscious only of my privilege as a gay-identifying scholar with insights into the everyday experiences of the lgbt population. data collection and analysis during our regular supervision sessions, i probed about the research project and katlego’s well-being as the researcher. the continuous supervision notes that i took during these sessions formed the basis of this article. denzin and lincoln (2017) state that notes of this kind enable thoughtful reflexive practice in qualitative research. a thematic analysis of the data was carried out and member-check of the results with the participant was conducted to validate that my interpretations of our discussions were accurate and valid. verbatim supervision notes from katlego have been used extensively in this article to guard against what borning and muller (2012, p. 1129) describe as a ‘hidden agenda’. to conduct the thematic analysis, i followed a rigorous and systematic process. firstly, i familiarised myself with the research reflections by repeatedly reading and immersing myself in the supervision notes collected of the years (erickson, 2004). this process allowed me to gain a holistic understanding of the material and identify initial impressions and thoughts. secondly, i generated initial codes by systematically labelling and categorising meaningful units of data. these codes were then grouped into potential themes based on their relevance and similarity. through an iterative process of reviewing and refining these potential themes, i identified overarching themes that captured the essence of the reflections and represented key aspects of katlego’s experiences and perspectives. i employed a reflexive approach throughout the analysis, constantly reflecting on my own biases, assumptions and preconceptions. this reflexivity helped to ensure that the identified themes were grounded in the data and not influenced by my own interpretations. trustworthiness was further established by sharing different iterations of the manuscript with katlego. ethical consideration when writing a reflective article based on the supervision process, it is essential to address the ethical dimensions involved. in this case, katlego had already obtained ethical approval for their research project from the appropriate ethics committee. the ethical bases for this reflexive article are katlego’s ethics approvals for his master’s in education (2018-026) and phd (1-2022-038) studies, as granted by the university of johannesburg. this approval signifies that the project has undergone rigorous scrutiny, ensuring compliance with ethical guidelines and protecting the rights and well-being of participants. katlego granted his consent for me to use the reflexive supervision notes to compile this article. given that this article draws upon katlego’s experiences and reflections within the context of the approved research project, it does not require separate ethical approval. the focus lies on katlego’s personal journey, growth and insights, without directly involving human participants beyond what was covered by the original ethical approval. all quotes used in this article are made by katlego. findings and discussion considering the volume of supervision notes, i only draw on two themes for this article: (1) workplace sexual orientation censorship and (2) tensions and consequences. workplace sexual orientation censorship, stigma and status the constitution of the republic of south africa (act no. 7 of 1996 and its amendments), labour-relations legislative frameworks and educational policies protect, affirm and promote the care and support for diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. the employment equity act (eea) was enacted to give effect to section 9 of the south african constitution (republic of south africa, 1996). despite all this, katlego’s workplace continues to stigmatise and condemn lgbt identities as being immoral. katlego had to disclose his study to his colleagues when he requested their participation in his research. this brought a sudden spotlight to his entire life. colleagues insisted on knowing what interest he had with ‘gays and lesbians’, as he is a ‘straight’ man. his focus on lgbt research was perceived as him being a member of this out-group. reflections on staff reaction to research focus: ‘i introduced my topic at work to my colleagues with the aim to invite them to form part of the participants. they wanted to know what motivates me to do this study. the more i explained about this research gap in inclusive education, the more they poked about my personal life. they insisted to know if there was a personal reason for this topic. it became clearer that they questioned my sexuality. i suddenly felt unease and doubted that i made the right choice to focus my research on lesbian and gay learners.’ reflections from a meeting with the school based support group: ‘as i gained more knowledge about my topic, i started to advocate for the well-being of gay and lesbian learners at my workplace. one of my colleagues remarked that if i was not married, she would have been convinced that i am gay.’ reflections on general comment made by a staff member: ‘the administrator at my school one day said the only thing that makes her think differently is that i am married or else she would be sure that i am gay. i asked her why and she said that i am a too caring person. the combination of my research about gay and lesbian learners and my care for them could have convinced my colleague that i must be gay.’ while sexual orientation is a concealable facet of one’s identity and is not apparent from a person’s appearance (prewitt-freilino & bosson, 2008), colleagues began scrutinising katlego’s behaviour and expressions to ‘confirm’ unambiguously that he is gay. katlego’s marital status remains an obstacle for others to classify him as gay. this is because stereotypically, a man who is married to a woman conveys his unquestionable heterosexuality, and his passage of social milestones into manhood (maatouk & jaspal, 2022) are considered normative cues of his masculinity. this highlights the overarching influence of conformity to social expectations, be it in the private sphere (e.g. married life) or the public space (e.g. the professional environment). katlego’s other non-normative masculine cues, such as his caring demeanour, passion to know more about lgbt lives and the support for this vulnerable group, become stereotypical traits upon which to make inferences about his perceived non-heterosexual identity. he, therefore, started to moderate his behaviour in certain environments. the associated social stigma towards lgbt identities results in fear and loss of dignity because discrimination and violence towards lgbt individuals remain prevalent across south african ecologies (human dignity trust, 2020; msibi, 2019), including the workplace (morrison, 2022). katlego’s voluntary association with a gay man resulted in an increased censorship of his sexual orientation. from a gender-stereotypical view, the unnatural interaction between the heterosexual and homosexual binaries at katlego’s workplace is incongruent with hegemonic masculinity and violates the rules of engagement within the gender and sexual orientation regime (acker, 2006; connell, 2002). the denigration of lgbt identities underscores the contested interaction between heterosexual and homosexual identities in the workplace. reflections about friendship with a perceived gay colleague: ‘there is always a question why i allow a gay-identifying colleague to chat with me if i am straight. another colleague claimed my voice is changing affectionately when i talk to this gay colleague. they even said that i also like him; that is why i entertain the engagement. i sometimes want to hang out with this colleague, but i am so concerned what my other colleagues will say.’ katlego avoids public interaction with a gay colleague in an organisational social context to allay the misclassification of his sexual orientation and avoid this interaction being seen as threatening the valorised hegemonic masculinity. the distancing emanates from notions that gay men are often perceived as feminine (borinca et al., 2021), and individuals who fear the infection of their normed masculine identity (as if homosexuality were contagious) are more likely to avoid gay identities (plant et al., 2014). this aligns with orthodox beliefs that traditional masculine norms are linked to heterosexuality (herek, 1986). katlego’s confused and paradoxical internal negotiation to do his hegemonic masculine identity (acker, 2006) or to transgress the gender norms (butler, 1990) operates beyond the individual level. it inevitably reproduces an organisational social ordering that maintains boundaries between core and peripheral employees. katlego’s ambivalent effort to separate his ‘dirty’ research interest from his privileged cis-het identity reifies the hierarchisation between heterosexual employees and those who identify as ‘other’ sexualities and genders. consequently, lgbt discrimination and stigma in the workplace discourage collegiality across diverse sexual and gender identities and (un)intentionally perpetuate unequal gender regimes. a workplace incident during a meeting with a parent and his child entangled katlego’s moral and professional conduct. the father falsely accused katlego of having a romantic relationship with his son, a gay identifying learner who had asked katlego to support him in disclosing his sexual orientation to his homophobic father. after the meeting, katlego anxiously rushed to the school principal to manage the situation and prevent the possible negative ramifications of the parent’s misconstrued views, fearing damage of his professional and gender identity. reflections on an incident when supporting a gay identifying learner: ‘i became the “go-to teacher” for gay and lesbian learners because of my research with them. one of the gay learner participants shared about his father’s homophobia towards gay people, particularly when such character scenes are on television. the learner wanted to disclose his sexual orientation to the father but requested me to be present. in the arranged meeting the father accused me of having a relationship with his son and that i am seeking the father’s approval. he abruptly left the meeting. i was worried that this matter would reach the principal and be misconstrued about who i am what i do. the learner agreed that we report the incident to the principal who arranged a different meeting with the father to explain how the initial meeting was arranged. i was relieved that i would not be falsely accused.’ katlego’s heightened moral and professional identity panic unsurprisingly stemmed from the accusation that he was in a romantic relationship with a gay learner. this incident again resulted in a direct misclassification of his own sexual orientation, which was already on the radar among his colleagues. katlego needed to perform hyperprofessionalism, hence his instantly reporting the incident to the principal, with the hope of distancing himself from any form of disgrace and undesirable attention. teachers who identify as lgbt are at risk of being socially framed as unfit for the teaching profession (msibi, 2019) because they are accused of being ‘converters’ of innocent heterosexual learners (depalma & atkinson, 2006; kagola & notshulwana, 2023) or having the potential to sexually molest them (ferfolja, 2007). the intervention from the principal enabled katlego to maintain his respectability in the workplace and avoid being the target of homophobia (despite him being heterosexual). perceived sexual orientation, tensions and consequences within the personal spaces katlego’s narratives indicate that gender performativity is tightly woven into all life domains, such as home, church, friendships and the workplace. the contested heterosexual or homosexual arena creates tensions between katlego and those closest to him. katlego faces stigma amid family expectations to conform to the religious and cultural norms of heterosexuality. the stereotypical social norms persistently frame ‘alternative’ non-heterosexual lifestyles as abnormal, sinful and unacceptable. in his efforts to untangle these experiences, he questioned his choice of research interest, which has led to numerous losses. reflections about research at the home environment: ‘my study caused immense tension between my wife and i. there was a constant anxiety when i had to meet with my supervisor or collect data with my research participants. she raised concerns about my comfort around gay and lesbian people because it was unusual for a straight man to have such associations. this spiralled later into questioning my behaviour. she had a problem that i am too emotional, sit cross-legged like a woman or that i would engage like a female during our disagreements. this caused me to become withdrawn and not talk about my study at home anymore. she insisted that i pursue a different focus for my phd studies.’ reflections about research focus in various social environments: ‘a male friend told me that i should abandon my studies as it could be the reason for my challenges with my wife. he argued that researching these topics requires me to spend too much time with gay people and it could influence my sexual orientation. i eventually lost his friendship because he no longer wanted to be friends with someone with interest in gay people.’ ‘i shared my research interest with my dad, who told me that it is not a normal focus, and i should abandon my studies. my younger sister told me that i will have issues at church. as a youth leader in church, i was invited to talk about my master’s studies. i then shared with them about inclusive education and children with diverse sexual orientations. afterwards i was called in by the pastor and admonished about the inappropriate and unacceptable discussions i have at church. he said i would encourage the young people in his church to become gays and lesbians. ever since, i was side-lined from all church activities.’ reflections from colleagues on personal presentation: ‘during my phd studies, i changed my hairstyle. i received messages from friends that i now adopt a gay appearance with my hairstyle and even want to use female hair products. this was after i enquired from a female colleague about the products she was using for her hair.’ social cohesion in many african communities is understood from the perspective of shared traditional, religious and societal values often inscribed in the ethics of ubuntu (bongmba, 2016). the ontology of ubuntu has its foundation in the interconnected and interdependent relations of self and others. the macmillan dictionary (n.d.) defines ubuntu as ‘a quality made up of sympathy, kindness, and respect towards other people’, aiming to ‘create a priority of duty, which is for the fundamental goal of building a community that provides the material conditions for actualising individuals’ substantive rights and well-being’ (sule, 2022, p. 52). the ubuntu moral compass guides civil interaction, collaboration and compromise, especially during difference and otherness. i reflected on these values of humanity, which brought into question people’s responses to katlego’s engagement with non-heterosexuality and their intense aversion to deviation from the norms of heterosexuality, also explained as homophobia (freude & waites, 2023). katlego’s experiences with significant others in religious, kindship and friendship circles illustrate that sexual prejudice and homophobia remain pervasive in his social and personal spaces. katlego’s perceived non-compliance with stereotypical markers of heterosexuality and masculinity relegates him to an out-group status and makes him the subject of social abandonment and alienation (acker, 2006). this is because heterosexual individuals are likely to monolithically position gay men as having traditionally feminine physical characteristics, traits and roles (fingerhut & peplau, 2006) and therefore deserve punishment for violating normative gender regimes (borinca et al., 2021). the harmonious values of ubuntu are deactivated when non-heterosexuality is suspected. katlego’s social circles find it fit to dehumanise and marginalise people who do not conform to actual or perceived predominantly established expressions of heterosexuality (sigamoney & epprecht, 2013). by virtue of this, katlego loses social relations, social capital and confidence because of his association with lgbt people and his qualities that deviate from orthodox and valorised masculinity. reflections of personal experiences with study in relation to research participants: ‘this was emotionally draining because i am framed in a different way at work, home and in my community simply because of my research interest. i started to question my interest in the research, which made me feel miserable. i quickly reminded myself who i am and why i am doing this research. this experience was somehow an insight into what the participants in my research experienced.’ general reflections towards end of phd studies: ‘this is a difficult topic to research; you either lose people, lose yourself or question yourself. i question who i am, why am i doing this. i identified as a christian and i am no longer that person because of these studies. i question how much more will i loose. people distance from you because of your association with gays and lesbians. i was never prepared for this.’ the tensions in his personal spaces push katlego to the edge of self-delusion, dwindling aspirations and cogent anxieties. the dominant notions of complied cis-het norms and the phenotypic hierarchies of sexual identities and expressions result in overt and internal conflict with katlego’s identity, his kinship and close associates. ironically, katlego’s questioned self directly reflects the marginalisation of non-heterosexual orientations and gender identities. katlego’s positionality shifted from an outsider to an insider researcher when his questioned sexual identity made him the subject of similar vilification, rejection and stereotypes attached to his embodied researched population. it highlights the politics surrounding the pervasive repressive treatment towards minority sexualities and all associated with this ‘dirty’ body of knowledge (human dignity trust, 2020). as he scrutinises himself through his sociopersonal experiences, there seems to be a salient benefit in that his imposed ‘shifting’ sexual identity translates to invaluable insights about privilege, oppression, pain, resistance and social cohesion. it provides him with visceral understandings of how lgbt populations perceivably ‘infringe’ on normative gender identities, which potentially threaten their relationships with significant others. it reflexively presents him with the daily lived experiences of lgbt populations in multiple circles of society. this ‘dirty’ and ‘shameful’ research shapes new understanding of the social world (his own included) and his punishable research interest. this experience is something that he was never prepared for and points to how these trapped emotions of guilt and distress in a ‘dirty’ research field have the potential to derail his entire career trajectory. conclusion this article has brought to attention the lack of research on some of the unintended ethical issues that arise when a cis-het scholar engages in lgbt research. despite progressive south african legislation (some of it nearly three decades old) that affirms and protects diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, non-heterosexual or perceived identities continue to face denigration, antipathy and avoidance. emerging cis-het researchers in lgbt studies should be prepared for the consequences contemplated in this article (and others yet unanticipated) and ensure that they have adequate support systems in place when planning for such research. it is important for scholars across sexual and gender identities to reflect on their own personal positioning and how it might affect not only the research but also their professional and personal lives. at a secondary level, this article illustrated how the pervasive social constructions of gender regimes invoke the notion that the self cannot be separated from the research. the professional researcher (in)directly is an active creator of knowledge (ahmed, 2006) and their positioning cannot be invisible or neutralised. once again, they must therefore be prepared to deal with any eventuality. the unfortunate reality is that academic journals prefer to publish the results from the research and not the process and personal experiences. there is a need for more discussions and publications on the research process and its impact on the researcher. i believe that this article will go a long way to reshaping the reflection process of the researcher to ‘contribute explicitly to the transformation to the researcher’s sense, self or identity’ (moustakas, 1990, p. 14) in the workplace. acknowledgements the authors thank his graduate student johannes buthelezi for allowing him to use the supervisory notes in order to write this reflection paper. competing interests the author declares that no financial or personal relationships inappropriately influenced the writing of this article. author’s contributions a.b. is the sole author of this article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty of education research ethics committee (no. sem 1-2018-26). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data will be made available upon request. 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(2017). we’re queer and we’re here! centre for risk analysis, south african institute of race relations. abstract introduction intersectionality theory research methods and design results discussion and analysis conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) erwin r. awarab department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation awarab, e.r., & brown, a. (2024). teaching sexuality in a climate of ambiguity: namibian life skills teachers negotiating intersectionality. african journal of career development, 6(2), a143. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.143 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research teaching sexuality in a climate of ambiguity: namibian life skills teachers negotiating intersectionality erwin r. awarab, anthony brown received: 19 may 2024; accepted: 30 aug. 2024; published: 22 nov. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the namibian high court’s judgment 2023 in favour of same-sex marriage has created significant volatility in the country, considering the life skills curriculum’s call for affirmative teaching of sexual diversity education. objectives: this study examined how the provisions made in the life skills curriculum to teach affirmative sexual diversity education could be affected by the tension created by the high court’s judgment. using intersectionality theory, the study explored how cultural, religious, political, and professional intersections influence teachers in implementing policy. methods: qualitative data were collected over four weeks from 10 life skills teachers through semi structured interviews. sampling was purposive because only 4 secondary schools in town schools and 5 in rural schools was selected were the teachers had at least 3 years teaching experience in life skills. study employed a qualitative research design and an intersectional lens. results: amidst the volatile environment with varying intersections, teachers were conflicted and uncomfortable teaching gender and sexual diversity education while aware of the intersectional influences on them. amidst the anxiety of inclusively address to discourse of sexual diversity. in the life skills classroom, teachers continued to present a message of affirmation, care and support as a duty to all learners. conclusion: this article calls for awareness of the intersectional challenges teachers face in delivering the life skills curriculum, specifically the sexual diversity topics. teacher educators and staff development interventions should focus on creating knowledge about intersections to gain a better understanding and improve teaching and learning platforms. contribution: as educators dealing with children daily life skills must become conscious of existing intersectionality and how it affects their work. they must use this knowledge to create safe spaces for the learners. keywords: intersectionality; sexual and gender diversity; teachers; life skills curriculum; namibia. introduction namibia’s life skills teachers find themselves at the centre of complex tensions and contradictions when it comes to delivering sexuality education in schools. as the key source of knowledge of ‘learners’ access to information about sexual and reproductive health and rights, these educators play a vital role in shaping the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of the next generation (brown, 2022). however, their ability to provide comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education is often constrained by a myriad of factors, including personal beliefs, professional identities, societal norms and policy frameworks. life skills teachers are grappling with the complex interplay of colonial sodomy laws, a recent supreme court ruling favouring sexual and gender diversity, and pervasive sociopolitical and religious tensions (zongwe, 2023). namibia’s legal and policy framework around sexuality education is characterised by contradictions and ambiguities. on the one hand, the country has made significant strides towards gender equality and non-discrimination in recent years. the namibian constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to equality and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, mixed race, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status (government of namibia, 1990). in this context, the namibian education system has struggled to provide comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education that meets the needs of all learners. the life skills curriculum, which was introduced in the early 2000s as part of the government’s hiv/aids prevention strategy, includes topics such as sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and human rights (ministry of education, arts and culture, 2016). however, the curriculum has been criticised for its limited scope, emphasis on abstinence and heterosexual marriage, and a lack of attention to sexual diversity (brown, 2022). moreover, the implementation of the life skills curriculum has been uneven and inconsistent across schools, with many teachers lacking the training, resources, and support needed to deliver effective sexuality education (awarab, 2021). moreover, the namibian society remains highly patriarchal and heteronormative, with rigid gender roles and expectations that privilege male power and heterosexual relationships (dhal, 2022). this can create a hostile environment for lgbtq learners and teachers, who may face discrimination, harassment and violence based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. it may also make it difficult for teachers to challenge sexist, homophobic or transphobic attitudes and behaviours in the classroom, as they may fear backlash from students, parents or community members (brown, 2022). despite these challenges, there are also signs of hope and resistance within the namibian education system (awarab, 2021). the recent constitutional court ruling recognising same-sex marriages performed abroad has been hailed as a landmark decision that could pave the way for greater legal and social recognition of lgbtq rights in the country (zongwe, 2023). this ruling indirectly endorses the existing life skills syllabus that calls for positive teaching and the inclusion of sexual and gender diversity in the school curriculum (brown, 2022). however, teachers are not simply passive conduits of dominant norms; they actively construct the knowledge they share with learners through their pedagogical practices and interactions (francis, 2017). the concept of cultural schemas is useful for understanding how teachers’ individual beliefs, experiences and identities shape their approach to sexuality education (bhana et al., 2023). cultural schemas are mental structures that allow individuals to organise and interpret information, guiding their perceptions, decisions and actions. these schemas are shaped by a range of factors, including personal history, cultural background, professional training and institutional context. for life skills teachers in namibia, cultural schemas related to gender, sexuality and morality may align with or conflict with the official curriculum and policies they are expected to implement. some teachers may hold traditional or religious views that emphasise abstinence, heterosexual marriage and gender binaries, while others may have more progressive or inclusive perspectives that recognise sexual and gender diversity. these schemas influence how teachers select, frame and deliver content, as well as how they respond to students’ questions, disclosures and behaviours. this study, which is informed by qualitative methodology on life skills teachers in the erongo region of namibia, explores the contentions surrounding teaching positive sexual diversity. the contentions surrounding the affirmation of sexual and gender diversity in the namibian life skills syllabus reflect the complex interplay of colonial legacies, progressive legal rulings and pervasive sociopolitical tensions. life skills educators find themselves at the forefront of this landscape, tasked with navigating their teaching responsibilities amidst these conglomerate issues. although teachers face this numerous intersectional challenges they are aware of these challenges and its inhibiting factors (awarab, 2021). they have the willingness to teach sexual diversity education provided support is accorded by school leadership and training is to enable them to carry out their task amicably (haitembu & maarman, 2023). intersectionality theory intersectionality, as a theoretical framework, provides a critical lens to examine the complex interplay of various social identities and how they intersect to shape individual experiences and create systems of oppression or privilege (crenshaw, 1991). intersectionality posits that social identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class and disability do not exist independently but are interconnected and mutually constitutive (meghani, 2023). it emphasises the need to consider the multiple, overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation that individuals may face based on their intersecting identities (collins, 2015). in the context of education, intersectionality provides a framework to analyse how various social identities and power structures shape learners’ experiences, access to resources and educational outcomes (núñez, 2014). it also highlights the importance of recognising and addressing the diverse needs and challenges of learners from marginalised communities (tefera et al., 2018). moreover, intersectionality calls attention to the role of educators in perpetuating or challenging systemic inequalities and creating inclusive learning environments (madsen et al., 2020). for life skills teachers in namibia, intersectionality is particularly relevant as they navigate the complex terrain of teaching sexuality education in a context characterised by conflicting socio-political, religious and professional pressures. on the one hand, these teachers are expected to teach a curriculum that posits diverse sexualities in a positive and affirmative manner, in line with global human rights standards and progressive educational policies (haitembu & maarman, 2023). on the other hand, they are at risk of facing resistance and backlash from conservative religious leaders, political figures and cultural custodians who view non-heterosexuality as immoral, unnatural, or un-african (brown, 2022). intersectionality highlights the multiple, intersecting pressures that namibian life skills teachers face in this context, based on their positioning within the school system and wider society. it draws attention to teachers’ ability to enact transformative pedagogy and create safe, supportive learning environments for all learners. life skills teachers in namibia may feel constrained by restrictive school policies, lack of resources and training, or pressure to conform to heteronormative curriculum standards (haitembu & maarman, 2023). they may also face resistance or backlash from school administrators, parents or community leaders who view sexuality education as controversial or inappropriate (brown, 2022). teachers were at times confronted by parent for teaching sexual diversity education (awarab, 2021). they are conflicted by their personal religious stand on sexual diversity and the call to implement and teach the topic affirmatively. a lack of training also sets a healthy ground for the perpetuation of discrimination because teachers faced a conundrum of dizzying facts, stereotypes, religious and political stands. ultimately, the goal of intersectional sexuality education in namibia should be to create a more just and equitable society, where all individuals can live freely and authentically, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or other social identities. this requires a sustained commitment from all stakeholders to challenge oppressive norms and structures, both within and beyond the education system. as life skills teachers navigate the contested terrain of sexuality education in namibia, intersectionality offers a valuable framework for understanding and addressing the complex, intersecting forms of oppression and resistance they face, while also envisioning and working towards a more inclusive and affirming future. a teacher must not only create an appreciation and understanding of their own intersectional challenges’ when addressing a given topic but also that of the community and learners. for example, their own religious, cultural, political or professional biases on sexual diversity. research methods and design this study forms part of a research project that explored namibian life skills teachers’ experiences of teaching inclusive and affirmative sexualities as stipulated in the syllabus while working in a hostile climate regarding sexual diversity. research design this qualitative study employed an interpretive paradigm, aligning with the view that perceived reality consists of people’s subjective experiences of the external world (conroy, 2003). qualitative research aims to gain a holistic understanding of the human experience through in-depth data collection (gay et al., 2012). life skills teachers’ lived experiences and perspectives were central to this research. participants’ selection purposeful sampling was used to identify and select information-rich cases for effective resource use (palinkas et al., 2015). the vastness of the erongo region necessitated the selections 10 secondary schools because each school only has one life skills teacher. five schools from the town circuit and five schools from rural circuit to get a holistic perspective of the region. schools only have one life skills teacher the only selection criteria were the teacher’s years of experience. age and ethnicity were not part of the selection criteria. data collection and analysis semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to gather data on teachers’ opinions, beliefs and feelings about sexual diversity and their experiences teaching life skills lessons in an affirmative manner despite societal dissonance (ary et al., 2006). thematic analysis was used to identify significant patterns and construct meaning from the data. codes assigned to specific transcripts and transcribed text were arranged in meaningful themes and categories. further sub-themes and subcategories were included to identify meaning connections, relationships and trends (palinkas et al., 2015). ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty of education research ethics committee (no. sem 1 2019-096). informed consent was obtained from all participants, ensuring their voluntary participation and right to withdraw at any time. confidentiality and anonymity were maintained throughout the research process (bryman, 2016). all participants were informed about confidentiality before the interview and a form was completed in this regard. they were all informed that they may withdraw at any time. their personal names and schools were not mentioned in the transcription and the data used in the article. results the findings and discussion section of this article presents religion, professionalism, stereotypes and cultural intersections; all collectively have a bearing on the provision of affirmative quality inclusive sexual diversity education provision. it encapsulates the complex challenges faced by life skills teachers in namibia when teaching inclusive sexuality education. educators, consequently, must navigate conflicting pressures and expectations from various stakeholders (crenshaw, 1991). data reveal the various conflictions and varying sources of information and perceptions teachers face when internalising. this creates uncertainty and discomfort in the classrooms resulting in disempowerment and the consequent lack of change within the community (awarab, 2021). the supreme court verdict recognising same-sex marriages officiated abroad exacerbated the existing dissonance leading to heated debates about the acceptance and inclusion of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in namibian society. this landmark ruling has created a complex environment for life skills teachers tasked with delivering comprehensive sexuality education that affirms and supports all learners, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression. discussion and analysis professionalism the national curriculum calls on teachers to provide affirmative sexual diversity education. to this end, larrabee & morehead (2010) suggest that teachers need to actualise their leadership, keep their sense of purpose alive, be reflective, action-orientated, know themselves and take responsibility for their students learning: ‘… we are the backbone of everything, we teach them things of life, how to behave not only about sexuality but also how to study. we are preparing them for life after school’. (anna, female, teacher) ‘if it is not in this syllabus than no one will talk about it and the discrimination will continue. if these kids can now be educated to accept all types of people than i think it will help.’ (anna, female, teacher) ms anna and ms tulina, female teacher, rural school show highly commendable consciousness and knowledge about the significance of life skills as a subject. they make reference that the intended changes are not periodic but life altering education, which can teach learners and society, ‘… we preparing them for life …’; ‘… they need to find themselves …’ they emphasise the essence of humanity and love and care for the other. these teachers are fully aware of their calling as teachers. this is an essential trait in a teacher’s ability to teach affirmative sexual diversity education and gives reference to their open mindedness. it also becomes clear, however, that this utterance also may emanate from their reflective realisation of the absence of accepting, caring and loving nature towards the sexually diverse members from some teachers and from the community they live in. it is clear how teacher experiences and perceptions are affected by the power structures (núñez, 2014). the professional call, lack training and resources education in namibia also creates a particularly challenging intersectional environment for life skills teachers. the intersection of their sexual orientation with their professional identity as educators creates unique challenges and vulnerabilities that can hinder their ability to advocate for inclusive sexuality education without fear of reprisal (endo et al., 2010; francis, 2017). life skills teachers face a personal and professional risk when advocating sexual diversity inclusion in a context where both beliefs and ideologies hold significant sway over societal attitudes and norms (depalma & francis, 2014; laskey & beavis, 1996). despite these challenges, some life skills teachers remain committed to promoting acceptance and inclusion of all learners, regardless of their sexual orientation. stereotypes ms. omkhai adds, ‘she was not really into lesbianism but the learners use to tease her …because of the facial hair grow … that she feels … she does not belong …,and eventually left’. ms. christine, ‘… we treat them the same …’ ms. werner warns, ‘…does not show the expected masculine characteristics … his manhood is questioned … remember is that gender is a socially constructed concept’. there are persistent stereotypical gendered lenses from which sexual diversity is perceived and judged. there are certain expectations of behaviour with pre-determined acceptable behaviour to maintain the status and ensure conformity. for example, the view that gays are feminine and lesbian are masculine stereotypes also confirmed in brown (2017). for many, sexual diversity is viewed within those binaries. this creates a tunnel view of sexual diversity and can as a result side line many who identify with the community and be highly discriminatory to those who are not. one of the respondent recalls a learner. religion from the onset namibian liberation was embedded in the humus of discrimination, with religion taking forefront, which vilified and dehumanised sexual diversity as deviant, with manifestations in schools (brown, 2017; brown & reygan, 2019; francis & brown, 2017). with independence, the country became a secular state but religious organisations and lobby groups still hold anti-gay campaigns. there is an embedded moralistic stance on sexual diversity as a result of conservative religion. teachers are in agreement that the perpetuation of religious views contributes to discriminatory behaviour and inhibits the teaching process. this inadvertently influences teachers views and practices affecting inclusive learning environments (madsen et al., 2020): ‘there is nothing wrong with being attracted to the same sex because the person is created like. one problem though is when it comes to the practice thereof or to involve yourself in a relationship i will advise them that that is wrong.’ (werner, female, teacher) ‘[o]ur religion dominates because you will find that at some churches they will preach that you commit a sin against god. this message is reinforced by the parents who also tell their kids the same.’ (hendrina, female, teacher) the conflictions that teachers face are flagrant, despite the realisation of the significance of the topic in the curriculum. ms. werner holds reservations to the practice of sexual diversity and the need for certain degree of compromise based heteronormative religious stand. she stands by her beliefs, which contradict the possible attainment of intended affirmative teaching of sexual diversity education (sde). she stands by religiously dominant norms (rekis, 2023). a level of helplessness is also expressed by ms hendrina because of the hegemonies seeded in religion and resultant conformity with the community. these reservations are also indicative of the discomfort expressed by teachers. there is a clear war between religion and the teachers call. this creates silence on the discourse of sexual diversity and gender: ‘i think they are just using it, ok i am not familiar with the bible like i told you but i want somebody just to come and show me verses …’ (sara, female, teacher) ‘yes, they will always bring in the bible, god created adam and eve you see those kind of things. it’s a debate that i always have that we are all created by god and are equal in the eyes of god. who told us that which one is normal, and which one is abnormal?’ (usuta, female, teacher) the view that heteronormativity draws strength from religious dominance and vilifies sexual diversity (mayeza & vincent, 2018) is evident in the current discussion. the conflictions in both teachers’ views above are manifested; they question their views depending on hegemonic pressure. ms. usuta challenges normativity. these are restrictive intersectional challenges teachers face when implementing policies having the understanding that we live in a secular state where the custodians of rule and law contradict the very constitution they swore to protect. these views are the basis for prejudice and discrimination supported by religion (francis, 2017). on the contrary, this intersectionality should drive social justice through awareness of diversity. ultimately, the collusion between religious and political forces in suppressing diverse sexual orientations is evident. politicians use religion as their basis to make a case for the supposed immorality of sexual diversity. this is complicated by the fact that namibia is a secular state, which implies a separation between religion and government: ‘namibia is a secular state. there are so many things that we do that the bible say we should do so mixing religion with learning in a secular state may create a lot of confusion because the bible is the foundation on which we base teaching and learning.’ (sara, female, teacher) this highlights the inherent tension between the constitutional principles of a secular state and the pervasive influence of religious beliefs and political ideologies on education and public discourse (dinham & shaw, 2017; rosik et al., 2007): ‘[o]ur religion dominates because you will find that at some churches they will preach that you commit a sin against god. this message is reinforced by the parents who also tell their kids the same. most people in namibia practice christianity. anything you do and say that is not in line with christianity will get you in trouble with the masses.’ (hendrina, female, teacher) the close alignment between religious and political discourses creates a hostile environment for life skills teachers attempting to promote acceptance and inclusion of all learners, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. the backlash from religious leaders and political office bearers against the supreme court verdict and the teaching of inclusive sexuality education has made it increasingly difficult for life skills teachers to address topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity in a positive and affirming manner: ‘since the court case so many church leaders have spoken about same sex as evil and an abomination. now if i say to the learners than it is okay to be gay, lesbian, or transgender while religious leaders continue to make these remarks than my classroom will turn into chaos.’ (werner, female, teacher) life skills teachers are found in a precarious position, caught between their professional responsibility to deliver comprehensive sexuality education and the intense pressure from religious and political forces to conform to traditional, heteronormative views of sexuality and gender. the impact of the collusion between religious and political forces on teaching sexuality education in namibia is further complicated by the fact that the country’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression and prohibits discrimination in any form of identity (mendos, 2019). however, the pervasive influence of traditional cultural values and the resistance of religious leaders and political office bearers to inclusive sexuality education has created a climate in which these constitutional protections are not always upheld in practice (mujuzi, 2023). culture cultures highlighted that: ‘… like some topics are a big taboo. in some cultures you cannot talk to your arents about sex, let alone sexual orientation’. (omkhai, female, teacher) ‘in some cultures, it is a taboo and they don’t want to accept the choice of the child.’ (sara, female, teacher) the narrative of sexual diversity being un-african also resonates with that of many namibians, who are anti-gay campaigning. it is clear that over the years religious doctrines became enshrined in the day-to-day lives of people to point out that there is a thin line between traditional culture and religion. the argument that it is taboo is most religiously driven. this is evident in the justification by anti-gay lobby groups. for the teachers, the respondents who are from highly integrated community, this seems not to be shared by all ethnic groups in the country. there are nuanced differences as stated next. these different positionalities set rather challenging grounds for teachers in the classroom. as learners come from different ethnic groups, which hold varying views synergising these stands could be challenging: ‘for example in my ovaherero culture being gay is a taboo … believe … is the same for the oshiwambo culture. i don’t think damaras, tswanas and coloureds have problems with homosexuality.’ (sara, female, teacher) ‘like in most cultures let me speak from the khoekhoe point of view. they are very open about it.’ (omkhai, female, teacher) culture can thus inhibit teachers from expressing themselves and from being comfortable. teachers would therefore not know how to prepare themselves for the lesson. the work covered on the topic would remain mediocre in some cases and not at levels where change could be expected (awarab, 2021). however, the pervasive influence of cultural rhetoric on societal attitudes towards sexuality and gender diversity in namibia means that life skills teachers often must navigate these sensitive topics with great care and sensitivity. as such, life skills teachers often must make difficult compromises in order to avoid backlash from traditional leaders (francis & mcewen, 2024). these findings underscore the urgent need for greater dialogue and collaboration between educators, religious leaders, political leaders and other influential stakeholders in namibia, to create a more inclusive and affirming environment for lgbtq+ learners and educators. they also highlight the importance of using intersectionality as a theoretical framework to explore the complex and intersecting challenges faced by educators who advocate for sexual diversity in contexts where religious and political forces collude to suppress diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. ultimately, only by working together to promote a more inclusive and equitable vision of sexuality and gender diversity can we create a society where all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, are treated with dignity, respect and equality. conclusion this article aimed to explore the complex and challenging environment namibian life skills teachers navigate in their efforts to deliver comprehensive sexuality education that affirms and supports all learners, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. utilising intersectionality theory, the study examined how the collusion between religious and political forces in suppressing diverse sexual orientations and gender identities has created a climate of fear and uncertainty for many teachers, who face significant personal and professional risks in advocating for lgbtq+ inclusion. the findings demonstrate that life skills teachers in namibia are caught between their professional responsibility to deliver inclusive sexuality education and the intense pressure from religious and political forces to conform to traditional, heteronormative views of sexuality and gender. despite these challenges, some teachers remain committed to promoting acceptance and inclusion of all learners, challenging the dominant narratives of heteronormativity and sin that pervade namibian society. given the potential for political officials to revoke the affirmative and inclusive sexuality components in the life skills curriculum, it is crucial to develop strategies that mitigate these risks while still promoting inclusive education. recommendations include: fostering dialogue and collaboration between educators, religious leaders, political leaders and other influential stakeholders to create a more inclusive and affirming environment for lgbtq+ learners and educators. providing comprehensive training and support for life skills teachers to build their capacity to deliver inclusive sexuality education and navigate the complex sociopolitical landscape. developing alternative educational resources and support networks for lgbtq+ learners and educators, such as community-based organisations and online platforms, to ensure access to inclusive information and support even if the curriculum is altered. training and support to school leadership on sexual diversity education by adopting a multifaceted approach that combines dialogue, capacity building, advocacy and alternative support systems, namibian educators and activists can work towards creating a more inclusive and equitable society for all, while navigating the challenges posed by the current sociopolitical climate. ultimately, the goal must be to promote a vision of sexuality and gender diversity where all individuals are treated with dignity, respect and equality, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. although the findings cannot be generalised to the other 13 regions in namibia it draws on significant areas of the life skills subject and the areas that need focus. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge prof. anthony brown for his guidance and support. this article is partially based on the author’s thesis entitled ‘namibian life skills educators’ exeperiences of teaching affirmative sexual diversity education’ towards the degree of doctor of philosophy in education in the educational department of educational psychology at the university of johannesburg, south africa in august 2021, with supervisor prof. anthony brown. it is available here: https://www.proquest.com/openview/727d18274c13ac98d256ca2d8f39d173/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026366&diss=y. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.r.a. wrote the article and a.b., acted as supervisor. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency 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(2018). intersectionality in education: a conceptual aspiration and research imperative. review of research in education, 42(1), vii–xvii. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x18768504 van klinken, a. (2015). christianity and same-sex relationships in africa. in e. chitando & a. van klinken (eds.), christianity and controversies over homosexuality in contemporary africa (pp. 1–16). routledge. zongwe, d.p. (2023). digashu and another v grn and others; seiler-lilles and another v grn and others (sa 6/2022; sa 7/2022)[2023] nasc 14 (16 may 2023). saipar case review, 6(1), 6–18. abstract introduction literature review theoretical framework research methods and design results and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) henry j. nichols department of education foundations, faculty of education, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation nichols, h.j. (2023). school principals’ responses in creating an inclusive schooling space for gender and sexual diverse learners. african journal of career development, 5(1), a95. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.95 original research school principals’ responses in creating an inclusive schooling space for gender and sexual diverse learners henry j. nichols received: 04 may 2023; accepted: 18 aug. 2023; published: 16 oct. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: numerous policies and initiatives of south african department of basic education mandate principals to ensure inclusive school spaces to support and cater for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer or questioning (lgbtiq) learners. yet, heterosexual and cisgender youth are still valorised by principals as the only gender and sexual category in schools. objectives: drawing on the social justice leadership theory, this article aimed to add to the conversation on how school principals in their leadership positions can enable a safe and inclusive schooling space for learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. methods: principals are mandated to collaborate with the community and parents such as the school governing body (sgb), thus the attitudes and responses of these principals through the narratives of parents of lgbtiq children were examined. as part of a qualitative study, individual interviews were conducted with six parents in the free state and gauteng provinces of south africa, and the data were analysed thematically. results: the results of this study showed that the principals did not comply with any of these policy requirements or responsibilities and willingly ignored them. conclusion: expanding lgbtiq content in educational leadership training is a necessary step to convince school leaders that lgbtiq awareness and inclusion are necessary for creating a positive and inclusive schooling climate. contribution: this study provided reasons for principals to disrupt normative ideas of gender and sexual diversity and the effect of their silence and ignorance. keywords: principals; lgbtiq youth; gender and sexual diversity; heteronormativity; cisnormativity; inclusive education; social justice leadership. introduction school principals in south africa are being compelled by influential policies and laws to reconsider their approach towards establishing and advocating for a secure, comprehensive, and supportive educational environment for students of different genders and sexual orientations. some of these policies and legislative work include the policy on the south african standard for principalship (sasp) (2015), the south african schools act (sasa), 1984 (act no. 84 of 1996), child justice act, 2008 (act no. 74 of 2008), white paper 6 on special needs education (2001) etc. the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer or questioning (lgbtiq) youth are protected under these policies and legislative frameworks and deliberate attempts have been made by the department of basic education (dbe), through the policies and legislative frameworks as mentioned, to create safe and inclusive schooling spaces for these minority youth by acknowledging them. however, payne and smith (2018) found in the context of the united states (us), that school principals as institutional and organisational leaders still resist and avoid lgbtiq youth and their mental health. they also revealed that school principals resist the conversation around school responsibilities to not only the learners but also their families. according to bishop (2012), principals resist the notion of inclusive and equal education because of their own biases. to respond to this resistance, progressive policies and legislation, which the department of education (doe) needs to be commended for, heteronormativity and heterosexism still exist. several challenges have hindered the effective implementation of these policies and where space is allowed for principals to ignore these required policies. as with many inclusive education policies and legislations, there are still discrepancies between policy and practice. these include addressing issues of compulsory gender binaries and marginalisation of gender and sexual minority youth. the stigmatisation, marginalisation, and discrimination of lgbtiq youth are well documented and associated with many health and social inequalities both in south africa and around the globe (bhana, 2012; francis & msibi, 2011; msibi, 2012). cisnormativity, as a structure, dominates south african schools and is reflected in the regulation of everyday practices such as hairstyles, bathrooms, and school uniforms (francis, 2021; francis & monakali, 2021; haffejee & wiebesiek, 2021; msibi, 2012). this study is not negating the importance of prior research on gender identity and sexual orientation in youth comprehensive sexuality education. however, the focus is on the duties, responsibilities, and practices of school principals and their heteroand cis-normative ideologies rather than rehashing the same conversation about the lives of the lgbtiq youth, the teaching of comprehensive sexuality in schools, and the exclusion of gender and sexual diversity in schools. as francis (2023) underscores, the existence of institutionalised practices sets hetero and cisgender learners apart from the rest of the school. a limited empirical research explicitly addresses school principals’ efforts to create more inclusive school environments for lgbtiq learners. studies have been conducted that focused on principals who identify themselves as socially just leaders (albritton et al., 2017). however, little attention has been given to principals who resist social change in their schools, specifically including gender and sexually diverse learners. the inability of school management, and specifically school principals, to respond, engage with, and challenge a homophobic and transphobic schooling culture is a vital reason behind this study (francis, 2023). this article addresses the key question: how do school principals position and respond to enable a socially just school culture that is safe and inclusive and affirming for learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations? the following sections that are included in the study are: literature review, theoretical framework, research methodology and design, results, discussion, and finally recommendations and conclusions. literature review the literature review will address two main topics: the description of mandated principalship policies and the role of principals as leaders promoting social justice. mandated principalship policy descriptors identifying ways in which principals assist lgbtiq learners has become increasingly critical as more learners experience daily oppression at schools. queer youth experience marginalisation (butler & astbury, 2008) and victimisation (mostert, gordon & kriegler, 2015; harris & farrington, 2014). lgbtiq youth’s experiences of marginalisation,(butler & astbury, 2008) and victimisation (gordon & kriegler, 2015; harris & farrington, 2014) are documented in this article. incidents of homophobia and transphobia dominate the field of gender and sexuality studies in schools (francis, 2023). many progressive policy and legislation changes such as policy on the sasp (2015), the south african schools act (sasa), 1984 (act no. 84 of 1996), child justice act, 2008 (act no. 74 of 2008), white paper 6 on special needs education, (2001) etc., are set in place to put pressure on school principals to ensure safe and inclusive schools as well as for parents to have a voice in the schooling of their children. however, even after the employment of a sequence of inclusive education policies post-1994, several challenges have stalled the effective execution of these policies in south africa. one is that school principals avoid the existence and identity of the lgbtiq community. the sasp aims at establishing a clear and agreed understanding of the expectations from school leadership and management, and working towards inclusivity and equality. furthermore, the sasp emphasises the core values as underpinned by the constitution of the republic of south and the transformational goals of the south african education system. in the sasp document, the dbe highlights the critical role that school principals play in enabling and maintaining a schooling environment of safe and inclusive schooling spaces for learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, working against heteronormativity and heterosexism. however, a culture of discrimination and marginalisation remains where principals remain in powerful positions of patriarchy and act as active agents to promote a culture of heteroand cis-normativity. the sasp, in line with other policy initiatives as mentioned earlier, is designed to improve professional standards of leadership and management for the benefit of all learners and the quality of the education service. according to sasa, all learners have the right to access meaningful learning experiences and opportunities and the school community has the right to a safe and secure learning environment. the well-being of all learners must be fostered within the school and the wider community, which according to the sasp, is the responsibility of the school principal. even with the policy and legislative support, lgbtiq youths still experience high levels of institutional and interpersonal discrimination. principals as social justice leaders are in the position to counter heteroand cis-normativity in schools (francis, 2023). as with heterosexuality, cisgender, that is, aligning gender and sexual identity with biological sex and societal norms, is recognised and privileged in schools. research shows that lgbtiq learners report higher levels of discrimination, bullying, victimisation, depression, alcohol use, and drug use than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. high degrees of discrimination against homosexual and transgender youth point to the privilege of the heterosexual and cisgender world. therefore, school principals have the ideal opportunity to fulfil their duty of establishing a secure and fair educational environment for young individuals who identify as lgbtiq. principals as social justice leaders principals have a large influence on creating a non-violent and positive climate for the schools they serve, free of personal biases and ignorance. nevertheless, the actual situation does not always align with this notion, as discussions around gender and sexual diversity tend to be frequently disputed and sidestepped within schools (depalma & atkinson, 2006). this is also because of the fear that gender and sexuality are not appropriate in schools and the curriculum. principals as government employees are required to ensure that all learners have equal education in a safe learning and socially just environment. a socially just school climate benefits all learners by playing a key role in the acceptance of difference and in lessening the threats associated with being considered as different, strengthening the potential for positive identity development. according to brown (2006), it is expected for principals to challenge their views and values. the leadership of the principal is one of the most important variables in a school reform towards a safe and inclusive schooling environment. schools are expected to become centres of reform, change, and transformation, and it is the principal who is responsible to navigate it in such a matter institutionally and culturally. the principal’s leadership position sets the tone for what are acceptable behaviour and practices by establishing and enforcing school policies, connecting with the teachers and parents, and leading the school towards a socially just and positive school climate. the sasp is underpinned, among other roles and duties, by the following educational and social values, which need to be upheld : the principal should acknowledge that a variety of sexual orientations exist among their learners and ensure that there is respect for the orientation and identity of every learner. the principal should create systems that will build relationships. the principal should involve parents and communities involved in the school for suggestions about how to change and improve processes and situations at the school. theoretical framework the social justice leadership theory explores factors that preserve social inequities and oppression and propose solutions to address these issues. school leaders who utilise this lens of emancipation, challenge the assumptions behind school policies and traditional exclusive school practices. the author has used the social justice leadership theory by disseminating the position that school principals critically and continuously evaluate the use and abuse of power, discover how leadership practices enable and promote the perpetuation of inequities, and actively seek to transform those inequities into equity for all learners (wang, 2018). using foster’s (1989) idea of social justice leadership, the author considers how socially just leaders in schools wield power by concentrating on diverse school learners and providing an inclusive and safe learning environment. according to foster’s (1989) theory, school leadership is about people and relationships to battle oppressive structures that are present within schools. foster also recognises that leading for social justice cannot be accomplished by a single person, but rather requires collaborative efforts from school leadership, learners, and the community. being a leader in promoting social justice is however a complex undertaking and often involves confronting substantial systemic obstacles and encountering resistance on a broad scale. as found in the study by albritton et al. (2017), principals failed to utilise their positions of authority to support, acknowledge, or advocate for lgbtiq learners. brooks et al. (2007) concur that social justice leadership is a process that is constantly reconstructed in response to evolving requirements in the educational system. this article engaged with the social justice leadership theory, and argues that principals and leaders who encourage their schooling spaces to move from exclusive to inclusive by employing both practice and policy, can be leaders working towards social justice (dematthews, 2015; shields & hesbol, 2019). social justice leadership promotes and actively engages in the ideals of inclusiveness and equity as well as fighting against any form of social injustices or exclusions. social justice leadership also believes in distributive leadership where the education of a child is not only limited to that of the school but also the parents and community. research methods and design this study explored how school principals resist and avoid discussions on the inclusiveness of sexual and gender-diverse learners. a qualitative research design by using parents’ experiences with principals regarding the inclusion of their children with lgbtiq identities was employed. the narratives of these parents served to analyse, describe, and understand their experiences with principals in terms of the discriminatory school culture their children face (mostert gordon & kriegler, 2006). in this study, a phenomenological method was used to explore and describe these lived experiences of six parents. the narratives of the parents were collected through semi-structured interviews. there were however strict criteria for these parents to participate in the study: the parent had to be aware of their child’s lgbtiq identity as a school child the parent had to be aware of any form of discrimination or exclusion towards their lgbtiq child in the schooling space the parent had to have consulted or intervened with the school principal regarding this discrimination and exclusion. the participants of this study had the opportunity to share their personal firsthand experiences with the principals and raise their views on the responses from the principals upon raising issues that their lgbtiq children are experiencing under their leadership. this study was conducted in the free state and gauteng provinces of south africa. therefore, purposive sampling based on the criteria of parents affirming and embracing their children with self-reported ‘non-normative’ gender identity and sexual orientation was utilised. to represent the diversity of south africa, the population was heterogeneous in terms of race, language, location, and socioeconomic status of both the principals and parents. table 1 presents a summary of the participants’ biographical information. following braun and clarke’s (2006) model of thematic analysis, data were analysed in a stepwise process. the information underwent a systematic process of examination, starting with a thorough review of the interviews with the six parents. common themes and recurring patterns in the descriptions and perceptions of the parents and their interactions with the principals were identified. themes were then identified. table 1: a summary of participants’ biographical information. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty of education research ethics committee (no. rec-110613-036). the purpose of the study was explained verbally, and the same information was also included in the informed consent form signed by the participants. results and discussion the findings highlighted the array of ways in which school principals contest and avoid conversations and opportunities for lgbtiq youth and their parents. the findings revealed that these parents were starting to put more pressure on schools and school principals to acknowledge and affirm the diversity of gender identity and sexual orientation. the data obtained from the participants were examined and analysed, and the following themes arose from the collected data: school principal’s hegemonic responses to gender and sexual diversity inclusion; principal’s perspectives on heterosexual and cisnormative school environments; and lastly, the inclusion of lgbtiq students in schools and the key expectations of parents. theme 1: school principal’s hegemonic responses to gender and sexual diversity inclusion against the sasp backdrop and objectives, this article was concerned with investigating the network of power that is implicated in how high school principals negotiate the terms of regulated gender and sexuality norms and behaviour. conversations about sexual and gender diversity remain contested and avoided (depalma & atkinson, 2006). with regard to the hegemonic and patriarchal positions of these principals, they not only denied the bullying culture in their schools but also protected and defended the hetero and cisnormative acts of learners and teachers: ‘the principal was not serious about the matter. it is his job to protect my child. my son was very upset that he was part of the girls’ side of the class register. she [the teacher] first calls the learners according to their gender, boys on one side and girls on the other. whenever his [her son’s] name was called from the girls’ side the whole class would start laughing. that made me furious, and i went to see the principal about this and other cases of bullying in his school. i addressed the matter with the principal, and he said that he will speak to the teacher. i asked that the teacher calls the learners out in alphabetical order. this only lasted one week.’ (parent 1, intersex son, johannesburg) these narratives underscore how the principals entertained the ridicule of these minority groups of learners and promoted the concept of segregation and gender binaries in their schools as seen from the given narrative. as read in the response from parent 1, there was not much done about the case since ‘it only lasted one week’. when the parent was asked what they expected from the principal, the participant said with confidence that she expected the principal to address this issue and execute his moral obligation as a leader as seen from the narrative, this was not the case. there was thus resistance and avoidance around the inclusion and protection of the intersex child. this is aligned with the study conducted by mckenzie et al. (2008) where they suggest that a principal is expected to ensure an equitable and fair environment within the school that benefits all students. parent 1 was however not the only one with these experiences. parent 2 added the following: ‘my son was so scared and cried every day to go to school. i then decided to speak to the principal and ask for his help. i was surprised by his response. before i could even start explaining my reason for the meeting, he started with my son, his bad attitude, and that he received complaints that he [the son] goes to the girls’ bathrooms. i knew about this because my son gets bullied in the boys’ bathrooms. he said that it is unsafe for the girls when he is in there and that it is against school policy. he [the principal] said that he wasn’t aware of this bullying thing and said he [the son] must go to the bathrooms that he is supposed to go to. by the response of this principal, it is clear that he was aware of the bullying and only provided this information after the parental intervention.’ (parent 2, gay son, qwaqwa) as with parent 1, parent 2 continued with their expectation of a school principal being a social justice leader. the issue of the bathroom is especially important because this gay learner felt that he had no choice but to go to the girls’ bathroom for his safety. instead of addressing the issue of the safety of the learner, the principal rather focused on the ‘bad attitude’ and ‘complaints’ of the boy: ‘… [h]e [son] told us about the bullying, teasing, and that no one is helping him [son]. it wasn’t something that we as parents wanted to hear. my son did report all of this to his register teachers. he was so so scared. when i heard that the teacher knew, i went to the principal about this …’ (parent 6, gay son, bloemfontein) many examples in the data were found where five of the six principals knew about the bullying and did nothing to support the child. it was however never reported to the parents. this supports the extant literature where school principals’ reactions to homophobic bullying are largely ineffectual and observed as either inadequately responding to incidents or failing to respond at all (painter & keaney, 2009). as a result, these principals did not display a readiness to disrupt unfair structures and practices in their schools and did not adhere to a social justice agenda: ‘i thought this was the new south africa where we appreciate and accommodate the school learners regardless of their gender identity. her situation was different. the school years had simply become too much for us as parents, so i just wanted them to be over. although painful, we accepted her dropping out. she couldn’t take it anymore. my child and i suffered from this as a result. the principal ignoring our cries for aid made the situation worse.’ (parent 3, intersex daughter, johannesburg) as observed from all six of the parents, the principals did not express their thoughts or provide any feedback regarding the well-being of their child or any form of inclusive education, nor did they discuss what actions will be taken to combat any form of discrimination in their school. theme 2: principal’s perspective on heterosexual and cisnormative school environments it was clearly articulated by the parents that there was strong resistance and ambiguity towards education and social reforms. instead of following their required duties, as set in the sasp and other policy and legislative documents, the lack of interest and responsiveness caused three of the six lgbtiq learners to drop out of school. none of these learners finished grade 10 (ages between 15 and 16). the consequence of the schools’ responsiveness (or lack of) and denial of diverse gender and sexualities did not only affect the psychological well-being of the learners but also severely hampered their education and career. according to mckenzie et al. (2008), all students should have equal access to education, and it is critical to recognise the connection between academic success, critical awareness, and inclusive practices. as indicated, this was not the case because the parent of a lesbian daughter responded as follows: ‘i spoke to the principal about the persistent bullying. the principal abruptly began complaining about my daughter’s disruptive behaviour and that it is unacceptable. he also said that i need to speak to her since her teachers told him that her grades were rapidly declining. i followed up by asking if he knew about the bullying and said that he has not heard any such allegations. i knew he was lying.’ (parent 4, lesbian daughter, bloemfontein) from the narrative of parent 4 it is evident that the principal specifically mentioned the decline of her grades. this implies that not only was the principal aware of the bullying but also of how it affected the learner’s academics. school victimisation on the basis of sexual orientation severely impairs academic performance of school youths, resulting in school failure, lower grades, drop out, and limited life opportunities that curb vocational and career development and undermine their human potential (mostert gordon & kriegler, 2006, brown, 2017; brown & diale, 2017): ‘our son took part in fights. it was funny to us because at home he never showed any signs of aggression. it was only after we spoke to our son that he told us that the other kids are calling him names and pushing him around. he said that the teacher has seen this. we received no such information from the school.’ (parent 2, gay son, qwaqwa) as observed from the narratives of 5 of the 6 parents, the focus of the principals was poor behaviours, ill-discipline, and poor academic performance, but they never considered the reason for ‘acting out’. the principals stringently opposed the advancement of gender and diverse learners because of their systemic institutional reservations. the parents specifically pointed out that the strategy of the principals was to abuse their power and silence their concerns, and support the ideals of heterosexuality and cisgenderism as the only sexual orientation and gender identities. the involvement of the principal has been identified and explained as having a significant impact on the creation of a fair and equitable school climate (seashole louis et al., 2010). theme 3: inclusion of lgbtiq learners in schoolskey expectations of parents the principal bears the duty of establishing and initiating parental support in spearheading the battle for equality among all learners (karpinski & lugg, 2006). the parents of the lgbtiq children did put pressure on the school and specifically the school principal to provide equal education opportunities for their children. there was an expectation from all participating parents that the school principal and school leadership will listen and work with them in enabling a safe and socially just schooling space and to listen and work with them in stopping the bullying of their child. however, this was not the case with these parents and the school principals. these parents were dismissed, ignored, vilified, and the principals did not comply with the policy and legislative mandate. reporting to and keeping parents informed about their children is a duty, according to the sasa and sasp, of the principal. an example of this was given by one of the participant: ‘my son told me of the bullying in the bathrooms. there was a lot of scuffling and name-calling that cause huge unhappiness. i went to the school to ask how they could help. the principal said it is new to them and they will consult with the district office. i thought this information was part of becoming a teacher. it must be.’ (parent 5, transgender son, qwaqwa) there was a lack of awareness, as expressed by parent 5, following the principal referring it back to the district office as well as stating that he is not aware of any bullying, but only of the problems that the child is bringing forward. all 6 of the parents mentioned the lack of moral obligations and expectations of the principals. parent 6 went on to say: ‘i was disappointed, surprised, and angry at the same time. i expected the teacher and principal to be compassionate and protect my son. that didn’t happen. they ignored him and our calls for help. he was all alone.’ (parent 6, gay son, bloemfontein) from these parents’ responses, it was clear that there was no social justice vision in the school and for their children. parent 2 uttered her frustration and helplessness stating that: ‘nothing changed after meeting with the school and explaining the bullying.’ the bullying persisted. i reasoned that moving my child would help the situation. we were attempting to protect him from being bullied, discriminated against, and treated differently. he attended three different high schools. we now realise that it was not the solution to the problem. perhaps it made matters worse for him. he wasn’t pleased with any of them.’ (parent 2, gay son, qwaqwa) according to theoharis (2007), principals who are driven to work for social justice in their schools highlighted intentional and real communication as critical to creating relationships with parents and the community. as seen from the narratives of the parents, this was not the case. these narratives confirm that heteronormativity and heterosexism are still pervasive in the schooling context where sexuality and gender are constructed as a single and correct entity (msibi, 2012). this study projects a gloomy picture of the impact of the principals’ non-compliance and reluctance to get involved in the schooling of homosexual and transgender youth. deacon et al. (1999) correctly state that the contention is that principals frequently clash with progressive policies in the country when it comes to their perspective on democracy and transformation, as they tend to cling to traditional patriarchal beliefs and religious ideologies. these narratives from the parents show the expectations and the necessity for socially just leadership working towards a socially fair and inclusive schooling space for their lgbtiq children. conclusion the perspectives of principals who assume democratic ideals are critical in the quest of social justice in schools (wang, 2018). this article echoes ryan’s (2006) finding in the sense that there is considerable reason to be worried about social justice in today’s schools. this article has attempted to address the resistance of school principals towards a social just, inclusive, and safe schooling space for gender and sexual diverse school learners. this study made an important point: school principals do not believe in fostering fairness and justice through policy and practices, as discussed in the literature review. school principals are also in the position to counter heteronormative and heterosexist perspectives in schools and collaborate with parents as partners to combat a school culture of oppression because of diverse gender and sexualities. recommendations the study recommends an increase in lgbtiq content in the training of principals, which is necessary for convincing school principals that gender and sexual diversity competence is necessary for creating a safe, inclusive, and enabling schooling space. principals should have a clear understanding of the meaning of social justice and need to be educated on both preservice and in-service level education. principals should be aware of the requirements, as stipulated in the policy, of inclusive education and should be able to support learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. professional development can significantly increase the development of the awareness of lgbtiq learners and their needs. school principals should also recognise that creating a socially just schooling space is critical to the school’s responsibility to support the academic achievements of all learners. by challenging the assumptions about their students and the parents they cater to, school principals can gain a better understanding of the needs and experiences of lgbtiq learners, which can inform their daily decision-making. by doing this, the principals will be able to better understand and identify the functioning of gender and sexual norms in their schools through knowledge. limitations to the study however include the small sample size and also that the responses were limited to that of the parents. therefore, the findings of this article cannot be generalised. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions h.j.n. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data retrieved and used for this article is kept safe by the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author and the publisher. references albritton, s., huffman, s., & mcclellan, r. 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(2007). social justice educational leaders and resistance: toward a theory of social justice leadership. educational administration quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. wang, f. (2018). social justice leadership theory and practice: a case of ontario. educational administration quarterly, 54(3), 470–498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161x18761341 abstract introduction objectives research methods and design experimental procedure measures results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mkpoikanke s. otu department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa maximus m. sefotho department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation otu, m.s., & sefotho, m.m. (2024). increasing graduates’ employability skills through rational emotive career coaching. african journal of career development, 6(1), a106. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.106 original research increasing graduates’ employability skills through rational emotive career coaching mkpoikanke s. otu, maximus m. sefotho received: 05 oct. 2023; accepted: 11 mar. 2024; published: 27 may 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the high level of non-employability among graduates could be attributed to insufficient career coaching programmes in higher education institutions. objectives: this study examined whether rational emotive career coaching (recc) increases graduates’ employability skills. the study also explored the effect of recc on acquiring employability skills by gender. methods: a group-randomised trial (grt) design was used to examine the outcomes of a training programme in enugu state aimed at improving career beliefs and employability skills. a total of 158 participants were randomised into either the control or treatment groups. the career belief patterns scale, version 2, and the employability skills acquisition scale (esas) were used to collect data. a pretest was administered during the first week, followed by a post-test after the eighth week, followed by a follow-up one month after the intervention ended. data were analysed using multivariate analysis of covariance (mancova). results: according to the results obtained, participants in the recc intervention acquired significant employability skills. graduates’ employability skills acquisition does not appear to be affected by gender and treatments. conclusion: this study concludes that recc enhances graduates’ employability skills effectively. graduating students who acquire the skills to identify and dispute their irrational beliefs are empowered to make informed career choices and acquire skills that are highly valued today. contribution: this article contributes to the growing body of research supporting rational emotive coaching as a valuable intervention for graduates seeking a competitive edge in the job market. keywords: employability skills; rational emotive career coaching; irrational beliefs; graduates; nigeria; africa. introduction large numbers of graduates in nigeria and other countries are unemployed. in this case, there may be a number of perpetuating factors. the most pronounced factor, however, is the inability to acquire employability skills coupled with irrational career thoughts. graduates with irrational thoughts may avoid taking progressive steps towards achieving career goals, according to paivandy et al. (2008). in the same way, they may avoid acquiring information on skills while internalising information that supports a negative opinion and then seeking negative or irrational evidence to back it up. according to studies, individuals with negative career thoughts are less likely to gain employability skills (mertler et al., 2021). it may therefore be possible for graduates with negative career thoughts to also have poor employability skills. the concept of irrational beliefs refers to negative thoughts and attitudes among graduates with regard to a career. among these beliefs are beliefs that ‘finding a job is difficult’, ‘employment is through whom one knows’, ‘the economy is bad and we cannot do anything’; ‘it is difficult to be an entrepreneur’; ‘older people hate younger ones’; ‘wicked individuals are attacking youths’; ‘young people do not have the opportunity to rule’; ‘graduates deserve white collar jobs’, among others (otu & omeje, 2021). in some cases, these thoughts may manifest as overgeneralisations, as graduates may generalise negative experiences from their past or from limited exposure to the workplace. consequently, they become convinced that their chosen career path is not well suited to them. there is also an irrational belief known as all-or-nothing thinking, in which graduates view situations as either entirely positive or entirely negative without taking into consideration the possibilities for growth and improvement. irrational beliefs about labelling are also prevalent. the term refers to the situation where graduates may label themselves as failures or inadequate when confronted with challenges or setbacks. they are hindered in their ability to bounce back and develop resilience as a result of this. further, mind-reading is considered to be an irrational belief, which occurs when graduates project their own negative thoughts and fears onto others, resulting in confusion and strained relationships at work. furthermore, excessive worrying is a sign of an irrational belief, which indicates that graduates are suffering from excessive anxiety. in addition to making it difficult for them to focus on tasks, it hinders their ability to solve problems (ifeanyieze et al., 2021; mkpoikanke et al., 2021a, 2021b; ogbuanya et al., 2018). based on this, it was assumed that high levels of dysfunctional career beliefs would result in low levels of employability skills (otu & omeje, 2021). employability skills, according to paadi (2014), include personal attributes that make an individual more likely to secure employment they are satisfied with. a graduate’s ability to perform effectively on any job depends on skills such as general, professional and skills (ju et al., 2012). skills associated with employability include teamwork, communication, self-management, analysis, critical thinking, adaptive skills, transferrable skills and self-reliance (jackson, 2013). in terms of operation, employability skills are the skills that graduates need in order to be effective in the workplace. these skills were organised into three categories by the researchers. team-working skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills and leadership skills fall under the first category of people skills. a second category of skills is self-reliance, which includes self-awareness, proactive skills, willingness to learn, self-promotion, networking and planning skills. a third category is general employment skills, which include problem-solving, critical thinking, creative thinking, flexibility, business acumen, computer literacy, technological skills, numeracy skills, commitment skills and skills for applying for jobs, such as writing a sellable curriculum vitae, cover letter and interviewing. many tertiary institutions fail to emphasise employability skills acquisition despite the importance of such skills. according to bridgstock (2017), schools do not adequately emphasise the acquisition of employability skills. graduating with low employability skills results in low employment rates (jackson, 2013). additionally, traditional tertiary education does not adequately prepare students for employment (hennemann & liefner, 2010). these factors result in a large number of nigerian graduates who lack the necessary skills for employment and entrepreneurship (paadi, 2014). graduating students with first-degree certificates who cannot find a job within 2–3 years return to school to obtain higher degrees, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, hoping that higher degrees will make finding a job easier. in spite of the fact that there are job vacancies in the country, many graduates are still unemployed (agaba, 2019; sodipo, 2014). as nigerian employers seek to establish an international presence, they are competing in the global market with high expectations. because of this development, the competition for employing workers with high employability skills has grown even more fierce (okpara, 2016). thus, individuals with low employability skills are less likely to find employment. the job market has undergone significant changes in recent years, and the advent of new technologies has only intensified this trend. with the rise of automation, artificial intelligence (ai), and digitisation, the demand for workers with high employability skills has become increasingly crucial. as a result, graduates with low employability skills face increased challenges in securing employment. the lack of employability skills acquisition in enugu state in particular has left many individuals with little chance of being employed or starting their own business (agboeze & ugwoke, 2013). the major concern is that most people are unwilling to learn employability skills that would make them employable because of their personal thoughts and beliefs. this study utilises the concept of rational emotive behaviour theory developed by albert ellis in 1955. from the perspective of this theory, the interpretation or thoughts recent graduates have about themselves concerning the world of work constitute low employability skills acquisition. following this preposition, rational emotive career coaching (recc) emphasises the role of cognitive processes in shaping an individual’s emotions and career-related behaviour. ellis proposed that individuals hold irrational thoughts, such as beliefs that are overly negative and unrealistic, which contribute to emotional distress and difficulties in fulfilling their goals. thus, irrational thoughts play a significant role in hindering the development of employability skills among recent graduates. individuals who have irrational beliefs are people who show thoughts and feelings that lead to ineffective employability skills or are unable to make meaningful skills acquisitions. in many cases, these beliefs are based on inaccurate information or distorted perceptions, which then have a negative impact on the employability of the individual (ifeanyieze et al., 2021). thus, in the present study, recc might impact the graduates to dispute their irrational beliefs to enhance their chances of acquiring employability skills. the researcher acknowledges that the graduates’ demographic variables such as gender may have influence on the effect of recc on employability skills acquisition. thus, gender was considered as an interacting variable in this study. understanding the influence of gender on the impact of recc may provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of this intervention for different genders. meanwhile, research has shown that gender can shape individuals’ approaches to acquisition of employability skills (dominic & fulgence, 2019; idiaka & uzoechi, 2016). based on this, the current study aims to explore the interaction between gender and the effectiveness of recc intervention. previous research has demonstrated disparities in the levels of employability skills among male and female individuals (o’leary, 2021), making it crucial to establish the impact of gender on the effectiveness of recc intervention. objectives the objective of this study is to determine whether recc increases graduates’ employability skills. the study also sought to investigate the impact of recc on acquiring employability skills based on gender. the null hypotheses we tested the following hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance to help guide the study: rational emotive career coaching does not significantly increase employability skills acquisition among graduates. gender does not affect recc’s impact on employability skills acquisition significantly. research methods and design design this study was designed as a group-randomised trial (grt). group-randomised trials are particularly suitable for interventions that operate at the group level. this design allows for the random assignment of participants into groups, where one group receives the intervention while the other serves as a control or comparison group. one of the key advantages of the grt is its scalability. it allows researchers to test the effectiveness of interventions in a real-world setting, such as a school, community or workplace. by grouping participants together, the grt enables researchers to study the effects of an intervention on a larger population (otu & omeje, 2021). ethical considerations the research ethics committee at the faculty of education at the university of nigeria, nsukka has approved this study (number: rec/unn/fe/2019/ 000038). the approval is a testament to the ethical consideration and rigour applied to conducting the study. the approval process typically involves a comprehensive review of all aspects of the study. this may involve evaluating the research design, methodology, data collection procedures, potential risks and benefits, informed consent procedures and ethical considerations. the committee also consulted with experts in the field to ensure impartiality and thoroughness. participants in a multi-stage sampling process, 158 recent university graduates from enugu state were selected for the study. the selection of participants began by employing a volunteer sampling technique. this technique involved advertising the study through various methods such as public announcements and registration. through these channels, 349 recent university graduates were initially identified for eligibility assessment. the eligibility assessment was conducted to further narrow down the pool of potential participants to a subset of 176 individuals who met the specific requirements of the study. the requirements for the eligibility assessment were focussed on ensuring that participants met specific criteria, such as having completed their university education within a specified timeframe and having low employability skills. during the study, 18 participants withdrew for personal reasons. this withdrawal rate was relatively low, indicating that the participants had a good understanding of the study requirements and were committed to their participation. the withdrawal of the participants did not affect the overall integrity of the study, as the data were collected from the remaining 158 participants, providing a representative sample for the analysis. overall, the sampling technique used in the study ensured that the selected participants were representative of the target population, and the withdrawal rate was kept to a reasonable level, ensuring the integrity of the data (see figure 1). figure 1: study flow diagram. experimental procedure it followed the same procedure as the author’s previous published work (otu & omeje, 2021). a total of 349 graduates registered, signed the informed consent form and underwent a pretest assessment for eligibility. we randomised 176 graduates who consented to take part in this study equally between a treatment group and a usual care group. for 8 weeks, the graduates in the treatment group were given recc intervention twice a week for 50 min each. post-intervention assessments were conducted in the eighth week of the intervention programme among participants in the control and treatment groups. after the 8-week treatment period, there was a follow-up period of 2 weeks (four sessions). intervention this study aims to explore the utilisation of rational emotive career coaching (recc) as a treatment programme aimed at addressing the barriers that prevent graduates from acquiring employability skills. the programme focusses on identifying and disputing irrational beliefs, as well as providing training in various employability skills. step 1: identifying and disputing irrational career beliefs the first step in empowering individuals to acquire employability skills is to identify and dispute irrational beliefs that hinder their progress. irrational beliefs refer to thoughts and statements that are inaccurate, exaggerated or based on faulty assumptions (dryden, 2012). by challenging these irrational beliefs, individuals can reframe their mindset and develop a more realistic and empowering perspective. the abcdef framework was adapted from rational emotive behaviour therapy (rebt) intervention (ellis, 2013; ellis & dryden, 2007; ellis et al., 2010), wherein a stands for activating event, which is the trigger that sets off the emotional response; b represents the belief or thought that arises in response to the activating event; c stands for the consequences or emotions that arise as a result of the belief; d stands for disputing and challenging the irrational belief; e stands for experiencing the belief’s consequences and challenging them and f stands for formulating an alternative, rational belief and trying out new behaviours. the abcdef framework helps individuals identify and challenge irrational beliefs that contribute to their emotional distress. by breaking down the cognitive-emotional process into manageable steps, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of their thought patterns and develop new strategies to manage their emotions effectively. step 2: providing comprehensive training once irrational beliefs are identified and disputed, the next step is to provide comprehensive training to equip participants with the necessary tools and confidence to acquire employability skills. the training specifically targets three categories of employability skills: people skills, self-reliance skills and general employment skills: people skills category: in the people skills category, the primary focus is on developing attributes and competencies that enable individuals to work effectively with others. participants learn how to build teamwork skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, leadership skills and customer-oriented skills. self-reliance skills category: another category of treatment involves building self-reliance skills. utilising the principles of recc, participants are taught how to become self-reliant. this aspect of the programme aims to empower individuals to take responsibility for their own growth, development and career success. participants learn problem-solving skills, decision-making skills and time management skills, among others, to enhance their ability to work independently and confidently. general employment skills category: lastly, the general employment skills category encompasses a range of competencies that are essential for obtaining and maintaining employment. these skills include resume writing, interview preparation, job search strategies and workplace professionalism. this treatment used direct teaching, one-to-one counselling and group counselling approaches for treatment. cognitive restructuring, role play, journaling, unravelling cognitive distortions and exposure were the major techniques used in this study. in addition, after each session, participants had ample opportunity to practice and demonstrate the skills in small and large groups. it enabled the researchers to determine the progress of the treatment and lapses in the process of assimilation and sensitivity. usual-care usual-care career services was designed to meet the needs of participants in the control group. these services were typically provided by career counsellors or professionals who have extensive experience in career development. the participants in the usual-care control group were given usual-care intervention. usual-care refers to the intervention practices in which the participants had conventional care or treatment (thompson & schoenfeld, 2007). it involved: career assessment: the first step in usual-care career services was to conduct a comprehensive career assessment. this assessment helps individuals gain a better understanding of their strengths, interests, skills and values. it involves a combination of self-assessment tools and professional evaluations. career exploration: once a career assessment has been conducted, career counsellors-assisted individuals in exploring various career options. this involves researching different occupations, industries and job roles that align with the individual’s interests and skills. career counsellors can provide information on educational requirements, job outlook, salary ranges and opportunities for growth. job search strategies: once individuals have determined their career goals and identified potential career paths, career counsellors provide guidance and support in the job search process. this includes assisting with resume and cover letter writing, developing networking strategies and assisting with job applications. counsellors also provided advice on interview preparation, salary negotiation and other job-related skills. counselling and support: in addition to career-related services, usual-care career services often include counselling and psychological support. counsellors helped individuals navigate personal challenges, such as stress, anxiety or self-doubt, which may be affecting their career development. they can also provide strategies for managing work–life balance, setting career goals and developing strategies for career success. follow-up and accountability: usual-care career services provided follow-up and accountability to support individuals throughout their career development journey. counsellors wished to check in periodically to assess progress, provide encouragement and offer additional support when needed. measures career belief patterns scale, version 2 the career belief patterns scale, version 2 (cbps-2), is a psychological assessment tool developed by arulmani (2006) to assess an individual’s receptivity to irrational career beliefs. the scale consists of 32 items designed to evaluate the beliefs that individuals hold about their careers and their impact on their decision-making and overall well-being. each dimension consists of several items that measure specific irrational beliefs that contribute to career dissatisfaction and hinder personal growth. the cbps-2 factor analysis yielded seven subscales: the proficiency belief set has eight items, control and self-direction belief set has eight items, culture and common practices have five items, self-worth has two items, persistence belief set hasthree items, fatalism belief set hasfour items and caste belief set has two items. the career beliefs scale-2 (cbp-2) is a widely used assessment tool for diagnosing self-defeating career beliefs in students. the items of the cbps-2 provide a structured framework for exploring and analysing individuals’ career beliefs. the responses range on a 7-point likert response continuum, ranging from ‘i do not agree with this at all’ (1) to ‘i agree completely’ (7). higher scores on the cbps-2 indicate a higher negativity in career beliefs. the scores can range from 40 to 280, with higher scores indicating the need for further exploration. the cbps-2 items provide valuable insight into the irrational beliefs that graduates may hold about their careers. for example, items such as ‘i make mistakes and am weak’ and ‘i can’t make a career choice that is completely different from what my family expects’ indicate beliefs that may be holding individuals back from their full potential. as a whole, the reliability of the subscales reported in previous studies ranged between 0.78 and 0.88 (ogbuanya et al., 2018). in the present study, the reliability of the internal consistency reliability (cronbach’s alpha) for the full-scale cbps-2 was found to be 0.79. the development of employability skills acquisition scale the employability skills acquisition scale (esas) is a newly developed assessment tool designed to measure the acquisition of employability skills among individuals. the development of the esas was done during one of the researchers’ (the lead author’s) doctoral programme as part of a measurement tool in his thesis. it involved a comprehensive process involving the following steps: identifying employability skills: the first step in the development process was to identify the core employability skills that are essential for success in today’s job market. these skills were identified through extensive research and consultation with industry experts. content development: once the employability skills were identified, a team of subject matter experts developed items for each skill. these items were carefully crafted to reflect the specific attributes and behaviours associated with each skill. the researchers developed the items of the instrument in line with the employability skills literature (berntson, 2008; fugate et al., 2004; higdon, 2015, 2016; jackson, 2012; jackson & chapman, 2012; ju et al., 2012; riebe & jackson, 2014). the instrument has 38 items measured on a four-point rating scale of strongly agreed (4), agreed (3), disagreed (2) and strongly disagreed (1). validation: the pool of items was reviewed and evaluated by a group of experts to ensure the content validity of the scale. the experts included educators, career professionals and psychologists with relevant experience in the field. an attempt was made to determine whether the esas measures dimensions that are different from other employability skills acquisition instruments in an attempt to determine its construct validity. it was observed that esas measures construct differently from employability skills questionnaire (jonck & minnaar, 2015) and employability skills measurement scale (esms) developed by ramisetty (2017). to establish the criterion measure, the researchers used a well-established employability skills assessment tool called the employability skills inventory (esi) (jonck & minnaar, 2015; mohd yusof et al., 2014; stephen & oladimeji festus, 2022; verecio, 2016). the esi is widely regarded as a valid and reliable measure for assessing employability skills. in order to evaluate the criterion validity of the esas, a sample of 30 participants was selected from the target population. participants were required to complete both the esas and the esi, and then their scores were compared to determine the correlation between these two measures. the results of the criterion validity analysis revealed a strong correlation between the esas and the esi. the correlation coefficient (r) was found to be 0.81, indicating a strong positive relationship between these two measures. this strong correlation suggests that the esas is a valid and reliable measure of employability skills: pilot testing: a pilot test was conducted with a diverse sample of individuals to validate the content and reliability of the esas. feedback from these participants was used to refine the scale and ensure its relevance and effectiveness. reliability testing: the esas was administered to a sample of individuals to determine its internal consistency reliability. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated based on this data, providing a measure on the scale’s reliability. the internal consistency of the instrument (esas) was established in clusters: cluster one (people skills) = 0.877, cluster two (self-reliance skills) = 0.617, cluster three (general employment skills) = 0.951 and overall cluster = 0.960. expert review: the final version of the esas was reviewed and approved by a panel of experts in the field during one the researchers’ doctoral seminar. method of data analysis to analyse the data, descriptive statistics were employed to determine the mean ratings of the participants across the three assessment periods. the mean ratings provide a measure of the central tendency and help us understand the overall performance of the participants. additionally, the standard deviation (sd) measures the variability or dispersion of the data, indicating how spread out the ratings are. the researchers used multivariate analysis of covariance (mancova) to test the hypotheses. this method enables multiple dependent variables to be analysed simultaneously (otu & omeje, 2021). this is particularly useful when the dependent variables are correlated or interrelated. in the mancova, the researchers reported f-tests, p-values and partial eta squared. f-tests compare the variance of the dependent variables between the different groups or conditions, while p-values indicate the significance of those differences. partial eta squared measures the effect of the treatment on the dependent variables, quantifying the proportion of the variance that is attributable to the treatment. at 0.05 probability level, the hypotheses were considered significant. this level of significance is typically chosen in scientific research as a threshold for deciding whether the observed effects are real and meaningful. a p-value of less than 0.05 indicates that there is less than a 5% chance that the observed results could be because of chance alone, providing confidence in the findings results table 1 provides a breakdown of gender distribution in the treatment and control group. in the treatment group, there were 40 male participants (52.6%) and 36 female participants (47.4%). on the other hand, the control group consisted of 44 male participants (53.7%) and 38 female participants (46.3%). table 1: participants’ characteristics. table 2 presents the mean ratings and sds for the two groups at the pretest, post-test, and follow-up assessments. the treatment group and control group are shown to have different scores at each assessment. at pretest, the participants in both treatment and control groups had high mean ratings of irrational career beliefs, with values of 158.02 and 162.04, respectively. however, there was a significant difference between the groups. the sd of the treatment group was higher, indicating a wider range of scores within the group. at post-test, the participants in the treatment group experienced a reduction in their mean rating of irrational career beliefs, dropping to 44.80. however, the control group maintained their original high mean rating of 178.01. the sd of the treatment group also decreased, indicating a more uniform distribution of scores within the group. at the follow-up assessment, the treatment group participants demonstrated a further decrease in their mean rating of irrational career beliefs, reaching a value of 41.52. conversely, the control group maintained its high mean rating of 160.59. the sd of the treatment group decreased again, indicating a more homogeneous distribution of scores. table 2: mean score of participants’ irrational career beliefs at pretest, post-test and follow-up. table 3 presents the mean ratings and sds of the employability skills acquisition for the participants in the treatment and control groups at pre-test, post-test and follow-up assessments. at pretest, both groups showed relatively low mean ratings of 55.17 and 55.07, respectively. however, at the post-test, the participants in the treatment group experienced a significant increase in their mean rating of 145.30, while the participants in the control group maintained their low mean rating of 52.56. furthermore, at the follow-up assessment, the treatment group participants continued to show a higher mean rating of 146.34 compared to the control group’s mean rating of 53.93. this indicates that the participants in the treatment group continued to exhibit improved employability skills acquisition, while those in the control group showed no significant changes. please note that the sd values have also been provided for each measurement to provide a measure of the spread or dispersion of the data. table 3: employability skills mean scores. according to table 4, the statistical analysis conducted on the impact of recc on employability skills acquisition among graduates revealed a significant effect. specifically, the results indicated that recc had a significant influence on employability skills acquisition at the post-test [f(1,157) = 13944.134, p = 0.001, = 0.989] and follow-up [f(1,157) = 12104.574, p = 0.001, = 0.988]. consequently, hypothesis one, which proposed that recc would have no significant effect on employability skills acquisition, was rejected. the findings supported the conclusion that recc indeed had a positive effect on employability skills acquisition among graduates. table 4: results of multivariate analysis of covariance showing the effectiveness of rational emotive career coaching on employability skills acquisition. furthermore, table 4 also revealed that gender had no significant interaction effect on the impact of recc on employability skills acquisition at either the post-test [f(1,157) = 1.270, p = 0.261, = 0.008] or follow-up [f(1,157) = 005, p = 0.946, = 0.000]. therefore, hypothesis two, which suggested the absence of a significant interaction effect of gender on the impact of recc, was not rejected. this suggests that the impact of recc on employability skills acquisition among graduates was similar irrespective of gender. discussion the findings of this study confirm that there is considerable evidence to indicate that many graduates possess irrational career beliefs. these beliefs not only hinder their career development but also prevent them from acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to become employable. one prominent example is the belief that graduates are weak and prone to making mistakes in their careers. this perception undermines their confidence and hinders their ability to take risks and challenge themselves. by subscribing to this belief, graduates may avoid pursuing opportunities that could potentially enhance their skills and make them more employable. furthermore, many graduates hold the belief that it is not proper to make a career decision that is outside the family’s expectation. this constraint, imposed by societal expectations or familial pressure, can limit their autonomy and prevent them from exploring their true interests and passions. as a result, graduates may settle for careers that do not match their true potential, leading to dissatisfaction and underachievement. in addition to these irrational beliefs, some graduates also hold unrealistic expectations regarding the job search process. they may believe that securing a job should be effortless or that they should quickly land their dream job upon graduation. these unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment and frustration, as the job market can be competitive, and it takes time to develop the necessary skills and gain experience. other beliefs may include fear of failure, perfectionism or being overwhelmed by competition. by addressing these irrational thoughts, recc helps graduates challenge and reframe their mindset. this finding supports the previous finding that also indicated that individuals are faced with irrational career beliefs (ogbuanya et al., 2018b; otu & omeje, 2021). one of the key aspects of recc is identifying and disputing negative beliefs. through a series of exercises and discussions, graduates are encouraged to examine and question the validity of their beliefs. this self-reflection helps individuals identify irrational thoughts and replace them more realistically. in addition to challenging negative beliefs, recc also focusses on developing employability skills. these skills are essential for success in the job market and include communication, problem-solving, adaptability and teamwork, among others. graduates are provided with practical strategies and techniques to enhance these skills and make them more marketable. in this research, the investigators discovered a significant impact of recc on the employability skills of graduates. the findings revealed that there is a notable difference in the employability skills acquisition mean scores of graduates who underwent recc compared to those who received the usual-care programme. the recc, as used in this study, refers to a structured intervention that focusses on promoting rational thinking and positive emotional well-being. it aims to equip graduates with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their chosen careers. by incorporating rational thinking and emotional awareness, this coaching approach aims to equip graduates with the necessary mindset to navigate the professional world effectively. the findings of this study suggest that graduates who underwent recc experienced a significant improvement in their employability skills. these skills encompass a range of abilities that enable individuals to achieve their goals in the workplace. in today’s competitive job market, employability skills have become increasingly important, as they can differentiate graduates who have the necessary abilities from those who may not. by examining the mean scores of employability skills acquisition, the researchers were able to quantify the impact of recc. the findings indicated that graduates who participated in the rational emotive coaching programme showed significantly higher scores compared to those who underwent the usual-care programme. this highlights the unique advantages of this coaching approach in enhancing the employability skills of graduates. these findings support the previous findings that the rebt principle has been effective in leadership training and acquisition of life skills (banks, 2011; grieger & fralick, 2007). the findings also support ghazali and bennett (2017) who found that soft skills are important dimensions of graduate employability. the findings are in line with jackson’s (2013) assertion that employability skills include team working, communication, self-management, analysis and critical thinking, specific job skills, adaptive skills, transferable skills and self-reliance skills. besides, the findings support the view that employability skills acquisition involves the act of getting general and specific skills that are needed by employers of labour (ju et al., 2012). furthermore, the findings support the view that if individuals are allowed to acquire relevant skills needed for self-sustenance in the economy, it will promote their charisma in any work environment (douli, 2002). therefore, participating in recc makes not only the graduates employable, but it will also make them effective when they are employed. however, the study also examined whether there was any significant interaction effect between gender and the impact of recc on employability skills acquisition. the interaction effect refers to whether the relationship between recc and employability skills acquisition differs significantly based on the gender of the participants. after analysing the data, the researchers found that gender had no significant interaction effect on the impact of recc on employability skills acquisition. this means that the observed positive impact of recc on employability skills acquisition was consistent across both males and females. this finding is significant because it suggests that recc programmes can provide equal opportunities for all graduates, regardless of their gender. it suggests that recc does not disproportionately benefit one gender over another in terms of employability skill development. furthermore, the absence of a significant interaction effect suggests that recc is effective in promoting employability skills among individuals from different genders. this supports the notion that recc is not gender specific and can benefit individuals from diverse backgrounds. these findings support the previous finding that students are employed to use their gender studies knowledge and skills (werner & lundberg, 2016). supporting unesco’s (2003) view of gender as roles and responsibilities men and women have, women and men need to gain skills that will make them effective in workplaces. thus, the employability skills established in the present are acquirable by both men and women. conclusion in conclusion, recc has been found to have a positive impact upon the employability skills acquisition of graduates, regardless of their gender. this coaching approach emphasises cognitive-behavioural strategies and the exploration of emotions, allowing for a more holistic understanding of oneself and one’s career path. rational emotive career coaching can greatly enhance the graduates’ chances of securing employment. this conclusion reinforces the importance of investing in career coaching initiatives as a means of supporting graduates in developing their employability skills and preparing them for the challenges of the job market. the significance of this finding extends beyond the graduates who participated in the study. it suggests that recc holds potential as a valuable intervention for educational institutions and employers. if this coaching approach is incorporated into the graduates’ education curriculum and career development programmes, educational institutions can equip graduates with the essential skills they need to thrive in today’s fast-paced job market. employers, on the other hand, can benefit from hiring graduates who possess these enhanced employability skills, as they are more likely to contribute to the organisation’s success. acknowledgements the authors’ sincere appreciation goes out to the university of johannesburg, south africa, for the support and guidance provided throughout this research process. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions both the authors contributed immensely to the completion of the manuscript. m.s.o. contributed to conceptualisation, visualisation, data collection, data analysis, instrument development and validation, writing of drafts and review of literature. m.m.s. contributes to conceptualisation, supervision, funding, literature review, draft review, instrument validation, trial testing, visualisation, proofreading and english editing. other aspects of the manuscript not mentioned here were jointly handled. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the research data can be obtained upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, m.s.o. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references agaba, j. 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(2025). from face-to-face to remote teaching during covid-19: lecturers at private colleges in johannesburg. african journal of career development, 7(1), a163. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.163 original research from face-to-face to remote teaching during covid-19: lecturers at private colleges in johannesburg ashika maharaj, percyval bayane received: 01 feb. 2025; accepted: 01 apr. 2025; published: 05 june 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: south african higher education institutions shifted from traditional to remote teaching and learning because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) national lockdown. despite extensive research on remote teaching and learning in public universities, there is a noticeable gap in investigating how private higher education colleges, particularly their lecturers, navigated the transition to remote teaching. objectives: the objective of this study was to investigate lecturers’ experiences of remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown in private higher education colleges in johannesburg, south africa. methods: this qualitative study is based on an ma dissertation, but focuses specifically on data from semi-structured interviews with 10 lecturers employed at various private higher education colleges in johannesburg. thematic content analysis method was used to analyse data and present findings. results: the findings revealed several challenges faced by lecturers in transitioning and adapting to remote teaching. these challenges included unreliable internet connectivity, difficulty in monitoring student engagement during online sessions, teaching practical modules remotely, and the absence of conducive work environments during the national lockdown and work-from-home arrangements. conclusion: lecturers at private higher education colleges faced significant challenges in adapting to remote teaching during the covid-19 lockdown. these challenges highlight the need for better institutional support, targeted training in digital pedagogy, and improved infrastructure to enable more effective remote teaching. contribution: this study contributes to literature on remote teaching in private higher education institutions and highlights how remote teaching deepened lecturer–student distance, demonstrating the relevance of transactional distance theory (tdt). keywords: covid-19; remote teaching; lecturers; private higher education colleges; johannesburg. introduction the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic disrupted many sectors and industries in south africa, and the education sector was no exception, as universities, colleges and schools were temporarily closed, prompting the transition from traditional face-to-face to remote teaching and learning (gore et al., 2023; hew et al., 2020; marinoni et al., 2020). the shift to remote teaching and learning in higher education institutions involves the use of online platforms like zoom, microsoft teams and blackboard (sutterlin, 2018; hew et al., 2020). moodle (2021) and mukhtar et al. (2020) note that remote teaching constitutes the use of the internet to design and deliver module content, which takes place through either synchronous (live sessions on platforms like zoom) or asynchronous (learning management systems [lms], allowing flexibility in time and location) approaches. although higher education institutions had to adapt to these drastic changes for the benefit of students, research conducted in universities highlights that lecturers faced challenges with transitioning and adapting to remote teaching. these challenges included financial constraints in acquiring remote work resources and the lack of office space to conduct remote teaching (iwu et al., 2022; magnus, 2021; mahlaba & mentz, 2023). even though research highlights that university lecturers faced challenges with remote teaching, limited studies examine the transition and adaptation to remote teaching in the context of private higher education colleges, especially in johannesburg. higher education in johannesburg consists of universities and private higher education colleges. universities mostly operate on a wider scope which includes offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and engaging in research and community engagement. meanwhile, private higher education colleges operate in limited scope including receiving no to little funding from government (schoolgistsa, 2023). therefore, there is a difference between universities and private higher education colleges, which underscores the significance of conducting research based on private higher education colleges to contribute to the scholarly debate on remote teaching and learning. legg-jack and ndebele (2022) argue that for remote teaching to be effectively implemented, it is crucial to equip lecturers with training on using various online platforms and to provide essential resources, such as functional laptops. it is against this background that this study examines the experiences of private higher education college lecturers with remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown in johannesburg, south africa. the study was guided by the primary research question: what are lecturers’ experiences of remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic in private higher education colleges in johannesburg? literature review: remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic the covid-19 pandemic is caused by a novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2). sars-cov-2 is identified as a highly infectious virus and primarily spreads through respiratory droplets from person to person (world health organization [who] 2020). the initial case of covid-19 emerged in december 2019 in wuhan city, hubei province, china, and is believed to have originated in a seafood and animal market in wuhan, where transmission from animals to humans occurred (who, 2020). symptoms of covid-19 range from mild to severe, encompassing fever, cough and difficulty breathing. in severe instances, the virus can lead to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and, tragically, death (who, 2020). the who declared covid-19 a global pandemic in march 2020. thereafter, the south african government declared a national state of disaster, leading to a national lockdown (who, 2020). this lockdown restricted unnecessary movement, necessitating the closure of organisations, institutions, schools, colleges and universities. people were mandated to stay at home unless facing an emergency or required to shop for essential goods (haider et al., 2020; singh & tembo, 2022; spaull & van der berg, 2020). the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown disrupted the education sector, prompting significant changes in teaching methods – from face-to-face to remote teaching and learning (bayane, 2020; gore et al., 2023; maree, 2022; marongwe & garidzirai, 2021). nonetheless, the transition from face-to-face to remote teaching and learning posed many challenges for both students and lecturers (mahlaba & mentz, 2023; pokhrel & chhetri, 2021; svongoro & mudzi, 2023). research focusing on university lecturers highlights that they encountered challenges such as an increased workload because of the necessity of dedicating more time to preparing for online classes and developing new materials (iwu et al., 2022). legg-jack and ndebele (2022) add that university lecturers faced challenges in maintaining student participation in online sessions and sometimes experienced poor internet connections, which affected remote teaching. engaging with students in online classes posed a major challenge because of low participation levels, as many students kept their cameras off, making it challenging for lecturers to assess their concentration during lessons (legg-jack & ndebele, 2022). hence, lecturers needed to explore strategies to improve student engagement and encourage active involvement (baber, 2020). as lecturers worked from home, research highlights that they also lacked dedicated office or workspace, which interfered with their productivity, creating a sense of inefficacy while working remotely (iwu et al., 2022). chibuwe and munoriyarwa (2023) expand on the issue of remote teaching and note that university lecturers encountered significant difficulties in remotely delivering modules that demanded numerical and practical skills within a remote learning environment. therefore, the absence of face-to-face interaction and teaching posed hurdles in modules with practical components (chibuwe & munoriyarwa, 2023). these challenges faced by lecturers have been identified as psychological, emotional and social dilemmas that are taking a toll on their mental and physical well-being. a significant contributor to their mental strain is the inadequate provision of e-resources, including essential data and devices for remote teaching (govender et al., 2021; newlin & israel, 2021). while existing literature conducted on university lecturers highlights the dynamics and challenges they faced with remote teaching, there is limited research examining the experiences and perceptions of private higher education college lecturers regarding the studied phenomenon. this study aims to empirically contribute to the scholarly research on remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic, specifically in the context of private higher education college lecturers. the study further uses the transactional distance theory to theoretically analyse the experiences of private higher education college lecturers in transitioning, adapting and dealing with remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown. theoretical framework transactional distance theory (tdt) is employed to examine remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic by focusing on the experiences of private higher education college lecturers in johannesburg. michael moore introduced tdt in the 1970s to analyse the dynamics of distance education. he posits that the transactional distance, or the psychological and communication gap between instructors and learners in distance education settings, is influenced by three primary factors: structure, dialogue and learner autonomy (moore, 1997). structure pertains to the organisation of the educational programme, encompassing the curriculum, instructional materials and delivery methods. it is suggested that a well-defined structure can minimise the transactional distance in teaching and learning (moore, 1997; moore & kearsley, 2011). falloon (2011) argues that dialogue involves the interaction between instructors and learners, emphasising meaningful communication and responsiveness to learners’ needs. effective dialogue plays a crucial role in bridging the transactional distance between educators and learners. furthermore, learner autonomy refers to the extent to which learners are self-directed in their learning process, allowing them to assume control over their educational journey (moore, 1997). these factors collectively contribute to reducing the transactional distance between instructors and learners, thereby fostering more effective learning experiences. transactional distance theory was a suitable theoretical framework for examining remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown, particularly in private higher education colleges. by using tdt, we can better understand how the physical separation between lecturers and students shaped private higher education college lecturers’ experiences of remote teaching. for example, the shift to remote teaching exacerbated the transactional distance, leading to a more structured, but less connected learning environment. this change had adverse effects, such as weakening the sense of rapport between lecturers and students and a decline in student motivation (lufungulo et al., 2021). additionally, hanekom (2020) highlights that both lecturers and students faced challenges in adapting to online instruction. therefore, through the lens of tdt, it is clear that the challenges lecturers faced in adjusting to remote teaching likely had a negative impact on students’ learning process and performance. research methods and design the study employed a qualitative research approach to investigate the challenges and experiences faced by lecturers regarding remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic. qualitative research is focused on presenting narratives and textual descriptions of the phenomenon under investigation (babbie, 2021; vanderstoep & johnson, 2009). this method facilitates a comprehensive exploration and understanding of human actions, events and experiences (sarantakos, 2005; bless et al., 2013). therefore, adopting a qualitative research approach enabled researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of lecturers’ experiences with remote teaching in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, specifically within private higher education colleges in johannesburg. this study was conducted in the city of johannesburg, which is a part of the larger johannesburg metropolitan municipality. the choice of this location was driven by the substantial presence of private higher education colleges within the municipality (yes media, 2021). the johannesburg metropolitan municipality is divided into seven regions which constitute various private higher education colleges. however, the specific focus of this study was on two regions, namely region a and region b. these regions were selected because they have the highest number of face-to-face colleges that shifted to remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic (department of higher education and training [dhet], 2022). this study draws from an ma dissertation which interviewed a total of 26 participants consisting of 16 students and 10 lecturers. however, this paper only refers to in-depth data from 10 lecturers in private higher education colleges. these participants were accessed and selected using the snowball and convenience sampling techniques. the snowball technique involved identifying and interviewing the first participant who then suggested other participants matching the characteristics of the study (babbie, 2021). convenience sampling was therefore based on selecting participants matching the characteristics related to this study, which included participants who lectured at a specific college in region a or region b during the covid-19 pandemic and were between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. participants were telephonically contacted, and those interviewed suggested others matching the characteristics of the study. semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants, and all interviews were conducted using the microsoft teams platform as suggested by participants. all interviews were conducted in english and recorded, and each interview lasted between 40 and 50 minutes. an interview guide which consisted of open-ended questions was used to guide the interview sessions with participants. semi-structured interviews were therefore suitable for this study, as they allowed researchers to gain in-depth understanding of lecturers’ experiences of remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic at private higher education colleges in johannesburg (dejonckheere & vaughn, 2019). the study employed the thematic content analysis technique to analyse the collected data and present findings in themes (alhojailan, 2012). the analysis followed a set of steps proposed by rosenthal (2016), including transcription, coding, theme identification and writing. all interviews were conducted on the microsoft teams platform, and transcripts were generated. to ensure accuracy, transcripts were thoroughly reviewed and validated against recorded interviews, with necessary corrections made. after transcript validation, the next step involved closely examining coded information. this process involved identifying common ideas, which were highlighted using different colours based on the ideas identified. the third step focused on identifying common themes that addressed the research aim and objectives. these themes were colour-coded according to theme category. in the final step, each identified theme and sub-theme underwent interpretation, providing a comprehensive analysis. participants were also given an information letter and consent forms to sign as an act of voluntarily agreeing to participate in the study, which were thoroughly discussed with them before the interview. this approach ensured that lecturers were fully informed about the study and had the opportunity to provide consent before participating. pseudonyms were used for all participants to ensure that their personal information was not disclosed as per their request. the above steps assisted in ensuring that participants’ rights were protected in the study. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa, college of human sciences research ethics review committee (no. 17018013_crec_ chs_2022). results transitioning from face-to-face to remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic: ‘it was challenging because we were not prepared’ before the covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions including private higher education colleges, predominantly relied on traditional face-to-face teaching methods. however, as the pandemic emerged and lockdowns were implemented, academic institutions rapidly transitioned to remote teaching as the prevalent mode of instruction. this shift posed considerable challenges for lecturers, particularly because of a lack of preparation and training. the lecturers in private higher education colleges interviewed in this study shared similar sentiments about the difficulties encountered during this transition. james, a 35-year-old lecturer, described his experience with remote teaching: ‘remote teaching was a chaos and a new thing to all of us, and most importantly we were not prepared for it at all. i remember receiving communication from the department that the college will be transitioning to remote teaching. i had no idea what to do and where to start because i was used to teaching students face-to-face. hence, i felt like the college quickly implemented remote teaching because we were not adequately trained and ready for such a thing.’ (james, 35-year-old lecturer, april 2023) james highlights the challenges of adapting to remote teaching, particularly because of the lack of preparation and training. he explains his personal experience, citing confusion upon receiving the announcement, which reflects the broader issue of unstructured and unprepared transition as private higher education college lecturers were still accustomed to face-to-face teaching methods.these sentiments were echoed by other lecturers, such as john, a 46-year-old lecturer from another private college: ‘changing from face-to-face to online teaching was difficult at first, especially for us older lecturers because we are not familiar and fast with technology, and we were also not provided training for online teaching. hence, i relied a lot on support from other colleagues especially young ones because they know when to click and what to do with technology.’ (john, 46-year-old lecturer, may 2023) both james and john emphasise the lack of training as a major barrier to adapting to remote teaching, particularly for older lecturers who were less familiar with technology and remote teaching. john specifically illustrates how he sought assistance from younger colleagues, underscoring the difficulties faced by those unfamiliar with digital teaching tools. these accounts reflect the widespread challenges private higher education lecturers faced during the abrupt transition to remote teaching, largely because of insufficient preparation and training. challenges experienced by lecturers teaching during the pandemic: ‘remote teaching and working from home was a challenge’ building upon the debate on the transition to remote teaching during covid-19, several challenges were noted by private higher education college lecturers regarding online classes. participants highlighted issues such as unstable internet connections, difficulties in maintaining and monitoring student engagement, and the absence of a conducive workspace at home. one of the main challenges mentioned during interviews was the instability of internet connections and network issues. grace, a 37-year-old lecturer, shared her biggest challenge with remote teaching: ‘honestly remote teaching was difficult because the college had not provided lecturers with adequate equipment such as functional laptops and data for remote teaching and learning. i had to instantly get fibre (wifi) to be able to work at home, as i had meetings and classes. but it was challenging because the internet connection was not strong, sometimes students would complain that they could not hear me during online classes, and classes would also finish early due to poor network.’ (grace, 37-year-old lecturer, april 2023) grace explains how remote teaching was not easy because of a lack of proper support. she highlights how the college did not provide her with data, and she ended up getting herself fibre (wifi) to continue with work and online classes. despite these efforts, she experienced an unstable internet connection which negatively impacted her online classes with students – as they sometimes would not hear her during online classes. the issue of unstable internet connection was echoed by other lecturers in this study. for instance, mike, a 39-year-old lecturer from another college said: ‘the internet connection was the biggest challenge i had when having to conduct online classes because as a mathematics lecturers i had to sometimes do calculations for students to see. but the internet connection was unstable sometimes that students would miss some steps, and when i ask if they understand, they complained that they did not get all the steps and information i demonstrated because i was cutting. this therefore affected students’ performance in module tests and examination.’ (mike, 39-year-old lecturer, april 2023) mike’s narrative further illustrates that remote teaching was not easy because of unstable internet connection and network issues. he mentions that remotely teaching modules such as mathematics was difficult because of poor internet connection and network problems, as students would sometimes miss calculation steps during classes. the difficulty of teaching practical modules was also mentioned by john, a 46-year-old lecturer: ‘i strongly believe that face-to-face classes are much better than remote teaching, especially for subjects that involve practical applications and discussions. being in the hospitality industry, i have observed that students perform better in a face-to-face setting due to increased interaction than in remote teaching or online classes.’ (john, 46-year-old lecturer, may 2023) john also expressed the difficulties encountered in lecturing practical modules during the pandemic. he specifically teaches hospitality modules, where the curriculum necessitates students to participate in face-to-face classes involving hands-on activities, such as practical beverage demonstrations and cooking sessions. the transition to remote teaching posed substantial challenges, particularly for lecturers overseeing practical modules that heavily rely on live demonstrations. as a result, remote teaching affected students’ performance in module tests and examinations. it is clear that remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic was challenging for lecturers as unstable internet connection and network issues made it difficult for them to teach students as effectively as they could, and as it was during traditional face-to-face classes on campuses. additionally, conducting remote teaching amid the pandemic posed significant challenges, primarily in the monitoring and sustaining of student engagement during online classes. participants in this study expressed a notable preference for face-to-face teaching, citing the ability to actively observe and engage with students in real time. the transition to remote teaching, however, presented difficulties for lecturers by hindering their capacity to effectively monitor and fully interact with students. for example, happiness, a 42-year-old lecturer, shared: ‘when teaching on campus, the interaction with students is more immediate. you can observe their facial expressions, making it easier to notice if they are concentrating. however, in remote teaching, students might simply log in for attendance without active participation. as a lecturer you cannot see if they are interested in the content, or if they are participating or getting something out of the remote classes.’ (happiness, 42-year-old lecturer, may 2023) happiness highlighted the positive aspects of teaching before the pandemic, emphasising the ability to observe students’ responses in face-to-face classes. however, she also noted the challenges of remote teaching, particularly the difficulty in gauging student reactions, as many kept their cameras off, presumably to conserve data. as a result, remote teaching in private higher education colleges made it more challenging for lecturers to monitor student participation effectively. another significant challenge identified was the absence of a conducive and properly equipped home-office workspace. several interviewed lecturers expressed the difficulties they faced while working in uncomfortable environments at home. this factor adversely affected their ability to deliver high-quality lectures and provide sufficient support to their students. susan, a 41-year-old lecturer, said: ‘… working from home and remotely was challenging as there were distractions due to lots of activity happening at home, making work from home difficult. other people were also staying in the house. my working environment was therefore not conducive as i did not even have a dedicated workspace or office and this negatively affected my concentration and ability to support students.’ (susan, 41-year-old lecturer, may 2023) susan articulates the difficulties she faced in staying focused and being productive when working from home. her challenges with maintaining focus during teaching from home stemmed from the absence of a dedicated workspace. the predominant issue revolves around the constant interference caused by ambient noise and various distractions in her home environment. she then had to navigate through disruptions, which negatively impacted her ability to concentrate and deliver effective lessons. consequently, there were instances where susan felt that she fell short of providing her students with the undivided attention they deserve during her designated working hours. the issue of working from home was also echoed by other lecturers interviewed in this study. for instance, dintle, a 40-year-old lecturer, said: ‘working from home during the pandemic was a challenge because i did not have a workspace or office, and i stay with people in the house. as such, i was distracted throughout the day and especially during online classes because i kept on apologising to my students for the background noise. this was a bit embarrassing for me, but it was [the] situation that we were faced with and there was nothing we could do.’ (dintle, 40-year-old lecturer, may 2023) dintle supports susan’s reflections on working from home during the covid-19 pandemic and conducting remote teaching. she mentions that working from home was difficult because she did not have a specific space dedicated to work. this led to frequent distractions during work hours, especially during online classes, because of background noise from people she lives with. as such, remote teaching in private higher education colleges was challenging for lecturers, as the absence of a conducive workspace at home resulted in constant disruptions during online classes, ultimately affecting students’ performance. the challenges faced by college lecturers during the covid-19 pandemic in transitioning to remote teaching were multifaceted. the findings underscore that many lecturers found themselves inadequately prepared and ill-equipped for the abrupt shift from traditional face-to-face instruction to remote modalities. one prominent issue that surfaced was the prevalence of unstable internet connections and network disruptions, adversely affecting the quality of remote teaching sessions. notably, the findings revealed that lecturers encountered internet connectivity problems, which had a detrimental impact on both the delivery of their remote classes and the performance of their students amid the pandemic. the instability in internet connections emerged as a significant obstacle, impeding the seamless execution of online teaching and leading to challenges in effectively communicating lesson content. this issue, experienced across various private higher education colleges, also hindered the engagement and participation of students, further exacerbating the difficulties lecturers faced in delivering high-quality education. the findings highlighted lecturers’ struggle to effectively monitor and sustain student engagement during virtual classes. this challenge was exacerbated by students opting to keep their cameras off, which made it difficult for lecturers to gauge participation levels and maintain a conducive learning environment. consequently, this lack of visual engagement significantly contributed to the overarching difficulties experienced in remote teaching. additionally, the findings identified a significant issue: the lack of conducive work areas and spaces at home for lecturers. the absence of an optimal work environment impacted lecturers’ concentration levels, further complicating their task of facilitating online classes. this, in turn, had a ripple effect on student engagement and performance. valuable lessons of teaching during the covid-19 pandemic while teaching during the covid-19 pandemic presented numerous challenges, it also served as a catalyst for valuable lessons. many private higher education college lecturers highlighted the acquisition of crucial technological knowledge and skills as one of these lessons. this is particularly evident in the insights gained from an interview with bongani, a 33-year old lecturer who shared his transformative experience as a lecturer during the pandemic. he said: ‘the covid-19 pandemic taught me the variation in teaching tools that one can utilise where we were so used to face-to-face classes. it taught me the various ways in which you can make teaching interactive, even if it was an on a digital format. it further taught us that we do not necessarily need to be in class anymore to be able to provide quality education.’ (bongani, 33-year old lecturer, april 2023) bongani highlights that the pandemic and the shift to remote teaching played a pivotal role in expanding his repertoire of teaching tools and methodologies. this period not only compelled him to diversify but also allowed him to acquire additional skills, particularly in making remote classes more interactive. the experience gained by lecturers through remote teaching served as a catalyst for further enhancing their overall teaching proficiency. this was echoed by mary, a 30-year old lecturer who said: ‘well, it opened me up to a different scope of teaching and extending myself to remote teaching as a young lecturer. at that stage i was quite used to contact teaching and it challenged me to look into different scopes of teaching and also get used to the concept of not only distance but also to the concept of hybrid teaching now.’ (mary, 30-year old lecturer, may 2023) in the provided excerpt, mary emphasises that the experience of remote teaching significantly enriched her overall teaching approach, compelling her to explore innovative methods. consequently, both bongani and mary share similar perspectives on the valuable lessons gained from their respective experiences with remote teaching during the pandemic. this shift is highlighted by their transition from conventional face-to-face methodologies to the adoption of diverse teaching approaches tailored to the demands of remote teaching. discussion: lecturers’ challenges of remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic in private higher education colleges the covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown had a significant impact on higher education institutions in south africa. following the global declaration of the pandemic in march 2020, the south african government declared a national state of disaster and enforced a lockdown (who, 2020). the lockdown aimed to restrict unnecessary movement, leading to the closure of schools and higher education institutions (haider et al., 2020; singh & tembo, 2022; spaull & van der berg, 2020). maree (2022) suggests that the lockdown necessitated a shift in teaching methods for both schools and higher education institutions. as a result, higher education institutions, including private colleges, transitioned to remote teaching and learning to maintain academic programmes. while much research has focused on the challenges faced by university lecturers, this paper specifically examined the experiences of lecturers in private higher education colleges. the findings revealed that lecturers in private higher education colleges encountered challenges when shifting from traditional face-to-face teaching to remote teaching. a key barrier was the lack of preparedness and institutional support for online teaching. many lecturers reported that they had not received formal training in using digital platforms, which hindered their ability to implement remote teaching effectively. research highlights that the success of online teaching is contingent on the digital literacy of educators and adequate professional development in online pedagogies (bozkurt & sharma, 2020; rapanta et al., 2020). the absence of structured training particularly affected older lecturers who were less familiar with technology. this aligns with studies showing that professional development programmes significantly improve educators’ ability to engage students in remote settings (crawford et al., 2020). thus, the sudden shift to remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for lecturers in private higher education colleges, as they received minimal institutional support. beyond digital literacy, lecturers in private higher education colleges faced technical and infrastructural challenges, including unstable internet connections, limited access to teaching resources and difficulties engaging students remotely. according to tdt, these challenges increased transactional distance, as lecturers were unable to create a dynamic learning environment. moore (1997) argued that dialogue involves meaningful communication, which is essential in reducing transactional distance. however, the technological barriers faced by lecturers in private higher education colleges in remote teaching hindered such communication. unreliable internet connectivity has been widely cited as a critical barrier in remote learning environments, especially in low-resource settings (iwu et al., 2022). this study found that lecturers in private higher education colleges faced similar challenges with internet instability, which hindered their ability to conduct online classes effectively. the lack of reliable internet access also prevented lecturers from facilitating real-time discussions and feedback, thus increasing the psychological gap between lecturers and students. unlike university lecturers, who may have received institutional support for data access, lecturers in private higher education colleges were largely responsible for arranging their own internet services. studies have also shown that disparities in access to reliable internet infrastructure exacerbate inequalities in digital learning experiences (mishra et al., 2020). another significant challenge noted in this study was student engagement. many lecturers reported difficulties in monitoring and assessing student participation in online classes, particularly when students kept their video cameras off. research indicates that student interaction is a key determinant of effective remote learning (baber, 2020; simpson, 2013). the lack of face-to-face interaction made it harder for lecturers to assess students’ understanding of the material. active learning strategies, such as breakout rooms and interactive digital tools, have been suggested as effective ways to enhance student engagement in online settings (martin & bolliger, 2018). however, many private higher education college lecturers lacked training in these techniques, limiting their ability to foster interactive learning environments during remote teaching. teaching practical modules remotely presented another obstacle in remote teaching. lecturers in fields such as hospitality and mathematics found it difficult to adapt their teaching methodologies because of the absence of hands-on training opportunities. research highlights that online learning platforms are often not well-suited for teaching practical subjects without substantial technological investment, such as simulation software or virtual laboratories (chibuwe & munoriyarwa, 2023). the lack of resources is a critical aspect of the structure that is suggested to influence transactional distance (moore, 1997). when teaching materials and methods are not aligned with the nature of the module being taught, transactional distance widens, leading to feelings of isolation and disengagement among students (moore, 1997). the lack of these resources in private higher education colleges during the national lockdown further complicated the transition to remote teaching. additionally, the findings revealed that the absence of suitable workspaces was a significant challenge for lecturers in private higher education colleges. following the shift to remote work, many lecturers faced challenges in securing dedicated home office spaces, which hindered their ability to support students effectively. according to tdt, student autonomy is enhanced when they are provided with a clear and well-supported structure. however, in this case, the lack of a suitable teaching environment for lecturers, with students’ autonomy in remote settings, created challenges in fostering an interactive and supportive learning environment (moore, 1997). research also highlights that an inadequate home working environment can lead to stress and decreased productivity among educators (crick et al., 2021; naidu & modise, 2021). lecturers also reported distractions from family members, making it difficult to maintain the same level of instructional quality as in traditional classroom settings. despite these challenges, the findings indicate that the pandemic also fostered pedagogical innovation. many lecturers adopted new teaching methods, and remote teaching improved their proficiency with digital tools, including lms, video conferencing and online assessment platforms, which are now integral to modern education (bozkurt & sharma, 2020; rapanta et al., 2020). the shift to online teaching compelled lecturers to develop technological skills that remain valuable post-pandemic. many now integrate blended learning models, combining in-person sessions with online resources to provide greater flexibility and accessibility (crawford et al., 2020). these evolving strategies suggest that remote teaching has catalysed lasting shifts in pedagogy, equipping lecturers with skills and methodologies that extend beyond the pandemic. moving forward, private higher education institutions must invest in ongoing professional development, enhance digital infrastructure and support educators in remote and hybrid teaching environments. conclusion the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown in south africa had a significant impact on higher education institutions, including private colleges. these institutions had to shift from traditional face-to-face teaching to remote learning, but the experiences of private higher education college lecturers with remote teaching are under-studied. this paper addresses this gap by exploring the experiences and challenges faced by private higher education college lecturers during the national lockdown. the findings revealed that lecturers encountered numerous difficulties with remote teaching, particularly during the transition phase, because of limited training and support. lecturers at private higher education colleges also faced additional hurdles, such as unreliable internet connections, difficulty conducting practical modules effectively, and challenges in monitoring student engagement during online classes. moreover, many lecturers struggled to maintain productivity because of a lack of suitable workspace or home office setup. despite these challenges, private higher education college lecturers also acknowledged the valuable lessons learned from remote teaching. they gained insights into various methods and support mechanisms that can benefit students in an online learning environment. this paper sheds light on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown on higher education in private colleges, emphasising the challenges faced by private higher education college lecturers in adapting to remote teaching. acknowledgements the authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to all the participants who were interviewed for the master of arts study. this article is partially based on the author a.m.’s thesis titled ‘remote teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic: experiences of lecturers and students in private higher education colleges in johannesburg, south africa’ towards the degree of master of arts in sociology in the department of sociology, university of south africa (unisa), south africa in april 2024, with supervisor mr percyval bayane. it is available here: https://uir.unisa.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/094eec87-bfce-4d4e-9d30-3d50987bd08c/content. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.b. contributed to the original research idea, analysis, writing and review of the article. p.b. also assisted as the supervisor on this study. a.m. contributed to the original research idea, methodology, data collection, analysis and first draft writing of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, a.m. 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(2023). optimising students’ participation during emergency remote teaching in the covid-19 pandemic. perspectives in education, 41(1), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v41i1.6182 vanderstoep, s. w., & johnston, d.d. (2009). research methods in everyday life: blending qualitative and quantitative approaches (1st ed). jossey-bass. world health organization (who). (2020). origins of sars-cov-2. retrieved from https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/332197/who-2019-ncov-faq-virus_origin-2020.1-eng.pdf yes media. (2021). municipalities of south africa. retrieved from https://municipalities.co.za/provinces/view/3/gauteng abstract introduction literature review theoretical framework research methods and design results discussion limitations conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) hendri j. theron department of curriculum studies and higher education, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation theron, h.j. (2025). exploring the influence of collaborative leadership on grade 12 mathematics results in a low-resourced secondary school. african journal of career development, 7(1), a161. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.161 original research exploring the influence of collaborative leadership on grade 12 mathematics results in a low-resourced secondary school hendri j. theron received: 22 jan. 2025; accepted: 27 feb. 2025; published: 09 may 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this case study examines the role of collaborative leadership in grade 12 mathematics results. the article challenges the notion that collaborative leadership is not a significant factor in improving grade 12 mathematics results, particularly in low-resourced secondary schools in south africa. objectives: this study seeks to offer an alternative perspective and highlight the positive influence of collaborative leadership on grade 12 mathematics results in a low-resourced secondary school. methods: the research uses the collegial model as the theoretical framework. utilising a qualitative method, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with members of the school management team (smt), the chair of the school governing body (sgb), and the circuit manager (cm) from the provincial department of education (doe). additional data were collected through on-site observations at the school. results: the findings indicate that collaborative leadership via the smt, sgb, and cm improves grade 12 mathematics results in a low-resourced secondary school. conclusion: the article concludes that collaborative leadership relationships empower low-resourced secondary schools to elevate grade 12 mathematics results. contribution: this research challenged the norm and contributes to a pathway of collaboration between the smt, sgb, and cm and its positive effect. keywords: school management team; school governing body; circuit manager; collaborative leadership; mathematics results; low-resourced secondary schools; collegial model; grade 12. introduction currently in south africa, the leadership of a school is not limited to the principal. kruger et al. (2022) state that the principal acts in three different capacities. they report to their staff, the school governing body (sgb), and the department of education (doe). many schools have a school management team (smt) that mainly consists of the principal, deputy principal(s), and heads of departments (hods). the parents of the learners in the school are represented by the sgb, and a circuit manager (cm) is assigned to every school by the provincial doe (doe, 2024). to sustain or improve academic performance, all the above-mentioned parties play a critical role in the everyday functioning of the school. the principal, together with the smt, is responsible for the everyday academic activities of the school, while the sgb supports the school in maintaining and improving academic performance. the cm from the doe must ensure that all academic activities at the school take place in the allocated time and that all the necessary academic requirements are met (kruger et al., 2022). the collaborative network between these three parties is essential for academic performance, especially in grade 12 mathematics. the current grade 12 mathematics results proved that collaboration is needed indeed. after the completion of the 2024 grade 12 national senior certificate (nsc) examination, only 35.7% of all the grade 12 learners in south africa wrote the ncs exam for mathematics. a further concern is that only 3.9% obtained more than 80% (sos, 2024). collaborative leadership is not necessarily present in all schools. in previous research, many principals stated that members of the sgb do not know their roles in the school, a factor which adversely affects the school’s operations and performance (basson & mistry, 2019; hartell et al., 2016). furthermore, according to hartell et al. (2016), a parent leading the sgb, with parents forming the majority of the sgb, can be problematic in low-resourced schools. the prevalent illiteracy in rural regions and the insufficient preparation of parents for their roles as sgb members also pose significant challenges. many schools play the blame game among the leadership groups for bad academic performances (schlebusch, 2020). however, apart from negative stereotyping over the roles of the sgb, cm and leadership in low-resourced schools, this study aims to add to the discourse and provides a different view on how collaborative leadership can contribute to improving grade 12 mathematics results. literature review good leadership makes a difference in organisational performance (hafeez & akhtar, 2022). leadership is a product of interaction, changes in perception, and understanding among individuals. the concept of leadership implies that an educational leader must maintain a healthy balance between task-oriented and people-oriented leadership styles to ensure teachers’ accountability (shonubi, 2014). one of the main goals of leadership corps within a school is to improve the learners’ academic outcomes (kapur, 2018; theron, 2022). educational leaders, however, are faced with challenges regarding improving the academic performance of all learners. a study by kruger et al. (2022) reported that the principal of the school acts in three different capacities, namely conducting the management of the school, and interacting with the doe and the school community. with these three positions, the principal must lead and manage the school, report to the doe (the employer), and report to the wider community, which includes parents or guardians and alumni (kruger et al., 2022). good leadership facilitates collaboration, communication, feedback, influence, and professionalism through the establishment of a vision and a value system. good leadership presupposes having consistent policies to delegate and empower others, and sharing the leadership responsibility (dahie et al., 2015). ziduli et al. (2018) argued in their study that the principal’s leadership style is one important factor, among many others, in influencing the academic performance of learners, especially in rural schools. in this context, hartell et al. (2016) worry that urgent matters frequently overshadow important ones. many principals believe that they spend too much time on administrative tasks, budgeting, and dealing with other school-related challenges, leaving insufficient time for collaborating with staff and tackling instructional problems that arise in the classroom. furthermore, school leadership is no longer restricted to a person or title (kapur, 2018). leadership has become a collective effort by the staff, distributed among all the teachers, support staff, and the broader community. successful school leaders need to focus on capacity building, motivating others, and developing exceptional leadership skills within their staff to create favourable conditions for learning. based on their findings, ntuta and schurink (2010) recommend that all staff members should be involved in every activity related to the management of the school, according to its guidelines and policies. the staff, learners, parents, community members and alumni should be involved and take responsibility for the daily activities and programmes of the school. blank and villarreal (2015) report that schools with healthy relationships with the community are more likely to gain their support and loyalty in difficult times. this support can include opportunities for parents to come to the school and talk to staff, to use the school facilities, and to see the school as a resource for both the children and the community. good leadership enhances engagement among the management, staff, and learners, who are the key components of the learning experience (lumpkin et al., 2015). hafeez and akhtar (2022) summarise it metaphorically by stating that the collaboration of stakeholders is the heartbeat of a school’s performance. as mathematics is a concern in south africa, good leadership is important to improve and maintain good mathematics results, especially for grade 12 learners. in the studies of theron, (2016 & 2022), he referred to leadership as a key component for schools to perform in mathematics and deliver good results every year in the grade 12 ncs exam. theoretical framework as collaboration forms an integral part of this study, the theoretical framework for this study is couched in the collegial model of collaboration. the collegial model states that, through discussion, an organisation determines its policies and makes decisions. according to coleman and anderson (eds.) (2000), the collegial model supports the principle of participatory governance, and, therefore, encourages collaboration between stakeholders with different roles. mestry and govindasamy (2013) mention that collaboration can also be regarded as the ability of smts, sgbs, and cms to work together, based on trust, understanding, and shared goals. this framework is relevant to this study, as the collaboration between the smt, sgb, and cm facilitated improved grade 12 learner results, especially in mathematics in the participating school. research methods and design a qualitative research approach can make use of a single case study design, a research approach in which one or a few instances of a phenomenon are studied (ed. given, 2008). the case study in this research project was the teaching and learning environment of a quintile 1 secondary school1 in the fezile dabi district in the free state province. table 1 illustrates the results of grade 12 learners in mathematics, which were used as an indicator for selecting the participating school. table 1: number of grade 12 learners versus the number who achieved a passing mark at the participating school in mathematics from 2016 to 2020. for this study, it is important to understand the relationship between table 1 and the sample. the timeframe of the results in table 1 correlates with the time the principal, sgb chair and cm started to work closely together. this is the rationale behind the exploration of the influence of collaborative leadership in a low-resourced school on grade 12 mathematics results. sample and data collection purposive sampling was used in this study to collect data via interviews and observations. the smt of the school consists of the principal, one deputy principal, one acting deputy principal and seven hod members. the sample comprised of the principal (who is also a grade 12 mathematics teacher), the deputy principal (who teaches grade 10 mathematics), the head of department for mathematics at the school, a further education and training (fet) mathematics teacher, the chair of the sgb, who is a parent and a local police officer, and the circuit manager from the free state department of education (fsdoe). the principal was appointed in 2015 and has been teaching at the school for the last 30 years. the sgb chair has served on the sgb since 2015 and has chaired the sgb since 2018. the cm has been assigned to the school since 2013 and worked with the principal, deputy principal, and sgb chair since 2015. interviews the data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. interviews were conducted with the following participants: participant 1 (p1) = principal participant 2 (p2) = deputy principal participant 3 (p3) = hod for mathematics participant 4 (p4) = fet mathematics teacher participant 5 (p5) = sgb chair participant 6 (p6) = circuit manager the interviews began with one open-ended question from the interviewer. the interviews progressed based on each participant’s response. the initial open-ended question posed to the participants was: ‘please tell me what has contributed to the good performance in grade 12 mathematics at your school?’. observations observations also formed part of the data collection process. an observation matrix (ov) was compiled to record and analyse the observations made during a visit to the participating school. the school was observed holistically, both inside and around the premises, to note the contributions of the sgb and the doe. table 2 represents a summary of the recorded observation. table 2: observation matrix. the interviews with the sgb chair and the cm were conducted after the researcher concluded the observations of the school facilities. this allowed the researcher to refer to the observations during the interviews. some of the findings recorded in the observation matrix correlated with the analysis of the interviews. these correlations between the interviews and the observations assisted the researcher in understanding the impact of collaborative leadership on the grade 12 mathematics results in the participating school. data analysis thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the interviews. transcribing the interviews allowed the researcher to familiarise himself with the provided information, resulting in a better and deeper understanding of the collected data. the thematic analysis process involved analysing and identifying applicable themes. the analysis of the interviews provided an understanding of how the relationship between the principal, sgb chair and cm might have positively affected learners’ mathematics results. the analysis of the interviews was used to structure the observation matrix (table 2). data verification the credibility and transferability of the study results were established to ensure its trustworthiness. in this study, all the participants gave consent and knew what was expected of them. to ensure the credibility of the study, the researcher adhered to the above norms. stahl and king (2020) stated that the credibility of a study can be established by ensuring the findings are aligning with reality. because of the qualitative nature of the study, the findings cannot be generalised. the results are transferable and may be of value to the doe, high schools, and teachers in further education and training schools to improve grade 12 mathematics results. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the university of the free state general/human research ethics committee (ghrec) on 13 march 2020 (no. ufs-hsd2018/0899). according to mcmillan and schumacher (2006), the researcher is primarily responsible for addressing the ethical issues in a study. the free state department of education (fsdoe) also granted permission to conduct this research in the participating school. no harm was done to the participants in this study. participation in this study was voluntary and participants could withdraw at any time. the identity of the participants and their schools were treated confidentially and were not named in the report of this study. the participants were also informed that their identity would not be disclosed in any publications or conference articles. they were consulted and informed in advance of the visits for both the interviews and observations. the questions asked in the interviews were not personal, and the personal privacy of the teachers was respected and protected. the school principal was informed in advance of the study and its objectives. the author also requested permission from the principal to involve the teachers of the school in the study. all the participants signed a consent form. all the collected data were protected with a password. confidentiality was maintained through anonymity (using pseudonyms) and proper data storage, with all data kept for 5 years. results after transcribing the interviews and recording the observations in the observation matrix, the following themes and subthemes were identified from the collected data: theme 1: leadership within the school as stated before, the main function of effective school leadership is to positively influence learners’ academic performance. in addition, the interviews and observations in this study showed that good leadership is an integral part of the sustained success of grade 12 learners in mathematics. this claim is corroborated by evidence from the observations and interviews, from which two aspects came to the fore. sub-theme 1.1: principal as mentioned in the literature review, the principal plays a significant role in the leadership of the school. it was observed that the principal was visible on the school grounds and actively involved in the daily activities of the school (see table 2, number 1.2). the sgb chair stated that the leadership of the principal is key to the academic performance of the school: ‘but his leadership is very good, and he is not a biased person. he is a person who is doing what he says. he stands on his word. he is a resilient person in what he knows. and i can assure you since he became principal then the school changed totally … but now there is order.’ (p5, male, sgb chair) the cm was also full of praise for the leadership of the principal: ‘every school must have strong leadership. you can see it at that school. and he is hands-on. the top leadership of the school is hands-on. after appointing him, you can see the dust settled, and learning and teaching started, you know, shaping its course.’ (p6, male, cm) the principal headed the smt of the school and played an important part in achieving the improved grade 12 mathematics performance. he was also the grade 12 mathematics teacher at the school, with a good track record of success. sub-theme 1.2: school management team the principal spoke very appreciatively of his smt and the transparency of the decisions in the school: ‘they are very supportive. all the decisions are taken collectively. we start with this, it’s the smt taking a decision and once this decision is taken at the smt level, then we go through to the staff. we are not making decisions and pulling them through. if there might be different perspectives, that ultimately, we have, we have the same vision and we move in the same direction. we meet weekly.’ (p1, male, principal) during the interview with the sgb chair, he also stated the importance of the smt: ‘the approach of the management, the school’s principal. he engages with the hods and permits the hod to get that person whom you think is the right person.’ (p6, male, sgb chair) based on the evidence above, the smt conducted its work in line with what molefe (2013) regards as the main duty of an smt, which is to ensure that effective and efficient teaching and learning take place, and to be responsible for managing the daily activities of the school. apart from the effective smt, the sgb also provided supportive and positive governance. the sgb chairperson and the principal had been good friends for a long time. this probably contributed to the successful collaboration that led to the enhanced academic performance of grade 12 mathematics learners: ‘i know him, we’ve schooled together …’ (p5, male, sgb chair) not only was the management within the school very good, but its governance by the sgb also had a positive impact on the improvement of grade 12 mathematics results. theme 2: leadership and support from outside the school sub-theme 2.1: support from the school governing body the leadership of a good school is not only in the hands of the principal but of the whole community. in general, an sgb is responsible for governing the school in such a way that support is provided to increase the functionality of the school. the sgb should not interfere in the day-to-day activities but should oversee the governance of the school (basson & mistry, 2019; kruger et al., 2022). at the participating school, the sgb was very supportive and, together with the principal, they did their best to sustain the academic performance of the learners. both the cm and the principal were very appreciative of the sgb: ‘it was not a peaceful school … until the sgb and the department got involved.’ (p1, male, principal) ‘then the learners get tea and bread provided by the sgb. yes, highly supporting. yes very well. i can say, without any fear of contradiction, that this is the best sgb in the township.’ (p1, male, principal) the deputy principal and the hod thanked the sgb for their support: ‘you know, i happen to have been part of the sgb the previous term. in terms of supporting, particularly curriculum, in most of our meetings, at the end of each term, we sit down and also analyse the results. we check where we have strengths and where our weaknesses are. we discussed how do we bring the sgb on board in terms of supporting other problems.’ (p1, male, principal) ‘yes, the staff and sgb assisted us in sleeping and stay with the grade 12 learners at the school.’ (p3, female, hod) the sgb provided support to the school in numerous ways: ‘we are very supportive. through our learners, however, we support all the programs that the department is involved with. the sgb, we support with the meals so that they can get the meals because you cannot study without eating so we make sure that we allocate money for their meals. we have a program for the exams. here the teachers will also be involved. then here the sgb, we do have compensation for them. there is an incentive for them. then we managed to get a tower in our school. so, we make a contract with those people. and they pay us a lump sum of this money and then the other money you can just pay monthly. and then they did and we get that money and we buy a vehicle. teaching and learning support also, yes we are getting the right support.’ (p5, male, sgb chair) a creative and entrepreneurial approach, as mentioned above, in an sgb can help even the most financially deprived school to achieve better results. the interventions by the sgb became more pronounced after the chair of the sgb joined the sgb in 2015, and became chair in 2018. the implementation of after-school meals for grade 12 learners, as well as the financial income via the network tower, correlated with improved mathematics results, as shown in table 1. sub-theme 2.2: parental and community support the sgb represents the parents of a school, but in the case of the participating school, the support was not only limited to the sgb but also included support from other parents and the greater community. the school was not isolated from the community but was located in the middle of the township (see table 2, number 1.1). the hod for mathematics at the school applauded the support from the parents: ‘the parents are very helpful and hands-on. they help us a lot. we bring in the parents. we invite them (parents) to school. we call a parent meeting and then we project the results of those learners. and also the community … they are here to assist. the parents can be called and then we can negotiate.’ (p3, female, hod) furthermore, the sgb chair also applauded the support from the parents and the community: ‘the parents are involved … we called the meeting, with the grades. so we also tasked those parents to keep an eye on the kid.’ (p5, male, sgb chair) the cm elaborated on the effect of the sgb via the parents and the community on the mathematics results of the school: ‘parents send their children there because there’s school today.’ (p6, male, cm) ‘it was all like a new dawn, but parents took everything upon themselves to make things work. they started to repair the toilets and make sure that everything was ok. the parents at that school and their community are involved. the school gates are open for them. starting from the leaders, but the parents must be hands-on, too. they must know what their children are doing at school. the school must involve parents by giving information every time. how do you learn how your child is doing? in what we call sectional meetings and they’re being held there.’ (p6, male, cm) theme 3: department of education as the participating school was a section 21, quintile 1 school, it was highly dependent on the fsdoe for financial and human resource support, and for resources in support of effective teaching and learning (white & van dyk, 2019). the fsdoe, through the office of the cm, supported the school in every possible way to provide quality teaching and learning: ‘as the circuit manager, i’m trying to encourage the spirit of training amongst themselves.’ (p6, male, cm) the principal of the school was very appreciative of the support provided by the doe and the cm for the school: ‘yes, the fsdoe is contributing a lot. the department provided it … so the media centre is there.’ (p1, male, principal) the deputy principal also indicated that he was working closely with the cm: ‘the circuit manager is highly supportive … when he sees we have a kind of challenge, he will support us … he will mostly talk to the principal and the smt. he motivates us as much as he can. he is a very proud man who is very proud of his circuit.’ (p6, male, cm) the hod also mentioned the support from the cm, especially in terms of resources and financial support: ‘the government provides us with all those resources … we set an investigation and then they provide us with the test.’ (p3, female, hod) it seems from the observations that the doe and the sgb supported the school in terms of resources to enhance teaching and learning (see table 2, number 2.1). the involvement in the the school by the sgb chair was evident. this was evident on how he spoke about the doe and cm: ‘yes, other money is funded by the department … that is for the whole school and not matrics only. we have got good support from our district manager.’ (p5, male, sgb chair) from the views of the above participants, the cm confirmed that the fsdoe, through the office of the cm, was trying to support the school in every possible way: ‘we’ve got this thing called inter directorate support. they come and talk with learners who need support. especially to learners from child-headed households. the fsdoe will also come up with a feeding scheme where learners will get meals from the school. generally, they are supporting the schools.’ (p6, male, cm) the good relationship that the cm had with the smt and the sgb, assisted the school to make sure that it had all the relevant resources it needed, including human resources. discussion the section discussed above presents the thematic analysis of the data collected through interviews and observations, along with the identified subthemes. in the discussion below, findings are presented regarding the impact of collaborative leadership in the school. these findings relate to teaching and learning, and social and financial support that have a direct or indirect impact on the improved mathematics results. theme 1: the school management team chigona and tunjera (2022) state that the competencies of the members of the smt affect the quality of teaching and learning. in this study, empirical data were collected which proved that the principal and the smt worked together. from the data, there was mutual appreciation from the sgb and cm to the principal and the smt for their work in the school to improve grade 12 mathematics results. theme 2: school governing body kruger et al. (2022) mention the difficulties a principal may experience while working with the sgb. however, from the collected data, it seems as if the opposite occurred in the participating school. the data show that the smt, sgb, and parents of the school had a very good relationship and that they were all supportive of the well-being of the learners and the school. the cm was full of praise for the sgb and the work they did in the school. the principal, sgb chair, and cm knew each other well and worked well together. the sgb and the other parents also assisted the school. the smt was very appreciative of the sgb, especially in the way that they supported the school financially, which improved the academic performance of the school, especially in mathematics. furthermore, the sgb and parents were also appreciative of the support provided to the school by the smt and the cm. theme 3: circuit manager the last component of this collaborative leadership was the support from the fsdoe through the office of the cm. schlebusch (2020) states that schools often do not receive the support they need, and role-players blame each other for poor grade 12 academic performance. however, in this study, key role-players, namely the smt, sgb chair, and the community, mentioned their appreciation towards the cm and the support received by the school from the fsdoe. limitations a limitation of this study is that it focussed only on a single case study, which means that it cannot be generalised to all low-resourced secondary schools. in light of the above limitation, this study recommends conducting further research by broadening its scope by including more participating schools and stakeholders. conclusion and recommendations the literature shows that good academic performance of learners in a school does not only depend on the leadership of the principal. this is supported by the views of hafeez and akthar (2022), who emphasise the importance of collaborative leadership in a school. the findings of this study demonstrate that there is collaboration among the school’s stakeholders. this collaborative leadership has assisted and supported the school, which resulted in enhanced academic performance of grade 12 learners, especially in mathematics. through the collaboration of the smt, sgb and cm, the school managed to provide meals to grade 12 learners after school. additional income was acquired by hosting a cell phone tower on the school premises, which the sgb ploughed back into the teaching and learning activities of the school, especially for the grade 12 learners in terms of arranging extra classes after the school hours, over weekends and on holidays. the cm trusted the leadership of the school and supported the school in terms of teaching and learning resources. ultimately, the grade 12 learners at this quintile 1 school and their academic results are the main beneficiaries of this collaborative leadership. the following recommendations are suggested to contribute to the discourse in this field of research: utilise the findings of this article in other quintile schools in the same district encourage communities through the sgb to support the school and principal recommend to schools, via the doe, that they add more role-players to the collaborative leadership cohort of the school. through the lens of the collegial model of collaboration, it was evident that the collaboration between the smt, sgb, and cm at the participating school positively impacted the academic performance of the learners, especially in grade 12 mathematics results. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the faculty of education at the university of the free state and the open access fund (oaf) for contributing to the publication fees and the researcher excellence accelelator programme (reap) at ufs that contributed to language editing of this article. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contribution h.j.t. declares that they are the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references basson, p., & mistry, r. 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(2018). leadership styles of secondary school principals: south african cases. international journal of educational sciences, 22(1–3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.31901/24566322.2018/22.1-3.911 footnote 1. a quintile 1 school is a low-resourced school highly dependent on the doe for financial and human resource support, along with resources for effective teaching and learning. read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement https://ajcd.africa open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of african journal of career development. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. brandon morgan christopher beukes johannes katsarov mark watson maximus m. sefotho meenakshi chhabra melinde coetzee paul g. west petro erasmus teresa sgaramella https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za abstract introduction background literature review methodology results: findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) roy venketsamy department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa lucas chauke department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa keshni bipath department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation venketsamy, r., chauke, l., & bipath, k. (2021). transitioning through management change: the experiences of community learning centre educators. african journal of career development, 3(1), a20. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.20 original research transitioning through management change: the experiences of community learning centre educators roy venketsamy, lucas chauke, keshni bipath received: 28 june 2021; accepted: 18 sept. 2021; published: 11 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: when public adult learning centres (palcs) were transferred to the department of higher education and training and renamed as community learning centres (clcs), educators increasingly experienced insecurity about the continuity and stability of their employment. objective: this article, which aimed to address this gap, presented a multiple case study design within an interpretivist paradigm. drawing on kurt lewin’s three-stage theory as an underpinning theoretical framework, we explored the educators’ experiences and the effects of the transitioning. method: data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 6 african male teachers between the ages of 35 and 50 years. results: our findings suggested that educators became anxious and insecure regarding their jobs. they became aggrieved because they were not consulted on or communicated with regarding the transitioning and management change in the clcs. educators experienced dissatisfaction, disillusionment, stress, confusion and depression and feared for the loss of their jobs because of the change in work environment and management. conclusion: recommendations that the departments of education should ensure that employees have a sound knowledge and understanding of the issues of transition and change management were implied. consultation, communication, training and development should have been planned for all educators affected by the transitioning to avoid stress and anxiety amongst employees. keywords: transitioning; management change; community learning centre; educators; lewin. introduction transitioning through management change occurred when public adult learning centres (palcs) were transferred to the department of higher education and training (dhet) and renamed as community learning centres (clcs) in april 2015. much has been written on the extent and nature of changes in the world of work and the impact of these changes on workers’ and prospective workers’ well-being (urbanaviciute, udayar, & rossier, 2018). workers struggle to deal with transitions and many of them feel traumatised by the change. yateem and docherty (2014) and rundell (2007) agree that transitioning is the passing or passage from one place, condition or action to another or the development, evolution or progression from one state to another. transition is therefore the process of changing from one situation, form or state to another. the concept of ‘transition’ is synonymous with change, move, migration, transformation, conversion, alteration, changeover, shift or switch (holscher, wittmayer, & loorback, 2017; waite & hawker, 2009). according to fox and combley (2014:1953), ‘transition’ is a change to a new state or the start of using something new. in this article, transition refers to the changing or moving of palcs from the department of basic education (dbe) to the department of higher education and training (dhet). turner (2017) claims that change management is a term often used in an organisation to refer to all approaches employed to prepare and support individuals, teams and organisations. to ensure appropriate change, sidikova (2011) articulates that change management or transitioning aims to apply an organised and efficient approach to ensure that employees affected are fully aware of the need for change in management. change is inevitable in any organisation. the smooth transitioning in an organisation is dependent on various factors: the need and necessity for change, employee wellness, communication and consultation and the effects of change on both the employees and the organisation. this study investigated transitioning through management change. the experiences of clc educators in the tshwane south district in gauteng were probed to answer the specific research question: how did educators experience the transitioning through management change from dbe to the dhet? background in gauteng, the palcs were managed by the dbe for several years until the end of march 2015. on 1 april 2015, the palcs were transferred to the dhet, and the nomenclature was changed to clcs (dhet, 2018). the dbe initially managed palcs and was responsible for its management and governance tasks. these centres were responsible for offering level 1 (grade r-2), level 2 (grade 3–5), level 3 (grade 6–8) and level 4 (grade 9) education, as well as an opportunity to rewrite grade 12 (dbe, 2002). the ministry of education decided to reorganise the entire adult education sector, thus transferring the responsibilities from the dbe to the dhet (2012). the reason cited for this is that the basic education sector is responsible for basic primary and high school education (sasa, 1996). the higher education sector is responsible for post-schooling education at tertiary level and carries the hopes of many adults and youths for the redress of education deprivation (dhet, 2012). thus, educators and centre managers are responsible for assisting adults and youths to achieve their dreams of being educated through palcs. this transition from the basic education sector to the higher education sector had come with numerous changes and challenges. some of these relate to policy imperatives, nomenclature, roles, responsibilities and delegation of authority. various critics, fox and combley (2014), assert that many organisational changes turn out to be unsuccessful because of the failure of the organisation to implement transitioning smoothly, thus causing employee dissatisfaction and insecurity. accordingly, career development theorists, researchers, practitioners and policymakers are challenged to rethink and post-modernise the theory and practice of career development (duarte, 2017; guichard, 2013; hartung, 2015; maree, 2013; savickas, 2015). querto (2017) argue that organisational change should be carefully managed from the beginning of the project throughout the implementation process until the organisation is stable or until it reaches the refreezing stage (lewin, 1951). the transitioning of employees from one sector to another should ensure that employees are satisfied and do not feel insecure and they have been consulted and are aware of the transition. literature review effects of management change on educators organisations that need to be successful in implementing transitioning through management change must recognise the social aspect of the employees. slack, corlett and morris (2015) articulate that an organisation has a social responsibility to its employees. the organisation must ensure and recognise employee morale, retention and wellness. change has been an integral part of both human and social development (akinbode & shuhumi, 2018); therefore, management plays an important role in this change/transformation. to successfully initiate and implement change, there is a need for diligence and skilfulness from the part of organisational leaders. were (2014) states that change is about altering organisational practice, structure, culture, policy and regulations. it is about becoming different or having a different form. the transitioning from the dbe to dhet addresses the issue of organisational practice, structure, culture and policy. green (2019) states that transition or change without proper consultation with the employees may have negative effects on employees’ wellness, attitude and commitment towards work, thus causing resistance. senior management should lead organisational change and involve employees through communication to reduce their fears and uncertainties. involvement of employees at the early stages of transitioning eliminates resistance to change (swarnalatha & prasanna, 2013). radical change threatens the job security and economic freedom that employees enjoyed before the transition from the dbe to the dhet (boikhutso, 2013). transitioning through management change is an issue that every leader, employee and management should deal with daily for them to cope with change (raziq & maulabakhsh, 2015). green (2008) maintained that organisations of the future must show their commitment to becoming caring organisations. the postmodern workforce requires more collaboration, emotional intelligence and worker participation to enhance employee motivation and commitment. employees must be committed to the transition, as the employers’ expectations are to continue providing a good service to the clientele by raising their performance level higher and changing their attitudes and behaviour at the same time (green, 2019). motivated employees should drive successful change; therefore, it is the responsibility of the dhet, as the employer, to keep employees motivated to provide the best educational service with minimal disruptions or resistance to change (sidikova, 2011). when fear is reduced, employees become energised and embrace change and performance levels increase. employees find new reasons to go along with management as they experience new opportunities, learn new tasks and overcome challenges (white, 2016). mosia (2011) argues that educators’ response to change is closely linked with the way the transitioning process is managed and affected. the transitioning through management change of clcs from the dbe to the dhet is no exception. department of higher education and training should handle the implemented change with care and sensibility. change can be either passive or active. response to change is met with ambivalence, because there are those embracing it, but on the other hand, those who are angry and frustrated, because they are not aptly informed (clasquin-johnson, 2011). although reform can also become an opportunity to realise novel career prospects (the probability or chance for future success in the profession) (gotsil & meryl, 2007), some respond by ignoring, resisting, adopting or adapting and accepting the change (ferreira, 2016). chetty (2015) asserts that policymakers fail to collaborate with educators and do not avail themselves to obtain full co-operation bearing in mind moral purpose. chetty (2015), clasquin-johnson (2011), mosia (2011) and mugweni (2012) and found that a definite hindrance to successful curriculum implementation is a lack of resources; furthermore, insufficient professional training of employees hinders transitioning and acceptance of novel ideas. educators become resistant to change and become stuck in their old, secure ways because they have to make a quantum leap to be able to cope with the new proposals (mugweni, 2012). they may ignore change because of a gap between policy and implementation (dhet, 2002; hudson, hunter, & peckham, 2019). according to chetty (2015), educators interpret change diversely. whereas some silently resist change, some openly oppose it and treat it with animosity. transitioning through management change requires strategic planning and sensitivity as educators may become resistant when observing any threat to their freedom and personal parameters (jalagat, 2016). mosia’s (2011) findings correspond to those of shonubi (2012) who believes that educators and centre managers become hostile to change the moment their comfort is threatened in the course of management change. a lack of motivation and uncertainty about the future, because of management change, often dampens the spirit of educators to perform at their optimal level (shonubi, 2012). chetty (2015) corroborates with drake and sherine (2006) who assert that the level of educator experience and supportive training influence their willingness to adapt to change. educators might even embrace the change and go with the proposed suggestions (chetty, 2015). educators adopt change through varying degrees, depending on the available resources, their understanding of the transition, the type of educators and the time they need to adjust to the transition (shonubi, 2012). this study investigated how educators and centre managers adopted or adapted to the transitioning through the management change and how they experienced migration of clcs from the dbe to the dhet. bellah and dyer (2007), chetty (2015) and mugweni (2012) assert successful adaptation to change pivot on educators’ acceptance and recognition of the existing challenges and willingness to face initiatives proposed by the dhet to develop their abilities by considering their unique needs. if educators can overcome the fear of change (dhet, 2006), they can enter the information-seeking phase and successfully adapt to the transition. the study further investigated how educators and centre managers ignore, resist, adopt or adapt to the transitioning through a management change and their experiences of the transition of the clcs from the dbe to the dhet. the need for job satisfaction and security the importance of the work environment in employee satisfaction cannot be underestimated. raziq and maulabakhsh (2015) in their research cite vroom (1964) and spielgler (1938) who state that job satisfaction is an orientation of emotions that employees possess. job satisfaction is an integrated set of psychological, physiological and environmental conditions that encourage employees to admit that they are satisfied in their work environment. various factors, namely, working conditions, roles and responsibilities, accountability, autonomy, organisational structure and communication between employees and management, affect employees’ job satisfaction and security (lane, holte, & anne, 2010). sanera and eyupoglub (2015) state that our work environment is undergoing a major shift. factors such as globalisation, growing economies and improved and advanced technology are constantly presenting new challenges, thus creating insecurities amongst employees. hamlin (2020) asserts that job security is a sense of assurance that employees will remain employed for the near future – or at the very least until they decide that they are going to move on. job security means that employees are confident that the employer will take into consideration their wants and needs. job insecurity is defined as the perception of a potential threat to continuity in an employee’s current job. according to ashford and bobko (1989) cited in jimenez and didona (2017), insecurity causes a reduction in commitment and reduces satisfaction in the work environment. it was also found that job insecurity decreases job performance and increases job stressors and physical symptomatology according to rosow and zager (1985) cited in jimenez and didona (2017). lastad (2015) argues that the perception of job insecurity is, therefore, associated with performance decrease and an overall reduction in organisational citizenship behaviour. dissatisfied and less committed employees are less dedicated to the organisation and its goals, thus having a negative effect in its social atmosphere. staufenbiel and konig (2010) and lastad (2015) revealed that it is suggested that job insecurity has a predominantly harmful effect on performance, turnover intention and absenteeism. it is therefore important that an organisation, according to mosley (2020), consulting with employees fosters good relations as well as improving productivity. this will also create a conducive environment whereby employees will experience job security and satisfaction. theoretical framework one of the most influential planned approaches to managing change is that of lewin (1951), who described the three stages of change as unfreezing, changing and refreezing (see figure 1). lewin’s three-step change theory was used to gain insight and understanding of the experience of educators transitioning from the dbe to the dhet. the theoretical framework of lewin was applied to this study by focusing on transitioning through a management change and investigating the experiences of the clcs’ educators from the dbe to the dhet. figure 1: lewin’s change model. according to lewin (1951), the first phase of unfreezing is characterised by a change of preparedness, prior learning, behaviours and assumptions that are not applicable anymore (aravopoulou & malone, 2016). because this status quo is challenged and broken down, the stress associated with change is extremely likely to be observed. the second stage is the transition for employees from their current to the new state. dissatisfaction, apathy and negative emotions, caused during the previous stage, motivate employees to change. finally, the third stage is that of refreezing, in which change is permanent. employees adjust to their new conditions as new beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are established. for this to materialise, old behaviours, attitudes and beliefs ought to be discarded. stage 1: unfreezing authorities, senior managers and line managers from both the dbe and dhet are responsible for preparing the mindset of the educators (employees) for the transition to ensure that subordinates are ready for transitioning from dbe to dhet. the subordinates are encouraged to do away with the old behaviour and thinking. unfreezing of the organisation assists in overcoming the forces of resistance to change. stage 2: change or moving when transition occurs, there is normally panic and confusion amongst the educators (employees) whilst the authorities execute the intended transition. during this change or moving stage, educators align themselves with the expected changes (turner, 2017). authorities persuade or convince subordinates that their old way of behaviour is not advantageous to the organisation; they need to change. authorities share the transition process with all stakeholders for buy-ins. the desired change is implemented in this stage. stage 3: refreezing the authorities now solidify and convince the educators to accept the transition. a new mindset is instilled in the educators so that they do not revert to their old way of thinking and behaving. once there is a signal that change has been accepted, the momentum of acceptance should be sustained and reinforced. reinforcement ensures that the transition or change is permanent. lewin’s theory proposes three stages for educators to move from the current state to a desired or anticipated future state. a failure to implement one stage may cause imbalances, and the affected educators may resist the transitioning. the theory made implementers of change aware of the need to communicate change clearly. they could then win subordinates’ buy-ins, execute the transition according to plan and the drivers of change as the leaders aligned with change and demonstrate that they had a serious desire for the change. lewin’s change management theory helps account for both the uncertainty and resistance to change that can be experienced at all staff levels within an organisation. the benefits to the lewin model are obvious in that it is the simplest model out there. this makes it easy to plan around, especially in organisations not accustomed to the science of change management. at the same time, it does try to minimise the difficulty with opposition by addressing its head-on (hussain, lei, akram, haider, hussain, & ali, 2018). lewin’s change model is still frequently used in organisational change. also in team building trajectories, it is an excellent method to bring about a mentality change amongst employees and creating awareness of the advantages of change. methodology research design a qualitative approach was utilised employing interpretivism as meta-theoretical paradigm, thereby recognising that individuals’ reality is socially constructed in multiple ways and cannot be objectively determined (kelliher & menezes, 2011). interpretivist research is concerned with understanding social phenomena by exploring participants’ actions, perceptions and experiences in contextual depth, within their social contexts (basit, 2010). interpretivism recognises that values and facts cannot be separated and thus that the social world cannot be understood in terms of objective truths. in following this epistemological framework, we thus considered the experiences of the participants aiming to gain insight into their subjective experiences and understandings regarding the transition, within their unique social environments and contexts (kelliher & menezes, 2011). population the population of the study was the employees of the department of education. participants of the study were six african males, aged between 35 and 50, purposefully selected from three centres in tshwane south district in gauteng. two participants from each of the three centres were invited to a focus group interview. a purposive sampling strategy was used to identify the participants and research sites (mcmillan & schumacher, 2014). the criteria for selection were that all educators had to have more than 3 years of teaching experience at a clc and must have experienced transitioning of management change from the dbe to dhet and be willing to participate. research instrument a semi-structured interview questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. it composed of open-ended questions. the open-ended questions allowed the researcher to probe further into the experiences of educators and their attitudes and feelings of transitioning through management change from the dbe to the dhet. data collection and analysis data were collected through a qualitative questionnaire. all the data were audio recorded to ensure transcription was free from misinterpretation (lewins & silver, 2007). after the collection of the data, the author used the guidelines described by creswell (2014), namely reading through the data, dividing the data into segments of information, labelling the information with codes, reducing and overlapping the redundancy of codes and collapsing the codes into themes. the transcribed data were cross-checked and compared with audio recordings to ensure trustworthiness and credibility (maree, 2017). the content of the data was analysed and presented in a descriptive format with verbatim quotes from the participants. the flexibility of qualitative research analysis allowed the conversion of raw data into the credible findings of the study (okeke & van wyk, 2017). ethical consideration permission of the study was granted by the university of pretoria ethics committee. the researcher adhered to the ethical principles of informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, honesty and openness, access to findings and avoiding harm as described by vanclay, baines and taylor (2013). informed consent was obtained from all participants and the ethics committee of the faculty of education from the university of pretoria. anonymity was explained and applied as agreed between participants and the researcher (creswell, 2013). the research was open to participants and interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees. the author also explained that withdrawal from the study was possible at any time. pseudonyms and anonymity were used to conceal the identity of participants. the codes ea, eb, ec, ed, ee and ef were used for the educators from the three centres. trustworthiness was ensured through treating the participants with the utmost respect throughout the study and aspiring to develop trustworthy relationships built on honesty and transparency (christensen, burke johnson, & turner, 2015). results: findings and discussion the experiences of clc educators were categorised into two broad themes, namely: (1) educators’ knowledge and understanding of transitioning and management change and (2) educators’ experiences of the transitioning from the dbe to the dhet and its effects. verbatim quotes are used as evidence in the results. this section presents findings that emanated from the participants’ responses using the semi-structured interview questions regarding the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. educators’ knowledge and understanding of transitioning through a management change when the participants were asked about their understanding of transitioning and management change, the responses varied significantly. some of the participants were aware that changes in an organisation are inevitable; however, most of the participants in this study had a limited understanding of what transitioning between the dbe and dhet actually meant to them as employees. participant ea mentioned: ‘management change is about having new managers in the work environment.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) when the author probed further and asked the participant’s understanding of ‘transitioning through management change’, he responded: ‘transitioning is about transformation of an organisation.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) he further went on to say: ‘it is about moving from one department to another.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) according to ec and ef their understanding of management change is when an organisation decides to appoint someone new into a leadership position within the organisation. regarding transitioning through management change, ef indicated: ‘it is when employees move from one department to another.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) according to lewin’s theory, transitioning is the first stage of change management, whereby employees have knowledge and understanding of the issues of change or transitioning from one organisation to another. on the other hand, management change is a logical activity for preparing the institution to implement ongoing environmental changes in business operation; it is a deliberate approach to move the institution forward (boikhutso, 2013; onyango, 2014). management change deals with long-term strategic activities and sudden changes of the governance of the institution that need to be changed, to improve the productivity level of the employees or by complementing the existing systems of the organisation. onyango (2014) states that management change can support new working culture and a set of values in any management area. in this study, management change is synonymous with change management. regarding their understanding and view of the transitioning from the dbe to dhet, the participants responded as follows. participant eb stated: ‘we are moving from the dbe to dhet. it is when we have to change employers.’ (eb, educator, 07 august 2017) both ed and ee were in agreement with eb. they felt that they did not understand why they needed to move from dbe to dhet. they were uncertain as to how the change would affect their jobs, their conditions of employment and whether they would be addressed as educators or practitioners. participant ef indicated that: ‘when we are employed [by] the dhet, we are under the new minister of education. we will now belong to tertiary education. i think the department is seeing the adult learner as a university study. they do not realise that the adult learner cannot read or write. we are teaching them basic education and not higher education.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) the responses of the participants clearly indicate ambivalence. according to lewin’s change management theory, employees need to understand the reasons for change fully. communication and advocacy are critical issues that need to be well articulated to all employees before any change or transition can happen (turner, 2017). the interviewed participants had different views on the transition from dbe to dhet. participant ea viewed: ‘the transition as a wake-up call to educators and the change to dhet can bring new challenges, changes and developments to the sector, which can affect us.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) participant ec thought that: ‘adult education was not correctly placed in education system and viewed the change was too quick to be implemented.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) he further stated: ‘this transitioning is making me nervous and very stressful.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) to this ed added: ‘transition or change is a process, not an event that takes place over-night. it is important that the department of education should consult us about this management change.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) ea interjected and said: ‘we should know what is happening in our workplace, because it affects us as employees. now, i am not sure how my job description is going to change when we move to dhet. this can be very stressful and unsettling for us as educators. what do we tell our adult learners?’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) deghetto, russell and ferris (2017) agree that quick changes in an organisation can be unsettling to existing employees, causing considerable uncertainty, conflict and stress. they recommend that the change or transition must be managed carefully to avoid resistance from employees. educators’ experiences of the transitioning from the department of basic education to the department of higher education and training and its effects regarding their experiences of the transitioning of management change from the dbe to the dhet, participants expressed their ambivalence. ea stated: ‘i am very nervous and uncomfortable with this change. we were not well informed why we had to change from dbe to dhet.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) according to ec, he was concerned about his job description as an adult educator. to this ef added: ‘management change is about having new managers, are we going to have a new head of the centre who will now change our job description? what are we going to be called when we are under the management of dhet? are we still educator?’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) eb voiced his opinion: ‘the change could be a positive, and we will be working with a new group of people. we can learn from them.’ (eb, educator, 07 august 2017) ee agreed: ‘sometimes change can have a positive effect on us as employees. we may get opportunities for career movement and upward mobility.’ (ee; educator, 07 august 2017) jalagat (2016) thinks that unplanned change often happens when there is a sudden and surprising event or conditions that make the employees react in a disorganised fashion. this change can be unsettling and create anxiety amongst the employees. change management requires careful planning, implementing a concrete action plan and involving everyone in the organisation who are affected by these changes (laurentiu, 2016). the participants commented on the consultation process of the transitioning from the dbe to dhet with mixed feelings. ef indicated: ‘we were not consulted about this change. one day our principal came to the staff room and informed us that we are moving from dbe to dhet. when we asked what the reasons were, he told us that the department officials would speak to us. that was the end of the discussion.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) ea and ed agreed that they too were not well informed or consulted regarding the transitioning. participant ec differed from the others indicating: ‘we were informed that there was going to be a move from the dbe to dhet, however, they did not ask for our views or opinion. the officials from the department of education arrived, told us what they wanted to and left. we did not have time to engage in a discussion.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) most of the participants agreed that they did not contribute to the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. they all felt that they were not respected and recognised as employees of a major organisation. bucăţa and rizescu (2017) argue that communication and consultation between employer and employees are essential. good communication and consultation are central to the management process and assume critical importance when dealing with changes in working practices and procedures. lewin (1951), in his model of change, agrees that employers need to consult with employees regarding changes in an organisation. without proper consultation, any form of change could be met with insecurity, resistance and lack of commitment to their work. although the transitioning from the dbe to the dhet did not affect the job descriptions of educators, many educators strongly indicated that these issues should have been clearly communicated with them. they felt that the department of education is behaving autonomously. all the participants agreed that they are not receiving the desired support from the dhet regarding the transitioning. however, participants ea, ee and ef said that they were glad that their job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, salary structure, employment status and security were not affected by these changes. however, eb, ec and ed indicated, ‘if only the department was open with us, we would not have experienced such stress and anxiety for months’. there must be open communication between the employer and the employee. beattie and ellis (2017) agree that as a management tool, communication intends to establish good interpersonal relationships that are non-confrontational based on the achievement of common goals. the role of open communication is to facilitate relationships between people to establish an environment beneficial to the organisation (bucăţa & rizescu, 2017). with reference to management change, all the participants agreed that change is inevitable. because the process of transitioning from the dbe to dhet did not affect their conditions of employment, participants agreed to embrace the change. participant ec stated that as educators: ‘we decided that we must not be against change, so we should follow the rules and regulations.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) moreover, participant ed stated that: ‘we are trying to comply with what is being required by the department.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) according to lewin (1951), when employees embrace change, they begin to anchor the change into their culture’. employees need to be ‘provided with support and training’ to ‘celebrate success. the findings highlighted the gap in communication and consultation between employer and employees. most educators do not have access to information and rely on their centre managers to provide feedback as articulated by eb and ec: ‘we at the lower end of the education structure have to wait for information from our managers. most of them do not report to us immediately. it sometimes goes for weeks before we have a staff meeting and then told about labour issues.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) ef also indicated: ‘in my centre, the centre manager is not very open to share information with staff. only certain members of the staff are aware what is happening between the department and the centres. it is very frustrating for people like us who are in the classroom.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) it is therefore recommended that appropriate platforms should be created through technology, whereby educators can retrieve information on the organisation’s decision. management needs to communicate and consult with employees at all levels (koivula, 2009). gotsil and meryl (2007) state that communication and consultation are not a once-off assignment; they should be repeatedly reinforced to educators for them to adjust and accept change. educators should not only rely on verbal communication from centre managers. in the case of transitioning, another gap that most educators experienced was insecurity and apathy in the work environment. ed and ee stated that at their centre, apathy towards education is observable. there is a lack of enthusiasm amongst staff because of changes that are happening. ed was vocal when he said: ‘i am left in the dark, i feel overwhelmed and anxious whether i have a job or not.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) according to artz and kaya (2015), job security is one of the most important and powerful job characteristics in determining job satisfaction. when employees find security in their jobs, they are willing to go the extra mile to perform optimally (botha, marishane, van der merwe, van zyl, & zengele, 2016). it is therefore recommended that the department officials communicate openly with educators to ease any tension or anxieties about their transitioning from the dbe to dhet. when the participants became aware that their roles and responsibilities, job descriptions and salaries were not affected by the transitioning, they experienced a level of security. job security is recognised as a very important and highly valued attribute for a worker. ef said: ‘if we know that our jobs are not on the line, then we can work with much ease and comfort. we will give off our best to our adult learners.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) the unfreezing stage in kurt lewin’s (1951) theory needs strong communication strategies for all stakeholders to accept and adjust to change. this will encourage staff members to abandon their old behaviour and develop a new one (malek & yazdanifard, 2012). because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the transitioning process, most educators at the clcs were reluctant and unwilling to accept the transitioning. the educators were disillusioned, dissatisfied, confused and depressed by the migration from the dbe to the dhet. the voices of eb, ed and ef clearly articulated their knowledge and understanding of the transitioning process: ‘i have no idea why we are going through this process of change. i don’t see the reasons why an organisation like the dbe must move us to dhet. we are still working with learners, what is the difference?. the dhet is responsible for universities and fet colleges. what does clc have to do with higher education? if we move to dhet, then we will not get the same privileges as teachers. i really don’t know what is the difference between employees at universities and clc. this is very depressing and confusing to us level 1 educators.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) it is therefore recommended that training and development workshops are organised to inform educators on the reasons for the transitioning to the dhet. they should also be trained and developed concerning the organisational culture and environment (bowe, 2011). they should be informed of the new laws, policies and operating procedures to minimise any confusion that may prevail. ferreira (2016) states that training is often seen as a planned and systematic process of learning in the sense of acquiring, modifying or developing knowledge and skills and abilities of employees for an intended job function. in this instance, educators needed to be fully capacitated to fit into a new organisational culture. the importance of a stable work environment cannot be overemphasised. the findings in this study clearly indicated that the transitioning from the dbe to dhet has created much dissatisfaction and apathy amongst clc educators. this finding mirrors the findings of bucăţa and rizescu (2017) research on the role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness of an organisation. educators felt insecure as ef indicated: ‘… not knowing if you have a job is frightening and very stressful.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 1997) green (2019) proposed that employees must be consulted and kept abreast with information in an organisation. in this study, most of the participants stated that they were given information on a ‘need to know basis’, which further heightened their discomfort in the environment. the fear of the ‘unknown’ has become overwhelming to the participants causing much work place stress. in their study, raziq and maulabakhsh (2015) foregrounded that job satisfaction plays an important role in employees’ performance. the participants in this study clearly highlight the high stress levels and anxieties they experienced with the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. limitations of the study the study adapted a purely qualitative approach as the interests of the investigation lay in the depth of the experiences and feelings held by participants who underwent the transition in management change. the study cannot be generalised and would benefit from a mixed method strategy, which would validate the qualitative findings in his article. the study could also be performed amongst other institutions that underwent transitions. conclusion all employees in an organisation are seeking job security and satisfaction during these trying times. the ability to change frequently and rapidly is a requirement for survival. an organisation like the department of education that intends to implement transitioning from one sector to another should seriously consider planning for change. consultation, communication, training and development should have been planned to avoid stress and anxiety amongst employees. when educators are empowered with the knowledge and understanding of their conditions of employment, job security, job satisfaction, respect and consideration, there would be minimal to no resistance to change. transitioning from one sector to another would have been a smooth process. because unmanaged transitions led to insecurities, employee disengagement and disenchantment, transition management must rank as a key decision-making skill that would be needed in the years to come. the need for a paradigm shift towards providing opportunities regarding online training for managers in the dhet and the dbe on transition and change management has become more urgent. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the university of pretoria department of early childhood education, where this study was undertaken. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interest. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akinbode, a.i., & shuhumi s.r.a.a. 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(2014). transition: a concept of significance to nursing and health care professionals. journal of nursing education and practice, 5(5), 35–40. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v5n5p35 abstract introduction literature review method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) daphne j. pereira department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa noorjehan joosub department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa pieter basson department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation pereira, d.j., joosub, n., & basson, p. (2024). the psychological factors influencing youth moving from unemployment to employment in south africa. african journal of career development, 6(1), a118. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.118 original research the psychological factors influencing youth moving from unemployment to employment in south africa daphne j. pereira, noorjehan joosub, pieter basson received: 10 apr. 2024; accepted: 24 june 2024; published: 26 sept. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: youth unemployment in south africa has increased significantly over the past decade. there are, however, stories of success in securing employment. exploring factors influencing these successes is important because they may inform interventions that have the potential to increase youth employment. objectives: this study explored the experiences of four black female, south african youth who successfully transitioned from unemployment to employment. methods: utilising a qualitative design methodology and the inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, data were gathered from four first-time employed participants regarding their experiences of progressing from unemployment to employment. results: four main themes emerged from the analysis that highlighted the psychological impact of looking for employment among south african youth. the themes examined the value participants placed on tertiary education, the loss of identity caused by the negative consequences of job-search rejection, the positive impact of kin support and the influence of the participants’ psychological strengths. the final theme elucidated the participants’ positive identity formation post-employment. conclusion: the results from this study underscored the value of kin support, the use of specific psychological strengths in securing employment and the timing of identity formation in the school-to-work transition phase for south african youth. contribution: this study may contribute to the existing body of literature on youth unemployment, understanding the psychological impact of the journey to employment and the factors that contribute to securing employment. keywords: youth unemployment; youth employment; kinship support; identity formation; job search; south africa. introduction unemployment in south africa has reached significant proportions. according to a survey conducted by statistics south africa (2022a), the general population unemployment rate was 32.6% in the first quarter of 2022. of significant concern is the unemployment rate for south african youth, which is far higher than that of the general population. the survey reported that the unemployment rate among the 15–24-year-old group, who were active in the labour force, was 63.9% in the first quarter of 2022, with many of these young work seekers having been unemployed for more than a year (statistics south africa, 2022a). the impact of generations of unemployment in south africa has had severe psychological consequences for the vast majority of the black population, with historical employment practices forming the foundation of chronic unemployment and ensuring its continuation (stead & watson, 2017). this historical legacy of apartheid is perhaps most widely manifested in the country’s employment statistics (stead & watson, 2017). decades after apartheid was dismantled, there continues to be a divide between where many black people live and where resources and jobs are concentrated, increasing unemployment and poverty for people living on the periphery (turok, 2018). according to chibba and luiz (2011), this legacy of apartheid persists in economics, business, sociology and land tenure. south africa continues to endure structural inequalities and high levels of unemployment, which perpetuate poverty cycles. for most black south africans, employment is a means of survival, lacking dignity or self-determination (stead & watson, 2017). this is contrary to the idea that employment is essential in an individual’s life as well as the functioning of society as a whole, as stressed by górny (2018). work shapes beliefs, aspirations, social status and position and is a source of income. the consequence of not being employed could be stigmatisation, which results in shame and emotional distress (du toit et al., 2018). literature review within this literature review, focussing on the psychological aspects impacting youth in the transition from unemployment to employment in south africa, the gendered effects of unemployment, the burden of unemployment on youth and employability factors are highlighted. gendered effects of unemployment when considering the gendered effects of unemployment in south africa, the quarterly labour force survey (statistics south africa, 2020) reported that the unemployment rate between 2016 and 2020 was consistently higher among women than men, reaching approximately 34.3% of the total labour force during the fourth quarter of 2020. this anomaly is concerning, as women constitute the majority of the population in south africa (statistics south africa, 2020). as is the case internationally, south african women are marginalised in the labour market and disproportionately represented in care work for no pay (casale & posel, 2020). in south africa, across all the poverty measures and age groups, female-headed households consistently report the highest incidence of poverty compared to their male counterparts (statistics south africa, 2022b). in addition, children are far more likely to live with their mothers than their fathers, resulting in the majority of children receiving financial and physical care from women without any contribution or support from their fathers (hatch & posel, 2018). the burden of unemployment on youth in addition to the marginalisation of women of all ages, south africa’s youth bear the burden of unemployment (statistics south africa, 2022a). south africa has over 10 million young people aged 15–24 years; however, only 2.5 million young people were in the labour force in the first quarter of 2022. a south african study on youth unemployment suggested numerous reasons for this, including a lack of experience, inappropriate strategies for searching for work, population growth and a lack of career guidance in schools (cloete, 2015). furthermore, cloete’s (2015) study found that unemployed youth felt alienated from the larger society and experienced a sense of betrayal by the government because they realised that their lives had not improved since 1994. dieltiens (2015) stated that a common contributing factor to youth unemployment in south africa is that young people lack the experience and skills employers seek. de lannoy et al. (2018) found that a lack of sustained economic growth, poor educational outcomes, inefficient coordination of national and provincial training programmes, limited understanding of what drives employer hiring preferences and the cost of seeking work all contributed to youth unemployment. dube-addae (2019) found that many young south africans struggled to develop a vocational identity. the convergence of internal factors, for example, self-efficacy and self-confidence, and overwhelming external factors, such as a lack of job opportunities and insufficient funds to conduct an effective job search, obstructed their ability to plan for their preferred occupation (dube-addae, 2019). however, there are young people who successfully secure employment despite being unemployed for an extended period. according to statistics south africa (2022a), 36% of the youth in the labour force are employed. the factors that assist young people in securing employment are important because being employed increases personal levels of happiness and life satisfaction and maximises the potential for youth to build their future on a solid foundation of productive employment (international labour organization, 2015). employability employability is considered a critical factor in the transition from unemployment to employment. römgens et al. (2020) defined employability as an individual’s ability to obtain and maintain employment. various south african studies have explored the impact of employability interventions to understand the factors that help youth secure employment. these factors include vocational and skills-based programmes such as learnerships, work-integrated learning and social network development (de lannoy et al., 2018; lourens & fourie-malherbe, 2016; patel et al., 2020; rankin et al., 2014). psychological aspects impacting the transition from unemployment to employment global research findings on the psychological aspects that seem to impact moving from unemployment to employment emphasise self-regulation, psychological capital, perceived progress and career identity development (fernández-valera et al., 2020; fugate et al., 2004; liu et al., 2014; luthans et al., 2007; van hooft et al., 2020). in south africa, there appears to be a dearth of information pertaining to psychological factors that may impact the employment success of youth. the low probability of securing employment and the high poverty and economic marginalisation rates in south africa caution against merging work aspirations and work seeking (perry & smith, 2017). for example, given resource limitations, job seekers may not be in a position to search intensely or actively for work, and they may be forced to rely instead on social networks to inform them when an employment opportunity becomes available. mlatsheni and ranchhod (2017) conducted a longitudinal study considering the factors that assisted school leavers in securing employment. the study found that inactive job searching may be related to the high cost of searching for work coupled with the low probability of securing employment. an important finding from this study was that utilising social networks is a popular and effective way of securing employment. a research study by patel et al. (2020) provides evidence that non-economic indicators of success, such as resilience, self-esteem, self-efficacy and foresight, are essential in the transition to employment in south africa. the youth unemployment crisis in south africa has been widely acknowledged and interventions have attempted to address this critical situation (de lannoy et al., 2018; patel et al., 2020; paver et al., 2019). few of these interventions, however, have addressed the psychological factors that may have influenced the journey from unemployment to employment for the youth. a south african study found that of 496 employment interventions, less than 6% addressed psychological factors impacting the move from unemployment to employment (paver et al., 2019). therefore, psychological aspects that help or hinder securing employment may have been neglected in the literature. purpose of the study this study aimed to explore the psychological factors influencing black, female, south african youth during their efforts to secure employment. the research question to be answered was: what are the lived experiences of black, female, south african youth who successfully transition from unemployment to employment. method this research utilised a qualitative methodology, using in-depth interviews as a data collection tool with the aim of generating a coherent narrative to understand and portray the research participants’ experiences and actions as they confronted, struggled with and lived through the journey from unemployment to employment. an inductive thematic analysis framework was used to explore the psychological factors influencing the transition from unemployment to employment and to extract salient themes and sub-themes. inductive thematic analysis is particularly beneficial as a method of enquiry when little is known about the research topic (braun & clarke, 2006, 2012), as was the case with this study. participants purposive sampling was used to recruit research participants, and potential participants were accessed with assistance from a career facilitator with youth networks. the inclusion criteria were as follows: aged between 18 and 24 years previously unemployed for approximately 1 year employed at the time of being interviewed for this study. four employed south africans (see table 1) were recruited for this study. all were black women based in gauteng; three had completed grade 12 and attained their national senior certificate, and one had left school in grade 11. table 1: socio-demographic information of participants. procedure participants were contacted to explain the research purpose and process. they were subsequently furnished with a written description of the research, including an assurance that participation was entirely discretionary. after completing biographical questionnaires with each participant, d.j.p. conducted in-person semi-structured interviews. a context of openness and trust was created during the interviews by taking adequate time to build rapport thereby ensuring interviewees felt comfortable to share personal information, posing questions in a calm and conversational tone, showing interest in the interviewee’s experiences, and consistently summarising and checking for meaning. the interview guide was designed to explore potential factors that contributed to unemployment, the psychological impact of unemployment, the journey to employment, the potential factors that contributed to employment success and post-employment experiences. with the permission of each of the participants, the interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim. member checking was conducted by verifying interpretations with participants during the interview as well as after the fact by supervisors. ethical considerations an application for full ethical approval was made to the faculty of humanities research ethics committee and ethics consent was received on 11 december 2020. the ethics approval number is rec-01-285-2020. confidentiality of participants’ data was ensured by using password protection of computer-based files, scanned and password-protected signed consent forms, and hard copies stored in a locked safe. all personal identifiers were removed from study documents and pseudonyms were used for participants’ names. the participants in this study were furnished with a verbal and written description of the research, including an assurance that participation was entirely discretionary. they were subsequently asked to give signed consent for the interviews to take place and for the information gathered to be used anonymously for research purposes. data collection and sample sufficiency information was collected using semi-structured interviews with four participants. extensive probing by the researcher proved to be highly productive and expanded the amount of information accumulated from each participant to increase sample sufficiency and achieve item salience. a well-known standard in qualitative sample size is thematic saturation (dejonckheere & vaughn, 2019). however, weller et al. (2018) found item salience to be a more useful concept for considering sample size sufficiency than determining the point of thematic saturation. data analysis thematic analysis was conducted using braun and clarke’s (2006, 2012) six-step analysis process, which included becoming familiar with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing the themes, defining and naming themes, and writing the report. analytic process the interviews were transcribed verbatim from the digital recordings of the interviews held with each participant. d.j.p. worked systematically through the entire data set to generate initial codes, which were subsequently collated into potential themes and all data relevant to each potential theme were gathered. themes were identified inductively, meaning they were strongly linked to the data. meetings were held among the three researchers to discuss preliminary themes and sub-themes and to explore nuances from the data that could have warranted further exploration. refining themes and establishing if there was sufficient, relevant data to support the themes led the researchers to develop a detailed thematic map. the collated data extracts for each theme were reviewed and organised into a coherent and internally consistent account of what was interesting in relation to the exploration of the psychological factors influencing the transition from unemployment to employment as experienced by black, south african youth. rigour of the study lincoln and guba’s (1985) model of trustworthiness was used to enhance the rigour of this study using the following four criteria. credibility: by verifying interpretations with participants during the interview, the researcher established if there was a match between the participants’ views and the researchers’ representations of them and provided in-depth and accurate descriptions of the collected data based on the participants’ verbatim quotes. prolonged engagement allowed the researchers to become deeply familiar with patterns in the research data. transferability: the researchers provided texts that were rich in detail such that the object of description is clear and substantial for the reader. dependability: the process used in this study included working repeatedly through the data to ensure familiarity, generating initial codes, searching for, reviewing, defining and naming themes and reporting this process and the results thereby enabling other researchers in the future to repeat the work. confirmability: in this study, all stages of the research were discussed and documented in detail. the researchers consistently appraised and reflected upon insights, perceptions and interpretations to maintain objectivity during the research. results four main themes and several sub-themes emerged from the analysis of the participants’ interviews. theme 1: dreams of continued education deferred this theme, through two sub-themes, tertiary education denied, and tertiary education delayed, elucidated the participants’ perceptions of the reasons for being excluded from tertiary education. ineligibility for further education, mainly based on poor grade 12 results, and, in one instance, non-completion of secondary school, coupled with a lack of funding for higher education, were reasons given by the participants for being denied the educational opportunities they desired. the participants accepted that they would have to delay further education: lerato: it wasn’t easy because when you have a higher certificate it’s not easy to find a [an academic institution] … you are unable to because that certain course want [academic institution requires] you to have at least a bachelor or a diploma [matric pass rate] and then with the higher certificate you are unable to [qualify] …. i applied at a lot of schools and then they were declining. noni: i wanted to go and study, i really wanted to go … [but] i didn’t have the funds to go and study. the participants ultimately elected to cease their fruitless quest, defer pursuing further education and secure employment: zanelle: i can still find a job, [after qui tting school] i can work for someone, i can do it as long as we can put food on the table i can still go to school after that. lerato: … that was when i realised that if i don’t find school [an opportunity to study] i need to do something at least in life. noni: now that i don’t [since i did not] have funds [to attend a tertiary institution], i need [needed] to look for a job to pay my fees to get me my career. the participants found themselves unemployed and searching for work without the necessary experience or qualifications demanded by the job market. theme 2: lost on the journey to employment theme 2 encompassed five sub-themes: the anguish of unemployment, loss of personal identity, reflections and social comparisons, purpose giving rise to pressure to find work and the negative impact of rejection. these sub-themes highlighted the participants’ psychological distress caused by unemployment, which included depression, anxiety and feelings of alienation, and gave expression to a loss of personal identity. the participants described their distress in terms of feeling worthless: zanelle: it’s like i don’t have a life anymore, it’s like i’m worthless, or it’s like i just lose hope, like i’m nobody. lerato: i felt different that [than] others you know, because i feel like i’m left out in a way of life … i can’t do anything. i just sit here at home. i can’t study; i can’t work; you know i feel [felt] left out a lot. noni: i hated myself to be honest. i thought, i thought i was not worth it. i was not worth being someone’s employee. i felt like i was not smart, i felt like i was dumb, i felt like i had bad luck … like it, it, was so heavy on my heart. noni: psychologically, … i was, i was … how can i say this, i won’t say short minded … i couldn’t think outside of the box. i felt caged, i felt like i was in a small box, a dark small box, where nobody, like nobody, could take me out of that box. even if you tried to cheer me up, i was a very sad soul. the participants attempted to understand their circumstances by reflecting on their situation and making social comparisons: zanelle: eish it’s when i see my age mates, when i see they had given up their dreams and just sleep with a man for money, so i said no, i don’t want that life, i have to try harder, until something comes up. elene: i … did compare myself to my friends. in fact, [to] my friend because right after matric she found a job. and then, knowing her grades, i said to myself, it was more. lerato: i did feel like that [unhappy]. because most of my friends are at school and with me, i’m like just sitting here at home. not even at school, i’m not working. the participants described the pressure to find work as unrelenting and associated with family survival, guilt at using scarce family resources and a fear of the future without work: zanelle: ahh that thing it makes me to go faster, my age, i have to think like an adult … so if i can go out and look for a job, i can help my family. elene: i just felt like i did need to do this [find work]. it was hard on my parents … i need [needed] to do something, in order to bring something to the table. lerato: mostly it was fear, you know, because like you fear what if i don’t a get a job, what if i don’t go to school, what is going to happen to me? will i become like those [her friends], like you ask yourself. the psychological impact of job-search rejection was negative for the participants and included feelings of anxiety, exclusion, a lack of self-esteem, hurt, fear and loss of identity: zanelle: it’s very hard, very hurtful to every day wake up in the morning, look for a job when you know exactly, eish, i’ll not get that job when they want something that i don’t have. elene: … and then when i get to the manager the facial expression tells you everything … the face is like you need to leave, there is nothing here for you. when you see [the facial expression of] a person like that, you change. noni: i was very scared. i felt everyone was going to reject me even if i did good. what i believe is that everything that i touch turns into rust, so i was afraid to touch anything. but then now, i have learnt that that was all in my mind, that’s what people inserted in me in my mind – that you won’t be anything, you won’t do anything in life. theme 3: support in the search for employment theme 3 was the dominant theme in this study, which included the sub-themes kin support, psychological strengths and training interventions. participants’ contributions to this theme included the exceptional support of direct family, extended family and other kin who provided practical, emotional, spiritual and material assistance: researcher: who was helping you during this period [in your attempt to find work]? zanelle: my mum. it was me and my mother. together, we were together elene: i had the best support system ever [referring to family]. lerato: you [we] would have a talk and then once we’ve had a talk, i would go to my room and then i’d think to myself, ‘wow, i need to do what my granny said.’ noni: so, so my mom, she did help me, it was so hard to find a job. my siblings as well, people sent me job applications, vacancies and whatsapp links, everything. noni: mom was at work, she was helping a customer [she asked the customer], she’s like, ‘my daughter is looking for a job, could you just help her?’ reciprocally, the participants expressed their compulsion to ensure that their respective families did not suffer while supporting them during their search for work: zanelle: uh, by that time there was a last born at home and she was brain damaged, so that place we were staying at the time we were supposed to go with a transport to get to school [the family could not afford school transport money, food and assistance for a disabled sibling, so zanelle decided to quit school] by that time so with no food and no transport money, and [with] the money that we have, we [were] supposed to help that child. elene: i just felt like i did need to do this [find work]. it was hard on my parents. i need [needed] to do something, in order to bring something to the table. noni: i was so devastated, ’cos i couldn’t help my mom. i would just sit there around and see her helpless, i felt helpless, and the thing is at home it’s only my mom who is working. so now everyone is like a burden to her. spiritual and ancestor beliefs provided hope for one of the participants: elene: so, i went to this specific lady [grave of an ancestor], i was named after her, i’ve never been to her graveyard. i went there, in fact my dad told me that, you know what ne, maybe if i take you there, things will change. and then he took me there, i went there, i just asked [my ancestor] you know what, i’m in need of a job, i’m in need of this, maybe you can do something as a guardian angel. and then, i think it was three months after we went there when i got a job. and then i said to myself, you know what, these things really do work. three participants secured employment through their parents’ network connections, a significant finding within the kin sub-theme: lerato: my mom was like there is a job at [retail company]. so, it took a while for them to at least review my cv and all that – but then at least i had a connection through my mom and that’s how i got this job. noni: so, my mom actually found a job for me here [retail company], through a customer. elene: i think it was also when i spoke to this friend, my dad’s friend, he has always been coming to my place and my dad has always been telling him about me. and so, i went there [for an interview at her father’s friend’s company], and when i got there, things [the interview] just went smoothly i was so happy, and when [then] they said can you start now? psychological strengths that assisted the participants in persisting with their job-seeking activities included self-motivation, grit and resilience: researcher: what kept you going [searching for employment] for a whole three years? zanelle: maybe i saw it’s not over, it’s not over, i can still find a job, i can work for someone, i can do it as long as we can put food on the table, i can still go to school after that. elene: and then i went to every shop. and then they would turn me down, it was so tiring, it was so exhausting [inte rviewer’s name] i told myself i’m not going to give up. someone has to take my cv even if it’s one company. lerato: i kept on pushing, i kept on… noni: at some point i felt helpless [about finding work], but then i managed [to keep searching for a job], like i told myself that i can do this. i’m still young, i have got potential, i am worth [it], i can do it. i have to, i have to go and look for a job. theme 4: finding myself more than finding a job the description of theme 4 was the concluding statement in one of the participant’s interviews. this expression summed up the self-discovery of all participants once they had secured employment: zanelle: it’s like i’m natural, because i never, i mean a computer is not like a cashier but now i’m a cashier, yes, i’m natural hey, i have to trust myself. elene: so, [before finding a job] i never knew that about myself … [after finding a job] i learnt that i am a free-spirited person. lerato: i didn’t believe it when i looked at myself back, i’m like no there’s no – but now i’m actually seeing what my granny was seeing in me which is very motivating, very nice and beautiful. noni: it [finding a job] completely changes the dialect [expression] of your life; it completely ‘shape-shifts’ let me say that if i could say that. noni: this is my purpose, i found i finally, finally found what i have wanted to do right now. and that took me out of that dark place that i was in, that gave me hope to wake up in the morning because i had a purpose now. i had a reason why i was doing this thing called life. noni: very huge that was me actually finding myself more than finding a job. discussion all the participants expressed a desire to further their education before they commenced employment; however, they were denied the opportunity to do so as they were ineligible for further education based on poor results and a lack of funding. these reasons concur with several south african studies. branson and kahn (2016) postulated that the leading cause of limited enrolment in post-secondary education in south africa is poor matric outcomes. the differences in the quality of education received at earlier levels of schooling, a lack of academic support and home environments characterised by limited resources mean that the student’s academic performance is generally poor. improved quality of schooling, financial assistance and strengthened post-school education and training are required to provide youth with access to opportunities for advancement (perold et al., 2012). in more recent research, mbandlwa (2020) stated that the basic education system is failing in south africa. there appears to be a disconnect between the low pass mark required to achieve a matric qualification and the higher matric pass marks required to achieve an aps score acceptable to tertiary institutions. naidoo (2021) examined south african youth schooling experiences and aspirations and found that many post-school youths had been significantly disadvantaged by their schooling. participants in this study accepted that further education would have to be held in abeyance and consequently commenced their search for employment. psychological distress and loss of identity caused by unsuccessful attempts at securing employment are mentioned in several research studies, which correspond with the reported high levels of psychological distress experienced by the research participants. a south african study by de witte et al. (2012) on the psychological effects of unemployment found that unemployed individuals suffered from depression, fear, despair, and decreased self-esteem, life satisfaction and a sense of identity, which correspond with the findings in this study. the participants’ descriptions of rejection coincided with international research by goldman-mellor et al. (2016), hiswåls et al. (2017) and kossen and mcilveen (2018), which found that individuals who experienced job application rejection experienced anxiety, depression, a lack of self-esteem, detachment from society and loss of identity. the participants’ accounts in this study further highlighted the exceptional unemployment and job-seeking support provided by their respective kin. in a ugandan study of school-to-work transitions, paul et al. (2021) found that family is essential in assisting the youth to transition from school to the labour market. the study also found that the major effects of transitioning from school to work without family support include exploitation and poorly paid jobs, missing job opportunities, prolonged employment search, the risk of falling into the ‘not in education, employment or training’ (neet) category and feeling abandoned or stressed during the transition period. in a uk study, hardgrove et al. (2015) also highlighted the crucial role of family support. they postulated that as youths plot a course through a labour market marked by uncertainty and insecurity, their ability to negotiate rapidly changing opportunities is enabled and strengthened through family support. however, there appears to be a gap in south african literature related to kin support during extended periods of unemployment and job searching. the psychological strengths that assisted the participants in their search for employment included self-motivation, resilience and grit. research by patel et al. (2020) provides evidence that non-economic indicators of success, such as resilience, are essential in the transition to employment. according to armstrong et al. (2018), grit, defined as sustained perseverance and passion for long-term goals, is a new concept of interest in south african research. the expression ‘finding myself more than finding a job’ describes one participant’s identity growth and self-discovery after securing employment. super et al. (1996) stated that individuals develop their understanding of who they are based on self-observations of their unique personal characteristics and experiences, as well as on feedback from others and social interactions. the participants’ narratives before employment reflected their belief that they were of no value to themselves or others. in other words, they had lost their identity. according to meyer (2017), social constructionism emphasises that identity is entrenched in certain sociocultural norms and that this entrenchment affects the construction of self-narrative. the unwritten rules of society include that to earn respect in society and to be seen as contributing citizens, individuals should be employed (du toit et al., 2018). these findings were reflected in the participants’ narratives after they secured employment. while unemployed and seeking work, the participants had no aspirations regarding their career and job choices; their only purpose was to find a job – any job. after being employed for a period, the participants progressed towards more mature career identity development and began planning their future with a newfound sense of well-being and life satisfaction. they appeared to need a job in order to find a more positive self-concept. the participants did not have a choice regarding their initial occupation; however, once employed, they entered a phase of developing an understanding of who they were and which occupational path to follow. the participants’ self-concept development process echoed super’s (1980) theory of the self-concept in the career development process. according to stead and watson (2017), an individual’s choice of occupation can be considered an attempt to express the perception of self. however, for these participants, the process of vocational identification commenced after, and not before, employment, as advanced by super (1980). strengths and limitations of this study through the rich, thick accounts of the participant narratives in this study, the research illuminated the depth of meaning expressed by the research participants. descriptions included their experience of the transition from school to the unsuccessful pursuit of further education followed by the experience of prolonged unemployment, finding employment and, ultimately, self-discovery. the finding of the impact of kin support for the participants throughout the transition from unemployment to employment is particularly significant and appears to be under-reported in the literature. grit, which appears to have been excluded from previous research on job seeking, was identified as a psychological strength in the search for employment. an additional noteworthy aspect of this research was the participants’ development of identity post-employment. this study was not without limitations; the small case study of black, female-only participants based geographically in the same province means that the study must be understood within that context because qualitative research does not aim for the generalisability of findings. the researchers attempted to provide rigorous and detailed thematic analysis so that readers could better understand participants’ lived experiences and use the information illuminated in this study as they best determined. recommendations based on the experiences elucidated in this study, it appears that the burden of supporting the youth in their search for further education and employment falls on family members who are usually not career specialists. the lack of career guidance may mean that young job seekers take longer to secure employment and suffer more than they should. preparation for further education and career guidance should be effectively delivered at the high school stage (armstrong et al., 2018). implementation or improvement of high school career guidance and planning, including information on the matric marks required for specific study routes, may ensure that learners know early in their high school careers what they are aiming for. such knowledge may motivate the achievement of better results. providing information on potential academic pathways and registration processes could mitigate the stress and missed opportunities of post-school self-search for higher education. job-seeking and employability skills are vitally important, particularly for new entrants to the labour market. the participants in this study developed their vocational identity only after securing employment. from a social constructionism perspective, the idea of job training simulations and frequent group excursions to a variety of organisations at the high school stage, as well as exposing students to holiday employment interventions, could enable them to develop their self-concept and vocational identity during their high school years, which this research has identified as critical to long-term career development. well-trained career practitioners are in short supply in south africa, particularly within public schools. the department of higher education and training has recognised this and, in 2017, gazetted a national policy for an integrated career development system for south africa (department of higher education and training, 2017). this policy intends to ensure that all citizens, including the youth, have access to quality career information and services; however, this has been slow to gain traction and requires more focussed attention and skills. conclusion this study explored the psychological impact of moving from unemployment to employment as well as what assisted this transition. a gap in the literature was highlighted regarding kin support for unemployed youth. the insights from this study may contribute to the literature on unemployed youth kin support, psychological strengths contributing to employment success, the psychological impact of unemployment and job seeking on youth, and the conditions required for developing self-concept and vocational identity. possible strategies have been recommended to ameliorate the dearth of career guidance available to unemployed youth. acknowledgements this article is partially based on d.j.p.’s thesis entitled ‘the psychological factors influencing moving from unemployment to employment in south africa : a thematic analysis’ towards the degree of master of arts, department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of johannesburg in 2022, with supervisor dr. noorjehan joosub and co-supervisor dr. p. basson. it is available at: handle: https://hdl.handle.net/10210/504963. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.j.p. conducted the research project. n.j. and p.b. supervised the project. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data are not publicly available because of confidential information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references armstrong, a., van der lingen, e., lourens, r., & chen, j.y.j. 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(2020). job search and employment success: a quantitative review and future research agenda. journal of applied psychology, 106(5), 674–713. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000675 weller, s., vickers, b., bernard, h.r., blackburn, a., borgatti, s., gravlee, c., & johnson, j. (2018). open-ended interview questions and saturation. plos one, 13(6), e0198606. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198606 abstract introduction research methodology synthesis of the findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) indira pillay department of anthropology and archaeology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation pillay, i. (2021). the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds. african journal of career development, 3(1), a36. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.36 original research the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds indira pillay received: 14 feb. 2021; accepted: 09 apr. 2021; published: 18 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: south african youth in poor and rural communities have faced serious challenges, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has worsened their situation. the odds are stacked against them as they try to obtain an education, and eventually a career. many students struggle to complete their studies amidst the pressure of the pandemic, and concerns over career possibilities weigh heavily on their shoulders. objectives: the need for this research is to highlight the challenges faced by youth within the education system. it is also to explore the failings of the south african government and its education sector. method: a brief overview of the current and historical literature was conducted. relevant literature was reviewed and critically analysed. results: eight major themes emerged from the literature surveyed. these included access to education, difficulties faced by girls, racism, infrastructure problems in poor and rural schools, child-headed households, education during covid-19, food security and the absence of career guidance in low-income schools. conclusion: in light of south africa’s difficult history, and the fact that it is 27 years after the fall of apartheid, the state of south africa’s education system is not conducive to education and promoting career development in young people. more attention needs to be given to education in poorer communities, and government needs to be held accountable. keywords: covid-19; education; employment; inequality; south africa. introduction in 2018, south africa was regarded as the world’s most unequal country (beaubien, 2018), and it has not improved much since then. ironically, this comes more than two decades after south africa became a democratic country. this country’s history of being colonised in the 1600s by dutch settlers and its subsequent control by the apartheid government fed into the inequality that stands today. the apartheid government instituted segregation policies, separating citizens by race, but its systematic ‘divide and rule’ policy, with a hierarchical system of discrimination, resulted in black africans being most marginalised (south african history online, 2016). fast forward to 2021, one would imagine a democratic government would bring about the necessary change, promote equality and redress, but little has changed. the south african human rights commission (2018) noted that 10% of south africa’s population hold 90% of the country’s wealth. very importantly, we need to remember that south africa is not a poor country. south africa holds vast mineral and other resources, and is a highly taxed country. the problem lies in the squandering of resources through corruption and inefficiency. the zondo commission is currently attempting to uncover some of the widespread looting and misuse of funds (commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, 2021) that should have been used to benefit the poor and address inequalities in healthcare, education and other basic services caused by apartheid. however, the government that many fought and died for has failed its people and especially its youth. commenting on similar concerns over a century ago in the united states, renowned sociologist du bois (1899) noted that the quest to fit in with the trappings of modern societal life left the black bourgeoisie failing to aid in the betterment of their black communities. in the south african context, this is certainly not what the stalwarts of the great struggle intended. research question this article explores the inequality in education and obstacles faced by youth in their career aspirations, within the context of the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, which heightened the prevailing inequalities and further marginalised the poor. children in rural and other low-socioeconomic communities face much hardship in accessing quality education and developing their career plans. the guiding (explorative) research question is as follows: how is the youth in south africa impacted by the inequality in the education system in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and their career plans? research methodology i conducted a brief review of the literature. data were gathered using an internet search that included keywords such as education, inequality, south africa, career development. data were collected and analysed until data saturation was reached (booth, 2001). this review, which was a selective review of literature, rather than a systematic review, focused on scholarly works in journals and books, relevant media pages logged on the internet, as well as seminal critical theory sources. inclusion criteria were sources addressing (1) inequality, (2) education and (3) career development. exclusion criteria were articles not dealing with inequality, education or career development. synthesis of the findings several major themes emerged from the literature and were found to have significantly impacted career development of young people, especially those from disadvantaged communities. these included access to education, the plight of girls in school, racism, infrastructure problems in poor and rural schools, child-headed households as a result of the long-standing human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (hiv/aids) epidemic, education during covid-19, food security, and the absence of school-based career guidance in low-income communities. each of these themes is discussed in the context of career development as it affects south africa’s poor and marginalised communities. access to education the apartheid government differentiated citizens by race and, whilst white children attended some of the best schools in the country, black african children faced severe difficulties accessing quality education. unfortunately, this discrepancy is still present after the fall of apartheid. this exacerbates the cycle of poverty in these communities (spaull, 2015), because poor quality of education leads to a poor quality of life and this carries on to the next generation. children living in rural and low-income communities are forced to walk miles to school, spending a large amount of time walking along dangerous terrain and some even crossing swollen rivers. in his research in the mpumalanga province, mboweni (2014) found that young children aged between 7 and 13 years walked a total of 16 km each day to and from school. along these journeys, children face many possible dangers. in kwazulu-natal, children have been reported to be crossing a lake with hippos in order to reach school (xolo, 2017). although a boat was provided a few years ago, it often ran out of petrol. with all these safety issues and fatigue after the long journey, how likely are these children to succeed academically? xolo (2017) reported the case of a high school student from kwahlomula who had to start each day at 4 am to walk the 15-km journey to school. it is difficult to understand how such a journey could be conducive to learning. it is widely known that well-rested children do better at school (centre for educational neuroscience, 2021), so it should not be surprising that children in south africa’s rural communities do not excel to the same extent as children in elite areas of the country. it is, therefore, unreasonable to expect children in such deprived contexts to focus on career planning in any significant way. they have to prioritise day-to-day issues of living. the reality is children in low-income and rural communities cannot afford to access high-quality education, even if education is considered ‘free’ for some. there are other costs, including, uniforms, books, transport and so on. these are significant, especially when more than one child attends school, and are amongst the reasons why almost 50% of learners drop out before grade 12 (weybright, 2017), which means that their career development prospects become quite limited. at the time of writing this article, the ongoing problem of schools withholding the report cards of learners with outstanding fees is rearing its head again (shuma, 2021). this is unfair to the children, almost all of whom are from families of limited financial means and unable to pay the school fees. the girl child in school like in some parts of the world where the education of girls is not prioritised, girls in poorer communities in south africa face a battle for the opportunity to attend school. many girls tend to miss almost 60 days of school per year because they cannot afford the sanitary products they need during their menstrual cycle (khumalo, 2015). the embarrassment of not being able to afford adequate sanitary products and resorting to using old fabric, rags and even torn pieces of paper weigh heavily on these young girls whose focus should, instead, be on matters such as education and contemplating careers. the reality is that many families cannot afford to buy the sanitary products that their girl children need. poverty is such a significant issue in south africa, cutting across all aspects of life, and yet the improvements expected post-apartheid have not been forthcoming. the latest data released from statistics south africa (2020) shows that 62.1% of south african children are ‘multidimensionally poor’ with black african (68.3%) and double orphan (77.3%) more affected. as a result of girls’ menstruation-related absenteeism, they are likely to fall behind in their schooling and not progress as well, or on the same timeline, as their peers – a serious gender and social inequality within education. the girl child in poor communities is doubly disadvantaged relative to boys and girls of higher socioeconomic backgrounds. although some important initiatives have been underway to support young girls and provide sanitary products, much more work is needed, including the provision of better sanitation facilities, help with the management of menstrual pain and the important opening-up of discourse that can destigmatise menstruation in school contexts (macleod, du toit, paphitis, & kelland, 2020). the fact that such conversations need to be initiated in schools means that the education system is still structured around the boy child, a relic that society has not yet addressed. unless the place of girls is firmly established within the school system, their education and career planning may not receive the attention it deserves. racism in schools racism is a serious issue, with a long history in south africa, given its colonial and apartheid past. although racism may appear to be less of an issue within rural and other schools historically reserved for black african children because of obviously reduced opportunity, the mere fact that in post-apartheid south africa there are many schools attended by only (or mainly) black african children is an indication of how pervasive the country’s race problems have been. furthermore, the post-apartheid era of integrated schools has seen racism very evident in urban schools. there is increasing recognition that there is a structural basis to racism, especially considering it is embedded over time in social policy (bailey, feldman, & basset, 2020). in 2016, a prominent historically white girls’ school in pretoria courted national controversy over its hairstyle rules that was considered discriminatory towards black african learners (bbc news, 2016). learners had also complained that teachers called them derogatory names, and chastised them for using their mother tongue. these are direct consequences of our colonial past and an attempt to impose the will of a few, showing no respect for human rights or the south african constitution that regards the nation’s diversity as its greatest asset. such abuses from agents of power within a school environment do not foster positive race relations amongst learners, and serve to demean children. although controversial in some of his views on schooling, du bois (1935) noted that the bullying, neglect and other racist responses in schools can cause ‘complete ruin of character, gift, and ability’ in the black child (p. 331). whilst the separation of schoolchildren by race was outlawed with the fall of apartheid, recent years have witnessed various incidents showing that racism is still very prevalent. an example was at a primary school, where a teacher was accused of separating students in the class according to race. pictures of black children seated around a table in a corner of the class quite removed from the tables where white children sat in the middle of the class went viral on social media (joorst, 2019). racism is also prevalent in the country’s private schools, with prejudice, bullying and even allegations of attempts to coerce black students against excelling in rugby ‘so that everyone could be happy’ (masweneng, 2020, webpage). it is critical that racism is viewed in the context of what it does to children. the american academy of paediatrics noted that, amongst other consequences, racism erodes children’s self-esteem and increases stress levels through the anticipation of future violations against them (trent et al., 2019). the effects on the developing child’s self-esteem and ability to progress along expected developmental pathways are serious. du bois (1903) used the term ‘double consciousness’ to describe the experience of looking at the self through the eyes of others and evaluating oneself with the criteria applied by contemptuous others. children have reduced chance of progressing in education and career aspirations in such a context. foucault (1973) argued that agents of power have the ability to socially construct the views and ideas of people on a particular subject, like race. with south africa’s history, its institutions became the fertile breeding ground for this problem. as a result, it can be difficult for children in challenging circumstances to carve out successful futures, and therefore, much work is needed to support children from such contexts in mapping out sustainable career options. infrastructure in rural and poor urban schools quality of schooling is one of the prime examples of inequality in south africa. education and facilities are very different in private schools or those government schools attended by white children compared to rural and other schools attended predominantly by black african children, with the latter generally very under-resourced. whilst this is primarily because of the history of apartheid-based inequality in our country, it also reflects the failure of the democratic government to prioritise the development of affected schools. many rural schools are dilapidated with broken desks and windows, inadequate sanitation, and many are unsafe environments for learning. gardiner (2008) described education in south africa as being in crisis, with the crisis being more serious for children in rural schools. although there has been some improvement over the years, significant deficits remain. du plessis and mestry (2019) noted that, in addition to the basic infrastructural problems such as electricity, water and sanitation, provincial governments were unable to provide rural schools with the needed financial support to provide quality education. they pointed out that parents were burdened with having to provide stationery and cleaning material, despite low incomes. not only are the dusty and unhygienic environments unsafe, along with the lack of clean running water and toilets, but prolonged exposure to these environments have severe health consequences for learners and educators (barrett, treves, shmis, ambasz, & ustinova, 2019). not receiving basic necessities for learning and large class sizes disadvantages children by negatively influencing scholastic development (gardiner, 2008) and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. whilst this is because of lack of funding for infrastructure from the government, some of the underfunding of rural schools also relates to mismanagement. in his chapter on education funding, mclaren (2017) noted a 2015 report that 913 schools lacked electricity, 2854 had unreliable electricity, 452 schools had no water supply, 4773 had unreliable water supply, 128 schools had no toilet facilities and 10 419 had only pit or bucket toilets. whilst the situation may have improved since that report, there are still very significant problems, especially with sanitation, amongst other concerns (somdyala, 2020). mclaren (2017) stated further that since 2011, the education infrastructure grant received between r5 billion and r9b each year, and provincial education departments were required to spend their allocations effectively. however, there was a mixed record on the spending and delivery of the grant, with some provinces underspending the grants, despite their infrastructure needs. less than half of the grant was spent in its first 3 years of the programme. in many rural schools, there are more than 45 learners per classroom, meaning a lack of individual attention (gardiner, 2008). it is important to note that, in many cases, teachers may not be keen to teach within rural and low-income schools because of the infrastructure and under-resourcing issues, which place huge burdens on their shoulders to provide students with the best possible education (berg, 2008). teachers in rural schools face numerous challenges, including being subjected to multi-grade and multi-subject teaching. unfortunately, these realities are found mainly in black african communities. pit toilets are another serious infrastructure concern within schools. these are dangerous, inhumane, unhygienic and unconducive to learning. pit toilets have been a significant cause of deaths within schools in rural black african communities. in 2020, there were over 4000 pit toilets still in use (somdyala, 2020). considering south africa’s technological capabilities, it is surprising that there are still communities, and especially children, having to suffer this injustice more than 26 years into democracy. in addition, the lack of private toilets for girls in schools is concerning. access to private toilets specifically demarcated for girls could help reduce sexual assaults within schools. this is an example of structural violence and marginalisation that farmer (2006) noted in the gender inequity that dominates several societies. many toilets in rural communities are situated far from main buildings and, as a result, screams for help are not audible to assist children facing assault in toilets (ngidi & moletsane, 2018). south africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence against girls and women, so these contexts of vulnerability must be recognised and prevented. it is critical to realise that children attending such schools, unlike their counterparts in urban, better-provisioned schools, have more on their minds than education and contemplating their career plans and goals – they are more likely thinking about their safety and the risks to their lives. it is sad that a young child has to feel unsafe whilst using the toilet, something that is unheard of in other communities. it is a disgrace to our era of democracy, but this is the reality of inequality in south africa. child-headed households whilst we are all engrossed with the covid-19 pandemic, we seem to have forgotten another global epidemic that has caused massive destruction and loss of life, namely hiv/aids, which affected thousands of south african families. many families lost parents and breadwinners, which led to children having to drop out of school to take care of household chores and younger siblings (mogotlane, chauke, van rensburg, human, & kganakga, 2010). the burden of having to provide food for the family also falls on the shoulders of older children. it is developmentally unfair and inappropriate. many spend their days trying to source food, so contemplating education, career options and their future are furthest from their young minds. many girls end up leaving school to take care of household chores and to look after younger siblings – an injustice to young girls that perpetuates their subordinate position in society. from a young age, many girls are inducted into the roles of household caretakers (world bank, 1999). amongst the problems with child-headed households is the feeling of disempowerment within the multiple challenges that children face, especially the increased responsibilities and shortage of resources (pillay, 2016). all of the socioeconomic issues, such as financial instability, unemployment, food provision and not being able to afford medicine or healthcare are the major reasons children end up in the context of being responsible for their families. as older children have to leave school to perform household duties, the poverty cycle continues. with these challenges, the likelihood of children returning to complete their education and develop a career is very less. those who do later in life, face problems such as not fitting in, feelings of embarrassment and financial pressures because of added responsibilities. the disempowerment of children in these contexts speaks to society’s shortcomings within the context of foucault’s (1977) argument that individuals have the ability to make decisions and to change their lives. society is failing children in not allowing them the opportunity to live their lives as children. much more support needs to be given to help children achieve their education and develop their career plans in accordance with standard developmental expectations. education during the coronavirus disease 2019 in march 2020, president ramaphosa declared south africa under a state of disaster because of covid-19. as a result, schools and tertiary institutions were closed for most of the year, which meant teaching and learning for many children stopped completely. very quickly, however, historically white and private schools took teaching and learning to an online platform, whereby students used smartphones, tablets and computers connected to the internet as a learning platform. this was easy because they had access to this technology and the funds to use them. however, only the privileged few benefit from using technology to facilitate homeschooling during the lockdown (mdepa, 2020). the same cannot be said for the millions of children in disadvantaged communities that can barely afford to educate their children in physical schools. they do not have the access or funds to facilitate virtual learning. the latest available data revealed that only 10.6% of south african households had internet access in the home (statistics south africa, 2018). the reality is that online learning is not an option that ensures equity in education in our country. for rural and poor children, online learning is virtually impossible and it certainly does not ensure equality in education. the impact of covid-19 on schooling, and the inaccessibility to online learning by poor and rural children has simply enforced the old saying that the poor become poorer and the wealthy continue to prosper. in terms of tertiary education, thousands of students residing in student housing in or around universities and colleges were forced to return to their homes when the country went into lockdown. they had not planned for this expense. the switch to online learning began, but this was not an easy one. immediately after the lockdown began, 584 students de-registered at one university, whilst many rejected the online learning system, arguing that it was designed for the rich and that poor students will lose out (monama, 2020). it is important to remember that apart from access to devices, internet connectivity in several parts of south africa’s non-urban areas is problematic. in many cases, students were in their final year of study, getting ready to start work and earn a much-needed income, but the covid-19 lockdown raised further barriers. their inherited context of inequality and social and financial pressures increased their struggles and left them even more disadvantaged compared to the country’s more advantaged youth. government needs to look urgently at the challenges facing education in the pre-covid and the covid-19 era because, if we believe that education is the way out of poverty, south africa’s poor must be prioritised, and given a fair chance at success. food security during the coronavirus disease 2019 when covid-19 made landfall in march 2020 in south africa, many facets of society were forced to shut down, including schools. this resulted in the national school nutrition programme being put on hold. this programme ensured that over 9 million schoolchildren had access to one guaranteed nutritious meal in the day (south african government, 2021). however, with not being able to attend school for safety reasons, millions of children were left without that guaranteed meal, meaning that food insecurity was now guaranteed. although the programme is an essential one, it has also been riddled with corruption, like many other facets of governance in south africa. between 2012 and 2013, the south african school nutrition programme was allegedly defrauded of r2.9 million (south african government news agency, 2019). with this type of corruption that takes away food from the mouths of children, the health and academic progress of children is seriously jeopardised. successful academic study on an empty stomach the entire day is unlikely. the single guaranteed meal helps to combat malnutrition and provide the nutrition the children need to develop physically, cognitively and emotionally, and to be able to formulate and succeed in their career plans. it even motivates school attendance. with the covid-19 lockdown leading to school closure and the cancellation of the nutrition programme, non-governmental organisations (ngos) had to take legal action, resulting in the pretoria high court ordering the government to restart the school nutrition programme (wicks, 2020). historically, south africa had large-scale poverty because of the inequality designed and carefully instituted by colonialism and apartheid. however, as a country we cannot continue blaming apartheid for the current situation whilst failing to take the necessary actions to correct past injustices. civil society needs to hold the democratically elected government accountable for their actions. more of the kind of swift action by the ngos in the school nutrition programme is needed in other areas of society. school-based career guidance in low-income communities although career guidance is essential in schools, most schoolchildren do not have this privilege. maree (2020) argued for the provision of career counselling, which he views as a multidimensional process that should be contextualised and constantly innovated to be appropriate and relevant, especially in global south contexts where colonisation took its toll. the deficiencies in career counselling services, especially in south africa’s non-urban communities, have also been criticised (pillay, 2020). these low-socioeconomic communities have suffered historically in terms of service provision and continue to be marginalised by the current agents of power. here, children receive little or no career guidance, which disadvantages them significantly. many schools across the country viewed the subject life orientation as a bridge to career guidance. however, little was done to train educators in assisting children with career guidance and development (modiba & sefotho, 2019). in south african schools, students at the grade 9 level have to choose subjects that will facilitate their career choices. at 13 or 14 years of age, students are expected to have planned their lives without knowing important information about the fields they are contemplating or how suited they may be. this is not possible without professional assistance. as a result, many south african children, entering tertiary education simply do not have the relevant guidance and may not fully understand the career opportunities or their suitability. this lack of career guidance fails the youth in south africa, especially those in poorer communities. it leads to young people being unhappy in their fields of study, many under-performing or dropping out, and many developing mental health problems like depression and suicide. in a recent study at a rural south african university, 20.5% of first-year students reported that they do not find study as interesting as they used to, 20.3% wondered whether life is worth living, and 7% thought of killing themselves (pillay, thwala, & pillay, 2019). these are concerning findings and reflect on the mental state of young students, very likely influenced by their study and career choices. career development should be discussed from an early age to adequately prepare young people for career possibilities and the challenges they may encounter (maree, 2018), especially now with covid-19 as a reality. although south africa has the technological capabilities to advance education, it also has the ability to influence and help inform children on possible career paths and development opportunities. we must remember that the majority of parents in our country have not had the benefit of tertiary education and may not be equipped to advise their children on career prospects and study requirements (pillay, 2020). career counselling services are needed. limitations of the study as this article is based on a selective review, it is acknowledged that certain sources may not have been available for inclusion. nevertheless, the issues raised in this work are widely documented, especially in relation to social conditions such as inequality and impoverishments in education in sectors of our country. implications for research, practice, policy and future research this research is relevant to the field of career development and education and it should prompt further research into the area. high-quality education and appropriate career planning for the children of south africa are vital if we are to ensure that our disadvantaged communities have better opportunities than previous generations marginalised by apartheid. government needs to recognise the current problems and rapidly develop the necessary policies and practices to address the problems. ensuring that funds are directed to the right places and avoiding corruption must be a priority. holding officials accountable is also critical. future research will need to evaluate the efficacy of implemented programmes in order to ensure that any changes made are the most beneficial ones. conclusion given our difficult history, we need to be very concerned about job opportunities, preparation and career development of our youth. at various levels, forms of structural violence cause great harm and pose significant challenges to the development of our young people, especially those from rural and poor urban environments. the coronavirus disease 2019 entered our lives in a destructive manner and deepened the inequalities and injustices. the pandemic simply added to the corruption epidemic that ravaged south africa and robbed the poor by stealing what was meant to benefit disadvantaged communities, including children. the mechanisms that could have addressed the inequalities and lifted children out of poverty have been destroyed by covid-19 and especially by those who looted the country that, 27 years ago, stood high with potential. we are reminded of fanon (1963) observing that: [m]inisters grow rich, their wives doll themselves up, the members of parliament feather their nests and there is not a soul down to the simple policeman or the customs officer who does not join in the great procession of corruption. (p. 172) whilst some south african schools attended by white children are equal to the best schools in the world, some schools in predominantly black communities are unconducive to learning. we must remember nelson mandela’s legacy and his advocacy for high-quality education for all children. therefore, the need for redress is urgent, not just against apartheid evils, but also against the recent corrupt practices that pilfered billions. civil society has to insist on righting the wrongs of past, both distant and immediate, because it has the power to do so. it is important to remember that power is not located solely in one agent, but is multidimensional and all involved have some degree of power (foucault, 1980). securing a better, equal and high-quality education system is an important way of ensuring a better future. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions i.p. is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references bailey, z.d., feldman, j.m., & basset, m.t. 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(2017). the learners who cross a lake with hippos in it to get to school. retrieved from https://www.groundup.org.za/article/learners-who-cross-lake-hippos-get-school/ abstract introduction the south african context strengthening pathways: insights from the research projects and policy dialogues coordination and collaboration within the ecosystem conclusion: the way forward – from strategies and frameworks to implementation and value acknowledgements references about the author(s) christopher j. beukes career development services, department of higher education and training, pretoria, south africa rènette du toit career development services, department of higher education and training, pretoria, south africa ee research focus, pretoria, south africa gino garach education for employability programme (e4e), international development cooperation (idc), department of national treasury, pretoria, south africa shirley lloyd e4e three stream model articulation, department of basic education, pretoria, south africa davinci institute, johannesburg, south africa wiseman magasela education for employability programme, department of employment and labour, pretoria, south africa clermont analytics, pretoria, south africa cynthia moeng education for employability programme (e4e), international development cooperation (idc), department of national treasury, johannesburg, south africa andreas h. schott education for employability programme (e4e), international development cooperation (idc), department of national treasury, pretoria, south africa dennis j. stead career development services, department of higher education and training, pretoria, south africa paul g. west education for employability programme (e4e), international development cooperation (idc), department of national treasury, pretoria, south africa citation beukes, c.j., du toit, r., garach, g., lloyd, s., magasela, w., moeng, c., schott, a.h., stead, d.j., & west, p.g. (2025). a case study of south africa: strengthening pathways from education to the world of work. african journal of career development, 7(1), a185. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.185 case study a case study of south africa: strengthening pathways from education to the world of work christopher j. beukes, rènette du toit, gino garach, shirley lloyd, wiseman magasela, cynthia moeng, andreas h. schott, dennis j. stead, paul g. west received: 04 aug. 2025; accepted: 11 nov. 2025; published: 19 dec. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract the european union (eu)-supported education for employability (e4e) technical assistance project in south africa aimed to enhance youth employability by aligning education, training and employment systems. in partnership with the department of basic education (dbe), department of higher education and training (dhet) and department of employment and labour (del), it focused on cross-sector collaboration to strengthen pathways from learning to work, looking at the three streams model in basic education, career guidance and development frameworks and systems, as well as bilateral labour agreements and a quota system. contribution: the project promoted both strategic and operational alignment, with an emphasis on coordinated implementation to improve outcomes for young people transitioning through education and training into the labour market. career development provided a unifying thread across the three sectors’ efforts. keywords: career development; career management; pathways; employability; career; education; employment. introduction south africa has faced ongoing challenges in ensuring that education and training systems effectively prepare individuals for meaningful participation in the labour market. in response, the country received support to strengthen the alignment between education, training and the world of work. the education for employability (e4e) technical assistance project implemented by dai global austria was part of the south african-european union (sa-eu) e4e sector budget support programme, which focused on strengthening the education-to-workforce value chain. it supported the national treasury and three implementing departments – department of basic education (dbe), department of higher education and training (dhet) and department of employment and labour (del) – by providing technical support and capacity-building for projects and institutional development. the programme’s overall goal was to enhance the employability of south african youth by promoting inclusive, equitable and quality pathways to employment. key objectives included strengthening collaboration across education, training and employment services, improving early childhood and primary education and promoting inclusive learning pathways, especially for disadvantaged youth. the three departments undertook targeted research projects aimed at strengthening pathways from education to industry, working to improve alignment of efforts across the three sectors. the resulting work is presented as a descriptive case study, using a methodological approach that provides a contextualised account of these projects. the primary purpose is to describe and document the defining characteristics, processes and relationships of the case, rather than to test specific hypotheses. the research methodologies applied within the individual projects – including desktop reviews, surveys, in-depth interviews and policy dialogues with national and international experts and key stakeholders – are detailed in the respective project sections. situational analyses were applied across the projects to integrate the discourse and context of multiple stakeholders and complex systems. the unpublished reports referencing the projects in this case study are available in a dedicated repository. the south african context the research projects discussed in the next section were conceptualised and implemented with careful consideration of south africa’s complex socio-economic landscape. efforts to strengthen the transition from education to the world of work must be firmly rooted in an understanding of the systemic barriers and contextual factors that influence individuals’ access to learning and earning opportunities. despite its rich natural resources, south africa faces deep-rooted socio-economic challenges, including poverty, inequality, high youth unemployment, a rural-urban divide and a limited small business sector. these issues are compounded by a misalignment between available skills and labour market needs. by 2024-2025, around 19 million individuals were receiving social grants. when the 9 million beneficiaries of the social relief of distress (srd) grant are added, it amounts to nearly half of south africa’s population depending on some form of social support (national treasury, 2024). among these are millions of children in the basic education system who are at risk. as of 2024, south africa had 21 million children under the age of 18 (34% of the population), with about 13.5 million learners enrolled in schools and early learning programmes (dbe, 2025a). many face vulnerabilities: 14% are orphaned, 20% live apart from both parents and 62% live below the upper poverty line (hall, 2023). close to a third of the population (18.9 million people) live in rural areas, where poor infrastructure, limited access to social services and few educational and employment opportunities persist (globaldata, 2025). small business ownership remains low – only 6% of the working-age population is self-employed, compared with over 20% in other upper-middle-income countries (arnoldi, 2023). this is due to structural barriers such as restrictive regulations, limited access to start-up finance and low economic growth. youth unemployment is particularly alarming. as of the first quarter (q1) in 2025, the official unemployment rate was 32.9%, with youth unemployment for the 15–24 age group at 62.4% and for the 25–34 age group at 40.4% (stats sa, 2025a, 2025b). given the persistently high unemployment rate, a unique and challenging dynamic has emerged in how individuals engage with work, livelihoods and careers. for many, the traditional notion of a career – a structured, long-term professional journey with opportunities for growth and progression – remains out of reach. instead, the realities of economic hardship and limited job opportunities have shifted the focus towards shorter-term work or self-created livelihoods. in the absence of career opportunities, many south africans turn to work – short-term, task-oriented economic activity that provides immediate income but lacks stability or long-term prospects. examples include temporary jobs in retail, construction or domestic work and freelance gigs or piecework, such as seasonal farm work or delivery services. while this kind of work helps meet immediate needs, it seldom offers the security, benefits or upward social strata mobility associated with a career. for a significant portion of the population, creating a livelihood becomes a necessity. livelihoods refer to the means of sustaining oneself, often through self-employment, resource-based activities or small-scale entrepreneurship. in south africa, these might include informal trading, such as selling goods at markets or on the streets, small businesses, such as spaza shops and home-based enterprises, and agricultural activities, such as subsistence farming or selling produce locally. livelihoods are often born out of necessity rather than choice. in this context, mobility – both in terms of acquiring transferable skills and the ability to relocate or commute in search of better opportunities – has become increasingly important. individuals often need to adapt their skills and be willing to move to access meaningful work or sustain their livelihoods. these pressing realities that shape the south african societal landscape are dire and require appropriate attention. nonetheless, it is noteworthy how resilient the informal economy is in south africa. the informal sector closely mirrors the formal economy in many regards, with major activities revolving around food, beverage, beauty, hospitality, mechanics and herbal medicine sectors. despite its informality, the market exhibits significant structure and complexity. although the labour force survey reported that only 3.1 million people were active in the informal economy in the first quarter of 2024 (stats sa, 2024), other sources present much higher estimates. according to asmal et al. (2024), approximately 7.5 million people are engaged in south africa’s informal economy, compared with 9.8 million in the formal sector. over the reviewed period between 2013 and 2023, the trend has generally been one of increased employment outside formal institutions (statista, 2024). as part of the e4e project, the dbe, dhet and del considered the scale and importance of the informal economy in providing livelihoods for millions of south africans in their strategies, frameworks and initiatives aimed at strengthening pathways and improving employability. examples include the integration of sustainable livelihoods, the informal economy and entrepreneurship – reflecting a growth mindset – into the dbe’s competency framework and the dhet’s career management skills framework. strengthening pathways: insights from the research projects and policy dialogues as part of the broader effort to address south africa’s education-to-employment challenges, the three key sectors – basic education, higher education and training and employment and labour – each undertook targeted research projects under the e4e programme umbrella. these studies aimed to explore how pathways from education into the world of work could be strengthened, particularly for young people facing systemic barriers to employment. by examining existing gaps, identifying opportunities for alignment and considering both local and international best practices, the research sought to inform more coordinated, inclusive and effective transitions from learning to earning. in addition, policy dialogues were held within each sector, bringing together key stakeholders across the three sectors to discuss the issues and collaboratively explore strategies to enhance education-to-work pathways. the projects focused on a three-stream model (tsm) in basic education (dbe), career development (dbe and dhet) and issues related to labour migration and mobility (del). basic education: the three-stream model the research on the tsm focused on conceptual clarity, the development of multiple and inclusive learning pathways, articulation between different education and training streams and the role of national qualifications frameworks in supporting the development of coherent, efficient and accessible learning and articulation pathways. it drew on both literature and stakeholder interviews to examine how these issues are addressed in policy and practice, in south africa and globally. special attention was given to the needs of neurodivergent learners and learners with disabilities and the role of national qualifications frameworks in enabling accessible and coherent pathways (dbe, 2025b). the research highlighted a persistent lack of conceptual and systemic clarity in the implementation of the tsm. while the model aims to recognise and legitimise academic, vocational and occupational learning pathways, there is still confusion regarding the definitions, purpose and interrelationships of these streams. policy fragmentation and misalignment between curriculum and institutional practices further weaken the model’s impact. these challenges are compounded by centralised approaches to curriculum design and assessment, which risk excluding learners who do not conform to the dominant academic trajectory. teachers emerged as critical agents in the successful implementation of the tsm. however, their meaningful involvement requires continuous professional development, sufficient resources and attention to their well-being. without clear policy guidance and collaborative engagement across the system, the transformative potential of the model remains constrained. the study affirmed the need for diverse and inclusive learning pathways that reflect the wide range of learner profiles in south africa. it underscored the importance of shifting from a narrow academic focus to a system that values vocational and occupational learning equally (dbe, 2025b). the research underscored that weak articulation between academic, vocational and occupational streams poses a major barrier to learner progression. transitions between different levels and types of education and training remain limited, with vertical and horizontal mobility constrained – particularly within occupational tracks (dbe, 2025b). the research called for stronger interdepartmental coordination and better alignment of qualifications and curriculum across the system. although tools such as recognition of prior learning and credit accumulation and transfer exist, they are underutilised, leading to missed opportunities for flexible access and progression. furthermore, many pathways are poorly connected to actual labour market demands, diminishing their relevance and impact. national qualifications frameworks were recognised as having a key role in enabling coherent, accessible articulation routes that support both individual aspirations and broader economic needs (dbe, 2025b). in response to these challenges, a draft articulation policy (dbe, 2025c) has been developed to guide more integrated and flexible transitions across the education and training system. the policy aims to improve access and progression through general and further education into higher education or the world of work. through the tsm, it introduces curriculum and qualification reforms for grades 10–12, offering three distinct, equally valued pathways to support diverse learning needs, strengthen career guidance and promote articulation with post-school education and employment (dbe, 2025c). basic education: institutionalisation of careers education and guidance in addition to the dbe’s focus on the articulation of learning pathways, the role of careers at the school level emerged as equally critical in ensuring that learners are supported to make informed choices, enabling smoother transitions into industry. a situational analysis identified five objectives to strengthen careers through curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular avenues. these include: (1) integrating careers into the curriculum, (2) implementing a whole-school approach, (3) providing culturally fair career assessments, (4) strengthening the capacity of officials in careers and (5) introducing career portfolios to structure careers in the curriculum. this informed a department of public service and administration (dpsa)-aligned business case for a careers unit within the dbe. the business case was approved up to the deputy director-general (ddg) level, but due to fiscal constraints, attention shifted to embedding these priorities within existing structures, for now (dbe, 2024). for example, the national careers week (ncw) was selected as a mechanism for integrating careers into the curriculum. the ncw, an interdepartmental civil programme, received full support for adoption into the national curriculum policy statements (caps) curriculum in term 3 week 8, for all grades. this agreement was provided under the principle of ‘in school only’, where previous learners, local students, local institutions and local industry will be encouraged to visit schools in that week to provide talks, demonstrations, interviews and other activities. a virtual career exhibition will be availed to support the growing number of schools with access to technology and data. the date of term 3 week 8 was selected through a consultative process throughout the dbe as part of the e4e programme. progress also included a review of 34 vocational and occupational subjects and enhancement of content to include market research, budgeting, business planning, product development, occupations in demand and career talks from post-school students, entrepreneurs and professionals during term 3 week 8. the dbe next intends to shift entrepreneurship and careers content from academic subjects and place it in term 3 week 8 to galvanise careers education in that week. this agreement represents a further 77 h of career exposure during school time, on school premises by grade 12 (dbe, 2024). the research also highlighted the important role of career development practitioners (cdps). although life skills and life orientation teachers may meet the criteria for entry-level careers, workload and available resources make the need for support by suitably trained and resourced cdps increasingly clear. to ensure consistent and effective learner support, the presence of a dedicated cdp – either in every school or shared across a cluster of schools – should therefore be regarded as essential (dbe, 2024). higher education and training: the development of a career management skills framework for south africa the career management skills framework for south africa was developed by dhet as part of the broader eu-funded e4e initiative to meet the growing need for a cohesive, inclusive and contextually appropriate approach to lifelong and lifewide career development and career management. anchored in the national policy for an integrated career development system (dhet, 2017), informed by global best practices (dhet, 2024a) and responsive to south africa’s unique context, the framework is designed to empower individuals with the skills and capabilities needed to successfully manage learning, careers, work, livelihoods and life transitions in a constantly evolving socio-economic landscape. considering ongoing challenges such as high unemployment, inequality and changing labour market demands, the framework tries to serve as a structured solution that fosters lifelong and lifewide learning, employability and individual agency. the framework was developed through a comprehensive desktop review and extensive consultations with national and international experts. the 2024 study analysed south africa’s socio-economic context, policies, curricula and youth employability programmes, while parallel consultations were held with stakeholders across basic and post-school education, public employment services, ngos and private practitioners (dhet, 2024b). the review and consultations also included youth employability programmes. in recent years, a growing focus on youth employability has led to the development of numerous programmes, primarily driven by the public sector, though often in partnership with the private sector. these programmes are increasingly significant within the broader landscape of career development and career management (national treasury, 2021). the next stage involved analysing international career management skills frameworks to inform the development of a locally appropriate model (dhet, 2024a). these global benchmarks, along with insights shared by experts on international career management skills frameworks during topical policy dialogues, offered valuable perspectives on how different countries structure and implement such frameworks. the reviews showed that while shaped by each country’s education system, labour market and culture, these frameworks consistently serve the same purpose: they link career theory, policy and practice and underpin national education and employment agendas (dhet, 2024a). effective across sectors and usable at both system and individual levels, they share four cornerstones – lifelong learning, skills development, employability and career construction – and continually evolve with labour-market trends. recent practice favours simpler, user-friendly models that empower people to direct their own careers (dhet, 2024a). full-scale content development of south africa’s framework began in october 2024, drawing on earlier research, consultations and policy dialogues (dhet, 2025d). ongoing engagement with representatives from sectors provided essential direction throughout the content creation process. a key takeaway from this journey was the importance of crafting a context-specific model – one that adapts global insights to local realities rather than replicating them. dhet soon realised that developing a career management skills framework is going to be an ongoing process and decided to call the process ‘towards a career management skills framework for south africa’, in recognition that career development is a dynamic field, and the framework itself will evolve over time as the dhet enters the implementation phase (dhet, 2025d). this phase will include the development of tailored toolkits for specific priority groups, which will further shape and refine the framework (dhet, 2025b). as such, the framework should be viewed as a living model – one that will be adapted and strengthened over time based on further feedback from stakeholders, practical application and the changing needs of individuals and the broader socio-economic context. the framework is structured to provide a comprehensive, integrated approach that differs from traditional models by combining three key dimensions: psycho-social, employability and sustainable development. these dimensions are embedded across seven main areas of development – ranging from personal effectiveness, transitions and career construction to digital fluency and financial literacy – each further divided into specific sub-areas (30 in total). for every sub-area, the framework defines a related capability, capturing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours needed to navigate lifelong learning, career transitions and sustainable livelihoods (dhet, 2025d). higher education and training: positioning and future-proofing of the national career advice portal access to accurate, timely and user-friendly learning and career information is a critical enabler ensuring that individuals can make informed decisions and navigate transitions more effectively; therefore, the positioning and future-proofing of the ncap are essential to support this system-wide objective and endeavour. launched in 2013, the ncap remains south africa’s only government-endorsed digital platform providing access to information on careers, qualifications and study opportunities. it serves a critical function in supporting both youth and adults in planning their career pathways. yet, the way people seek and interact with information has evolved significantly. mobile-first users – particularly the youth – now expect fast, interactive and increasingly ai-driven services. since its launch, ncap has undergone one upgrade, and after 12 years, it now faces several challenges, including outdated content, limited functionality and weak integration with other government systems. considering these shortcomings, the dhet tasked the e4e programme with reimagining and redesigning the ncap. as part of the review process, dhet examined career platforms from countries such as the usa, uk, kenya, new zealand and singapore. these platforms share several key features: they are mobile friendly, offer ai-powered career suggestions, use labour market and skills data to match users to real opportunities and keep complex classification systems – such as occupational codes – hidden in the background for a smoother user experience (dhet, 2025a). while systems like south africa’s organising framework for occupations (ofo) remain valuable for structuring information, linking training to occupations and informing funding decisions, they should function behind the scenes. other countries also rely on such frameworks but ensure that they do not complicate the user journey. to better understand how ncap performs locally, it was tested with a group of students, interns and jobseekers. their feedback was clear: the platform is slow, difficult to use on mobile devices and cluttered with outdated content. they emphasised the need for more accessible career profiles and the removal of expired information (dhet, 2025a). beyond updating content, the review found that modernising ncap’s underlying technology is essential. the current system is outdated and requires redevelopment – including a modernised backend and frontend and migration to a secure cloud environment. this upgrade would also allow for the creation of secure apis, enabling real-time data integration from other departments (dhet, 2025a). nevertheless, the ncap remains an asset in south africa’s career development ecosystem, but it must evolve to stay relevant. this review provided a practical roadmap: begin with immediate fixes and then move towards a more intelligent, integrated and responsive platform – one that aligns with how today’s youth access education, training and career information. if implemented effectively, ncap could become the most trusted and future-ready portal for supporting south africans in planning their transitions from education to the world of work. higher education and training: development of national guidelines for career development tools also, under the leadership of the dhet and in collaboration with the then south africa–eu dialogue facility, guidelines for the development of career development tools (cdts) were developed in 2022 and provided a governance and quality assurance framework for classifying cdts (dhet, 2022). they are to be implemented through a cdt coordinating committee, which will oversee quality assurance and maintain a national list of approved cdts for public access. career development tools are defined as evidence-based resources that help individuals make informed career and study decisions. these include publications, websites, self-assessment tools, quizzes, games and both psychological and non-psychological instruments – grouped under career self-exploration, preparedness and information tools. on the basis of the 2022 guidelines, research carried out under the e4e technical assistance investigated key career development constructs, which included constructs such as career attitudes, values, interests, decision-making, adaptability, entrepreneurial mindset and employability – providing the foundation for valid and targeted tool development (dhet, 2025c). the research also examined limitations in the use of psychometric cdts in south africa, including restrictive classification structures governed by the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa). a more flexible categorisation is recommended to balance accessibility with ethical and professional integrity (dhet, 2025c). since a 1995 moratorium on school-based psychometric testing, concerns about bias and misuse have shaped cautious approaches to psychological assessments. however, the hpcsa’s own guidance suggests that classification can create space for broader use, particularly for career-focused tools not aimed at diagnosing deficits but rather supporting exploration, education and informed choices. ultimately, quality cdts should be easily accessible – where and when individuals need them – while upholding ethical standards. career-focused psychometric tools should not be conflated with diagnostic assessments, as their purpose is to empower individuals in their career journeys, not to pathologise them (dhet, 2025c). employment and labour: international labour migration and skills mobility the del project focused on three key research areas: skills transfer, bilateral labour agreements (blas) and a quota system (qs). department of employment and labour explored the possibility of requiring mandatory skills transfer when multinational corporations bring skilled personnel into south africa on intra-company work visas (ictwvs). this component of the study examined global practices in intra-company transfers (icts), including select case studies from developed economies and the world trade organisation’s (wto) mode 4 provisions. the research found that, in the countries studied, skills transfer to local employees is not a mandatory condition of ict arrangements. therefore, introducing such a requirement in south africa would fall outside existing wto provisions, of which south africa is a member (del, 2025). the study also examined botswana as a regional example. there, a policy shift is evident – from restrictive employment practices for foreign nationals to more strategic efforts aimed at attracting skilled workers to support national development and economic diversification (del, 2025). the del is leveraging blas as a policy tool to respond to south africa’s persistent unemployment challenges. this direction is informed by a review of historical policy efforts documented in the report towards a framework on employment in sa – key documents on employment and job creation in south africa, 1994 to present. the review highlights that, despite multiple strategies and frameworks, unemployment continues to rise – both in south africa and across many southern african development community (sadc) countries. to address this, the del has developed a draft framework on guidelines and principles to inform bilateral labour agreements for south africa as a labour sending and receiving country, which aims to incorporate training and skills development for migrant workers, thereby strengthening pathways to the world of work. the framework supports south africa’s dual role as both a sender and a receiver of labour, with a focus on protecting south african nationals working abroad as well as migrant workers entering from the sadc region (del, 2025). the framework is grounded in the south african constitution and labour legislation while also drawing on international conventions and instruments such as those of the international labour organization (ilo), the sustainable development goals (sdgs), african union (au) and sadc treaties. it aims to promote managed labour migration that benefits all parties – particularly through enhanced skilling of migrant workers and strengthened regional cooperation. department of employment and labour is also developing a framework for a quota system on labour market sectors employing high numbers of foreign nationals (in progress). this research identifies sectors with high concentrations of foreign workers and analyses the underlying factors driving this trend. the framework considers legal and policy-based interventions – including constitutional provisions, labour laws and international human rights and workers’ rights conventions. through the quota system, del seeks to increase employment opportunities for south africans, improve labour market information systems, promote social cohesion and build stronger partnerships with employer organisations and neighbouring countries that send workers to south africa. coordination and collaboration within the ecosystem a clear thread of career development and career management connects the efforts of south africa’s basic education, higher education and training and employment and labour sectors as they work to strengthen pathways from education and training to the world of work. each sector has undertaken targeted research and policy dialogues to explore how transitions – especially for youth – can be better supported. although their mandates vary, they share a common goal: to strengthen pathways that provide individuals with opportunities to gain relevant knowledge, skills and capabilities; enhance mobility and support informed decision-making to navigate learning, careers, work and livelihoods. in terms of career development, at the centre of this system-wide effort is the dhet, which holds the coordination mandate through the national policy for an integrated career development system (dhet, 2017). department of higher education and training’s work spans across sectors and prioritises lifelong and lifewide learning, employability and individual agency. in basic education, research on the tsm emphasises the need for diverse, inclusive learning pathways and the institutionalisation of career guidance to help learners transition effectively. efforts to integrate career development across the curriculum, establish school-wide approaches and introduce dedicated cdps align closely with dhet’s work on career management skills, reinforcing the importance of early and continuous career development support. department of employment and labour complements this through work on skills transfer, bilateral labour agreements and a labour market quota system – all focused on creating a more enabling environment or pathways – for employability and regional skills mobility. together, these efforts signal a shift towards a more integrated and responsive career development system. with dhet at the nexus, south africa is moving towards greater alignment and collaboration – seeking to better equip individuals to transition from learning into meaningful and sustainable work. conclusion: the way forward – from strategies and frameworks to implementation and value building on the work and progress achieved by the basic education, post-school education and employment sectors, the main recommendation is for these departments to continue to identify mechanisms for integrated collaboration and shared partnership, while driving the implementation of the different frameworks and policies, to ensure the mutual objective of youth employability can be achieved. the dhet, as the mandated coordinator of the integrated career development system, is preparing to operationalise the career management skills framework. an implementation plan has been developed, outlining a phased roll-out that begins with unemployed youth – a highly vulnerable group. in basic education, policies are in place to strengthen articulation within the tsm and into post-school education and training or the world of work. pragmatic steps are being taken, such as linking education and industry in the caps curriculum in term 3 week 8 for all grades, and shifting relevant entrepreneurship and careers content to galvanise careers education in that week. meanwhile, in the employment and labour sector, initiatives focusing on skills mobility and labour agreements are tested to improve employability and regional integration. the challenge ahead lies in sustaining momentum, ensuring continued collaboration across sectors and embedding career development into mainstream structures. the success of implementation will depend on refining approaches based on feedback through monitoring and evaluation, building capacity and maintaining a focus on equity, relevance and long-term impact. acknowledgements the authors wish to acknowledge all stakeholders from the public basic education, post-school education and training and employment and labour sectors, as well as those from the private sector, for their valuable contributions to the research projects. competing interests the authors reported that they received funding from the european union, which may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed publication. the author has disclosed those interests fully and has implemented an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from their involvement. the terms of these funding arrangements have been reviewed and approved by the affiliated university in accordance with its policy on objectivity in research. credit authorship contribution christopher j. beukes: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. rènette du toit: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. gino garach: conceptualisation, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, visualisation, writing – review & editing. shirley lloyd: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. wiseman magasela: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation, writing – review & editing. cynthia moeng: conceptualisation, writing – review & editing. andreas h. schott: conceptualisation, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, supervision, writing – review & editing. dennis j. stead: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing – review & editing. paul g. west: conceptualisation, project administration, supervision, visualisation, writing – review & editing. all authors reviewed the article, contributed to the discussion of results, approved the final version for submission and publication and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information the european union provided funding for the various research projects and supported the preparation of this article. data availability derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, renette du toit, on reasonable request, as the departments’ unpublished reports can be accessed through a dedicated repository. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references arnoldi, m. 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(2024). total informal employment in south africa 2013–2023. retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1296024/number-of-informal-sector-employees-in-south-africa/ abstract introduction research methods and design findings and discussion conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) louis j. van zyl department of humanities education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation van zyl, l.j. (2024). dual sport career experiences of student-athletes studying in south africa and the usa. african journal of career development, 6(1), a96. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.96 original research dual sport career experiences of student-athletes studying in south africa and the usa louis j. van zyl received: 19 may 2023; accepted: 28 nov. 2023; published: 02 feb. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: institutions of higher education are hubs for student-athletes pursuing dual careers, in sports and higher education. the concepts of dual careers, transition models and support systems for student sports provide the conceptual framework for this study. objectives: the study investigated the dual sports career experiences of south african track and field student-athletes who studied at universities in south africa and the united states of america (usa). objectives determined satisfaction in terms of student-athlete support systems in their chosen localities. method: this qualitative study used a purposive sample of 12 participants from a general population of south african junior track and field athletes who pursued dual careers. data were collected through semi-structured interviews. results: the respondents found the us national association collegiate athletic association (ncaa) sports system superior to the south african sports system. the dual-career student-athletes transitioning through the last two stages of the south african long-term athlete development model reported a lack of support that negatively impacted the success of their dual career balance. conclusion: the south african context of student sport is not generally conducive to creating and enabling a dual sports–academic career environment because of insufficient contextual, processional and sports-specific factors. the participants perceived the ncaa system of student sport as holistic and supportive of their dual-career development. contribution: this study adds to the limited pool of knowledge relating to the dual-career development of student-athletes, and provides a base line for future research studies. keywords: dual career; student-athletes; transition; support systems; south africa; usa. introduction globalisation has opened opportunities for the migration and mobility of people for labour and career development across national borders. this tendency is prevalent in several sectors of society including higher education and sport. institutions of higher education promote internationalisation and development of their global reputation through migration and an exchange of faculty (hristova et al., 2013), and by recruiting international students from diverse backgrounds (arthur & flynn, 2011; peterson et al., 1999; urban & palmer, 2014). institutions of higher education are recognised hubs and training grounds for student-athletes who pursue elite sports careers while simultaneously furthering their academic studies, thereby following a dual-career trajectory (hanassab & tidwell, 2002; mcmurtrie, 2011; urban & palmer, 2016). the significance of institutions of higher education as enablers of elite athlete-students’ dual-career development is evident from the high percentage of student-athletes representing their countries at high profile sport events. of the 626-member united states of america (usa) squad for the tokyo olympic games, for example, 75% of the student-athletes had studied and competed at division i, ii and iii universities in the usa (national collegiate athletic association [ncaa], 2021). a similar situation was observed in the south african squad at the tokyo olympic games – student-athletes comprised the majority (83%) of the 34-member south african olympic squad. global internationalisation of the ecosystem of elite sport has become part and parcel of student-athlete career development. institutions of higher education in the usa are widely recognised as the preferred choice of international student-athletes (ryba et al., 2013) because of the unique nature of their collegiate sport and support infrastructure (israel & batalova, 2021; ryba et al., 2015). full scholarships that are offered to promising south african junior athletes transitioning to senior competition are strong influencers for those wishing to attempt dual sports–academic careers in the usa (nthangeni et al., 2021). student-athletes embarking on dual sports–academic careers face multiple challenges, especially if this coincides with a physical transition to a foreign country (noriega, 2018). common stressors include, among others, adapting to new high-performance education systems and socio-cultural contexts while sustaining their competition eligibility status (noriega, 2018). it seems that student-athletes who successfully manage such stressors and demonstrate high-levels of task orientation are more successful than student-athletes who are more ego-oriented (ncaa, 2021). johnson and ivarsson (2017) warn, however, that when the stressors and demands of the transition process and changed competition structures exceed any student-athlete’s coping capability, high levels of drop-out are evident. the extremely high drop-out rate of junior athletes (82%) among athletes who competed in the 2010 and 2012 junior international associations of athletic federations (iaaf) world championships as well as the 46% discontinuation rate of athletes after the 2012 olympic games (alfred & mayer, 2018) corroborate this actuality. student sport is embedded in some countries’ sports development models and student-athlete support systems. countries that structure sports participation according to a chosen model of sports development include canada with its sport for life model (way et al., 2016), the united kingdom’s pyramid model (uk talent coaching and performance, 2019) and south africa’s long-term athlete development (ltad) model. to assist the significant transition from junior school to senior school sports participation, most institutions of higher education have dedicated units or department to manage their student-athletes (burnett, 2010). student-athletes are recognised as valuable enablers to build and grow a unique brand equity of their institutions and are subject to the criteria and guidelines of university sports structures to deliver mutual positive cost-benefit trade-offs (macphail et al., 2003). in south africa, university sports south africa (ussa) controls all student sports events while in the usa the ncaa functions as the legislative and administrative authority of most intercollegiate sport. pursuing a dual career while participating in elite sport is challenging whether the student-athlete embarks on this journey in their own or in a foreign country. a dual-career approach requires equal attention to be paid to education and sport. setbacks are often experienced because of a combination of overtraining, burn-out, academic demands, and, in the case of transnational student-athletes, coping with homesickness and socio-cultural differences (gomez et al., 2018). balancing these demands in an equitable manner requires that strategies and support systems be readily available to the student-athletes to enable them to continue their dual-career development in sport (johnson, 2022; johnson & ivarsson, 2017). the phenomenon of student-athletes pursuing dual careers at institutions of higher education is well researched (aquilina & henry, 2010; condello et al., 2019; guidotti et al., 2015; lee & opio, 2011; ryba et al., 2015). most of the research in this field focusses on the dual careers of student-athletes in european and usa institutions of higher education. limited research has been devoted to the experiences of groups of student-athletes from africa who locate to institutions of higher education in the usa (lee & opio, 2011). sutherland (2018) explored the experiences of student-athletes pursing sports careers at a south african school, but no studies were found exploring south african student-athletes’ experiences at south african or us institutions of higher learning while pursuing dual careers in sport. this situation constitutes a significant gap in the scientific literature related to a south african student-athlete milieu. the above-mentioned context led to the research question for this study: how do south african student-athletes experience their reality of dual careers in sport and education at south african and us institutions of higher education? acknowledging that pursuing a dual sports career at a us institution of higher learning is the preferred choice of the majority of migrating student-athletes (israel & batalova, 2021), the aforesaid research question led to the aim of this study, namely to investigate and compare the experiences and life stories of south african dual-career track and field student-athletes who studied at south african and us universities. the objective of the study was to determine their satisfaction with the student-athlete support systems in their chosen locality, either the usa or south africa, and to identify and analyse the contextual factors and variables influencing the experiences of dual-career student-athletes. demarcation of the research context the research context of this study was limited to a cohort of south african junior track and field student-athletes who received full scholarships to us universities, and who pursued dual-career paths in sport in south africa and the usa. this study drew on a previous master’s study from the author about the transition of track and field athletes from junior to senior elite sports participation. conceptual framework the discourse on student-athletes is informed by multiple concepts including the dual-career approach, transition theory, and student-athlete support systems. there continues to be interest in the topic of dual sports careers and this has been the focus of several researchers in recent decades (condello et al., 2019; isidori, 2015; ryba et al., 2015; stambulova & wylleman, 2015; stambulova et al., 2020; vidal-vilaplana et al., 2022). the globalisation and professionalisation of elite sport, together with the reality that sports careers end prematurely compared with other professional careers, emphasises the importance of balancing sport and education in a dual-career approach (aquilina, 2013). ryba et al. (2015) define the concept of a dual career as the combination of challenges that student-athletes experience when combining an elite sports career with academic studies to empower them for future roles in society (condello et al., 2019). following a dual sports career is a dynamic and multifactor process that unfolds on different levels. the responsibility of successfully pursuing a dual sports career is not only that of the student-athlete on a micro level but also of the dual-career culture or support systems on the meso, macro, and global levels (condello et al., 2019). individual factors, for example, socio-cultural background, sex, age and chosen sport (micro level), interact with relationships with coaches and parents (meso level), with culture and policies of institutions of higher learning (macro level), and with policies of international sports governing bodies (global level). given the complexity of pursing a dual sports career, condello et al. (2019) argue that positive relationships and structured cooperation between multiple stakeholders is key to creating a conducive environment for student-athletes to successfully follow a dual-career approach. pursuing a dual sports career implies that student-athletes transition through several stages of skill development, increased levels of participation and performance, and personal difficulties in settings that require coping with change. transitions refer to periods of change in individuals’ life circumstances and events that cause disruptions of roles, routines and relationships (barclay, 2017). transition within sport and/or out of sport is inevitable during the dual careers of student-athletes, and several models explore the concept of transition. transition models provide frameworks for understanding and contextualising the changes that influence or disrupt student-athletes’ dual sports careers. for instance, taylor and ogilvie’s (1994) model of transition focusses on the out-of-sport transition of athletes. sports termination can be attributed mainly to age, deselection, injury or free choice. furthermore, the outcomes of out-of-sport transition can be either positive or a crisis (distress). coping skills and adaptation resources available to the athlete determine the quality of the transition (choi & kim, 2021). schlossberg’s transition model is arguably the model most widely used. it postulates that individuals cope with transitional change in different ways depending on three dimensions: (1) characteristics of the transition (e.g., timing, onset, duration and role changes); (2) characteristics of the preand post-transition environments (e.g., support systems, institutional support and physical settings); and (3) characteristics of the individual experiencing the transitions (e.g., age, gender and psychosocial abilities). changes or transitions affect the dual careers of student-athletes and can be either predictable (normative) or unexpected (non-normative) (choi & kim, 2021). stambulova’s sports career transition model and wylleman and lavallee’s development model add to the conceptual understanding of within-sports career transitions (wylleman & lavallee, 2004). according to stambulova’s model (choi & kim, 2021), athletes face several demands and barriers that require coping and support strategies during their careers. wylleman and lavallee argue that student-athletes experience physical, individual, psychological, and academic transitions in their dual-career journeys (choi & kim, 2021). the common denominator of the transition models is the challenges and changes in the dual-career sports journeys of student-athletes. access to and quality of support systems and individual capability to handle change determine negative or positive outcomes of within-sports dual-career transitions. the nature of a dual career in sport requires multifaceted support systems to enable student-athletes to simultaneously study and participate in sport. encouraging student-athletes to follow dual sports careers places complex demands on all the role players and frameworks in the south african sportscape. this often poses a challenge for national sport federations, institutions of higher learning, and the ussa. as role players, they have to organise, develop and maintain teaching, learning, tutoring, coaching and career development systems as well as pathways to support the student-athletes (isidori, 2015). in south africa, ltad is recognised as the generic support system to guide the transition of athletes over seven stages from introductory sports participation to elite sports participation and dual-career pathways (way et al., 2016). the progress of athlete career pathways is captured in the differential and progressive stages of the ltad model that reflect the specific needs, contexts and associated developmental phases. the main elements of ltad, captured in the left quadrant of figure 1, corresponds to the different school phases or grades of the south african educational system to transition from school sport to post-school sports participation (beckmann & bipath, 2016). figure 1: long-term athlete development model (balyi et al., 2013) in articulation with the south african education system. the final two stages of the ltad model (training-to-compete and training-to-win) connect to high performance or elite sports contexts relating to student-athletes’ dual careers. national sport federations represent significant actors in the ltad model as they are responsible for sports-specific governance and support to transition successfully through the stages of the ltad model. against the background of the ltad model, student sport at south african institutions of higher learning is collectively governed by national sports federations and the ussa, which aims to facilitate and influence the development and delivery of student sport from mass student-sports participation to elite sport student-sports performers (ussa, 2023). in the usa, the ncaa governs student sport at institutions of higher learning. the ncaa strives to provide world-class academic experiences for student-athletes that foster lifelong well-being (ncaa, 2023). to achieve this mission, the ncaa organises and delivers safe, fair and inclusive sports competitions in collaboration with division i, ii and iii colleges and universities. eligibility to participate in ncaa competitions are guided by rules, regulations, and academic, financial, and coaching support systems to facilitate the dual sports careers of student-athletes (ncaa, 2023). research methods and design research design this study followed a qualitative, exploratory and interpretive research design that allowed respondents to self-report and interpret their experiences as student-athletes as they transitioned from junior to senior levels. it also allowed the researcher access to insightful and informative data and added richness and depth to the respondents’ narratives (creswell & creswell, 2018). research area and sample the general population of the study included 58 male and female junior track and field athletes (n = 58) aged 18–20 years who were enrolled at institutions of higher learning at the time of data collection. a non-probability purposive sample of 12 respondents (n = 12) was collected from the general population. four respondents followed dual careers at us universities while eight pursued dual careers at south african universities. research instrument and data collection semi-structured interviews were used to answer the research question and achieve the objectives stated for this study. the seven-step interview process of skinner et al. (2015) was followed to ensure the quality and integrity of the data and which allowed the respondents to reflect on their dual-career sports journeys through narrative accounts (skinner et al., 2015). the interviews were conducted at a location and time of the participants’ choice to allow for private conversations and an environment relatively free from interference. data analysis the interviews were voice recorded with the written consent of the respondents and transcribed verbatim. the transcriptions were then analysed using a coding index to identify themes and sub-themes (skinner et al., 2015), and to establish links and comparisons between the respondents’ dual-career experiences in the usa and in south africa. the coding process identified related words or phrases used by the respondents concerning specific incidents or which were mentioned repeatedly by more than one participant. themes and sub-themes were interpreted against the background of stambulova’s sports career transition model, wylleman and lavallee’s development model, the ltad model, and the support systems of the ncaa. trustworthiness trustworthiness refers to the credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability of research findings (belotto, 2018). to obtain this, the transcripts were subjected to member-checking by the respondents for accuracy and consent (rose & johnson, 2020). field notes and my insider’s perspective as a former international student-athlete provided key insights into the contextual realities of the research group and served as a form of data triangulation (maree, 2019). ethical consideration ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of pretoria, faculty of education ethics committee (no. hu 17/03/04). the respondents’ rights to self-determination, anonymity, confidentially and informed consent were observed. the respondents were advised that they could withdraw from the study at any time. they were numbered from 1 to 12 in the transcriptions to ensure anonymity. confidentiality was maintained by saving the data on a secure, password-protected computer. results three primary themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) the student-athlete dual-career system, (2) transition from junior (school) to senior (university) spor, and (3) dropping out of competitive sport while ensuing a dual sports career. findings and discussion from the data, three themes emerged regarding the athletes in the south african and us cohorts: dual-career student-athlete systems, school-university transition, and dropping out of competitive sport. dual-career student-athlete systems a considerable difference was observed between the dual-career student-athlete systems in south africa and the usa. the respondents commented repeatedly on the remarkable and holistic support systems in the usa, which enabled the student-athletes to succeed in both their sports and academic careers. the results revealed support systems that provided academic support, specialist coaching, optimal training, competition as part of athlete preparation, and medical support in the case of injuries and rehabilitation. the us universities participating under the umbrella of the ncaa provided a wide variety of educational services to assist in the student-athletes’ academic progress and general transition to the higher demands of university sport. athletic advisors assisted departmental faculty (who were officially responsible for academic advisement) and ncaa rules and regulations to maintain eligibility. conversely, the respondents pursuing dual careers at south african institutions of higher learning articulated disappointing experiences with their student-athlete support systems. medical support appeared to be a substantive challenge for the respondents pursuing dual careers in south africa. it appears that holistic support systems for these student-athletes to navigate the demands of transition within sport was largely absent when compared with that of the ncaa in the usa. the student-athletes in south africa were responsible, for example, for their own medical costs when injuries occurred and they did not have dedicated academic advisors to guide their academic journeys towards graduation. the disparities between the south african and the us student-athlete systems are highlighted by following respondents’ comments: ‘it is just completely different in america compared to here in south africa. the facilities and coaching staff are just amazing [usa-based student-athlete].’ (participant 6, female, 23 years old) ‘if south africa was able to put in place a structured system to support athletics, i think we could be world beaters. however, this support system would need to assist all athletes, not just have one or two athletes who compete in 100m, 200m, or 400m sprint events. we could have three athletes in a final at every world championship and olympics [south africa-based student-athlete].’ (participant 9, male, 24 years old) sports performance involves a multifaceted mixture of coaching, training and sports science that focusses on sports-science-related factors in congruence with training. during the interviews, it was evident that the respondents experienced a range of training programmes. all the respondents reflected positively on their coaches and training programmes during university-level track and field events. there was general consensus among the respondents that their coaches played a significant role during the initial years of their dual sports careers at university level. several respondents indicated that if it had not been for the coach, they would have dropped out of high-performance sport. all the respondents indicated an increased and more professional approach towards their training following their transition from juniorto senior-level sports participation. it seems, however, that the usa-based student-athletes followed an intensive training and competitive programme that was more demanding than that offered at south african universities. even though all the respondents indicated that they had access to training facilities designed and used primarily for training in sports programmes and which consisted of outdoor–indoor athletic fields and related facilities, including gymnasia, specialised equipment and training rooms, offices, locker rooms and retail concession areas attached to training facilities, the us context proved superior. one of the us-based student-athletes commented, ‘it is just completely different in america compared to here in south africa. the facilities and coaching staff are just amazing’. achieving success as a student-athlete following a dual career depended on a set of interactive factors. the synergy created between contextual (funding), processual (lifestyle support, cooperation between role players) and specific (hierarchy of well-structured competition opportunities) factors supplied the bedrock for success for dual-career student-athletes (houlihan & green, 2008). it became apparent that the student-athletes in the training-to win-stage of the ltad model received limited to no financial support from the national sports federations or from the umbrella sports systems in south africa. parents were the main financial support for most of the south african-based student-athletes. one such respondent expressed his perceptions as follows: ‘i didn’t receive any financial support from athletics south africa, sascoc, or the hpc [high performance centre] when trying to resolve this issue. my parents paid for all my bills because there is no system currently in place to assist athletes in this regard.’ (participant 11, male, 24 years old) processual factors were also underdeveloped in the south african student sports context as can be deduced from the following narrative: ‘i was interviewed, and the interview was broadcast on television, but i never received any financial support. following the youth olympics, i never heard from organisations again, despite running competitive times in my matric year. i was never approached by athletics south africa or sascoc again. [south africa-based student-athlete]’ (participant 12, female, 24 years old) transition from school to university the transition from high school to university athletics posed challenges for many of the student-athletes. they had to adapt and adhere to academic requirements while balancing the demands of their sport, social lives, mental health, new environments, proper nutrition, and getting sufficient rest and quality sleep. they were expected to navigate their new lifestyle environments while succeeding athletically, academically and socially. to accomplish this transition, universities in the usa offered comprehensive support to the dual-career student-athletes through mentoring and tutoring programmes, first-year seminar classes, and regular meetings with academic advisors and coaches (gardner, 2018). the supremacy of the holistic support systems available to student-athletes in the usa was evident from some of the respondents’ reflections: ‘it was difficult to know at the time and staying in south africa may have become a decision i would regret as well. the south african facilities and support programmes cannot be compared to those in america, but we have competent coaches who are knowledgeable enough. we have all the coaches necessary for different aspects of athletics – such as strength training and track training. however, americans provide an entire system to support their athletes, and that is where they gain the advantage over us [usa-based student-athlete].’ (participant 1, male, 24 years old) ‘i did not run well now. i have struggled with an injury for years, but, as in terms of, their stuff is much better explained, as you become part and you, you do not have to worry, you do not have to worry, you can just practice. [usa-based student-athlete].’ ‘it was very difficult for me because it is a new coach and because i am not used to how they train in america. but this is how i am because i mean, i was a junior [usa-based student-athlete].’ (participant 2, male, 24 year old) south africa-based athletes found transitioning from school to university sport challenging. the respondents pointed out that the role changes (junior to senior track and field), new coaches, and the academic demands of a dual career were not supported by an enabling environment. similar challenges by international students were found by lawerncia okai (okai, 2023). dropping out of competitive sport the student-athletes following dual careers voiced multiple reasons for retiring from competitive sport. those who had studied at us universities cited various reasons if they had had unsuccessful dual careers in the usa. these were: winning-at-all-costs-environments; the negative impact from coaches, the demands of different stakeholders, a lack of communication and support for athlete well-being, and the challenges of combining their studies with sports participation. even though 4 of the 12 respondents were awarded scholarships in the usa, 3 returned to south africa less than a year after arriving in the usa. they found the transition from being home-based during their school careers to studying independently abroad too daunting and overwhelming, and subsequently dropped out of track and field altogether on their return to south africa. only one respondent remained in the usa and progressed to an olympic games final at the following olympic cycle. unexpected, that is non-normative, injuries were cited as the main reason why south africa-based track and field athletes terminated their dual sports careers at institutions of higher education in south africa. this can be attributed to a lack of contextual and processual support: ‘i didn’t receive any financial support from athletics south africa, sascoc, or the hpc [high performance centre] when trying to resolve this issue [injuries]. my parents paid for all my bills because there is no system currently in place to assist athletes in this regard [south africa-based student-athlete].’ (participant 11, male, 24 years old) all 12 respondents (n = 12) transitioned through the stages of ltad during their sports participation journey in south africa as junior athletes up to the last two stages, namely training-to-compete and training-to-win. the four respondents who migrated to us institutions of higher education transitioned successfully to the training-to-win-stage and pursued dual sports careers under the auspices of the integrated and comprehensive ncaa student-athlete system. the reflections and narratives of these respondents confirmed the superiority of the ncaa system as a structured, competitive university league system, which increased their chances of dual-career student success. this finding validates the conclusions of israel and batalova (2021) and stambulova et al. (2015) on the dominance of the us student-athlete system. as predicted by stambulova’s sports career transition model, the us-based respondents’ normative transition to the training-to-win stage of the ltad model was better supported by the infrastructure and coping and support strategies of the ncaa at us institutions of higher education than it would have been in south africa. the dual-career student-athletes in the usa were adequately supported to cope with physical, psychological and financial changes and, therefore, experienced their within-sport transitions as positive and successful (stambulova & wylleman, 2015). however, student-athletes’ coping abilities also determined the perceived success of transitions within sport (choi & kim, 2021). in this regard, the findings suggest that despite a superior ncaa system most of the respondents who pursued dual careers in the usa experienced distress as 75% of the respondents indicated that they had returned to south africa within a year. this, according to schlossberg’s transition theory, points to a lack of individual psychosocial coping abilities to handle their individual settings successfully (choi & kim, 2021). the south africa-based respondents who transitioned to the training-to-win stage of the ltad model at south african institutions of higher education also experienced their normative transition from juniorto senior-level sport as stressful. the respondents reflected on the lack of support systems and coping strategies as they were largely left to their own devices. the support systems and resources of the south african national sport federation as well as that of the ussa system were experienced as ad hoc compared with those of the ncaa. moreover, the student-athletes following dual careers at local south african institutions of higher learning were exposed to external factors such as politics and economics. financial support was lacking that influenced their performance when seeking to attain dual-career success. internal factors such as self-esteem, self-belief and interpersonal relationships also had an impact on their dual careers. against the background of schlossberg’s sports career transition model (choi & kim, 2021), these findings were expected, as predicted in wylleman and lavallee’s development model (stambulova & lavallee, 2015), which argued that a misalignment of one or more factors could likely lead to negative outcomes of within-sport transition. a comparison between the narratives of the south african-based and us-based respondents revealed the perception that the usa ncaa was regarded as the gold standard of dual sports career development. this finding is in line with houlihan and green’s (2008) and israel and batalova’s (2021) notions that institutions of higher education in the usa are the preferred choice for dual-career sports pathways because of their holistic ncaa support system for student-athletes. conclusion and recommendations this qualitative exploratory study focussed on answering the research question of how track and field student-athletes experienced the realities of their dual careers at south african and us institutions of higher education. overall, the findings indicate that even though the south african ltad model theoretically provides support throughout all seven stages of sport participation, in reality, student-athletes with dual careers experience limited support, which causes distress during their within-sports transitions (choi & kim, 2021). it becomes clear that the south african context of student sport is not particularly conducive to creating and enabling a dual-career sports environment because of insufficient contextual, processional and sport-specific factors (houlihan & green, 2008). student-athletes in south african dual-career contexts continue to be, to a great extent, left to their own financial devices and to parental support. furthermore, a lack of coherent and cooperative dual-career development management strategies between the role players to achieve a positive transition between the last two stages of the ltad model appear to be lacking conversely, dual-career student-athletes participating under the ncaa student sports system in the usa experienced holistic support in the form of funding, lifestyle support, cooperating strategies between the role players, and a well-developed hierarchy of opportunities for competition. yet, the findings also indicated that the south african respondents in the ncaa system were unable to cope with psychosocial demands of the transition from junior to senior sport and, hence, most of the respondents who had been based at us institutions of higher education returned prematurely to south africa. in response to the findings of this study, it is proposed that a holistic student-athlete support system should be prioritised in south africa. practical strategies such as sustainable financial support and strategic alliances between the national sports governing bodies, the ussa and institutions of higher education are desperately needed to enable dual sports career success within the parameters of the south african ltad model. furthermore, a well-developed system of regular, high-quality national competitions are required to scaffold the performance of student-athletes to olympic participation levels. limitations of the research the limitations of this study include the lack of generalisability of the findings because of the qualitative research design and the relatively small purposive sample size. the self-reported data collection method presents another limitation to the study as the lack of previous research on dual-career development of student-athletes in south africa inhibited verification of the results of the existing research. the exploratory nature of the study demarcated the research context to only south african student-athletes participating in one sports discipline, namely track and field. further research in this area against the background of the results of this study, the following future research directions are recommended: (1) expand the research context to analyse and compare the experiences of dual-career student-athletes from different nationalities in african union region 5 and different sports to contribute to the scholarly literature on dual-career development in africa; (2) conduct similar studies with bigger probability sample sizes to allow for generalisation of the research findings; and (3) investigate the out-of-sport transitions and post-sports success of dual-career athletes who successfully graduated from south african institutions of higher education. acknowledgements the author would like to extend heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the participants who generously contributed to this research project. their invaluable participation and cooperation were crucial in obtaining the necessary data and insights to address the research objectives and the future generation of athletes. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions this academic research article reflects the collaborative effort of a single author. the author acknowledges sole responsibility for the conception, design, execution, analysis, and interpretation of the research project presented herein. funding information this academic research project was conducted without receiving any external funding or financial support. the research was carried out solely based on the resources available within the researcher’s institution or personal means. the absence of external funding did not influence the design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the research findings. the researcher involved in this project declares that he has no conflicts of interest related to funding or financial support that could potentially bias the results or conclusions. data availability the data utilised and/or generated during this research are available upon reasonable request. researchers, scholars, and individuals interested in accessing the data may contact the corresponding author or the responsible institution to initiate the data sharing process. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this academic article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organisation, institution, or individual associated with the author, and the publisher. the author bears complete responsibility for the content presented herein. references alfred, l., & mayer, r. 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(2004). career transitions in sport: european perspectives. psychology of sport and exercise, 5(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1469-0292(02)00049-3 https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@ajcd.africa indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2024 to 30 september 2025. andrea svicher andronikos kaliris annelisa murangi anthony naidoo brandon morgan christopher beukes daphne j. pereira diane de sousa erna w. gerryts hendri j. theron ian rothmann jackie peila-shuster kamilla v. rawatlal kayla willemse kemoneilwe metsing leonardo lemos de souza louis j. van zyl marcelo a. ribeiro maria c. ginevra marthie van der walt maximus m. sefotho melinde coetzee michelle finestone nastassja maree nicola taylor pakeezah rajab paul g. west petro erasmus rakgadi phatlane raksha janak renette du toit ronel kleynhans scott solberg shirley lloyd tholakele c. dlamini https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa mailto:submissions@ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@ ajcd.africa indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2021 to 30 september 2022. anthonia ngwoke brandon morgan brian j. taber christopher beukes elrie botha frans maloa hildah mokgolodi indira pillay jackie peila-shuster jani wiggett kamilla v. rawatlal louise m. vital macalane malindi maximus m. sefotho meenakshi chhabra nicola taylor paul g. west paul j. hartung pieter k. smit ronald g. sultana william c. briddick https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa mailto:submissions@ajcd.africa mailto:submissions@ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers abstract introduction emotional intelligence predictors of academic achievement emotional intelligence’s potential to address adolescent challenges career guidance and well-being care needs research aims and hypotheses research methods and design results overall academic performance compulsory subjects discussion strengths and limitations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anneke stols school of psychology, faculty of social science, university of east anglia, norwich, united kingdom department of product and research, jvr psychometrics, johannesburg, south africa petro erasmus community psychosocial research (compres), faculty of health sciences, north-west university, mahikeng, south africa wandile f. tsabedze community psychosocial research (compres), faculty of health sciences, north-west university, mahikeng, south africa department of psychology, college of human and social sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation stols, a., erasmus, p., & tsabedze, w.f. (2024). emotional intelligence predicting subject-specific academic success: eq-i youth in south africa. african journal of career development, 6(1), a114. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.114 note: topical collection: advancing career intervention in developing countries. original research emotional intelligence predicting subject-specific academic success: eq-i youth in south africa anneke stols, petro erasmus, wandile f. tsabedze received: 03 apr. 2024; accepted: 06 june 2024; published: 16 july 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: academic performance has been perceived as an element, which can change the lives of youth, while emotional intelligence (ei) often relates to adolescents’ well-being and, in turn, can influence academic performance. emotional intelligence development is related to multiple beneficial outcomes and deemed a valuable tool for educational and career planning. however, there is a need for more ei-related guidance in youth interventions. objectives: to inform such guidance, this is the first study that aimed to confirm the relationship between the academic results of south african adolescents and ei (measured using an updated assessment and newer ei model). it also aimed to determine whether specific ei scales were dominant predictors of subject-specific academic results. methods: a quantitative research study was conducted following a non-experimental, correlational research design and stratified random sampling method. the study was conducted in secondary schools across south africa. academic results and ei scores of 284 adolescents between 13 and 19 years were available for correlational and regression-based dominance analysis techniques. results: results confirmed a significant positive relationship between total ei scores and academic year averages. prominent findings included the decision making composite, which had the strongest relationship with and was the most dominant predictor of most compulsory subject averages. conclusion: the results point to the importance of considering learners’ ei as a contributing aspect to their school performance, by incorporating learner-tailored ei testing and development at a school level. contribution: findings contribute to the criterion validity of the eq-i youth assessment and can guide teaching and career guidance initiatives in incorporating tailored ei strategies for learner development. keywords: academic performance; adolescents; career planning; emotional intelligence; eq-i youth; eq-i 2.0 model; south africa. introduction for a long time, academic performance has been used as an indicator of individual potential for future success (dorta-guerra et al., 2019). for example, an individual’s grades in different subject areas often form the basis of academic performance or achievement including the measurement thereof (matešić, 2015), which applies explicitly to adolescents in high school (liang et al., 2020). these adolescents’ grades are mainly being used to consider their future potential and make decisions regarding career planning and university placement (brdesee & alsaggaf, 2021; xiao et al., 2018). different life domains can favourably or unfavourably impact adolescents’ academic achievements and well-being (and, evidently, individual potential). during this life phase, emotional intelligence (ei) skills play a crucial role in mitigating, influencing, and supporting a favourable impact (bar-on & maree, 2007; calero et al., 2018). in light of the above associations, it is increasingly evident that ei can be used as a tool to unlock individual potential. following the publication of daniel goleman’s book emotional intelligence: why eq matters more than iq, it became apparent that certain ei aspects were predictive of academic achievement in youth (goleman, 1995). further evidence hereof is stipulated in various studies that found significant relationships between ei and subject grade achievements of adolescents (maccann et al., 2020:162; suleman et al., 2019:10). a study including western or european adolescents (n = 209) by downey et al. (2008:14) reported a relationship between ei and mathematics, natural sciences, and arts. furthermore, other researchers (herrera et al., 2020:9; maccann et al., 2020:168) confirmed a relationship between ei and various subjects’ success (such as mathematics, home and additional language, and life orientation) in africa. this study, therefore, builds on these in a south-african-specific context. specific ei dimensions that are proven predictors of academic achievements include awareness of the self and social norms, self-management, interpersonal skills, and the responsibility of making decisions (casel, 2003; miller & byrnes, 2001). in a social schooling environment, adolescents have to apply life and social skills to achieve good grades (wentzel, 2022). social relationships often form the foundation of learning, as a student’s ability to adjust and perform in school is frequently impacted by the complex interactions that necessitate emotional and social skills (bar-on & maree, 2007). further research (bücker et al., 2018:90; yang et al., 2019:333) revealed that adolescents need to balance their social lives and academic achievement in their school lives for them to have good and successful careers. furthermore, ei dimensions predict the career success of adolescents during the transition to university or higher education institutions (de clercq et al., 2017:51). moreover, even career choices are often influenced by ei elements (santos et al., 2018). consequently, ei seems to play a role not only in successful academic performance but also in adolescent futures in the form of career success. emotional intelligence predictors of academic achievement previous research indicates that emotionally intelligent learners are often more effective in mitigating challenging life and school situations, such as dealing with anxiety surrounding failure, in-class participation, school performance, and critical feedback (bar-on et al., 2007; demetriou et al., 2020:8,29; maree et al., 2013:207). emotional intelligence research in relation to academic achievement has been conducted across different ei measurement models. the various measurement models often include ‘ability-based’ and ‘trait-based ei’ (the latter provides self-report and mixed ei model measures). however, for this study, the focus was only on the emotional quotient inventory 2.0 (eq-i 2.0) model, which is considered to be trait and/or mixed ei (van lill et al., 2023), making this the first ei study with adolescents based on the eq-i 2.0 model. the structure of the eq-i 2.0 model (figure 1) includes five composite areas, which form the basis according to which the next section was unpacked. figure 1: eq-i 2.0 model structure that also forms the base model of the eq-i youth assessment. specific aspects of ei that predict school performance in the form of academic achievement include self-awareness and self-evaluation, which are essentially reflected by the self-perception (sp) composite of the emotional quotient inventory 2.0 (eq-i 2.0) model in terms of self-regard, self-actualisation, and emotional self-awareness (see wiechorek, 2011). if these aspects were to improve, one would typically expect improved self-monitoring, self-management when learning, and alertness to feedback. importantly, demetriou et al. (2020:8) emphasise the predictability of these sp aspects in combination with cognitive reasoning, where the ei aspects allow one to utilise cognitive ability more effectively. social relationships and communication skills are also crucial for academic achievement. these skills are employed when students interact with their peers and teachers in class, as well as when managing their social lives. during classes, learners are expected to share learning equipment and work in groups. at the same time, in their social lives they need to recognise and react appropriately to peer pressure (maccann et al., 2020). improved communication, often seen in the comfort of expressing emotions and thoughts, asking and answering questions even when uncertain, or other core actions that could contribute to learning in class, are likely to also lead to higher grades (kiuru et al., 2020; pascoe et al., 2020:108). these skills clearly correspond with self-expression (se) (expressing the inner self to the outside world in a self-reliant and constructive manner) and interpersonal skills (is) composites (developing and maintaining trusting relationships, appreciating others’ emotions, and contributing to one’s own social groups) of the eq-i 2.0 model (wiechorek, 2011). decision making (dm), according to the eq-i 2.0 model, has to do with making decisions when emotions are involved. the composite includes skills that also come into play during self-monitoring and self-management activities (wiechorek, 2011) and is related to academic achievement. primarily defined by the adaptability composite in the former baron emotional quotient inventory (eq-i) model, dm was found to be significantly associated with academic performance, as students with higher grade point average (gpa) scores also had significantly higher adaptability scale scores compared to lower-performing groups (parker et al., 2004:1327). emotional management is also considered a predictor of academic achievement, where learners who are typically able to manage stress or anxiety, boredom, and disappointment when given negative feedback are likely to perform well in school (esnaola et al., 2017; guhn et al., 2020). therefore, the two aspects in the eq-i 2.0 model that are central to emotional management are stress tolerance (coping with emotions resulting from stress and unfamiliarity) and flexibility (adapting to change and unfamiliarity) as elements of the stress management (sm) composite (wiechorek, 2011). consequently, overall, ei and its composites have been found to be predictors of academic achievement in general, with the most dominant predictive ei composites expected to be sm and dm. previous research by parker et al. (2004:1328) found the most consistent relationship between individuals with high gpa scores and ei scales equivalent to these two composites. these authors also recommended research that considers ei and achievement across different subjects, which this study adhered to. this literature leads the authors to believe that hypotheses h1 to h2a (provided in the hypothesis section of this article) would be valuable to test in the south african context. when considering specific mandatory subjects, a study by herrera et al. (2020:5–6, 9) used the baron emotional quotient inventory: youth version-short (eq-i:yv-s; bar-on & parker, 2000) to determine which ei composites were predictors of academic performance for spanish adolescents in the age group 10-years to 12-years. findings suggested that the intrapersonal dimension of ei was a significant predictor of the spanish language subject. the intrapersonal scale of the eq-i:yv (based on the eq-i model) is essentially equivalent to the combined sp and se scales included in the updated eq-i 2.0 model (figure 1; wiechorek, 2011). because the se dimension includes constructive communication and expression of one’s emotions (wiechorek, 2011), a positive predictive relationship with performance in language subjects, which is core to verbal communication, is anticipated (see hypothesis h2b). in the case of mathematics, the adaptability dimension (including problem solving, reality testing, and flexibility) was predictive of performance on the subject (herrera et al., 2020:9). these subscales form part of the dm (i.e. problem solving and reality testing scales) and sm composites (i.e. flexibility scale) in the eq-i 2.0 model (wiechorek, 2011). tariq et al. (2013:1145) found that high levels of ei were a potential mitigator of anxiety’s impact on mathematics performance. furthermore, when considering that dm in the eq-i 2.0 model specifically has to do with the skill to objectively solve problems in emotionally loaded (e.g. high-anxiety) situations while understanding its potential impact on decisions and objectivity (wiechorek, 2011), it is understandable that dm specifically could be predictive of mathematics performance (leading to hypothesis h2c). another study carried out in spain by trigueros et al. (2019:8) found dimensions such as empathy, emotional regulation, and recognition to have an indirect positive influence on life skills subject scores. at the same time, effective communication and relationship building are suggested to impact such performance. alternatively, a south african study indicated that if social-responsibility-related aspects underlie physical-related or life-skills-related education, it could contribute to academic performance in the life orientation subject (jones & roux, 2021:5). consequently, as the mentioned dimensions constitute core traits of the eq-i 2.0 is composite, it is expected to predict performance in the life orientation or life skills subject (informing hypothesis h2d). furthermore, the life orientation subject in south africa has a critical objective of empowering learners to reach their potential on a personal, emotional, and social level (department of basic education, as cited in care et al., 2017:31); thus, it provides a potential point of departure where emotional and social skill development could be further promoted. emotional intelligence’s potential to address adolescent challenges adolescence is a developmental phase where individuals are confronted with various challenges often related to change and transitioning, which is important for shaping individual futures (eds. bonnie & backes, 2019). in the school context, adolescent students are confronted with feelings of stress and can struggle to cope with stressful situations, which could lead to poor academic performance (pascoe et al., 2020). however, adolescence can also be a developmental phase of opportunity as some impulsive and risk-taking behaviours can potentially facilitate creativity and motivation to seek new experiences. therefore, creating an opportunity through interventions that address relevant emotional and social skills like sm, sp, dm, is, and se can help adolescents develop a mindset useful in navigating challenges, addressing their areas of vulnerability, and reaching their potential (eds. bonnie & backes, 2019; wiechorek, 2011; yeager, 2019). a review of previous research across different study contexts by yang and daun (2023) emphasised the importance of incorporating the development of these emotional and social skills in classes and curriculums. thus, it emphasises the need for ei development to be integrated into an adolescent’s whole ‘ecosystem’. another challenge for adolescents relates to their progression through their school ‘careers’, that is, transitioning from primary to high school to career decisions, from subject selection to career planning (kiuru et al., 2020; wong et al., 2021). when adolescents transition, they are more likely to perform poorly because of their workload and adjustment difficulties (virtanen et al., 2019). they are also expected to achieve lower grades until they have fully adjusted to the new environment and to new teaching approaches (anderson et al., 2000). however, specific skills grounded in ei (when linked to the eq-i 2.0 aspects), such as flexibility, problem-solving, impulse control, emotional expression, self-regard, and maintaining interpersonal relationships, are essential during these transitions and can positively impact academics, well-being, and career planning and progression (kiuru et al., 2020; st clair-thompson et al., 2017; wong et al., 2021). as such, while academic achievement is often an integral component of career planning, it is believed that ei could play an indirect role in guiding its process. therefore, providing youth with assistance during these stages of transitioning is crucial (kiuru et al., 2020). career guidance and well-being care needs organisations globally consider support in career planning and coordination to be of specific importance during these transitioning phases to help guide individual potential and future outcomes. as a result, career development support systems are developed (and encouraged) to include career guidance and education, among other aspects (kadletz et al., 2021). career guidance, counselling, and education initiatives can be effective not only in guiding youth through transitioning periods but also in preparing them for the workplace and their future careers. south african and global developments support career counselling initiatives to prepare adolescents for the workplace, for example, in remote, informal settlements and townships (savickas & savickas, 2019). the inclusion of social and emotional skills education in these initiatives is deemed necessary by educators from multiple african countries, mainly referring to empathy, self-management, and decision-making (marsay et al., 2022:96); however, very few interventions focus on enabling the development of ei in south african schools (harrison et al., 2021). emotional intelligence (defined as self-management, self-awareness, and social awareness) was included in the skillcraft application developed by the world bank and colleagues (2022:3), which is a tool that uses digital tasks to assess overall 21st century skills often sought by employers, and assists youth in career guidance. the skillcraft application is primarily aimed at supporting south african unemployed youths who are hard to reach because career guidance and well-being support often become a challenge in lowand middle-income countries because of a lack of resources (maree & molepo, 2007). therefore, as evidenced by the aforementioned, adolescents are faced with many challenges in their lives, which are often amplified for youth from developing countries (masud et al., 2019). because earlier literature (e.g. kiuru et al., 2020) shows the value of ei skills in general for performance outcomes and the mitigation of life challenges, training and development of such skills should ideally be promoted. there is, however, a crucial need for more support and interventions that can assist youth in the development and use of ei skills for application in specific education and career contexts. therefore, this study is now looking at the predictive value of specific elements of ei, as it is not clear which elements have the most dominant impact, particularly in the context of south african youth performance. insights into the order in which ei skills development should take place to support specific academic and career progression can significantly help with the development of impactful social and emotional interventions. findings could thus have implications for subject and career choices and significantly contribute to career planning and guidance initiatives. research aims and hypotheses as a first study of its kind, this study, therefore, seeks to establish whether the eq-i 2.0 model, adapted for youth samples (i.e. the emotional quotient inventory youth [eq-i youth]), is predictive of academic performance as the original eq-i model was in a youth context (parker et al., 2004), and as the eq-i 2.0 is of adult work performance (van lill et al., 2023). furthermore, this study aims not only to confirm the relationship between ei aspects (as defined by the eq-i 2.0 model) and the academic results of adolescents but also to determine whether ei is a significant predictor of academic success (represented by academic year marks) in a south african context. the authors also aim to indicate which ei scales are more dominant in their prediction of overall and subject-specific academic results, which is often lacking in other ei studies (e.g., maccann et al., 2020; suleman et al., 2019). after considering previous research, the authors formulated the following hypotheses to address the aims: h1: total ei has a significant positive relationship with academic performance. h2: there are several significant relationships between eq-i youth scales and academic results. h2a: the sm and dm composites have the strongest positive effects on overall academic achievement. h2b: the se composite has the strongest positive effect on home language and additional language performance. h2c: the sm and dm composites have the strongest positive effects on mathematics performance. h2d: the is composite has the strongest positive effect on life orientation performance. research methods and design study design as part of this article, the aim was to investigate and measure the nature of the relationship between ei and academic performance for secondary school adolescents in a south african context. the eq-i youth assessment provided a measure of ei, while academic year marks represented an indication of individual academic performance. the authors conducted a quantitative research study following a non-experimental, correlational research design (mertler, 2019). setting learners were approached via schools or psychology professionals working at schools with representation in private and public schools across two of the five school quintile levels (4 and 5) throughout the nine provinces in south africa. the school quintile levels indicate the level of financial resources allocated to specific public schools by the government, that is, more resources are allocated to quintile one schools. in contrast, quintile five schools receive the least resources. study sample and sampling strategy stratified random sampling was applied to first collect responses on the eq-i youth from south african adolescents. the only inclusion criteria were that individuals had to be at a secondary school, within the age group 13-years to 19-years, and have a functional understanding of written english while being able to read english questions. exclusion criteria were participants who suffered from emotional or psychological distress, (which was self-reported by parents). based on the consent provided, academic results were requested from schools at the end of the academic year as additional data that could be used in the validation of an ei measure. to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the schools included were not exposed to previous ei interventions. the sample consisted of the learners whose academic results were made available (n = 284). the average age was 15.12 years (standard deviation [sd] = 1.33), while 29.6% of the sample self-identified as male and 70.4% as female. participants were also from different ethnic groups (39.5% african, 44.7% white, and 15.8% from other ethnic groups such as indian, mixed race or asian). using the statistical tool gpower, the authors determined that our sample size has a statistical power and a 99.5% probability of finding moderate effects from regression analyses, which is satisfactory (mayr et al., 2007). data collection data were collected between february and december 2019 in a proctored group setting where students completed the eq-i youth in english after a thorough written informed consent process was followed. the proctored setting allowed for the validity assurance of responses as trained psychology administrators were available to ensure independent responses and to answer any questions that could arise. the assessment’s readability level is at a flesch-kincaid reading grade indicator of grade level 4–5 (kincaid et al., 1975). a small number of younger english second-language learners indicated difficulty in understanding one or two items. these items were neutrally explained to the learners by administrators so as not to influence participants’ responses. academic performance academic year marks were captured by the research team from each student’s year school report. the reports were provided directly by the schools, with permission from the students and their parents. it is important to notice that the sample sizes for some school subjects varied as not all students took the same subjects in later grades. the south african department of basic education (2021) requires learners to complete at least seven subjects (four compulsory subjects and three optional subjects of their choice) to achieve their national senior certificate in grade 12. consequently, this article focussed on the overall year averages (across both compulsory and optional subjects) and compulsory subject averages (only), which unsurprisingly had the most consistent sample sizes. emotional quotient inventory youth the eq-i youth adolescent form was used, which was validated and normed for a south african sample of adolescents between the ages of 13-years and 19-years and based on the eq-i 2.0 model structure. the single total ei score indicates an individual’s ‘overall level of emotional and social functioning’ at a specific point in time (stols & taylor, 2020:37). the total ei is comprised of five composite scales that each include three subscales. the five composite scales include sp, se, is, dm, and sm (figure 1). the psychometric properties of the eq-i youth adolescent form indicated that it is a reliable and valid measure of ei for adolescents (stols & taylor, 2020). the mcdonald’s omega (ωt) and cronbach’s alpha (α) values were acceptable with values larger than 0.70. from a construct validity perspective, the confirmatory factor analyses provided acceptable fit indices when tested against the eq-i 2.0 factor structure. at the same time, the inter-factor correlations demonstrated evidence of uni-dimensionality. rasch and differential item functioning (dif) analyses were also conducted and indicated that the eq-i youth items fit the eq-i 2.0 model well, contributed to measurement, and had notable similarities across different contextual groups (including age groups, gender and ethnic groups). any group differences or dif that occurred were either not substantial or did not transfer to total scale scores, which provided confidence in the fairness of the assessment across these groups. more specific information about how the eq-i youth was further validated is beyond the scope of this article and detailed information can be found in the assessment manual (i.e. stols & taylor, 2020). data analysis data capturing professionals captured the data after receiving training and a process manual of the required steps. the captured data were double-checked by a central person who cleaned the data by ensuring a universal capturing style, removing duplicates, and checking missing data. careless responses were identified and removed from the original sample using the careless package (yentes & wilhelm, 2018) in the r software environment (r core team, 2021). to produce the findings for this manuscript, the researchers first conducted a correlational analysis to confirm the relationship between total ei and total academic performance. to determine the contribution weights of ei aspects to total academic performance, calculated across all subjects, dominance analysis (da) was conducted, which is a regression-based technique that is useful when potential suppressor variables are present. dominance analysis is also more sensitive in its indication of predictor variables’ relative importance through direct comparisons (darr & catano, 2016:195). this method was used because there are often intercorrelations between ei scales (i.e. predictor variables) that may limit our interpretation of the variance explained in some outcome variables and specifically the weights determined by multiple linear regression (mlr) analyses (nimon & oswald, 2013). therefore, to allow for more advanced conclusions from a regression analysis with increased insights, further indices were included in the interpretation and the specific yhat r package for analysis that nimon and oswald (2013:9) proposed was used. these indices include structured coefficients and dominance weights. structured coefficients assist in identifying the variance of the outcome variable explained by each predictor variable in isolation, if no intercorrelations among predictor variables existed. general dominance weights, acquired through da, indicate a predictor variable’s average contribution to an outcome variable when all predictor variables in the model are considered and when examining the variable on its own (nimon & oswald, 2013). even though there was a strong focus on interpreting the general dominance weights, the rescaled dominance percentages of each scale were also calculated, (i.e. the rescaled %), which emphasises the relative importance of a construct. ethical considerations an application for full ethical approval was made to the the university of johannesburg, faculty of education, research ethics committee and ethics consent was received on 21 january 2019. this committee is registered with the national health research ethics council (rec-110613-036). the ethics approval number for this study is sem-2-2018-001. this research study was also conducted following the ethics in health research guidelines by the south african department of health (doh, 2015). after obtaining written permission from parents, consent forms were provided to learners, who were given ample time to consider participation in discussion with their parents. on the date of participation, the research was explained to the learners again; whereafter they were provided with the opportunity to ask questions and provide informed assent. throughout the entire project, all written data was securely stored in closed containers with restricted access available only to the research team in order to preserve data confidentiality. electronic data is stored on access-controlled and secure servers. results the results are structured to indicate which of the eq-i 2.0 composite scales are the most dominant and statistically significant predictors of the sample’s academic performance. the academic performance indicators constitute student marks based on their year average and year marks related to compulsory subject areas such as languages, life orientation, and mathematics. variable descriptive statistics show consistent relationships between academic scores and most ei scales, while mean scores and standard deviations provide a good indication of the data variability (table 1). certain contextual variables, such as age groups and gender were considered, but no fundamental differences were found. therefore, only the results of the overall sample were reported. the performance findings (table 2) report, in relation to each academic subject, each composite scale’s structure coefficient (rs), beta weight (β), general dominance weight (dom), and the rescaled dominance weight (resdom) at a 95% significance rate. the scale statistics are reported in the order of dominance for each subject. table 1: the descriptive statistics of the emotional intelligence scale and academic mark variables including correlation coefficients, mean scores, and standard deviations. table 2: results from the dominance analysis indicate the relative importance of the emotional intelligence composite scales for academic performance in the form of year average and compulsory subjects. overall academic performance our findings confirm a significant positive relationship between the sample’s total ei score and the sample’s academic year average (pearson’s r = 0.27, p < 0.001), thereby confirming hypothesis 1, which is comparable to previous research (parker et al., 2004:1327) and satisfactory to predict both shortand long-term outcomes (funder & ozer, 2019:159). various ei composites, which often form the focus of individual development, are also significant predictors of the year average (table 2). overall, the dm composite scale had the greatest positive correlation with the year academic average, followed by the se composite and the sm composite (rs = 0.60–0.76; m = 0.66). decision making (dom = 0.05*; 36%) also seems to dominate all other predictors of academic year marks, followed by the se and the is composite scale. compulsory subjects compulsory subjects include home language, a first additional language, mathematics (or maths literacy), and life orientation. these subject areas and their relationships with ei display a similar trend than the relationship between the year average marks and ei (table 2). the dm composite has the strongest relationship with home language, first additional language, and life orientation (rs = 0.66–0.82; m = 0.72) and was also the most dominant predictor of these subject averages. however, the is composite is still considered necessary when inspecting the findings because it was the second most dominant predictor of both the language subjects and third for life orientation while also indicating significant positive relationships with these subjects (rs = 0.56–0.66; m = 0.63). the se composite also had significant relationships with various subjects and was the second most dominant predictor of life orientation. interestingly, se indicated a significant positive direct relationship with mathematics and was the most dominant predictor of mathematics scores (dom = 0.03*; 25%), followed by sm and dm. hypothesis 2a to 2d could, therefore, not entirely be confirmed. discussion although no intervention was conducted as part of this study, the overall findings confirm the importance of considering ei, and its possible development, as strategies to improve academic performance of adolescent students in the south african educational context. costa and faria (2015:40) found that the focus on ei skills in development is important in education and suggested to use it as a strategy to enhance educational success. however, the findings of this study go beyond the overall indication of ei’s strategic importance for academic performance and help to indicate the order of importance of specific ei domains for specific subject areas. the order of importance of ei skills differed across most subjects, but the substantial importance of dm that emerged consistently as the most dominant predictor for overall academic performance and most compulsory subjects, is notable. this finding only supports hypothesis 2a of dm as a positive predictor of overall academic performance, while all remaining hypotheses were proven incorrect. these results imply that dm is a critical component in adolescents’ academic achievement. in the introduction, the authors provided some explanation by defining dm as being able to objectively solve problems in emotionally loaded (i.e. highly anxious and frustrating) situations and understanding the potential impact of one’s emotions on decisions and objectivity. it also includes skills in controlling one’s impulses (wiechorek, 2011). even though postulated in a mathematics study (tariq et al., 2013:1154), this dominant importance of dm could potentially emerge as the objective way in which (i.e. how) academic stressors and challenges are mitigated, which allows for better performance. to better understand dm as the most dominant predictor of language subjects, a more recent study by wang and liu (2023:14) is considered, which suggests that learning languages correspond with experiences of anxiety and frustration, and those who often see increased performance are more able to control and regulate their emotions while discovering learning solutions. thus, the authors believe that this is likely also the case in this study. the importance of these dm skills should further be considered when adolescents are making career decisions, such as choosing a career and training direction, which can be challenging and emotional for some. core to the prescriptive career decision-making model is being objective about personal abilities and other information available for use in making optimal career decisions (gati & kulcsar, 2021:4). decision making was also the most important predictor of life orientation, with the original hypothesis, the is domain, emerging as the third predictor. when referring to the south african curriculum policy (as cited by care et al., 2017:30), a central goal is to deliver students skilled in problem identification and solving, and decision-making with critical thinking; while another key objective is promoting effective group work and communication skills. these skills are incorporated as a critical outcome of the life orientation subject. educators, parents, and curriculum personnel from south africa identified interpersonal skills as very important for learners to reach success and are therefore often prioritised (care et al., 2017:12). nevertheless, in this research study, dm skills seem to be a more pronounced predictor of performance in life orientation and other prominent subjects. the importance of interpersonal skills should, however, not be underestimated since the is composite also emerged as a relatively significant predictor of academic performance overall, in language subjects and life orientation. despite being in second and third place, this implies that adolescents may need to navigate relationships and collaborate respectfully in class to perform. in language subjects, these interpersonal skills are important when working together to practise grammar rules and using new words (wang & liu, 2023:14). effective interpersonal skills and having a greater social network in a classroom might stimulate an adequate social environment for better cooperative work, better group learning, greater support from classmates, and better relationships with teachers (sánchez-álvarez et al., 2020:3), which is often associated with better academic results (suleman et al., 2019:17). furthermore, it could be argued that the hypothesis regarding the most dominant predictors of mathematics performance was only partially confirmed because the dm and sm composites emerged as the second and third predictors of mathematics performance. the statistical values in the findings were also similar to those of the se composite, which was indicated as the most dominant predictor of mathematics performance. consequently, the findings suggest that learners who are skilful in expressing themselves in a self-reliant and constructive manner manage their stress effectively, and their ability to make decisions in the presence of turbulent emotions will likely also improve their maths performance (wiechorek, 2011). the prominence of the se dimension can be better understood when considering boaler (cited by darling-hammond et al., 2020:112), who indicated that classes where students were encouraged to discuss and explain their reasoning achieved positive performance outcomes in mathematics. essentially, when students express their reasoning and assert questions regarding information not yet grasped, get feedback, and understand other approaches, they actually learn more deeply (darling-hammond et al., 2020:112). therefore, similar self-expressive behaviour should be encouraged during classes and group work so that learners can progress in their maths performance. as discussed during the introduction, effectively dealing with the stressors and anxiety around mathematics work and tests, that is, skills represented by the sm composite, is important for learning mathematics and is expected to impact performance (pascoe et al., 2019:107; tariq et al., 2013:1157). therefore, by encouraging the effective management of stress-related challenges such as anxiety, stress, working independently, and peer communication (that can impact on maths performance), one can also support adolescents to be passionate about careers such as engineering and medicine or other careers where mathematics is an important requirement. lastly, an interesting finding was the non-prominent dominance position of the sp composite. this composite has to do with feelings of self-confidence and internal strength, self-awareness about personal emotions and impact, and pursuing individual goals (wiechoreck, 2011). it is interesting because sp as an aspect of ei is often a core focus of many youth and career development programmes or initiatives. for example, a group of south african curriculum development stakeholders indicated confidence as key to learner success (care et al., 2017:26). at the same time, the skillscraft application assesses ei as self-management, self-awareness, and social awareness to guide personalised job-seeking interventions (world bank group, 2020:2). at face value, these ei components essentially correspond with aspects represented by the sp composite. therefore, even though sp is important, and all the elements of ei are well presented, our findings do not justify that it should be the most prominent point of ei development for learners, especially when considering academic performance (calero et al., 2018). implications of this finding could be that ei development initiatives and stakeholders are focussing on developing skills that do not necessarily have the most impactful outcome. the results of this study hold implications for teachers and career counselling professionals to potentially adapt their approach to how development training and career support are delivered. career guidance interventions could help to expand ei development into the entire ecosystem of a learner by establishing a more comprehensive communication and an integrated focus across parents, teachers, schools and career counselling professionals, which has been a key suggestion in other learning development initiatives (e.g. klarare et al., 2022). however, relevant stakeholders involved in the implementation of the curriculum in south africa emphasised their difficulties with targeting important ei skills because of a shortage of knowledge on how to teach these specific skills (care et al., 2017:31). therefore, the implications could also evolve to a policy level, where these findings could motivate and support a requirement that teachers be upskilled in how to teach ei skills and incorporate it in daily lessons and curriculum. a further policy requirement could be to ensure the measurement of learners’ ei profiles during school screenings, especially at crucial transitioning times during school careers. standard feedback to parents on activities that could help with such development could help address the importance of ei in another area of a child’s daily ecosystem. because limited counselling in south african schools with a focus on enabling adolescent ei development exists (harrison et al., 2021:81), a further policy implication could relate to ensuring the availability of such services. another implication could relate to mandatory continuity of ei development services, especially when considering the proven benefit of ei development later in life in terms of individual work performance (van lill et al., 2023). therefore, the authors recommend that continued student development and support initiatives be focussed on ei skills that would effectively optimise their specific subject performance (e.g. first focus on se to promote mathematics performance or focus on dm-related skills to promote performance in languages or life skills). for overall performance, decision-making skills should form a focal point of training for adolescents. interpersonal skills remain an important focus for ei training and should be kept in mind. the importance of interpersonal skills is aligned with the perception of some educators in south africa (marsay et al., 2022:33). this knowledge could be valuable to individuals who provide career guidance to better support and guide learners towards careers they are interested in, and of which subjects such as mathematics are gateways to, for example, engineering or medicine. the findings imply that the design of ei interventions could potentially be tailored according to specific career interests. however, individual ei as well as individual aptitude profiles remain important to consider. research is recommended regarding the construction and evaluation of ei development initiatives’ effectiveness and incorporation of ei skills development in curriculum designs (cf care et al., 2017:31). further research about how ei skills development supports specific academic and career progression is also recommended. maccann et al. (2020:172) suggested that specific ei skills relating to interpersonal and stress management skills may become more and more important as online teaching increases. therefore, future research could also inspect whether the most dominant predictors differ for those who receive education online versus in-person. strengths and limitations the da method used in this study contributes to its strengths because it is a more robust regression analysis technique that indicates relative importance (darr & catano, 2016:195). a limitation of the study is the subgroup sample sizes (n = 284), as only data from learners whose academic results were made available by schools could be used, despite receiving proper permissions. although some representation across quintiles 4 and 5 was acquired, larger samples representing all quintiles would allow comparing predictive models across quintile groups. the authors acknowledge that even though certain contextual information was considered, the impact of further variables such as school settings, hostel versus at-home learners, should also be explored. a larger sample of each age group and grade level could also provide more detailed insights. it should be considered in an empirical study focussing on socio-demographic factors and ei. a further limitation is that data were collected pre-covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), and even though the authors do not expect to see differences in the findings, during covid-19, learning occurred mainly online, which could have implications (maccann et al., 2020:172). conclusion this study is the first to investigate the individual domains of ei as dominant predictors of subject-specific academic performance in the south african context using the eq-i youth assessment. it contributes to the validity of this newly developed assessment (stols & taylor, 2020). the findings not only confirm the significant positive relationship between ei and academic performance but also indicate decision-making skills as the most dominant predictor of academic performance. while still a dominant predictor of mathematics, self-expression was deemed a more important predictor thereof. applying these findings to teaching and career guidance initiatives, that is, tailoring ei development according to individual profiles and career interests and expanding such development to the entire ecosystem of a student, can help them unlock their academic potential and guide their future careers. acknowledgements the following individuals are gratefully acknowledged: drs xander van lill and pakeezah rajab, respectively, for sharing their professional insights regarding the statistical analysis used and knowledge of emotional intelligence in the education field. jvr psychometrics and mhs for their support in the development and use of the eq-i youth assessment and data. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.s. was the project manager and responsible for the design of the eq-i youth validation project. a.s assisted with data collection and data management, while also analysing the data for this article. p.e. also assisted with data collection in some regions. the initial conceptualisation and writing of some sections of the article was performed by a.s., p.e., and w.f.t. the article was further written by a.s., while p.e. and w.f.t. critically reviewed the final draft. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability participants did not give written consent for data to be shared outside of the jvr research team, thus because of the sensitive nature of the sample, data are not available. however, specific statistical analyses can be made available by the corresponding author, a.s., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the journal, jvr psychometrics, mhs, any affiliated institution, agency, or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references anderson, l.w., jacobs, j., schramm, s., & splittgerber, f. 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(2018). careless: procedures for computing indices of careless responding. r packages version 1.2.0. retrieved from https://github.com/ryentes/careless abstract introduction results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) magdalena piorunek department of social counselling, university of poznań, poznań, poland joanna kozielska department of social counselling, university of poznań, poznań, poland violetta drabik-podgórna unesco chair on lifelong guidance and counselling, departement of counselling studies, institute of pedagogy, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland marek podgórny unesco chair on lifelong guidance and counselling, departement of adult education and cultural studies, institute of pedagogy, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland citation piorunek, m., kozielska, j., drabik-podgórna, v., & podgórny, m. (2020). postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education. african journal of career development, 2(1), a17. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.17 original research postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education magdalena piorunek, joanna kozielska, violetta drabik-podgórna, marek podgórny received: 08 june 2020; accepted: 06 aug. 2020; published: 03 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article grows out from the realisation that glabal crises caused by the depletion of natural resources, pollution, climate change, migrations, conflicts, unbridled consumption and increasing poverty have made current socio-economic concepts inadequate in the world that is enmeshed in multi-layered and interconnected relationships and interdependencies. objectives: in an age that is governed by the demands of the economy based on sustainable development, it is expedient and exigent to examine future anticipations concerning scenarios of market transformations, career patterns for individuals in these changeable market realities and the challenges which these processes produce for education. this article aims to provide such urgently needed insights. method: to achieve this objective, we rely on research explorations using the method of document analysis. the studied documents included future scenarios developed by the infuture institute and the future of the work, a report that contains a range of futurist depictions of what may happen with our world, with a special focus on work. the visions outlined in these documents are metaphorically described as working forever, the useless class, people per hour, through the glass door and there are no jobs on a dead planet, or are portrayed as the blue world, the orange world and the green world. the study of these reports triggered our reflection on related challenges in education. results: the findings yielded by this study include a set of developmental shifts in education which we outline in the article, showing the passage from traditional education based on the teacher–student knowledge transfer to personalised, community-oriented education; from directive education to life design education; from institutional education to education at workplace and in the community; and from education for competition to education for collaboration, sustainable development and decent work. conclusion: in conclusion, the article spells out implications for competencies, directions of development and learning, the forms of career and counselling or guidance interventions as resulting from the futurist vision of the world pictured in the discussed scenarios for the labour market. keywords: market scenarios; biographical scenarios; sustainable development; education; counselling. introduction materials and methods in an age that is governed by the demands of the economy based on sustainable development, it is urgent to examine future anticipations concerning scenarios of market transformations, career patterns for individuals in these changeable market realities and the challenges which these processes produce for education. at the moment, the entire world is grappling with the pandemic caused by coronavirus, and it is difficult to predict what our lives will be like in months and years to come. what is certain, however, is that the labour market has already been heavily affected. multiple studies looking into the economic consequences of the pandemic say that the economy is sinking even lower than in the great depression and that, as far as work is concerned, the impact of the pandemic is most acutely felt by vulnerable individuals and groups, such as young people and the low-educated and ethnic minorities (bell & blanchflower, 2020). scholars also conclude that working conditions are radically transforming, with about 37% of work tasks performed remotely from homes (dingel & neiman, 2020). such profound changes in the forms of work generate new risk groups, for example, those who are less adapted to online working, for example, because of inadequate education (mongey & weinberg, 2020). as more or less distressing post-pandemic visions (coibion, gorodnichenko, & weber, 2020) are proliferating, we would be particularly well advised to scrutinise some of them and reflect on the responsibilities of education and lifelong guidance and counselling in this emergent context. this article aims to identify changes in and offer recommendations for the world of work and education in terms of indispensable knowledge and key competencies in today’s postmodern world, possible directions of development and learning, the forms of career and counselling or guidance interventions. exploring a range of probable futurist vision of the labour market, this conceptual project relies on the method of document analysis, which makes it possible to offer a scholarly interpretation of the data they provide to illustrate change tendencies in the world of work (apanowicz, 2002). as the study is based on formal documents, the conclusions pertain to the social context as perceived from the macro-perspective (łuczewski & bednarz-łuczewska, 2012). specifically, our argument in this article is based on two reports: praca: scenariusze przyszłości [work: future scenarios], developed by the infuture institute, and the future of work: a journey to 2022, developed by pricewaterhouse coopers (pwc). the former provides five scenarios for the future of work based on the findings of a research study using the computer-assisted web interview (cawi) method (i.e. responsive electronic surveys posted on websites and sent via email). the study was carried out between 09 and 14 september 2016 and collected questionnaires completed by 1022 internet users. an analytical weight was employed to correct the structure of the user sample to match the structure of polish internet users aged 15 years old and older in terms of gender, age and the size of the place of residence. solely, the complete surveys were included in the analysis. additionally, the analysis for the people per hour scenario used in-depth interviews with people who define themselves as ‘digital nomads’. change factors were analysed within the sociological – technological – economic – environmental – political (steep) model. the future of work: a journey to 2022, the other report we rely on in our study, is based on a questionnaire-based survey involving 10 000 respondents from china, india, germany, the united kingdom and the united states. the respondents were asked to say how the labour market was going to evolve and how this would affect employment perspectives and people’s future work lives. additionally, questionnaires were administered to 500 human resources (hr) specialists worldwide who offered their insights into their preparations for the coming changes. as the reports represent neither determinist nor static models, they serve us as a starting point and an inspiration for inquiries. we have singled out, explored and interpreted their constituent components to outline possible educational scenarios. research including more reports of this kind would certainly help in the further planning of long-term educational strategies in terms of possible future opportunities and risks. results change scenarios for the labour market: from early signs to predictions at the moment, we are beset by multiple crises of a global magnitude. as a result of the depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution, climate change, migrations, conflicts and, additionally, the coronavirus outbreak, we are now facing challenges that compel us to urgently redefine our thinking and revise our actions (guichard, 2018). whilst unbridled consumerism has been abruptly halted by the worldwide freezing of economies, unemployment rates have increased, which is bound to contribute to the expansion and exacerbation of poverty. with human lives at stake, the dramatic attempts to curb the spread of the virus have involved restrictive lockdown measures, as a result of which production and supply chains have been disrupted, and crucially, networks of relationships have been ruptured and massively ‘digitalised’ as a consequence of isolation and social distancing. prior socio-economic frameworks have proven inadequate in the world entangled in multi-layered and intersecting relationships and interdependencies (barua, 2020). in an age that has come to be called the anthropocene (crutzen & stoermer, 2000), we need a new economy that promotes the implementation of ideas such as dialogue, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development. the present conjuncture calls for new economic, political and social concepts to increase people’s prospects of and access to decent work and decent life, especially in the most disadvantaged regions of the world (guichard, 2016a, 2016b). the notion of decent work as defined by the international labour organisation (ilo, 2001, 2008) envisages long-term work that prevents the marginalisation of employees and helps societies alleviate poverty in a sustainable way (maree, 2018). when envisioning and designing the future of education, it is worthwhile to examine how changes on the labour market affect human biographies, requirements for new knowledge and expectations of new competencies that could promote the common good in the world that requires re-modelling. early signs of necessary transformations have already surfaced in social and economic processes, enabling us to predict possible directions of changes. for quite a while now, people have observably tended to relinquish traditional employment preferences and opt for careers understood to be individualistic, boundaryless and devoid both of clear divisions into jobs and working as well as of distinctions between family and public areas or specialist and non-specialist activities (arthur, inkson, & pringle, 1999). traditional human skill-based capital has been replaced by a new kind of capital based on competences (drzeżdżon, 2011; kang & snell, 2009). the authors of the future of work: a journey to 2022 have identified three possible scenarios of transformations within the world of work and metaphorically referred to them as a blue world, an orange world and a green world. in the blue world, big companies have turned into mini-states and taken the leading role in societies, whilst still strongly competing with one another. the employees, lured with a promise of high salaries, need to demonstrate considerable efficiency to ensure profits for their companies. the orange world means that companies have fallen apart and transformed into networks of specialist collaborators. central jobs remain in place, peripheral jobs are outsourced and work performed on the project or contract basis is performed online (virtual collaboration). the green world comes closest to implementing actions for sustainable development on the global scale. as social and environmental concerns are prioritised, business strategies become thoroughly revised to foster a new organisational culture, which serves as the foundation of social responsibility (podgórny, 2018). in praca: scenariusze przyszłości, hatalska (2016) outlines five futurist scenarios of the labour market, including the position of employees, with each of her scripts responding to a specific change factor. besides the technological aspect, her forecast takes into consideration social, economic, political and environmental factors, which entail a series of challenges and dilemmas at the macro-societal and the individual levels (hatalska, 2016). the working forever scenario describes changes driven by the social factor, involving an ageing society and the increasing life expectancy. on the one hand, birth rates tend to sink, and on the other hand, the generations born after 2007 may get to live longer than 100 years of age. consequently, they are not likely to (be able to) retire aged around 60 (as is the tendency now) but will (have to) continue in one or another form of employment far longer. even with this not being a full-fledged development yet, the ‘grey-haired revolution’ is already underway. this stirs a number of questions, for example: how can the well-being of the oldest members of society be secured past their period of vocational activity in the times of sub-replacement fertility? how can the expectations of the strikingly different ‘end-of-the-alphabet’ (x, y and z) generations and of the seniors be reconciled on the labour market (multigenerational work teams)? how can their diverse motivations for and expectations of work–life be squared? how should work environments be organised to meet the needs of the oldest participants? how can lifelong learning and vocational training programmes for the elderly be designed to sustain their employability? based on the technological factor, the useless class scenario assumes that the accelerating pace at which the use of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (ai) spreads will cause human labour to acquire a completely different quality. this vision of the future begs a question about what will happen to the ‘useless’ ones who do not fit in with the automated competences of the labour market? the situation may trigger identity crises, lowered self-esteem, excessive demands or passivity when facing personal difficulties. even now, the most desired skills for the year 2020 have been identified as complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, human resources management, collaboration, emotional intelligence, decision-making, service-oriented attitude, negotiation and cognitive flexibility (according to the future of jobs report, world economic forum, 2016). such skills are expected to help people survive in precarious socio-economic conditions. the economic factor (known as the freelancer economy) is reflected in the people per hour scenario (interestingly, it was, as a matter of fact, quite a long time ago that beck addressed the de-standardising of the place and time of work and work-related regulations [beck, 1992]). in the context of work, the younger generations (the millennials and generation z) opt for flexibility, mobility and work–life balance. often working as freelancers, remotely and/or from home, they are inclined to set up their own businesses. such a scenario poses challenges both to potential employees, for whom flexibility and entrepreneurship have become particularly important, and to future employers, who will have to figure out how to re-organise work ‘in the cloud’ and how to co-ordinate and manage the collaboration of independent, autonomous entities. related to the notion of transparency, the political factor underpins the through the glass door scenario. companies and employees must learn to operate in an environment in which whatever they do or say will potentially take place in the public domain. in terms of education, this stirs reflection on ethical issues and necessitates learning how to distinguish real from fake news. finally, the environmental factor contributes to changes in social thinking and action. climate changes call for adopting the low-emission economy. the growing public environmental awareness requires implementing the there are no jobs on a dead planetscenario, which ties in with the notions of sustainable development, solidarity and justice, all of them remodelling the labour market, employment forms and in-company communication. while the working forever and through the glass door scenarios represent the possible realities of the blue world, and people per hour and the useless class are more aligned with the orange world, there are no jobs on a dead planet is quite an imaginable scenario for the green world. actually, all these scripts (or at least their parts) can be expected to simultaneously shape the future labour market, life trajectories and patterns and education models devised to prepare people for life and for work. the individual vis-à-vis changes: identity dilemmas and biographical scenarios observably, to incorporate work careers into linear life narratives is becoming more and more challenging. the mutating cultural and economic contexts generate new conditions in which individual identities are forged and scripts of work biographies are constructed. the pandemic in which we are all mired at the moment (not knowing whether it is only beginning, peaking or perhaps winding down) has already put many careers on hold (and, sadly, shattered some of them). for multiple individuals, the course of work–life has become de-standardised, their work activities have been transferred online and the procedures of job seeking, job performance and job quitting or loss have changed. several careers have plateaued, career planning has been severely thwarted and career development is a major unknown in many cases. as shown by qualitative studies (piorunek, 2009, 2016), which do not offer sufficient grounds for statistical analyses, individuals’ activities are becoming increasingly dispersed, distributed across several spaces at the same time and multidirectional. they do not feature a clear division of roles, their particular episodes of educational and vocational engagement are not enclosed within any defined timeframes and the mosaic-like career scenarios are enacted by multiple groups of labour–market participants with an increasing frequency. as a range of traditional competences and resources have been invalidated, getting by on the dynamically transforming labour market forces individuals to engage in repeated re-evaluations. this certainly does not promote the sense of coherence (antonovsky, 1995), understood as an individual’s overall significant and lasting, though dynamic, confidence that the world is understandable (comprehensibility as a cognitive component), that it makes sense (meaningfulness as an emotional and motivational component) and that he or she has access to resources for facing up to the demands produced by stimuli coming from the world (manageability as a cognitive-cum-instrumental component) (antonovsky, 1995). noticeably, all the dimensions of coherence take shape in confrontation with permanent discontinuity (drucker, 2008), which is characterised by a disjointedness of social structures and processes, making the labour market incomprehensible, inconsistent and meaningless to many of its participants. this engenders people’s belief that they have no agency and are unable to influence both the external reality and their own lives. such feelings are only made more palpable by the unpredictability of the pandemic crisis, which is fundamentally altering everyday life patterns and work routines, aggravating stress, reducing the sense of agency and undermining people’s belief in their coping capacities and resourcefulness. consequently, the experience of the pandemic is yet another factor that enhances the complexity of the postmodern conjuncture by fashioning novel conditions for individual identity formation, where individuals are expected to celebrate change and exhibit maximum flexibility across spheres of life. given this, biographical scenarios cannot presuppose vocational maturity as the ultimate outcome achieved once and for all by answering the question ‘who am i and what will i be in the future?’ – a query typical of identity construction in adolescence. rather, such scenarios should ‘frame maturity as a process that recurs several times over a lifetime, along with the wearing off and renewal of career capital’ (bańka, 2006,p. 31). in the context of individuals’ existential problems and emotional responses, macro-scale market scenarios may help construct successful biographical scenarios that use the opportunities afforded by the developments in the world of work, but they may also catalyse: a moratory identity, involving independence, anxiety and rebellion against work commitments or a dispersed identity, characterised by alienation, the lack of purpose in life, a tendency to withdraw from activities on the labour market or they may prompt an unreflective adoption of a pre-ordained identity, which is associated with the denial of conflict, an extensive reliance on defensive strategies and the performance of enforced, often random work commitments (marcia, waterman, matteson, archer, & orlofsky, 1993). even people who possess work skills may lack work identities (standing, 2011), especially if they have no moral or behavioural commitments, do not enjoy an elementary income stability and cannot construct predictable day-to-day lives. such a permanent uncertainty about the present and insecurity about the immediate future have fuelled the emergence of the precariat. not all members of this new class are exactly victims, because freedom from commitments is a life-changing opportunity and a conscious choice of some of them. nevertheless, the majority tend to find such an insecurity and the impossibility to achieve coherence uncomfortable at best, resulting in chronic indecision and reluctance to take responsibility for their lives. to be able to get on despite unpredictable market scenarios, individuals must engage in lifelong experiential learning and situational cognition (dominice, 2006), develop a thorough awareness of their biographical needs and recognise the resources that enable them to understand and navigate in the world, acknowledging particular aspects of such a personal investment as meaningful and warranting the effort. this requires the following skills: biographical thinking, objectively taking stock of one’s own behaviour (taking into account the past, the present and the future), assessing one’s life as a totality and putting it into perspective, identifying one’s position on the developmental trajectory and co-creating one’s own biography in a deliberate way (tokarska, 2011). biographical thinking helps people understand themselves, the world and the world–individual relationships, as well as encouraging them to engage in such relationships (sense of resourcefulness) and to make them meaningful. as such, biographical thinking also fosters the sense of coherence, whilst at the same time, it is conditioned by it. all this is predicated on the skill of defining strategic biographical goals, on flexibility in decision-making and on active engagement in searching for varied, individual ways of working (rather than just a job). to be able to do this, people must understand external constraints and re-assess their notions of the quality of life not only in the context of the economic pressure of incessant growth. bańka (2016) notices the exigency of ‘abandoning the algorithmic design of career paths and embracing the design of work identity based on heuristics developed in the experience the reality’ (bańka, 2016, p. 26). for their part, savickas, guichard, duarte et al. focus on developing and refining the life design concept (savickas, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013; savickas et al., 2009), in which designing a career is based on reflexivity and involves combining multiple life episodes and activity streams into an integrated, prospectively oriented biographical structure. besides skills such as transdisciplinarity, command of new technologies and virtual collaboration, key competencies for the labour market of the future also include: critical reflection on reality, making sense of and attributing meanings to things, unconventional and adaptive thinking and social intelligence (future work skills, 2020). transdisciplinary reflection on possible market and biographical scenarios can and should be undertaken across disciplines (including the social, economic and medical sciences), as they work towards the common goal of facilitating optimum behaviours amongst the (future) participants of the labour market and preparing individuals for living in the anthropocene as agents furnished with the sense of coherence and capable of constructing their lives in conformity with their personal values, of actively setting their goals and of achieving a synergy of their personal and work lives. discussion the future of work vis-à-vis the future of education the study of reports listing futurist visions of the labour market yields a range of conclusions concerning the desirable development directions in education, requisite knowledge and competencies and the concepts of helping individuals in the realisation of their work careers. by bringing together the future scenarios, the biographical scenarios and the identity dilemmas discussed above, we can more effectively reflect on the meaningfulness and relevance of education, learning, knowledge, competence acquisition, career models and concepts of helping that correspond and are pertinent to these future anticipations. as quantifiable technological knowledge reigns supreme in the blue world, education retains its traditional character and is provided within dedicated institutions, preserving the dominant position of the teacher in the transfer of knowledge. the goal of education is to promote people’s adjustment to the world as it is and to develop competitive and winning skills. careers associated with this pattern involve climbing up organisational hierarchy ladders for as long as employers need them to last. support in vocational decision-making is provided in the form of classic directive vocational or employability guidance, whereby the factors resulting from economic statistics and labour market needs are given precedence. in the orange world, education is emancipatory and more individualised because its goal is to educate ‘freelancers’, who will exhibit entrepreneurial skills, be able to run their own businesses and, at the same time, readily co-operate within projects collaboratively implemented by networks of equally autonomous individuals. pivotal in this arrangement, expert knowledge and negotiation skills are acquired via people’s independent pursuits and online, rather than in institutional settings, and only confirmed and certified by external validating bodies. in this context, careers resemble a mosaic or a patchwork, are boundaryless and, depending on circumstances, tend to be haphazard and changeable (domecka & mrozowicki, 2008). securing work–life balance is one of the central priorities. as career development professionals presuppose that individuals are self-reliant, their chief responsibility lies in assisting people in this process, and thus, their interventions are aligned with liberal counselling. finally, in the green world, personal, highly individualised knowledge matters most. given this, education should be lifelong, holistic, global and responsive to the needs of the surrounding world and the social environment (podgórny, 2018). its goals include helping people develop a sound understanding of the self and the surrounding world, enhancing the empowerment of individuals and nurturing their awareness of initiatives dedicated to transforming the world towards sustainable development and dignified, decent work (guichard, 2018). careers of the green world are reflective projects, consciously constructed in response to global crises (podgórny, 2018), and work–life integration is one of the values they are designed to pursue. thus-conceived careers are best supported by the life design paradigm (savickas et al., 2009), a holistic, dynamic and non-linear helping model that recognises a multiplicity of perspectives and action patters. the insights outlined above are synthetically presented in table 1. table 1: future scenarios and education. at the moment, it is difficult to assess which of these scenarios is most likely to happen. it looks that educational systems worldwide would be most eager to implement the blue scenario because it is consistent with the current, commonly shared educational and counselling practices. it preserves the dominant position of the teacher or counsellor or lecturer and educational institutions as experts and sole owners of knowledge. in the other two worlds, education requires radical changes not only in the structures of schooling and the fashions of knowledge transmission, but, above all, in the actors involved in the organisation, management and provision of education as well. it requires changes in thinking and in attitudes, alongside reassessing and recasting teacher–student relationships. thus, it is expedient to shift away from traditional education based on the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student to personalised education oriented on interpersonal relations; from directive education to partnership-based education; from institutional education to education at the workplace and in the community; from education for competition to education for collaboration; and from education for profit to education for sustainable development and decent work. when pondering education of the future, one should examine it through the lens of divergent prognoses and heightened anxieties fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic. pessimistic appraisals of the post-pandemic developments envision a severe collapse of the world economy (the future is worse than i expect) and a global crisis of the magnitude exceeding the debacle of 2008–2009. should this indeed be the case, we may have to add a black world to the three potential worlds described above. the hallmarks of the black world would include a drastic decrease in jobs, a financial meltdown and education reduced not just to the transfer of knowledge but also to testing, all of them precluding any prospects of career development. at the same time, other, more or less optimistic anticipations proliferate. some of them envisage the curbing of humankind’s destructive impact on the natural environment (the future is just what i expect). this would demand both adopting and enforcing the observance of careful and comprehensive legal regulations to forbid the use of technologies and products harmful to our planet (e.g. limiting, if not banning, plastic and combustion engines). yet, another option is future growth (the future is better than what i expect), but that would require a (currently unavailable) technology of clean energy production. such an innovation would boost further economic development, enhance consumption and perhaps even help solve several problems that are haunting the humanity now. the last version involves a transformation of our attitude to social development (the future is different than what i expect) and hinges on acknowledging that the quality of our world can no longer be gauged exclusively by the economic indices. an unlimited growth on a limited planet with limited resources is simply impossible. more and more emphasis is being put on the urgency to found evaluations of well-being and prosperity on non-economic factors, such as security, health, satisfaction from life, social engagement, education and so on. such re-assessments will only be viable if mindsets are re-modelled, attitudes are changed and a new approach to living in the world is disseminated (hatalska, 2020). the latter option seems feasible in the green world, where context-sensitive education furnishes future generations with new perspectives on reality. conclusion in our postmodern chaotic, mosaic-like, unpredictable, precarious, pluralist and opportunity-rich world, individuals are often left to fend for themselves. as the notion of a whole is disappearing, communities are formed by individualised atoms and relationships are exclusively formal. efforts for sustainable development must comprehensively combine multiple dimensions (environmental, cultural, social, spatial, economic, etc.), and at the same time, they demand a degree of social integration. given this, new education should be grounded on interaction and the implementation of collaborative projects. it should not so much facilitate students’ adaptation to the existing world as rather teach them how to flexibly adjust to constant changes. by fostering reflection on reality as it is and as it could be, education should trigger critical thinking, instil in students an awareness of responsibility for the world around them (drabik-podgórna, 2018), make them responsive to the needs of others (especially of the marginalised and the underprivileged), promote inventiveness and prepare young people for living active lives and implementing reflectively designed careers in the green world. for such education to be at all possible, people’s attitudes must be change. this will improve the chances of making decent wok, decent life and fair and humanitarian development a reality (guichard, 2018). acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references antonovsky, a. 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(2011). kształcenie kompetencji biograficznej jako forma profilaktyki problemów egzystencjalnych współczesnego człowieka [developing biographical competence as a form of prevention existential problems of modern man]. in m. piorunek (ed.), poradnictwo: kolejne przybliżenia [counseling: more approximations] (pp. 57–81). toruń: wydawnictwo adam marszałek. world economic forum. (2016). the future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. global challenge insight report, retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs.pdf abstract introduction historical issues in south africa consequences of inadequate career planning future concerns and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthony l. pillay department of behavioural medicine, faculty of medicine, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation pillay, a.l. (2020). prioritising career guidance and development services in post-apartheid south africa. african journal of career development 2(1), a9. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.9 review article prioritising career guidance and development services in post-apartheid south africa anthony l. pillay received: 10 dec. 2019; accepted: 17 dec. 2019; published: 30 jan. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract career guidance and development services must be viewed as a priority, especially given africa’s history of colonisation and deprivation where people of colour were viewed essentially as manual labour. with decolonisation efforts and improved opportunities, the impact of poorly informed career decisions is a concern. this can be quite serious both individually and nationally, and attempts must be made to address this problem. young people and their families affected by ill-conceived or absent career planning suffer economically and psychologically. considering the global and local economic trends, job markets and youth unemployment, career guidance services must take cognisance of the transformed workspace to include the informal employment sector. most importantly, career guidance services must be made available to all, and not just a select few. keywords: career; guidance; counselling; student; work; employment. introduction the idea of career development is in many ways a conception of the modern era, considering that careers were chosen, modified, adapted and even completely changed, based on a variety of factors that did not include the intervention of a career development practitioner. the history of work suggests that in earlier times, individuals went into jobs rather than careers. in this context, it has been argued that a job is something one does simply to earn money, while a career is a sequence of related opportunities and activities that provide the experiences necessary to develop one’s future, and involves going beyond the minimum contractual work obligations (roth, 2008). of course, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive and have bearing and relevance in various employment contexts, more so those where work opportunities are scarce. the extent to which poorer countries are able to offer its citizens the opportunities for careers may appear to be limited – or is that necessarily so? the priority in middleand low-income countries is obviously to provide jobs for all to ensure adequate standards of living, nutrition, housing, schooling and health care, among other necessities. unfortunately, in many nations, those minimum standards are not met because of broader economic and socio-political factors that militate against the development of sufficient formal employment opportunities. south africa has been one of the countries where formal sector employment opportunities have been shrinking quite significantly over many years, resulting in a rather bleak economic and development outlook, especially for young adults. the current economic situation in south africa is rather worrying, with many financial and other indices causing considerable uneasiness. the unemployment rate of almost 30% means much poverty and despair, and this is etiologically related to many social, health and legal problems. worst unemployment rates are among the young with 58.2% of 15–24-year olds and 36.1% of 25–34-year olds unemployed (statistics south africa, 2019). this means that many first-time work seekers are not able to secure a job, let alone develop a career. nevertheless, it is important that both targets (i.e. job provision and career development) are kept high up on the economic and development agenda. with the reduction in formal sector employment opportunities, a certain vibrancy in the informal sector has been evident across the african continent, as well as in asia and south america. commenting on the south african situation, altman (2003) noted several years ago that the main growth trends in employment have been outside the formal sector. of course, many of these initiatives have been individual-based and born out of desperation. notably also in the process of desperately trying to carve out an income generation opportunity, many have demonstrated remarkable ingenuity and creativity, resulting in them surpassing what might have been, had they gained employment in the formal sector. for such individuals and employment contexts, career development is also relevant, perhaps even more so in some ways, considering that these individuals are working on their own without being part of a larger organisational structure that allows for or is geared towards career development trajectories. it is clear that much has changed in the world of work, job supply, job training and preparation, educational curricula as well as the science of careers and career development. with the advent of the career development practitioner as a relatively recent professional specialty, it is important to recognise that this area of focus has a much earlier history, dating to the late 19th century. frank parsons, who is credited with being a founding figure in the field of career counselling, paved the way for much of what was to follow in the area, including innovations such as vocational guidance in schools and the training of vocational counsellors (jones, 1994). he saw this as a service to ‘aid young people in choosing an occupation, preparing themselves for it, finding an opening in it, and building up a career of efficiency and success’ (parsons, 1908, p. 3). in many ways, this reflects some of the contemporary aims of career counselling over a century later. across the world, it is evident that a range of professionals has been involved in providing career development services. these have included psychology professionals, human resource practitioners, education specialists and others. moreover, the professional designations of those involved in providing career counselling and development services have varied over time and place, perhaps creating some confusion for consumers. an australian survey of career development practitioners identified over 90 different titles used to denote the professionals performing this area of work (athanasou, 2012). while the same extent of variation may not be present on the african continent, given the general shortage of specialist skills in the area, it is likely that, where such services are available, there are different service provider designations involved. this is certainly an issue that needs addressing – however, the greater need on the continent lies in the provision of career development services. historical issues in south africa career guidance and counselling services are not new in south africa. in fact, such services have been available for several decades in the country and are well known in certain sectors of the population. unfortunately, the services were available only to a select few, coinciding with the racist apartheid policies that favoured specifically the country’s white minority. like with all other services and privileges, the government of the day ensured that the country’s black majority was denied such opportunities. of course, even long before the creation of apartheid, the colonisers of the african continent and other lands treated locals and those whom they shipped in from other parts of the colonised world as slave labour. these individuals had little or no choice in the work sphere that they entered. the pattern continued even after bondage and indenture ceased, and people in these communities were destined for menial jobs regardless of their abilities and potential. the apartheid system of education, work opportunities and job reservation simply followed that trend, perhaps mildly sanitised in some ways. the social structure and education system of apartheid allowed for children of white parents and those in elite or more expensive schools to have access to some level of career guidance services. commenting on the situation at the time, watts (2009) noted: [t]he gulf between the opportunities available to white people and to black people, and the way in which this was reflected in the structure and nature of career guidance services. (p. 7) apart from not affording children of colour appropriate career guidance services within the wider unequal education system, this served another apartheid goal, namely to ensure that black people were more restricted to menial jobs rather than advancing into professional roles. the government of the day had no interest in furthering the aspirations, goals or career development of black south africans – in fact, to do so would have undermined its policy of oppression of the country’s majority and the suppression of their progress and development. essentially, children of colour had no access within the school system to direction and guidance regarding choice of careers and secondary school preparation. for example, when it was time to select subjects in the secondary school years, most black children had little or no guidance on the choices to make in relation to career preferences or how these would benefit or hinder their career goals. this was compounded by the fact that the vast majority of black parents were not equipped to adequately advise their children on career planning. having been academically restrained by apartheid policies, most were in non-professional careers. in this context, psychologists aided and abetted crimes against humanity by suggesting that black people were not suited to academic education (fick, 1939). parents, therefore, did not have the benefit of higher education and, as a result, had limited knowledge and experience of the tertiary education and vocational training sectors. this meant that many of the country’s young people went into careers and even tertiary education programmes without appropriate advice, resulting in considerable fallout – this is still the situation for many. while access to career counselling services was historically based on variables of privilege, it is crucial that this service should not be viewed as a privilege, especially as it pertains to secondary and tertiary education students. for this group, the consequences of not having proper career guidance can be dire. having to make such significant life-altering decisions can be rather daunting and even paralysing for some. in this context, robertson (2013) argues that career guidance aims to empower individuals to take a proactive approach, and it seeks to arm them with the belief that they have the ability to direct the course of their lives. in other words, career counselling services can promote a feeling of agency in the young person, especially considering that it may be one of the first major life decisions they have to make. such feeling of agency and control over important life decisions can instil much confidence in young people, which ultimately enhances their ability to cope with further education and training. consequences of inadequate career planning in south africa, and elsewhere in the world, it is evident that a great many students embark on higher education and training without a clear idea of their career goals or life plan. for several young people, this is related to the circumstances of impoverishment in which a large portion of our population live. many students, in their desperate attempt to find a way out of poverty, believe that further education is the key, but have little or no idea of the precise path to follow, what they are best suited to as a career or what the job opportunities and market forces are in the field that they are contemplating. these are serious issues, especially considering the developmental stage at which students complete their secondary schooling and have to ponder these career decisions. they could be as young as 16 or 17 years (or even earlier when they select their secondary school subjects), when brain development is hardly complete or sufficiently mature to make major decisions (dumontheil, 2016). at this developmental stage, adolescents have to make rather critical life design decisions that will have long-term consequences affecting their work life and mental well-being. in this context, maree, pienaar and fletcher (2018) argued that interventions in the area of life design are integrally related to identity development, and these are both critical to the young person’s future growth and place in society, enabling successful outcomes. moreover, it is important to recognise that the fallout of poor career decision-making or the absence of career and vocational guidance and counselling services does not only affect the individual. the economic impact for families and the nation are considerable. young people embarking on higher education and training without careful consideration of the longer-term career prospects, the job market and their employability thereafter, or the suitability of the career to their personality make-up can find themselves in a difficult situation later. consequences, including unhappiness in the career or poor performance, are just some of the likely scenarios. an inability to complete the training is another common result. these negative outcomes can come at huge costs both financially and emotionally for the individual and family. in poor communities, such situations can have devastating impact as families count on positive returns from the investment being made in young people’s education. at a national level, poor career decisions have significant economic effect, especially where this impacts on the students’ inability to complete their studies. students failing to graduate during the required time or dropping out of higher education incur greater expense, considering that many programmes are government funded or subsidised to some extent. in countries where opportunities for higher education and training are limited, every student dropping out of a course corresponds to a lost opportunity for another. in addition, it reflects a loss of funding that could have been used elsewhere including vital services such as health care. in the case of students on government funding and financing schemes, such a situation could mean significant national debt that can be ill-afforded in poorer economies. a further, more serious consequence of poor career decisions is the mental health sequelae for young students. apart from the financial and other setbacks and difficulties, there are psychological sequelae. it is true that students who are unable to cope with higher education suffer significant emotional reactions to failure in their academic work. investigating depressive symptoms in a sample of students attending a historically disadvantaged tertiary institution, a recent south african study revealed that almost one-quarter reported feeling overwhelmed by their studies and 7% had thoughts of killing themselves (pillay, thwala, & pillay, 2019). depressive illness is currently regarded as a serious threat in tertiary education students and has been found to be higher than in the general population (ibrahim, kelly, adams, & glazebrook, 2013). suicidal behaviour among students has increased concern about the well-being of this group and has intensified calls for mental health support and intervention (njilo, 2018). while not all depression or suicidal behaviour in higher education students is necessarily because of difficulty with academic work or poor selection of courses of study, this area of stress features strongly among student concerns (pillay et al., 2019). the literature and research into career guidance and planning have noted their importance in assisting individuals, and especially young people, in developing their life plan and facilitating healthy adjustment. robertson (2013) has urged the career guidance community to engage in more research into its value in promoting well-being, arguing that even though the evidence base is in its early stage, there is much reason to support the profession’s role in health and well-being promotion. in the context of life design counselling, maree (2015) pointed to its significance in promoting adjustment, especially in its ability to help people better understand themselves and enhance their career decision-making abilities. future concerns and recommendations adolescents make decisions about careers in various ways and based on many factors that may not be as relevant to the final outcome. among these is the growing use of the internet and related material to influence their decisions. recent research showed significant correlation between internet use and effective career decision-making (sinkkonen, puhakka, & meriläinen, 2018). with young people increasingly reliant on online platforms for information and contemplating their future, it is important that formalised, reliable and effective career guidance services are available to help them make the best possible choices. while online career guidance resources appear to have proliferated remarkably in the digital era, cautions have been raised against the reliance on a purely online career guidance approach. the need for individualised, in-person support in the context of assessment procedures has been noted, considering that this facet can be a significantly absent variable in some of the assessment and guidance formats. it has been advocated that online assessments are best supplemented with support from a career guidance professional (nelson, 2013). importantly, career development services should be made available to all who need it, unlike in the past. it is also critical that these opportunities are available to those involved in activities outside the formal sector. considering the creativity and innovative thinking that is needed in a fairly saturated formal job market, younger people seeking to carve out a niche for themselves are in need of much support and encouragement. therefore, career guidance models and theoretical frameworks may need adjustment and repositioning to ensure that all are catered for, especially in lowand middle-income countries. counsellors are compelled to innovate and contextualise their career counselling service in a way that will enable people to retain, promote and, in some instances, regain their employability in the gig economy (maree, in press). like the criticisms levelled at psychology and psychotherapy models amidst the need for transformed approaches relevant to all who need care, it is vital that career guidance, development and counselling practice are cognisant of the transformation agenda and are geared towards providing appropriate services. in time, the profession may well be judged, like psychology, on its ability to provide contextually relevant services. it has been suggested that any intervention that can serve to help people overcome social exclusion and marginalisation can have a positive impact on health and well-being (robertson, 2013). it has become evident that with global developments, economic challenges and competitive job markets, job insecurity is likely to be a common thread through the lives of workers. equally, the possibility of job stability and permanence may decline. for these reasons, it has been argued that adaptability is going to be a critical ‘survival skill’ that people need to develop within the work environment (maree, 2015). the more young people are taught about and coached in developing this ability, the better able they will be to sustain themselves in future unstable job markets. this may be one of the ‘future-proofing’ capacities that can enable workers to cope with the economic challenges they could face in the years ahead. conclusion against the background of severe deficiencies in career guidance and counselling services for south africa’s majority, it has to be said that many of those deficiencies are still prevalent in numerous schools. furthermore, the general state of many schools, especially those in non-urban communities, is very poor despite the country’s transition to democracy a little over 25 years ago. considering also the shrinking job market, education costs and other challenges facing the youth, the need for career guidance for the country’s young people is as great as ever. children at secondary school level are in dire need of career counselling and guidance services to enable them to make the best possible choices, thereby reducing the shortand long-term fallout that occurs with ill-considered decisions. it is critical to remember the vast inequality in south african society which sees some children growing up in homes with highly educated, professional parents who are able to offer advice on career options, not to mention educate their children in expensive private schools that provide various levels of career advice. on the other hand, the majority of the country’s children have none of these opportunities, with many attending dilapidated schools that lack even the barest essentials, and some grow up in child-headed households without any parents or adults to guide them. these children face challenges that some of us cannot imagine, but which society, government and the education system must work towards eradicating – they need and deserve a brighter future and a better life. helping africa’s children gain a foothold into a decent work opportunity must be a priority, and it is the least that the continent must strive to give them. acknowledgements competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references altman, m. 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(2021). piloting career development: whole school interventions. african journal of career development, 3(1), a33. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.33 original research piloting career development: whole school interventions kamilla rawatlal received: 08 dec. 2020; accepted: 05 feb. 2021; published: 15 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the article reports on a project that was undertaken as a pilot study for a whole-school approach (wsa) to career education intervention that was integrated into the grade 10, life orientation (lo) curriculum at a public, secondary school in kwazulu-natal, south africa. objectives: using an ecological framework, interventions to improve learners’ future orientation and motivation were piloted with grade 10 learners’ at the micro-, mesoand macro-level to inform career education. method: an approach, using an intervention and control school involving three phases was conducted. the mixed method evaluation involved the administration of baseline questionnaires to all grade 10 learners and included, the psychological sense of school membership (pssm), the future orientation scale (fos). multivariate analysis and repeated measures of analysis and variance were also conducted. qualitatively, process evaluation using fidelity checklists and post intervention interviews, with key informants was conducted. focus group sessions with learners were also utilised. results: the findings support how career learning can be integrated and evaluated in a wholeschool curriculum. in a wsa, an integrated system of career education in every secondary school is proposed. conclusion: this research supports the call for career education to be shifted from a peripheral to a central role that can be integrated into the curriculum. this study, although in a limited way, supports the need for broader, contextual approaches to career development, and acknowledges the vital role school membership and career development play in the mental health promotion of adolescents. keywords: career development; ecological approach; future orientation; curriculum; intervention; process evaluation; outcome evaluation. introduction a whole-school approach (wsa) focuses on shaping the whole school, and this includes the school’s ethos, relationships, organisational and management structures, the physical environment, the taught curriculum, and pedagogic practice, so that the experience of school life is conducive to the health of all who learn and work there (weare & markham, 2005). whole-school approaches are increasingly advocated for the prevention of high-risk behaviour amongst adolescents in lowand middle-income countries. implicit in a wsa, is an integrated system of career education (stead & watson, 2006). this approach to career education encourages a diversity of activities that is systematic, coordinated and transcends boundaries of academic subjects to ‘enhance the career development of all students throughout the school experience’ (miller, in peterson, sampson, & reardon, 1991, p. 164). this approach to career education is based on the premise that in making the transition from school life to adulthood, all learners need guidance in exploring their interests and abilities (avent, 1988). such an approach to make career education in south africa more accessible is critical, given the work of maree (2013; savickas, 2012a), who identified that despite the documented importance of career counselling it is typically young people whose parents can afford it, that access the service. motivation has been identified as the most powerful determinant of students’ achievement in school (hardre, crowson, & teresa, 2007), and research also identifies that students who are highly motivated in school are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviour. braddock and mcpartland (1993) identify that in enhancing young peoples’ motivation, a curriculum that is associated to real world situations and sense of future orientation are critical factors. adolescents’ future goals and sense of future orientation is shaped not only by intrinsic factors (personality, skills and interests) but also by extrinsic factors such as living conditions in the family and other influencing institutional factors in his or her environment, such as the school. alm, låftman brolin, sandahlc and modinb (2019) indicate that this however has been studied to a much lesser extent. schools are viewed as providing engagement opportunities with adults who can serve as role models and provide guidance and support in terms of career choices. alm et al. (2019) indicate that no study has investigated the links between the school context and student’s future orientation. in this study, the purpose was to address the need to provide comprehensive wsas with a focus on the role of career education in enhancing the motivation of learners and strengthening experiencing a sense of school membership. the gap it sought to address was gauging the views of students, teachers and school management, as to how career education can be integrated in the current teaching and learning curriculum to increase adolescents’ sense of future orientation and school membership. literature review future orientation, referring to hopes, aspirations and expectations, has been found to be related to motivation and attitude towards school and learning. it has been found to influence adolescent identity formation, goal setting and ability to make decisions (kerpelman & mosher, 2004). studies have also indicated that optimism about achieving future goals is also related to enhancing coping skills and resilience to traumatic events (marko & savickas, 1998). unfortunately, they indicate that many individuals living in a diverse society do not orient themselves to the future and seldom, if ever, think about how their careers might unfold (de volder & lens, 1982; feather & bond, 1983; fitzgerald & betz, 1994). individuals who do not experience significant encouragement and reinforcement for goal setting and planning appear to be less inclined to learn a future orientation (nurmi, 1991). in light of the disparities in the delivery of basic education in south africa, researching adolescents’ future orientation and expectations is regarded as particularly relevant. according to goodenow (1993), school membership is regarded as the degree to which learners perceive themselves to be welcomed, valued and treated as respected members. a lack of school membership has been associated with a higher incidence of mental and physical illness. resnick et al. (1997) reported that an adolescent’s sense of belonging to family and school was significantly associated with lower rates of emotional distress, suicidality (defined as a recent history of suicidal ideation and attempts), violence, substance abuse and sexual activity. eccles and midgley (1989) indicated however, that ironically, as children reach adolescence, such school support declines. it is thus indicated that in promoting a sense of belonging and support, extra effort and support is needed from the school community in secondary schools. goodenow (1993) concluded that if students believe others within the environment are supporting them, are on their side, and are willing to help them if necessary; they can also believe that they have the resources they need to be successful. expecting to be academically successful is not only a matter of students’ sense of their own individual abilities, but also a sense of access to supportive resources, and the encouragement and help they feel they can secure from others. this is seen as especially important for at-risk students. research on comprehensive wsas to career education in south africa is limited. in only one study identified, singh (2003) revealed a lack of whole-school development in disadvantaged schools in south africa and a pressure on teachers to develop their own intervention strategies. a recommendation of his study was the need for teachers to be trained on whole-school development to alleviate the pressure. the department of higher education and training (dhet) (2014) also recognises a lack in delivery of effective comprehensive career education in many south african schools. career intervention research has also been found to be limited to a single, ‘once off’ programmes included in the school programme: for example miles’ (2015) study on the ‘impact of a career development programme on the self-efficacy of grade 11 learners’, in a south african province. conceptual framing the eco-systemic model focus, on the role of societal issues and the interaction of different systems and their influence on the sense of future orientation in adolescence is given consideration in this study. bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model highlights the interaction between multiple levels of influencing systems. the model targets multiple levels of intervention at the different levels of influence that combine environmental and behavioural components. the intrapersonal level (micro-level) influence of individual characteristics such as motivation, goal directedness, future orientation and self-regulation is highlighted in influencing behaviour and promoting career decision-making. at the interpersonal level (meso-level) recognises the relationships with significant others, such as peers, role models in influencing future orientation and the community level (macro system) which recognises the influence of the school context (practices, structures and activities) that support the future orientation of learners and strengthen the experience of membership at the school. in the context of promoting a sense of future orientation and membership, the macro system is of importance. future expectations are orientations that are decisively influenced by the macro system which is informed by the economy, politics, social health, values and the nature of the community. at this level, the relative importance given to career education, (at the level of school level of policy, teaching and learning and curriculum) is highlighted to play a crucial role in learners experiencing a sense of school membership, motivation and prevention of high-risk behaviour. the objectives of the study were to firstly implement intervention to strengthen school membership and positively impact adolescents’ future orientation and motivation at the micro-, mesoand macro-level. secondly, to evaluate systematically at the various levels, using both an outcome (quantitative evaluation) and process (qualitative evaluation) the efficacy of the interventions piloted to improve school membership and adolescents’ sense of future orientation. research methods and design the design of this study involved three phases. phases one and two, which formed the contextual background to the study included a situational analysis (phase one) and implementation of the intervention (phase two). phase three, the focus of the manuscript involved the evaluation of the intervention and is discussed thereafter. contextual background phase one titled ‘factors impeding school connectedness’, published in the south african journal of psychology (sajp) (rawatlal & petersen, 2012), involved a situational analysis in the intervention school (a local, public, english medium high school in kwazulu-natal) of factors that hinder school connectedness. fifty-six grade 10 learners and seven school managers comprised the sample. in terms of gender, the learners included 27 men and 29 women, between the ages 15 and 16. the learner and teacher sample population groups comprised participants from the african, white, indian and coloured communities. semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers and managers (n = 7) and focus groups were conducted with the learners. in this article, however, the focus refers to the career education component and readers are invited to peruse the sajp article for other information. in summarising the results of the situational analysis pertaining to career education and that formed by the contextual background to the study and interventions piloted, participants indicated that they were aware of career education through the life orientation (lo) curriculum but that lo was too diffuse and did not really focus on useful career education. the importance of career education integrated into the curriculum, and the critical role it plays in motivating learners at school, was thus identified. participants (teachers and managers) indicated that learners who were motivated, and goaland future-oriented were less likely to engage in deviant behavior and therefore experienced greater acceptance and connectivity to the school. marko and savickas (1998) indicate that a hallmark characteristic of human thought and action is future orientation. modern motivation psychology highlights the importance of future orientation for psychological well-being (nurmi & salmelo-aro, 2002); with studies showing that personal goals are connected to one’s psychological well-being (emmons & king; nurmi & salmelo-aro, 2002). in respect of career education intervention, the situational analysis revealed that beyond formalised career education programmes that can assist with this, teacher and the school curriculum involvement can play a critical role. broomfield (2007), in a study of resilient youth, attributed positive outcomes in youth to having teachers who they experienced as accepting and providing guidance in creating and attaining future goals. in phase two, implementation at the macro-level, focused on the teaching and learning curriculum; education policies and student representative bodies in promoting career education, future orientation and aspirations of learners. intervention aimed to address the lack of a focus on careers and future orientation at the school and level of basic education, and engage the participation and collaboration of key stakeholders (learners, teachers and mangers) in informing intervention. in july 2011, the researcher conducted three two-hour workshops with the participants and engaged them in conversation with regard to integrating career education in the curriculum (lo lesson plans) and to enhance the future orientation aspirations and motivation of learners. by opening the lines of communication at this level, the desired outcome was to create greater school cohesion and a school ethos that valued promoting the future aspirations and motivations of learners. at this level, the need to address macro-contextual factors in promoting career education and sense of future orientation is highlighted. whilst there are some scholars who are somewhat encouraged by the career development component of the lo subject (watts, 2009) in schools, there are others who are highly critical in terms of the content material and the training of teachers (gounden, 2009), and argue for a rethinking of how career counselling is promoted at schools (maree, 2013; watson, 2010). a repositioning of career education as central in addressing students’ motivation at school, which is argued to be a basic human right, is highlighted at this level. at the meso-level, the influence of peer mentoring groups is highlighted. in the context of this study, mentoring relationships were found to strengthen connectivity of adolescents to the school through providing positive role models and activities to develop a sense of future orientation. in the intervention, 15 peer mentors were trained and the programme was implemented over a year and 6 months in march 2011. at the micro-level, the development of individual characteristics in promoting future orientation and preventing adolescents’ engagement in high-risk behaviour was highlighted. lesson plans focused on ‘adopting a future oriented time perspective’. in august and september 2011, these plans were integrated into the lo lesson plans, accompanied by a workshop with the lo teachers for implementation. in phase three, an evaluation of intervention piloted at the micro-, mesoand macro-levels is discussed. data collection measures in phase three, a quantitative, outcome evaluation was conducted to explore whether the intervention enhanced learners’ sense of future orientation and school membership. a quasi-experimental approach, utilising, preand post-test measures in the control and intervention school was administered. quasi-experimental designs typically refer to a treated and untreated group, and they have been referred to as having greater application in the ‘real world’ (gilbody & whitty, 2002). in the identification of a matched control school in the study, the school principal indicated matched features of the demographics of the teacher and learner populations, and that no previous interventions were administered at the school. the outcome measures used to assess future orientation included two subscales: the reason for achievement scale (ibanez et al., 2004) measures academic motivation and the second subscale, the value of academic success scale by fulgini (1997) included three measures. both subscales were combined to inform the future orientation scale (fos). the scale comprised 17 items and the cronbach’s alpha co-efficient 0.68, indicating acceptable internal reliability. the outcome aims to assess school membership with the psychological sense of school membership (pssm) scale, by goodenow (1993). this instrument included 18 items and the cronbach’s alpha co-efficient for this scale was 0.81. the outcome evaluation involved preand post-measures that were administered in both schools to grade 10 learners. pre-intervention surveys were administered in march 2011 and included 137 surveys completed at the intervention school, and 123 surveys completed at the control school. post-intervention surveys were administered in november 2012 and included 137 surveys completed at the intervention school, and 123 surveys completed at the control school. for the process evaluation component of this study, qualitative data measures were used. methods utilised included semi-structured interviews, focus groups and analysis of documents. document analysis included collecting samples of learners’ completed activity sheets in august to september 2011. in the post process evaluation, four focus groups comprising fifteen grade 10 learners and five semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and managers. data analysis data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously. in the outcome evaluation, the null hypothesis was that there would be no increase in school membership and future orientation in the intervention school. the alternate hypothesis was that there would be an increase following the intervention. descriptive statistics, using the statistical programme for social sciences (spss) was utilised in the data analysis. in the process evaluation, thematic content analysis (richie & spencer, 1994) was used. the five stages to analysis included: familiarisation of the range and diversity of the material gathered, location within a theoretical framework, indexing of data in textual form, charting of attitudes and experiences collected from the transcripts and placing them into thematic categories and lastly, mapping and interpretation of the data collected. reliability and validity in enhancing reliability in qualitative research, the process of generating themes, concepts and theories was documented and presented to the school to illicit feedback. triangulation and collecting information from different sources were also utilised. ethical considerations permission to carry out this research was obtained from the research ethics and higher degrees committees of the university of kwazulu-natal and the department of basic education (hss/0316/09). informed consent was obtained from participants and code names were assigned to each of them to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. in addressing researcher bias, the researcher explored her positionality through reflexive analysis. ‘within positionality theory, it is acknowledged that people have multiple overlapping identities and that people make meaning from various aspects of their identity‘ (kezar, 2002, p. 96). it was acknowledged that as much as the researcher gained in her role as a participant in the study, her identity as a counselling psychologist employed in higher education served to distance her from fully engaging with participants in the study. the role that this could have played in distancing the researcher as participant is acknowledged. the challenge (at initiation of the study) was identifying that there already existed power imbalances in the school structure, between teachers, managers and learners at the intervention school. the researcher had to be mindful of how her role could have served to unsettle, reinforce or transform power imbalances whilst trying to gain the schools co-operation for the programme implementation. the transformational agenda of this study, based on critical theory, located the researcher as an active participant in the study. the researcher was thus able to locate herself as a collaborator, who also served to empower her participants. results in the outcome evaluation, a comparison of the baseline and post-test scores of the control and intervention schools indicated that pssm increased from the baseline to post-test for the intervention group. baseline to post-test increased from m = 61.41, standard deviation (sd) = 11.90 to m = 67.20, sd = 3.35. this was indicative of learners’ sense of school membership being enhanced following the intervention. a comparison of baseline and post-test scores of the fos, indicated an increase of fos scores at the baseline from m = 54.21, sd = 5.31 to post-test m = 58.28, sd = 3.10 for the intervention school. in the control school, there was, however a decrease in pssm pre-test to post-test scores with m = 55.50, sd = 11.46 to m = 43.40, sd = 3.46 indicated for the group. a decrease from pre-test (m = 56.91, sd = 5.25) to post-test (m = 48.24, sd = 5.61) on this measure for the control group was also indicated. regarding, the fos, there was also a decline in the control school measure scores from pre-test (m = 56.91, sd = 5.25) to post-test (m = 48.24, sd = 5.61) for the control group. the role of the intervention in enhancing learners’ future orientation and sense of school membership is highlighted. however, a decrease in pssm and fos in the control group was unexpected. this is attributed to history effect at the time of the intervention at the control school. campbell and stanley (1963) indicate that it is important to note history effects when any historical or external event may influence the study findings. in relation to this study, the researcher was alerted to the possible closure of the control school in 2012. the apathy of the participants at the control school may have thus influenced the decline in fos and pssm scores. repeated analysis of variance (anova) from baseline to post-test scores indicated a significant change in learners’ sense of school membership (pssm) as shown in table 1. this indicates a differential change across time between the intervention and control groups (f [1258] = 387.36; p < 0.001). table 1: repeated analysis of variance for the psychological sense of school membership. with the fos repeated, anova from baseline to post-test showed a significant change in participants’ sense of future orientation, in the intervention school compared to the control school. this was indicative of a differential change across time between the intervention and control group (f [1258] = 72.57; p < 0.001) as indicated in table 2. table 2: repeated analysis of variance for sense of future orientation scale. the outcome findings for the pssm and fos measures thus indicated an enhancement of experiencing school membership and future orientation at the intervention school. whilst the outcomes for the control school indicated a decline in the measured scores, the validity of the findings in relation to the possible school closure and participants apathy must also be acknowledged and taken into consideration when interpreting the findings. the outcome evaluation findings, however, support a rejection of the null hypothesis in which there would be no significant difference in the outcome measures between the two schools post intervention measures. process evaluation in exploring the processes that influenced the results in the outcome evaluation phase, the results of a descriptive process evaluation, utilising focus groups and semi-structured interviews are discussed in the following section. intrapersonal level results at this level indicated that learners viewed future orientation as important in their individual development. the effectiveness of the ‘goal setting ladder’ was highlighted by all the learners. this was indicated through the following excerpts: ‘it helps me to see where i am today and what i need to do in the future to get there.’ (participant learner, nos. 6, august 2011) learners indicated that the activity supported them in identifying challenges and obstacles they may experience in arriving at their goals and how to overcome them: ‘it helped me to see what obstacles there maybe like, finances and living away from home. it helps me see the “bigger” picture.’ (participant learner, nos. 12, august 2011) documenting (writing) out their long-term and short-term goals in this activity enabled greater self-monitoring. reflection of goals was also encouraged as a means to ‘challenge seeking’, and learners were able to acquire skills to navigate failure and become resilient: ‘[i]t helps me to write it, in the goal setting ladder. i can see that i have bad marks in physics and i need to improve to become a doctor. i must now try harder and do better not only in physics but with all my subjects.’ (participant learner, nos. 8, september 2011) a sample of a learner’s response to the activity is indicated in figure 1. a sample of a response to the goal setting ladder is indicated in figure 2. figure 1: learner’s response to the goal setting ladder. figure 2: excerpt of learner applying himself to the future orientation and goal-setting activity. teachers also indicated the importance of ‘future orientation’ in career education. they however viewed that they would need further training and support in developing activities as career education implied ‘process work’ and engaging students in constant self-assessment, goal setting and reviewing of goals, leading to choosing a career path: ‘future orientation is a useful way of getting them to assess themselves and become realistic about their potential. i don’t believe however that all teachers will have this ability to get them thinking in this “cyclical” or “process” oriented way … they need specialized training for this. it is important because many learners think that careers is a “once off” action that just involves filling out some forms!’ (participant teacher, nos. 2, august 2012) at the interpersonal level, learners indicated how forming of groups such as the peer support programme enhanced collaboration and led to experiencing greater membership at the school. the mentors were referred to as members of the school who could serve as role models and encourage learners’ participation in career education and development activities. some of the activities the peer mentors initiated included career presentations for grade 9 learners focusing on subject choices, academic support groups, where mentors tutored students: ‘the peer mentor support programme is helping me learn more about my career. we are all finding out about different career paths and sharing in out groups through the programme.’ (participant learner, nos. 4, august 2011) at the school community level, the researcher attempted to shift management, teachers and learners to engaging in a collaborative approach to facilitate career education and future orientation at the school. there was reflection from management and lo teachers that a ‘top-down’ hierarchy exists in most schools and that needed to be shifted to accommodate learners’ sense of future orientation as it had implications for their motivation and experiencing a sense of school membership. learners’ input on how the school could promote career education and motivation of learners emphasised the role of learners’ voices in the school structure. discussion key findings of the evaluation results within an ecological framework indicated the efficacy of the interventions piloted to enhance motivation, future orientation and school membership. the outcome evaluation, using both the pssm and fos evidenced a strengthening of membership, motivation and future orientation. themes from the qualitative process evaluation that gauged the voices of learners, teachers and school managers suggested the potential and possibilities for intervening at the interpersonal and school community level. the findings of this study, in a limited way, supports an approach to career education that encourages a programme of activities at the different levels that can systematically and collaboratively shift beyond the boundaries of academic subjects to ‘enhance the career development of all students throughout the school experience’ (miller, in peterson et al., 1991, p. 164). implications and recommendations for further research in the area highlight that the challenge for practitioners in scarce resource contexts is sensitising educators to the potential of whole-school programmes that integrate career education and engage with the relevant stakeholders. this is seen as particularly important for schools serving deprived areas and faced with limited career resources. as mtolo (1996) indicates, ideally: [a] whole school approach and policy for career education must involve most teachers and all pupils, it must take into account of the problems of certain groups of people … (especially) the disadvantaged economically. (p. 8) mkhize and akhurst (2006) indicated that this approach is dependent on teamwork from educators, and the highlighting of career education that proves integral to the different school subjects. they point out that career education should be the concern of every educator. however, in practice it is feared that owing to both educators’ lack of training in this regard and their pressing concerns for their particular content areas, career education in south africa will once again be neglected. in reference to the responsibility of the school, the collaboration and the co-responsibility of various ecological stakeholders that include the parents of learners, managers and teachers, practitioners and service providers, cultural and community leaders and policymakers for young people’s achievement of positive life outcomes (masten, 2014; ungar, 2013), is encouraged. with regard to the responsibility of psychologists (practitioners), this study draws attention to the training of practitioners for wsas to career education and the importance of training psychologists for skills acquisition for both, establishing community-practitioner alliances in implementing intervention and evaluation, and monitoring of the intervention at multiple levels. recommendations this study highlights the urgent need for career guidance in the school curriculum. further studies on the effectiveness of multi-systemic interventions with a focus on career development are needed in south african schools. such research needs to engage in the understanding of not only ‘which are the programmes and frameworks that work?’, but ‘which combinations or sequences of strategies are most effective?’, and ‘how can schools be supported to effectively design comprehensive intervention prevention strategies and implement them in a high quality fashion?’ in career development interventions, limited research has been conducted on the potential additive and multiplicative effect of the combinations of distinct programmes. research is needed on the relative effectiveness of sets of interventions in order to develop a knowledge base to guide decisions about which combinations are most effective (wilson, gotfredson, & najaka, 2001). this is seen as most relevant in the south african education context, where great disparities in education are noted. south african provinces comprise different rural areas with schools that are markedly different from one another. challenges are linked to socio-economic factors and limited infrastructure that impact the quality of the education. the department of education (2006) is cognizant that improving the schooling system must go beyond ‘fixing up schools’ and that greater work must be done to promote social cohesion and working together of role players involved in the school. the ‘one size fit for all’ approach to intervention that facilitates ‘top-down’ thinking also prevents effective whole-school development. the eco-systemic perspective that encourages participation and collaboration of all role players is thus highlighted in this research. the role of parents and the involvement of the school governing body (sgb) in promoting wsas are also referred to. the south african schools act (1996, p. 1) refers to the sgbs as a statutory structure and indicates that it is a compulsory requirement that every public school have such a governing body that represents the school community. the importance of research in exploring their role in promoting a sense of collaboration, cooperation and participation in wsas to career education is highlighted. limitations a limitation of this research is that it was a pilot study with the intervention only being implemented in one school. however, the conceptualisation and complexity of the research design evaluation, involving a quasi-experimental, preand post-measures and a control school, as opposed to a single experimental design, is however seen to have applicability of the findings to inform intervention work in the south african education context. various researchers have also encouraged the reporting of such study findings. van teijlingen et al. (2001) indicated that pilot studies can inform us about the most effective process for researching phenomena, and can yield much information about the likely outcomes. van teijlingen et al. (2001) supported the reporting of pilot studies, especially when research in an area is limited and models and frameworks are needed to inform further work. prescott and soeken (1989) also indicated the ‘underreporting’ of pilot studies. comprehensive reports of pilot studies are also found to be rare in research literature (linquist, 1991; van teijlingen et al., 2001). researchers, according to van teijlingen et al. (2001) are ethically obliged to draw from their research experience and report issues arising from all parts of a study, including the pilot phase. conclusion various studies in south africa have emphasised the need of young people for career education. chuenyane’s (1983) study indicated 90% of the african high school population had ‘serious career planning problems’ (p. 278). this has also been identified by numerous studies in the last decade (mtolo, 1996; ntshngase, 1995) where learners have pleaded for career education in secondary schools. this study provides a framework that evidences it is possible to intervene at multiple levels within public south african secondary schools to inform adolescents’ sense of future orientation, motivation and school membership. it highlights how future research could systematically enable and evaluate career development intervention at multiple levels, and the role this can play in potentially reducing adolescent engagement in high-risk behaviour. this study provides one such example that in promoting career education to benefit the future of adolescents, building community practitioner alliances through wsas is possible and is in light of maree (2020), a call for counsellors to innovate and contextualise their career counselling practice for relevance in scarce resource contexts. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the study participants. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contribution k.r. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research was conducted with the support of doctoral research grant received from the university of kwazulu-natal. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references akhurst, j., & mkhize, n.j. 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(2025). higher education, job or entrepreneurship? rural high school learners’ perceptions of post-matric options in mpumalanga, south africa. african journal of career development, 7(1), a177. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.177 original research higher education, job or entrepreneurship? rural high school learners’ perceptions of post-matric options in mpumalanga, south africa percyval bayane, bright smith, enid manyaku pitsoane, kgomotso nyamakazi received: 04 june 2025; accepted: 06 aug. 2025; published: 19 sept. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: making post-matric and career decisions is a significant challenge for rural high school learners in south africa, where access to career assessments, information and professional guidance is limited. while urban schools increasingly benefit from career services, rural learners face persistent structural and informational barriers that negatively impact their career decision-making. objectives: this study explores how grade 12 learners at a rural high school in mpumalanga, south africa, perceive and navigate their post-matric career decisions. it focuses on the factors influencing their choices in a context marked by socio-economic constraints. methods: a qualitative research design was used, drawing on focus group discussions and reflexive essays from 17 grade 12 learners. thematic content analysis and atlas.ti were used to analyse and present findings. results: most learners aspire to higher education as a pathway to social mobility, but face financial barriers and limited university access. some seek immediate employment to support their families or save for further study, while others consider entrepreneurship because of high youth unemployment. while career guidance is important, many rural schools lack trained professionals and sufficient resources. learners rely on peers, family and informal school initiatives for advice. conclusion: structural inequalities significantly shape learners’ post-matric choices and limit their access to informed career pathways, reinforcing cycles of disadvantage. contribution: this study contributes to understanding rural youth career decision-making in south africa and calls for enhanced career counselling, increased financial aid and support for vocational and alternative pathways. keywords: high school learners; post-matric options; higher education; employment; entrepreneurship; career guidance. introduction the transition from high school to adulthood is a critical phase that shapes young people’s career trajectories and life opportunities. for grade 12 learners in south africa, this transition is influenced by an interplay of structural and personal factors, including socio-economic conditions, family background, financial constraints and access to career guidance (maila & ross, 2018; maree, 2012; muyambi & ahiaku, 2025). this stage becomes consequential especially for learners in rural contexts, where options are often limited, and decisions are made within constrained environments (dipitso, 2021). rural high school learners in south africa face structural challenges rooted in apartheid legacies, including geographic isolation, unequal access to quality education and inadequate career guidance services (abrahams et al., 2015; miles, 2015; muyambi & ahiaku, 2025). while urban schools benefit from career services and support, rural learners often lack access to these resources, leaving them uncertain about their post-school options (abrahams et al., 2015; miles, 2015). learners in rural areas often rely on family, peers or life orientation teachers for advice (ngobese et al., 2020; miles & naidoo, 2016). at the same time, rising tuition costs, limited admission to institutions of higher education and high youth unemployment, estimated at 59.6% among individuals aged 15–24, constrain their decision-making and life chances (regenesys business school, 2018; serfontein & smit, 2024; statistics south africa, 2024). although many high school learners aspire to pursue higher education as a pathway to social mobility (dipitso, 2021), they are compelled to consider alternative routes, such as entering the labour market or exploring entrepreneurship (francis & webster, 2019; nkosi, 2021; statistics south africa, 2024). some seek employment to support their families and save for future study (ntshiza, 2018), while others view entrepreneurship as a response to persistent youth unemployment and exclusion from formal job opportunities (mondli et al., 2022; musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). despite a growing body of literature on post-school transitions and youth employment, there is a significant gap in understanding how learners in rural provinces such as mpumalanga perceive and rationalise their post-matric options. this study, therefore, explores how grade 12 learners at a rural high school in mpumalanga perceive their post-matric career decisions. it focuses on the factors influencing their choices in a context characterised by socio-economic constraints, academic challenges and varying levels of school-based support. by examining the structural and personal factors influencing these choices, this research aims to highlight the critical need for enhanced career counselling, improved financial support mechanisms and the promotion of alternative pathways, such as vocational education and entrepreneurship training, especially in rural areas. literature review the transition from high school to adulthood presents significant challenges for south african learners, particularly in navigating post-matric options, such as higher education, employment or entrepreneurship. these decisions are often shaped by an interplay of socio-economic conditions, structural inequalities, family dynamics and the availability of career guidance (muyambi & ahiaku, 2025). while national policy initiatives have sought to improve access to education and employment opportunities, disparities remain, particularly for rural and underprivileged learners, who face multiple and intersecting barriers (mlambo & mpanza, 2024). higher education remains an aspiration for many south african high school learners, as it is seen as a pathway to improved career prospects and upward social mobility (dipitso, 2021). however, access to higher education is hindered by limited university spaces, financial constraints and academic preparedness. for instance, while 47.8% of matriculants achieve bachelor’s passes, qualifying them for university admission, there are only 202 000 university spaces available for over 333 700 eligible applicants (fisher, 2025). this problem is more severe for rural learners who also contend with relocation costs and limited access to support networks (van niekerk et al., 2024). although the national student financial aid scheme (nsfas) aims to address financial barriers, it remains overburdened and often inaccessible to all who qualify for assistance (mlambo & mpanza, 2024). learners from under-resourced schools often struggle with key subjects, such as stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), which are crucial for accessing competitive university programmes and careers (albien & naidoo, 2018; reynolds & moyo, 2024). these challenges in academic performance not only limit higher education options but also shape learners’ post-matric aspirations. in response to these constraints, learners increasingly consider employment or entrepreneurship as practical alternatives. while some view employment as a short-term strategy to finance further studies or gain work experience (ntshiza, 2018), others see entrepreneurship as a long-term solution to economic hardship and job scarcity (musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). yet, people face difficulties accessing startup capital, markets and relevant training (mondli et al., 2022). entrepreneurship has emerged as a viable, though challenging, post-matric option for many learners, particularly in response to rising youth unemployment (musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). for learners unable to access higher education or formal jobs, self-employment is often seen as a practical strategy for financial independence. however, barriers such as lack of startup capital, market access and entrepreneurial training persist, especially in rural and under-resourced communities (mondli et al., 2022; van niekerk et al., 2024). although government and non-governmental organisation (ngo) initiatives offer entrepreneurship programmes, these are often concentrated in urban areas and not easily accessible to rural learners. positively, some institutions have begun promoting entrepreneurship through school-based outreach, digital platforms and university-linked incubators (reynolds & moyo, 2024). expanding these initiatives to rural areas could diversify learners’ post-matric options and offer sustainable pathways outside formal employment (fisher, 2025). career guidance is critical in shaping learners’ post-matric decisions, yet it remains unevenly distributed across south african schools. many rural schools lack qualified career counsellors and resources, limiting learners’ ability to make informed decisions (abrahams et al., 2015; maree, 2012). without structured support, learners often rely on peers, parents or teachers who have limited training, contributing to uninformed subject choices that later restrict career paths (department of education, 2025). research also shows that effective guidance can align learners’ skills, interests and aspirations with realistic post-school options (hirschi, 2019). several innovative interventions have been introduced to fill this gap. mentorship programmes pairing high school learners with university students have shown promise in demystifying career pathways, admissions and funding (brodowicz, 2024). in addition, career days and digital platforms offer learners exposure to diverse professions and decision-making tools (mseleku, 2022). however, these efforts remain unevenly implemented, especially in rural areas. strengthening school-based guidance and ensuring equitable access to career information are essential to expanding learners’ choices and long-term career satisfaction. family background and parental expectations also significantly influence learners’ career choices. in south african households, particularly in lower-income communities, financial stability often dictates whether a learner pursues further education or enters the job market immediately (cipriano et al., 2017). parents who lack higher education qualifications themselves may not always have the necessary information to guide their children effectively. parental expectations can also create tension in career decision-making. chen and wang (2023) found that in cultures with strong family values, learners often feel pressured to pursue high-status careers such as medicine, law or engineering, even when their personal interests lie elsewhere. while parental support can be beneficial, rigid expectations can lead to dissatisfaction and disengagement in one’s career path (savickas, 2019). positive parental involvement, on the other hand, has been linked to increased career exploration and success. when parents actively engage in discussions about career options, provide financial and emotional support and encourage independent decision making, learners are more likely to pursue careers aligned with their interests and abilities (chen et al., 2017). the existing literature highlights that south african high school learners, particularly grade 12 learners, face multiple challenges in navigating post-matric pathways. however, there is still limited qualitative research that explores how rural high school learners perceive and navigate their options within everyday constraints. in particular, little is known about how learners rationalise decisions such as postponing university, seeking jobs or pursuing entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas such as mpumalanga. this study addresses this gap by foregrounding the perceptions of rural learners and examining how they exercise agency in shaping their futures within structural limitations. theoretical framework this study adopts the social learning theory of career choice, which argues that career decisions are shaped by four key factors, namely genetic endowment, environmental conditions, learning experiences and task approach skills (krumboltz, 1996). the theoretical framework is well-suited to understanding how high school learners in rural south africa navigate post-matric options, as it highlights that both structural and personal influences are involved in career decision-making. according to krumboltz (1996), genetic endowment, which can be traits such as natural abilities, plays a role in shaping career choices. in the context of this study, some learners may be inclined toward specific career paths because of their inherent skills and interests, such as excelling in mathematics and pursuing engineering. however, while personal traits provide a foundation, they do not solely determine career trajectories. krumboltz (1996) further argues that environmental factors such as economic conditions, family expectations, access to education and career guidance, significantly shape learners’ career aspirations. social support networks – including family, teachers and mentors – also play a crucial role in shaping learners’ choices (dina & putra, 2022; kim et al., 2016). krumboltz (1996) also posits that individuals’ past learning experiences shape their career interests and future aspirations. in rural south africa, limited exposure to diverse career options often constrains learners’ decision-making. many learners base their choices on observed role models, such as teachers, community leaders or family members, who influence their understanding of available career paths. task approach skills are another element shaping career choices. krumboltz (1996) notes the importance of task approach skills such as problem-solving abilities, resilience, and self-confidence – in influencing career decision-making. for instance, learners who engage in structured career guidance activities such as workshops, mentorship programmes and skills training are better equipped to make informed decisions about their futures. krumboltz’s learning theory is relevant for this study as it assists in understanding the impact of external influences such as economic barriers, social expectations and school resources on high school learners’ careers or life decision making. furthermore, the theory’s focus on learning experiences suggests that improving career exposure and guidance in rural schools could significantly enhance high school learners’ ability to make informed post-matric decisions. research design and methods this study employed a qualitative research design to explore the perceptions of grade 12 learners in a rural south african high school regarding their post-matric options. according to babbie (2021), qualitative research is well-suited for studies that seek to gain deeper insights into a phenomenon from participants’ perspectives. the study aimed to gain in-depth insights into how learners navigate post-school decisions within a context of structural constraints such as poverty, limited opportunities and lack of guidance. this research design thus allowed researchers to better understand learners’ views on post-matric pathways and the information they require to make informed decisions. participants and sampling this study emanates from the engaged scholarship project, advocacy for diversity, inclusion and well-being. the project is registered with the college of human sciences and, in collaboration with the directorate for counselling and career development (dccd) at the university of south africa (unisa), hosted the mandela day outreach in 2024 at a rural high school in mpumalanga. the mandela day outreach is an annual event hosted at this specific rural high school in mpumalanga by engaged scholarship project members and dccd professionals. over the years, these entities have built a professional relationship with the high school. with the principal’s permission, facilitators engaged directly with learners during the outreach event. the outreach aimed to provide high school learners with information and support regarding career choices and access to higher education institutions. as such, the study targeted grade 12 learners, and a non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select participants who were in their final year of schooling and actively engaged in post-matric planning. a total of 17 grade 12 learners participated in the study through engaging in focus group discussions with facilitators in a classroom. the learners were selected based on their willingness to participate and their relevance to the study’s focus on post-matric decisions among matriculants. data collection methods for this study, data were collected during the 2024 mandela day outreach event. during the event, facilitators – both members of the engaged scholarship project and those affiliated with the dccd – conducted focused group discussions with grade 12 learners. these discussions explored learners’ perceptions of post-matric options, focusing on their career aspirations, reasons for their choices, the support they received in high school for career and life decisions and the additional support they needed for their post-matric plans. according to krueger and casey (2015), focus group discussions are a suitable qualitative research method for gathering in-depth insights on a specific topic from participants in a guided discussion. this method allowed researchers to engage directly with learners about their post-matric plans. to supplement the focus group discussions, learners were asked to complete reflexive essays in which they responded to structured, open-ended questions aligned with the discussion themes. reflexive essays provided an additional means for learners to express their perspectives. bolton (2010) highlights that reflexive essay writing involves critical reflection on personal experiences, perspectives or learning processes. the combination of group dialogue and individual written reflections allowed for a richer and triangulated dataset (bolton, 2010; krueger & casey, 2015). all completed reflexive essays were scanned and uploaded to atlas.ti for analysis. data analysis thematic content analysis was used to analyse the reflexive essays from high school learners about the topic under investigation. thematic analysis is an interpretative method used for qualitative data analysis that helps to identify and analyse themes or patterns in a given dataset (byrne, 2022). braun and clarke’s (2006) suggested steps of thematic analysis were used to analyse data, which include familiarisation, coding and searching for themes and interpretation. firstly, researchers familiarised themselves with the data by reading and uploading 17 completed reflexive essays into atlas.ti version 24. secondly, codes were generated using atlas.ti version 24, whereby researchers critically read all the uploaded completed reflexive essays to identify similarities and differences in high school learners’ responses to questions. during this process, researchers created 102 codes, which were then grouped into 16 code groups such as educational aspirations, employment prospects, academic challenges and support, entrepreneurship, etc (refer to figure 1). the codes, including group codes, created using keywords from high school learners’ responses, were used to search for themes and sub-themes aligned to the primary objective of this study. for instance, theme 1 titled educational aspirations: pursuing higher education and desired support was created from codes such as educational aspiration and academic support (see figure 1). thirdly, all the codes and code groups were refined into themes and sub-themes, which guided interpretation and presentation of findings. these themes were also supported by the high school learners’ quotes. figure 1: atlas.ti codes and group codes of high school learners’ perceptions of post-matric options. ethical considerations to uphold ethical research standards, this study underwent an ethical clearance process and was approved by the university of south africa college of human sciences research ethics review committee (no. 90002105_crec_chs_2024) to ensure compliance with ethical guidelines. given that most participants were under the age of 18, permission to conduct focus group discussions and for learners to complete reflexive essays was obtained from the school principal, who also informed the parents and guardians of learners about the mandela day outreach event. high school learners were fully informed about the study’s purpose and gave voluntary consent before the focus group discussions commenced in the classroom, and they gave consent to participate, as others who did not want to participate excused themselves from the classroom. they were assured of the confidentiality of their responses and their right to withdraw from the study at any stage without consequences. to further protect participants’ identities, high school learners were not required to include personal information when completing the reflexive essays. moreover, researchers used pseudonyms (e.g. ‘participant a’) when using quotes from learners in the study. findings: high school learners’ perceptions of post-matric options this section presents the key themes emerging from rural high school learners’ reflections on their post-matric aspirations and perceived barriers. drawing on focus group discussions and reflexive essays from 17 grade 12 learners at a rural mpumalanga high school, several overarching findings were derived. these findings are organised into four interrelated themes: (1) educational aspirations, (2) employment, (3) entrepreneurship and (4) school-based support and challenges. the analysis reveals how rural high school learners navigate limited resources, financial pressure and inadequate guidance while imagining multiple future paths. these themes reflect both individual agency and structural constraints, providing an understanding of rural high school learners’ career decision-making. theme 1: educational aspirations: pursuing higher education and desired support high school learners in this study expressed strong aspirations to pursue higher education, particularly by enrolling in universities or colleges. for many, obtaining a qualification was perceived as a key step towards securing employment opportunities, especially with the high unemployment rate. high school learners also associated higher education as the most viable pathway to achieving their career goals and financial independence. when high school learners were asked about their plans after matric, most participants responded with clear intentions to further their studies: ‘after completing matric, i am planning to go to higher learning institutions, so i can be able to get the job i want.’ (participant f) ‘going to higher learning institution because the job i want requires a qualification or degree.’ (participant e) participants e and f’s responses, which are typical of many others in this study, reflect a broader pattern among high school learners who see the pursuit of higher education as an essential step in their career and employment trajectories. the strong emphasis on going to institutions of higher learning and acquiring formal qualifications suggests that high school learners are aware of the role that further education can play as a gateway to economic and life mobility, aligning with the broader societal narrative. it also indicates an awareness of the increasing credential requirements in various careers or professions and the labour market. beyond career ambitions, high school learners’ motivations to pursue higher education were also rooted in the intersection of personal and family circumstances. for instance, one participant reflected: ‘i want to go to university to have a better life and motivate others about my life. i come from a poor family whereby my mom is working as a domestic worker and my sister did not reach matric level, so i want to change the situation at home.’ (participant a) this response illustrates how higher education aspirations are linked to the desire to improve their lives and those of their families. for many high school learners, education is not only a means of individual empowerment but also a strategy to break cycles of poverty within their families. for instance, participant a’s response reflects how education is not only a pathway to individual success but also a means to uplift the family from economic hardship. the mention of the mother’s employment as a domestic worker and the sister’s limited educational attainment reinforces the idea that higher education is perceived as a critical tool for breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty. similarly, other participants, like participant g, in this study expressed a desire ‘to have a better life’, suggesting a shared understanding that higher education can significantly improve one’s socio-economic status. in this study, high school learners also reported their interest in various career choices and pathways, such as civil and mechanical engineering, accounting and law. while many high school learners aspire to attend higher education institutions, their responses also highlighted the need for support in realising this goal. many high school learners in this study emphasised the support they would need to realise their educational goals. financial constraints are one of the pervasive challenges highlighted by high school learners as a concern, recognising that pursuing higher education requires financial support, particularly for tuition fees and study materials. when asked about the needed support to achieve their educational aspirations of going to higher education institutions, many learners said: ‘i will need some money for my books and school fees.’ (participant i) ‘i need support when it comes to money because my mother is a single parent and working as a domestic worker.’ (participant a) participants i and a’s responses reflect a broader issue affecting high school learners, particularly those from low-income backgrounds in rural areas. the financial burden of higher education often falls on families with limited economic means, making it difficult for high school learners to move into tertiary education. the concern expressed by participant a further illustrates the intersection of socio-economic status and access to education, highlighting the particular vulnerability of learners from single-parent households or those dependent on low-wage labour. high school learners also noted that getting financial support from organisations such as the nsfas would assist in the realisation of their educational and career aspirations. the findings reveal high school learners’ aspirations for higher education, viewing it as essential for employment and socio-economic mobility. their goals are shaped not only by career ambitions but the desire to uplift their families from poverty. however, financial constraint was anticipated as a significant barrier, particularly for high school learners from low-income households. therefore, there is a need to address such structural barriers to ensure equal access to higher education and opportunities. what distinguishes these rural learners from their urban counterparts is not only their shared aspiration for higher education, but their heightened vulnerability to localised constraints. unlike learners in urban areas who may benefit from greater institutional proximity and greater access to online platforms, these learners often lack such infrastructure and relational capital. their accounts reveal how geographic and economic marginalisation shape their ability to convert aspirations into realistic opportunities. although high school learners reported educational aspirations of going to higher education institutions, others in this study showed interest in employment prospects. theme 2: employment as a stepping stone to education and career advancement while many high school learners in this study aspire to pursue higher education, the structural barriers and constraints, such as limited access to tertiary institutions and financial challenges, lead some to consider alternative post-matric pathways. other high school learners in this study considered pursuing the labour market in the form of seeking jobs as a viable alternative. participants viewed entering the labour market immediately after matric as a necessary step to earn income that could later support their educational goals. when some high school learners were asked about their plans post-matric, they shared: ‘i want to look for a job because i want to make money to go to institution of higher learning.’ (participant c) this response highlights how economic realities shape rural high school learners’ decisions, forcing them to balance their educational ambitions with immediate financial needs. for many, working after high school is not a rejection of further studying but a strategic attempt to accumulate the resources required to access higher education. other high school learners in this study expressed aspirations to pursue higher education while seeking part-time employment to support themselves financially. they recognised the necessity of financial independence through earning an income to cover essential expenses such as tuition, transportation and daily living costs. as participants stated: ‘i will also look for a job so that i can get paid while learning.’ (participant l) ‘i am looking for a job so i can earn money for transport to travel to university.’ (participant r) these reflections reveal how financial constraints do more than influencing access, as they shape the pathways high school learners take within and beyond education. the need for part-time employment highlights the precarious position many rural high school learners occupy, where academic progress is linked to the ability to earn an income. meanwhile, some of the other participants in this study expressed aspirations to enter the labour market primarily to gain work experience. for instance, one participant emphasised the importance of gaining industry experience: ‘look for a job, so i can have experience within the working industry.’ (participant g) it can be argued that high school learners, as part of the youth, are concerned about employability; hence, work experience is perceived as a crucial stepping stone for future career opportunities. the findings also suggest an awareness of the challenges young job seekers face, particularly in the labour markets where prior experience is often a prerequisite for securing stable employment. theme 3: entrepreneurship as an aspirational strategy for economic independence in contrast to those seeking employment, other high school learners in this study expressed a desire to pursue entrepreneurship as a long-term and aspirational pathway. for these learners, starting a business is seen not only as a means of survival but also as a way to create value, address family needs and establish personal legacies. this sentiment was cited in one’s response: ‘to start a business because i want to create a legacy and solve my family’s financial problems.’ (participant d) this response illustrates how entrepreneurial ambition is rooted in both personal aspiration and structural necessity. for learners like participant d, entrepreneurship provides an alternative to exclusion from formal employment and a path toward financial autonomy. it also reflects agency and future-oriented thinking despite limited access to capital or training. the desire to pursue entrepreneurship was linked to broader concerns about high youth unemployment and a lack of formal job opportunities. for rural high school learners, entrepreneurship becomes a proactive strategy to generate income and avoid prolonged unemployment. for instance: ‘i want to start my own business because jobs are hard to find these days.’ (participant b) many rural learners believe that entrepreneurship provides an alternative to exclusion from formal employment and a path toward financial autonomy. their decisions reflect a response to local opportunity structures and a desire to take control of their futures in the absence of formal employment channels. the findings suggest that investing in and expanding entrepreneurship education and mentorship programmes could provide learners with viable alternatives to traditional employment pathways. schools and communities are thus critical in equipping learners to navigate these pathways and to realise their career aspirations despite structural challenges. although the decision regarding post-matric pathways lies with the learners, schools and communities have a crucial role in supporting learners in realising their dreams and aspirations. theme 4: school support and challenges: guidance and teachings this theme explores the role of schools in shaping high school learners’ post-matric decisions, the forms of support learners receive and the challenges that may hinder their aspirations. participants in this study recognised schools as influential spaces where career aspirations are nurtured, post-school opportunities are explored and learners are motivated to plan for the future. many learners described supportive initiatives provided by their schools, particularly structured programmes aimed at helping them make informed post-matric decisions: ‘they host career days for grade 11s and 12s every year and give us information about higher education.’ (participant o) ‘they give us information and motivate us to take good decisions (for) after matric.’ (participant e) participants e and o’s responses highlight the importance of school-based support and programmes, such as career days and guidance sessions, that expose high school learners to post-school opportunities. these activities were viewed as significant in motivating high school learners and providing them with accurate information regarding access to higher education and available support. the emphasis on making good decisions reflects the supportive and mentoring role that schools can also play in preparing learners for life after matric. participants in this study highlighted that their school hosts career days, where grade 11 and 12 learners are provided with information relating to access and support available for higher education and other opportunities. some high school learners expressed receiving similar support in pursuing alternative post-matric pathways, such as entrepreneurship and looking for employment. for instance, participant n, who aspired to start a business, described the encouragement received from their school: ‘they encourage me because they know that this thing will help me in the future.’ (participant n) this demonstrates the recognition by some high schools that learners have diverse aspirations beyond university education. by supporting entrepreneurial ambitions, schools play a broader role in fostering economic self-sufficiency and career development. such support also reflects a shift towards a more inclusive approach to post-school transitions, where multiple career trajectories are recognised and encouraged. while high school learners were appreciative of the support they received in making post-matric decisions, they also face significant challenges that may influence their choices and career paths. a recurring concern among participants was their struggle with school subjects, such as english, mathematics and science. these subjects are often critical for accessing higher education and certain career opportunities, making confidence in academic ability a crucial factor in their decision-making processes. for instance, some learners expressed difficulties in achieving their desired academic performance: ‘the challenge that i currently have is that i am not getting my desired marks or levels with english, as i always obtain a level 4.’ (participant c) ‘i am experiencing challenges with mathematics and sciences subjects.’ (participant l) these challenges suggest that while high school learners may aspire to further studies or specific career paths, their academic struggles could limit their options. the pressure to meet university entrance requirements or meet specific job criteria in the labour market may contribute to anxiety and uncertainty about the future. as such, it is of paramount importance that high schools consider targeted academic support, particularly in subjects that serve as gateways to stem-related fields and other professional careers. the findings note the significant role that schools play in guiding high school learners through their post-matric decision-making process. structured support systems such as career days, motivational sessions and access to information contribute significantly to shaping learners’ aspirations and preparing them for life beyond matric. moreover, the recognition of diverse career pathways, including entrepreneurship, highlights an evolving approach that acknowledges multiple post-school trajectories. however, academic challenges, particularly in subjects like english, mathematics and science – pose significant barriers to learners’ aspirations. as such, high schools and other community-based organisations should consider investing in targeted support offered to learners. discussion this study contributes to understanding how rural high school learners in south africa make post-matric career decisions amid structural and personal constraints. while most learners aspired to pursue higher education as a route to upward mobility (dipitso, 2021; muyambi & ahiaku, 2025), their choices were shaped not only by ambition but also by limited resources, family expectations and the influence of community role models. in this regard, krumboltz’s (1996) social learning theory of career decision-making provides a useful lens to interpret the interaction between individual agency and structural limitations. the study provides insights into how krumboltz’s four theoretical elements (genetic endowment, environmental conditions, learning experiences and task approach skills) manifest in rural south african contexts. for example, learners’ aspirations to specific careers and professions were linked to their inner interests and subject strengths (genetic endowment), yet these interests were hindered by limited educational exposure and academic underperformance, particularly in subjects such as mathematics and english. this supports prior findings that academic preparedness remains a barrier to accessing high-demand fields (albien & naidoo, 2018; reynolds & moyo, 2024). the most significant influence on learners’ career and post-matric decisions are prevailing environmental conditions such as poverty, geographic isolation and under-resourced schools. however, learners responded to these constraints in distinct ways, with some opting for employment as a short-term strategy to support future studies or gain work experience, while others pursued entrepreneurship as a long-term path to financial independence. financial insecurity and family responsibilities emerged as key drivers behind high school learners’ decisions to delay university, seek employment or pursue entrepreneurship (francis & webster, 2019). these findings affirm krumboltz’s emphasis on the impact of the external environment and align with studies that show how youth in marginalised settings make strategic compromises in pursuit of long-term goals (francis & webster, 2019; musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). learning experiences were also shaped by limited exposure to diverse career options. high school learners in this study based their decisions on what they observed in their communities, including the occupations of teachers, domestic workers or small business owners. this echoes existing research showing that role models and localised experience significantly influence learners’ post-matric decisions (dina & putra, 2022; kim et al., 2016; matshabane, 2016). where structured career interventions such as career days were provided, high school learners reported feeling more informed and motivated to plan for the future. in addition, learners demonstrated task approach skills, such as resilience, determination and decision-making confidence in how they navigated their career options. many expressed plans to work part-time while studying or to postpone further education to earn money. these adaptive strategies reflect a form of problem-solving that allows learners to maintain their aspirations despite limited resources. such behaviours align with studies highlighting that rural youth often develop resilience-based coping mechanisms in the face of constrained opportunity structures (hirschi, 2019; rowland, 2014). while previous literature documented barriers to rural youth transitions (abrahams et al., 2015; maila & ross, 2018), this study contributes both theoretically and empirically by demonstrating how these barriers intersect with learners’ aspirations and local knowledge systems. unlike urban learners who often benefit from access to digital platforms, professional career counselling and broader networks, the learners in this study relied primarily on peer advice, informal school support and family narratives to navigate their options. furthermore, the clear distinction between employment as a transitional strategy and entrepreneurship as an aspirational goal highlights the need for differentiated forms of career support and targeted interventions. the findings also highlight the dual role of schools as both enablers and sites of limitation. career days and motivational talks were perceived as helpful, aligning with research that shows even low-cost interventions can boost learner motivation and awareness (brodowicz, 2024; miles & naidoo, 2016). yet many rural schools lack the capacity to provide targeted academic support in core subjects, thereby limiting learners’ access to tertiary options and other post-matric options. additionally, while some learners showed strong interest in entrepreneurship, there was little evidence of structured school-based support for this pathway. this reinforces the call for integrated entrepreneurship education in secondary schools (burger et al., 2004; musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). lastly, while learners expressed interest in entrepreneurship, there was limited evidence of structured entrepreneurial training or mentorship at the school level. this points to an overlooked area in school-based career development strategies and affirms the call for embedding entrepreneurship education into the secondary school curriculum (musariwa & tinonetsana, 2023). such initiatives could be crucial for learners who view self-employment as a primary pathway rather than a fallback option. this study contributes to contextualising krumboltz’s theory within the realities of rural south african high school learners. the study calls for career guidance and support systems that are responsive to high school learners’ lived socio-economic conditions. addressing the post-matric needs of rural youth will require structural reforms, including increased funding, targeted academic support and equal access to opportunities, and school-based interventions that empower learners to exercise informed agency over their future trajectories. conclusion the study highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of post-matric decision-making among high school learners in mpumalanga, south africa. while many learners aspire to pursue higher education as a means of social mobility and overcoming adverse socio-economic constraints, limited university spaces and academic under-preparedness present significant barriers for rural matriculants. in response to these constraints, some learners opt for immediate employment as a short-term strategy to earn income, either to support their families or to fund future studies. however, high rates of youth unemployment and precarious job prospects make this path uncertain. other learners, by contrast, view entrepreneurship as a long-term pathway to economic independence and as a means to overcome exclusion from formal job markets. these learners often see self-employment as an aspirational strategy to create opportunities and address family financial hardship. yet this path is also hindered by limited access to startup capital, training and school-based entrepreneurial support. the findings point out the critical role of career guidance in helping learners navigate these choices, yet many rural schools lack adequate resources to provide structured support. addressing these challenges requires a coordinated effort to expand career counselling services, improve financial aid accessibility and promote alternative pathways, such as vocational education and entrepreneurship training. this study shows that rural high school learners’ decision-making about what to do after matric is strongly influenced by poverty, disparate access to resources and unequal opportunities in their setting. supporting these learners with their career aspirations requires focused and fair support strategies, considering the specific challenges they face in rural schools across south africa. acknowledgements the authors wish to express their gratitude to the school and learners who participated in the study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.s. is the corresponding author of the original manuscript and contributed to the original research idea, analysis, manuscript writing and review. p.b. contributed to the original research idea, analysis, manuscript writing and review. e.m.p. contributed to the original research idea, analysis, manuscript writing and review. k.n. contributed to the original research idea, analysis, manuscript writing and review. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available and can be accessed from the corresponding author, b.s., upon request. disclaimer the views and 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(2024). support factors contributing to successful start-up businesses by young entrepreneurs in south africa. work, 79(1), 339–350. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-230527 abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa citation potgieter, i., coetzee, m., & ferreira, n. (2021). psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes. african journal of career development, 3(1), a48. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.48 original research psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes ingrid l. potgieter, melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira received: 22 oct. 2021; accepted: 05 nov. 2021; published: 10 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the new normal working context, characterised by fast changes, rapid upskilling, adoption of technology, and remote working, requires employees to remain psychologically attached to their organisations. more insight is needed regarding how career navigation (as an attribute of career agility) and career well-being attributes explain the psychological attachment of employees in order to invest in their career development amidst the chaos and demands driven by the new normal working context. objective: the study explored career navigation and career well-being attributes (i.e. positive career effect, career networking/social support, and career meaningfulness) as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals’ psychological attachment. method: the study used a cross-sectional research design, which involved a convenience sample (n = 177) of national and international employees (mean age = 34 years; standard deviation [sd] = 10.14), represented by 39% managerial employees, 38% staff, and 23% professional consultants. most of the participants (72%) were employed by south african organisations. results: multiple regression analysis revealed that career navigation explains higher levels of psychological attachment (including affective, normative, and continuous attachment). positive career effects significantly predicted continuous attachment, whereas social support/career networking positively predicted overall psychological attachment and affective and normative attachment. career meaningfulness was found to explain higher levels of overall and affective psychological attachment. conclusion: the findings contribute new insights into the construct of career navigation and career well-being attributes and extend research on the antecedents of psychological attachment in the new normal working space, characterised by remote working and technology. keywords: post covid-19 career space; new normal working context; remote working; career well-being; career agility; career navigation; psychological attachment; organisational commitment. introduction in the new normal career context, uncertainties, complexities, and drastic changes have been a disturbing shock for many employees; these changes have presented complex social and economic challenges, prompting the employees to seek specific career-life counselling and career development guidance (coetzee, 2021). hooley (2020) noted that people are doing intense reflections about their values and their approach towards their lives, careers, and work. editorial (2020) suggested that anxiety and fear about jobs, career opportunities, remote working, and the new normal working context were some of the predominant challenges of career development. fear and anxiety resulting from the challenges posed by the new normal working context may be restored through career development interventions (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a). career development interventions involve conscious guidance towards perceived self-efficacy and competency in coping with and adapting to the new normal working context (radel, pelletier, & sarrazin, 2013). organisations face substantial challenges in retaining valuable employees within the exceedingly unstable and competitive global market (ruvimbo & hlanganipai, 2016). the covid-19 pandemic and the new normal working context have significantly increased global competitiveness. as a result, employees’ psychological attachment to their organisations remains an important topic of enquiry for organisations that strive to retain their valuable employees and improve their talent management practices (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019; kontoghiorghes, 2016). several research studies found that psychological attachment to the organisation results in job satisfaction, decreased turnover, and career well-being (ferreira, 2019; qureshi, frank, lambert, klahm, & smith, 2017). ferreira (2019) also found that psychological attachment significantly correlated with career adaptability. for decades, flexible working arrangements and working from home were only possible for a few and elite employees (hill et al., 2008). the global covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns forced many employees to adapt and work from home. as employees settled into the new normal working context of working remotely, what was once considered a benefit (i.e. the flexibility to work from home) now imposed new challenges for both employees and organisations. anderson and kelliher (2020) emphasised that the positive outcomes of working remotely were carried out amongst those employees who chose to work from home. working from home because of the new normal working context or lockdown regulations offered no choice to employees. consequently, many employees did not feel a sense of gratitude or optimism for being required to work remotely. therefore, remote working negatively influenced their well-being and attachment to the organisations. although many studies focused on the positive effect of remote working, such as enhanced productivity and better work-life balance (allen, golden, & shockley, 2015; martin & macdonnell, 2012), other studies found remote working to have negative outcomes, such as stress (moore, 2006), anxiety (allen et al., 2015), reduction in employee interactions, social connectedness, and creativity (thorgeirsdottir & kelliher, 2017). anderson and kelliher (2020) found that remote working in the new normal post-covid-19 career space resulted in lower levels of psychological attachment. they found work-family conflict as the most significant contributor to lower levels of psychological attachment to the organisation. popovici and popovici (2020) suggested that technology-enabled employees work from anywhere in the world. employees around the globe have been connected for many years. with the accelerated adoption of technology as a result of enforced working from home practices and the emergence of the right tools to support telework, employees were provided with boundaryless opportunities to work for any company abroad or at satellite offices. although this is a positive outcome for many employees, employees became less attached and committed to their current organisations because of attractive opportunities to work for international organisations (porter, 2020). keeping valuable employees attached and committed to the organisation thus became an essential human resource practice within the new normal working context. whilst numerous studies report the importance of psychological attachment, no study was found on the mechanisms accounting for individuals’ psychological attachment in the new normal working context. to address this research gap, the present study focuses on career navigation (as an externally driven psychological state) and career well-being (as an intrinsic driven state) as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation in the new normal working context. psychological attachment using the organisational attachment theory (st. clair, 2000), this study explores organisational commitment as an aspect of individual’s psychological attachment (an individual’s psychological and emotional bond between the individual and the organisation). organisational commitment relates to the emotional attachment of an employee to an organisation (affective commitment), feeling obligated to remain with the organisation (normative commitment), and concerns about the perceived loss or cost of leaving an organisation (continuance) (coetzee et al., 2019; meyer & allen, 1991; qureshi et al., 2017). employees’ organisational commitment reflects the attitudes and behaviour of an employee towards the organisation and the foundation of the psychological attachment that a person has towards a specific course of action, such as intention to stay within an organisation (st. clair, 2000). meyer and allen (1991) distinguished between attitudinal and behavioural commitments. attitudinal commitment involves the process that individuals follow in establishing relationships and connections with their organisations. conversely, behavioural commitment involves the inability to leave the current employment because of several reasons and how individuals deal with the situation or reasons. according to potgieter and ferreira (2018), affective commitment originates from emotions and feelings in the workplace (such as loyalty, belongingness, pleasure and affection). affective commitment can be enhanced by fulfilling basic psychological needs for feeling competent, feeling that one belongs and has close connections with and support from others (meyer & allen, 1991, 1997). continuance commitment is a psychological state or mindset about the perceived threat of leaving an organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). perceived threats may include the perceived costs of leaving (such as loss of salary, seniority, pension, loss of social connections, and job-specific competencies). employees may not want to lose some of the advantages or benefits offered by the organisation; therefore, they may choose to stay attached to the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). however, employees may feel obligated to remain attached to an organisation (normative commitment). according to meyer and allen (1997), normative commitment is associated with the perceived responsibility to remain with the organisation, internalised through socialisation processes (familial and cultural) that occur both before and after the start of employment. meyer and herscovitch (2001) found that affective commitment generates emotional attachments that can result in employees developing a sense of obligation (normative commitment) to remain with the organisation. employees may, however, display normative commitment but have very low levels of affective commitment towards the organisation. exploring organisational commitment through the lens of attachment theory (st. clair, 2000), the psychological states of affective, continuance, and normative commitment, are temporary mindsets influenced by conditions and experiences in the organisational attachment system, which either support employees’ sense of employment security or give rise to perceived threats to their employment security. the constructs of career navigation and career well-being represent psychological needs that associate with an employee’s sense of psychological security within the organisation. career navigation career agility (as an attribute of career adaptability) is an attribute needed by individuals to display proactive career planning, make career decisions, explore career opportunities, and display career self-efficacy beliefs (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; nilforooshan, 2020). alisic and wiese (2020) suggested that career agility is an important externally driven psychological attribute needed to effectively adapt to career insecurity and engage in career self-management behaviours. coetzee et al. (2021b) described career navigation as a facet of career agility where individuals can efficiently and positively display problem-solving behaviour, scan the environment for new career opportunities, and are aware of opportunities and challenges within the job market. individuals with a high career navigation ability are open-minded career adapters and actively seek new jobs or career opportunities within the changing labour market context (coetzee et al., 2021b). chamanifard, nikpour, chamanifard and nobarieidishe (2015) found that career agility significantly influenced organisational commitment. research by coetzee, bester, ferreira and potgieter (2020) showed that career navigation is an important career coping behaviour that influences an individual’s ability to display career self-management and career development behaviour. career well-being career well-being (as an intrinsic driven and positive psychological condition) reflects an individuals’ long-term contentment with their career outcomes, achievements, success, and changes, and commitment amidst the complexities of the new normal working context (bester, coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019). coetzee et al. (2021a) differentiated between three facets of career well-being, including positive career affect (which involves feelings of career growth and satisfaction), career networking/social support (positive feelings about career and social support), and career meaningfulness (positive feelings about the value and worth of one’s career). positive career affect refers to positive emotions resulting from psychological states. individuals with high positive career affect mostly feel satisfied with the given conditions to achieve their career goals. typical positive affective career states of well-being include feeling satisfied with one’s chosen career and the achievement of career goals, feelings supported within one’s career, and feeling that necessary resources are available to support achieving career goals (engelbrecht, 2019). tugade and fredrickson (2004) found that positive emotions decrease stress. reich, zautra and hall (2010) found that positive emotions are coping mechanisms that can effectively suppress negative emotions and increase innovative thinking and problem-solving behaviour. career networking/social support refers to the perceptions of an individual that they have a network of people that supports their career goals and that this support network can easily be approached to assist in achieving career goals. potgieter (2019) noted that individuals with a high career network/social support psychological state believe that feedback from the social support network may enhance their strengths. several authors found social support to be an essential coping mechanism to deal with stressful conditions and situations (ferreira, 2021; potgieter, 2021; reich et al., 2010). career meaningfulness alludes to the belief that one’s career has meaning, and being involved in this career is a matter of personal choice. according to coetzee et al. (2021a), individuals with high career meaningfulness experience their career as worthwhile and valuable, and believe that their careers contribute to the bigger picture and enhance lives (allan, rolniak, & bouchard, 2020; coetzee et al., 2021a). li (2018) found that a sense of purpose (which is related to career meaningfulness) is an essential coping mechanism in stressful working conditions. reich et al. (2010) suggested that career meaningfulness significantly predicted career resilience, job satisfaction, and career well-being. believing that one’s career has meaning, creates optimism about the future and denotes motivation to cope with stressful working conditions (masten & wright, 2010). whilst numerous studies report the importance of psychological attachment, no study was found on the mechanisms accounting for individuals’ psychological attachment in the new normal working context. to address this research gap, the present study focuses on career navigation (i.e. externally driven psychological states) and career well-being (i.e. intrinsic driven states) as explanatory mechanisms of psychological attachment. method participants a convenience sample of employed adults (n = 177, average age: 34 years, standard deviation [sd]: 10.14) participated in this research study. the majority of the participants were employed within south africa (72%), although the sample was represented by adults across the world (western europe: 12%; eastern europe: 6%; africa: 6%; the usa: 2%; new zealand: 2%). participants on the managerial level (39%) and staff level (38%) were almost equally represented. the sample consisted of predominantly white people (67%) which were mostly women (54%). measuring instrument career navigation participants’ career navigation as a facet of career agility was measured by the career agility scale (coetzee et al., 2021b). the facet of career navigation consisted of six items (e.g. ‘i regularly scan the environment for new career opportunities’). the items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research (coetzee et al. 2012b) indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability for career navigation (0.81). career well-being the three facets of career well-being were measured by the career well-being scale (coetzee et al., 2021a). the scale measures three states of career well-being: affective career state (6 items; e.g. ‘i regularly feel i am making progress towards accomplishing my career goals’); career networking/social support state (4 items; e.g. ‘i have a network of people that support me in my career’); and state of career meaningfulness (4 items; e.g. ‘my job and career contribute to a bigger life purpose’). the 14 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability of the career well-being scale (coetzee et al., 2021a). the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales were as follows: affective career state (0.86), career networking/social support state (0.85), and state of career meaningfulness (0.87). psychological attachment participants’ psychological attachment was measured by the organisational commitment questionnaire (meyer & allen, 1997). the scale measures three components of organisational commitment: affective commitment (8 items; for example, ‘i do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my organisation’), continuance commitment (8 items; for example, ‘right now, staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as a desire’), and normative commitment (8 items; e.g. ‘one of the major reasons i continue to work for this organisation is that i believe that loyalty is important and therefore feel a sense of moral obligation to remain’). the 24 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability of the organisational commitment scale (coetzee et al., 2019). the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales ranged between 0.75 and 0.86. procedure data were collected via the professional linkedin online platform. an electronic link to the questionnaire was sent to all participants. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an statistical package for the social sciences (spss) file for data analysis purposes. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa cems/iop (erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014). research ethics review committee (no. 2019_cems/iop_010). data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multiple regression analysis were performed using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). tolerance (less than 0.20) and the variance inflation factor (vif exceeding 4.0) were utilised to assess any concerns about multicollinearity. results were interpreted at the 95% confidence interval (ci) level. results descriptive results table 1 shows that the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for all the constructs were high (≥ 0.64 to ≤ 0.91). the well-being facet of affective state significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.18; p = 0.01; small practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.36; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.28; p = 0.01; small practical effect). affective state was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ –0.33; p = 0.001; medium practical effect). table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations (n = 177). social support/career networking as a facet of career well-being significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.34; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.30; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.23; p = 0.01; small practical effect). social support/career networking was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ –0.16; p = 0.05; small practical effect). career meaningfulness significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.29; p = 0.001; small practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.38; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.22; p = 0.01; small practical effect). career meaningfulness was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ −0.16; p = 0.05; small practical effect). career navigation significantly and negatively correlated with continuance commitment (r ≥ −0.17; p = 0.05; small practical effect) and normative commitment (r ≥ −0.19; p = 0.05; small practical effect). table 2 shows that all the three organisational commitment models were practically significant: model 1 (affective commitment): f = 9.10; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.19 (small practical effect); model 2 (normative commitment): f = 7.23; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.15 (small practical effect) and model 3 (continuance commitment): f = 6.08; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.13 (small practical effect). the tolerance values for all the models were greater than 0.30 and the vif values were lower than 0.26 which showed that multicollinearity was not a threat to the findings. table 2: results of multiple regression analysis (n = 177). as shown in figure 1 and table 2, affective organisational commitment was positively and significantly predicted by career meaningfulness (β = 0.26; p = 0.008). career navigation was a statistically and negative predictor or affective commitment (β = −0.21; p = 0.004). figure 1: career navigation and facets of career well-being as positive predictors of the organisational commitment attributes. normative commitment was positively and significantly predicted by career networking/social support (β = 0.20; p = 0.03). career navigation was a statistically and negative predictor or affective commitment (β = −0.30; p = 0.001). continuance commitment was negatively and significantly predicted by career navigation (β = −0.217; p = 0.03) and affective career state (β = −0.41; p = 0.001). discussion the empirical study provides insight into the externally driven state of career navigation and intrinsic career well-being states associated with the facets of psychological attachment. building on the basic premises of organisational attachment theory (coetzee, 2021; st. clair, 2000), job independence, respect, and career development opportunities seem to enhance employees’ sense of employment security and create the desire to remain committed and attached to the organisation. further, the study provides evidence that individuals’ career well-being states of positive career affect, career meaningfulness, and career networking/social support matter in facilitating their adaptive readiness mindsets of career navigation. for people to develop agile coping capabilities in actively solving problems and searching for career opportunities within the new normal working context, and to perform within a remote working environment effectively, they need a sense of career well-being (felstead & henseke, 2017; pagan-castano, maseda-moreno, & santos-rojo, 2020; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). the results suggest that the three states of career well-being function as important psychological conditions that activate the problem-solving and coping mindsets of career navigation (coetzee, 2021). the empirical study provides evidence that career navigation and all facets of career well-being (affective career state, career networking/social support, and state of career meaningfulness) positively correlated with affective commitment and normative commitment. this conforms with the study by pagan-castano et al. (2020), who also found a positive association between organisational commitment and well-being. it is thus evident that individuals who can actively search for new job opportunities within the new normal working context and who display high career well-being feel a sense of emotional attachment to the organisation, a moral commitment, and sense of loyalty towards their organisation. career navigation and all facets of career well-being (affective career state, career networking/social support, and state of career meaningfulness) are significantly and negatively correlated with continuance commitment. individuals with the external psychological drive to navigate their careers and who display problem-solving behaviours, and those who display intrinsic healthy career well-being state that they are not likely to leave their current organisation. this might be that they are confident that they can gain the same or better benefits elsewhere and do not have much to lose if they choose to leave their organisation. however, nandi, khan, qureshi and ghias (2020) found contradictory results; they did not find any significant association between searching for new opportunities and organisational commitment. participants’ career navigation (as an externally driven psychological facet of career agility) significantly but negatively predicted affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment. the problem-solving mindset of the agentic career adapter is demonstrated in the willingness to embrace and adapt to changes and search for new job/career opportunities (i.e. career navigation). such individuals may feel confident that their adaptive problem-solving mindset will guarantee other career opportunities and they do not need to be committed or psychologically attached to one organisation. this result is in line with edosomwan, nwanzu and oguegbe (2020), who found that problem-solving mindsets (as an attribute of employability) significantly influence organisational commitment. the results further suggested that affective career state significantly and negatively predicted continuance commitment. individuals with an emotional attachment to the organisation and who are satisfied with their career growth do not perceive the risk and cost of leaving their organisation as too high. social support/career networking was found to significantly and positively predict normative commitment. individuals who are satisfied and positive with the social support network present within their current career context feel a moral obligation to remain within the organisation and further invest in the social connections and support networks that they established within the current organisation. lastly, the results suggested that career meaningfulness facilitated affective commitment. this result is in line with findings by kaur and mittal (2020), who also found that meaningfulness at work is influenced by affective commitment. individuals who feel that their careers are worthwhile, valuable, and enhance lives and people around them may feel an emotional attachment to their organisation. conclusion implications for organisational career development practices the empirical study findings may have practical implications for enhancing employees’ psychological attachment within the new normal working context. the results suggest that organisational career development practices should be designed to cultivate the positive states of career well-being and career navigation attributes to enhance employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. psychological attachment to the organisation is generally considered instrumental to meaningful career goal achievement (xie, zhou, huang, & xia, 2017). organisations should engage in interventions to enhance their employee’s psychological attachment to the organisation. career development interventions can include career discussions with employees regarding the support they receive from the organisation to achieve career goals and expectations to enhance career meaningfulness. organisations should facilitate social opportunities to form and develop social connections to enhance career networks and social support structures. employees should be guided and provided with resources to navigate their careers and identify opportunities within the new normal working context. such guidance may assist employees with the cognitive restructuring of change into a sense of competence rather than weakness in coping. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors collected the data. i.l.p. wrote the article, m.c. assisted with data analysis and n.f. assisted with editing and literature. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available from the corresponding author upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alisic, a., & wiese, b.s. 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(2019). career self-management as a key factor for career well-being. in i.l potgieter, n. ferreira, & m. coetzee (eds.), theory, research and dynamics of career well-being (pp. 117–138). cham: springer nature. xie, b., zhou, w., huang, j.l., & xia, m. (2017). using goal facilitation theory to explain the relationships between calling and organization-directed citizenship behavior and job satisfaction. journal of vocational behavior, 100, 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j/jvb.2017.03.001 abstract introduction research methods and design results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boitumelo m. diale dean’s office, faculty of education, sol plaatje university, kimberley, south africa citation diale, b.m. (2024). on the crossroads: gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee. african journal of career development, 6(2), a139. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.139 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. original research on the crossroads: gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee boitumelo m. diale received: 08 may 2024; accepted: 17 july 2024; published: 25 nov. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: research in gender and sexuality studies focuses on the experiences of lgbtqi communities and how they are discriminated against in societies. research on career transitioning has focused on how employees navigate their world of work, with fewer studies focusing on career transitioning with transgender employees in the workplace. objectives: this article aims to provide a unique perspective by delving into the career transition journey of a young transgender male-to-female employee. by exploring her experiences in the workplace, i hope to shed light on the challenges and triumphs of her journey. method: this article presents a qualitative, phenomenological case study exploring the lived experiences of angel (pseudonym), a young transgender employee at an educational space, as she navigates gender identity and career transition crossroads. the study employed a face-to-face semi-structured interview as a data collection method. results: this article shows how angel struggled to find and become herself in the workplace while navigating her gender and career transition. it demonstrates her lived experiences, the multiple faces of gender and career transitioning, and her journey of being at the workplace. conclusion: the findings reveal significant challenges faced by transgender employees, including discrimination, microaggressions, and systemic barriers. training about transgender people and workplace inclusivity should be a strategic priority for organisations. contribution: this case study contributes to our understanding of the complex intersections between gender transition and career development, highlighting unique challenges faced by transgender employees through discrimination, identity navigation, and systemic barriers. these insights can inform inclusive workplace policies and practices. keywords: transgender; transitioning; career transition; heteronormativity; employment; gender stereotypes; career aspirations; workplace. introduction transitioning is not a single event but a complicated process involving various aspects of life, including one’s spiritual, personal, gender and career transitions. because of the complex nature of the transition, it is generally challenging for all humans. however, this journey becomes more complicated when individuals find themselves at the crossroads of multiple transitions, which, in this article, are the gender, identity and career-transitioning crossroads. career development is an essential aspect of employment, as it provides opportunities for growth and advancement. however, transgender employees are faced with the realities of having to navigate a complex and often hostile environment while managing the personal and emotional challenges of transitioning (goldberg et al., 2021). in addition, transgender youth face significant challenges during their career transitioning process, such as discrimination, bullying, harassment, a lack of understanding and marginalisation in the workplace, with employers and colleagues not accepting them (beauregard et al., 2021). these acts can create a hostile and isolated work environment, leading to decreased job satisfaction and productivity among transgender employees. furthermore, transgender youth entering employment must contend with gender binaries that are either implicit or explicit in workplace rules and regulations that are often not inclusive or progressive enough to accommodate diversity. this includes dress codes, uniforms, gendered roles and bathroom designations (brown & diale, 2017; brown et al., 2020). while the body of knowledge is expanding and being built from the workplace experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (lgbtqi) employees, research focusing on the career and gender transitioning of young transgender employees within the education profession workspaces in south africa remains limited. this study explores a single case study of angel, a young transgender employee who has journeyed through dual career and gender transitioning in the workplace. since the dawn of democracy in 1994, south africa has made significant progress in protecting the rights of all that live in it, as espoused in chapter 2 of the bill of rights in the constitution. these rights include the right to life, equality, human dignity, freedom of assembly, association, belief, opinion and expression. south africa became the first country in the world to prohibit discrimination against lgbtqi individuals. in 2003, the government passed the alteration of sex description and sex status act no 49 of 2003 (republic of south africa, 2003). this legislation allows individuals whose sexual characteristics have been altered through medical, surgical or natural processes to apply to the department of home affairs for alteration of their sex description and gender markers on official identity documents. furthermore, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development highlights universal goals to eradicate inequalities and identifies gender as an imperative to providing a safe, nonviolent, inclusive and compelling world for all (chopra, 2019). despite progressive global legislation and legal protection, many transgender employees continue to face significant barriers to career advancement and success in their workplace that do not embrace diversity and inclusivity (brown, 2024). although there are employment spaces that have made progress in this space and employees tell encouraging narratives, the workplace views on transgender employees continue to oscillate between acceptance and rejection (dayal, 2022). therefore, significant work still needs to be done regarding creating safe, inclusive, diverse and supportive spaces for all employees. employers place a greater emphasis on fostering a diverse workplace for sexual orientation than they do on gender identity and expression. when it comes to corporate diversity, equity and inclusion, employers often fail to consider the transgender experience (baboolall et al., 2021). kattaru et al. (2016) argue that an individual who is transgender is twice as likely to be unemployed than someone who is cisgender. the general public’s awareness, understanding and acceptance of transgender people have increased over the last decade. however, the stigma surrounding transgender people is still pervasive, which leads to structural discrimination in society (lerner et al., 2020). when compared to their cisgender counterparts, transgender individuals often feel less supported at work. they may also face more significant challenges in understanding workplace culture and benefits and encountering barriers to promotion (baboolall et al., 2021). transgender employees often face some difficulties during their career transition, such as potential career setbacks and deteriorating socioeconomic conditions (köllen, 2018). they are subject to job discrimination, hiring bias and misunderstandings that make it difficult for them to support themselves and their families. some employers may refuse leave for transgender employees for transition-related health care, erroneously believing that such care is not considered a serious medical problem (national lgbtq task force, 2023). in this regard, transgender employees may have to choose between putting their jobs at risk of not receiving the necessary healthcare. according to a report by the national centre for transgender equality (2021), more than one in four transgender workers have been fired because of bias, and more than three-fourths have faced workplace discrimination. in addition, one in eight transgender individuals are engaged in underground economies, such as sex and drug work, to survive the high rates of unemployment and poverty (national centre for transgender equality, 2021). walworth (2003) outlines some issues that human resource professionals ought to be cognisant and aware of, such as what to expect when an employee changes gender and how to handle the multiple issues and problems that may arise in the workplace. walworth, while putting workplace issues in context, discusses issues of confidentiality, the initial meeting of a human resource professional with a transgender employee, the information needed from the employee, the formation of a transition team, informing and training coworkers, restroom use, document changes, problems that can be encountered and follow-up measures to be taken by human resource professionals to aid a successful transitioning. despite the great strides in legislative protection over the last few decades, many workplaces still lack genuinely inclusive trans-voices (beauregard et al., 2021). this article is underpinned by schlossberg’s transition model, which provides a framework for any transition individuals experience throughout life and how they cope and adjust (schlossberg, 2011). schlossberg defines transitioning as any event or non-event that changes relationships, routines, assumptions and roles (anderson & goodman, 2014). schlossberg (2011) suggests that her transition model ‘can be used as a framework for researching any group or person in transition’ and a ‘guideline for developing interventions with individuals’ (p. 7). in the context of this article, to understand the meaning of transition for a young transgender employee, the transition type, context and impact must be considered carefully. the theory argues that no transition is precisely like another. thus, the individual’s experiences are placed at the centre of the transition. this assertion is true for transgender individuals as they all are unique humans who differ and go through transitioning phases differently, and so do their experiences of transition (anderson & goodman, 2014). research methods and design research design a qualitative, phenomenological single case study design was adopted to allow for an in-depth exploration of the lived experiences of a transgender employee, providing rich insights into the complexities of gender and career transitions in the workplace (yin, 2018). the approach focuses on the essence of lived experiences or phenomena open to observation or perception by diverse individuals with diverse viewpoints (tomaszewski et al., 2020). participant – the case of angel this phenomenological case study focuses on the experiences of a single participant, assigned the pseudonym ‘angel’ for anonymity. to provide context for my discussion, it is essential to reflect on the background of my participant. at the time of the interview, angel worked at an educational institution in gauteng. when she started her gender transitioning journey, she had just moved from one unit to a higher position in another unit of the institution, simultaneously undergoing a career transition. from the beginning of our engagement, angel identified herself as a transgender woman. data collection and analysis data were collected through a face-to-face semi-structured interview, allowing angel to describe her gender and career transition from a self-reflective perspective. we employed content analysis to analyse the data, following a systematic process: familiarisation, initial coding, categorisation of codes into themes, theme refinement and final interpretation. to ensure rigour, we used member checking and peer debriefing. this analysis yielded rich insights into angel’s career and gender-transitioning experiences and how she navigated the transition. the emergent themes form the basis of my findings and discussion, providing a deep understanding of the participant’s lived experiences during her dual transition (brown, 2024). ethical considerations this single case study was part of a more extensive study on southern african perspectives of gender violence towards gender-non-conforming and transgender people, including the lived experiences of trans people in namibia. angel was informed that her anonymity would be maintained throughout the study. the purpose and potential implications of the research were thoroughly explained to her before obtaining informed consent. ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty of education research ethics committee (no. sem 2-2020-172). results considering the extensive data set from the engagement with angel, i only drew on two themes for this article that focused on the aim: (1) multiple faces of gender and career-transitioning in the workplace; and (2) experiences of becoming and being the self. multiple faces of gender and career-transitioning in the workplace unaccustomed society assumes that there is a neat binary in gender variance, just as they think that career transitioning is a straightforward one-size-fits-all process, adding a career-transitioning face to her already complicated transformation. this assumption leads to employers and colleagues accusing transgender people of making up their experience out of seeking attention without considering the realities and the impact this has on trans people’s political, economic and social selves (faye, 2021). angel’s career transition involved moving to a different department within the same institution, taking on new responsibilities and a higher position. angel expresses the multiple faces of transitioning she encountered as a transwoman in the workplace, as a triad experience of social, medical and formal transition. in describing her social transition, angel notes that: ‘when i started my social transition journey at work, i expected it to be a little bit [un]comfortable for a few people because then i now didn’t look like a woman dressed like a man but looked like a woman and dressed as a woman. so, because people know that i am transitioning from male to female, the assumption is that i am homosexual, so that’s the first thing they say, “you gay”.’ the employer and fellow employees perceived angel as gay. this was based on her dress code and the assigned gender at birth, which was informed and constructed by the hegemonic and gender-boxed workspace. throughout her journey, angel was determined to clarify her gender identity with her colleagues so they could understand who she was. alluding to a question on how she handled her identity, angel said: ‘previously, when people were still under the impression that i was gay, the reason for my disclosure was that there were speculations about my gender identity. i wanted to confirm things and the talks and the speculations as quickly as i could, so i said i’m gonna try and tell my story as quickly and as precise and concisely as i can so that i can move past it and focus on what we supposed to be all focusing on in the work[place] that we supposed to do.’ angel’s finding herself in her early career journey was challenging. while career development and the world of work play an essential role in the professional lifespan of any young person, the process is not smooth. it is always challenging for minority and vulnerable groups such as transgender individuals as it takes place at a structural, interpersonal and individual level because of their visible transitioning process (ciprikis et al., 2020). angel recalls in her early career days: ‘when i got to the parking, i had first to check who was around, then i would take out my shoes and run to the office, so people do not see me in a dress and heels.’ she recalls coming across questions from fellow employees that made her feel uncomfortable and bordered on symbolic bullying and discrimination, mainly because of the manner and the spaces they were posted in. ciprikis et al. (2020) mention that transgender employees generally face discrimination, abuse and harassment despite the public’s awareness, understanding and acceptance of their identity. also, brown (2024) asserts that the daunting discrimination instigates inequality among diverse sexual and gender identities in the workplace. angel’s medical transition caused turbulence in her career life as she was ready to quit her job to go through the process and start afresh somewhere as a female. although she had the support of her line manager, the workplace was still an uncomfortable space, potentially impacting her career development. angel explains this experience as follows: ‘so then, the subsequent thing to follow would be questions about my physical appearance, so certain things like (laughs) are your breasts real and have you had your genitals changed type of questions. i got real questions like that at work (laugh). a question posed in a public space is ok; it becomes very sensitive for one to answer. i’ve had that question before in a public space and the workplace, and often, i try not to respond to those questions, and if i do respond to them, i say yes, it is. it just concludes the conversation very quickly.’ in a study by ozturk and tatli (2016), they found that colleagues would ask offensive and intrusive questions to their transgender colleagues, refuse to sit next to them at lunch or even exclude them from social gatherings. angel’s recollection of her formal transitioning experiences was that of ticking a title in an official form and picking whether she was a mr or a ms. while she had transitioned, her staff card still labelled her as a mr, and when she ticked a ms, she would receive unwelcoming gestures. angel mentions that: ‘[t]he system itself also perpetuates this because i never got an opportunity to pick a box and unfortunately, in my case, the box that was ticked for me is this one {referring to male} because of my id, this is a systemic form of discrimination.’ francis (2021) emphasises that although the south african legal systems affirm and protect the rights of transgender workers, many still find themselves subjected to socially constructed sexual and gender discrimination in the workplace. lerner et al. (2020) further state that specific medical interventions and legal gender markers often lead to transgender individuals being subjected to experiences of self-representation, ostracism and microaggression. experiences of becoming and being the self in the workplace angel’s lived experiences at work after she had spoken out about her sexual identity and her process of transitioning assisted in her moving from becoming to being the self in the workplace. angel narrates the tension in her experiences at a personal and close collegial level and an organisational level. while she enjoyed the support at the collegial level, she found the organisational level uncomfortable and discriminatory. in asserting her identity in the workplace, angel mentions, ‘it was tricky for me to navigate the two spaces of my personal life and my professional life’. despite this ‘tricky navigation’ at work, angel found her colleagues and direct line manager to be a great support system. she alludes to this experience, starting with a personal talk with her boyfriend after a photo shoot where she wore a dress while at work, where they perceived her as a gay man. the boyfriend then dared her to post the picture on her whatsapp status, hiding her face, to see how people would react. her line manager saw the picture, and a couple of days later, she innocently asked, ‘i saw something on the lines of um…’ and said, ‘can i show it to you?’. angel said she already knew what the manager would ask her and agreed. it is at that stage that her manager asked her: ‘look, i don’t need to climb into your personal space, and i am pleased to stop, and then you tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. i’m curious, um, this picture with this person in this picture {i then said, ok, i have an opportunity here to either keep quiet, or i could tell the conversation was welcoming, and it gave me a platform for me to speak with her without fear, so i said ok i am going to use this to speak to her and see to test the waters}. i told her it was me in the picture, and then she said oh, you look really good, … she told me ok, but why don’t you dress like this to work?’ while angel expressed her excitement that her line manager accepted her transitioning, she had to respond and verbalise her fears. in her response, angel explained her situation as follows: ‘well, i don’t dress like this to work because of fear of discrimination, that i will be violated here, that opportunities will be lost for me regarding growth and fear of being victimised.’ angel’s fears are supported by lerner et al. (2020) that transgender workers generally struggle to access resources because of discrimination and victimisation, thus making them vulnerable to workplace violence. also, ciprikis et al. (2020) observe that because of the cis-normative culture and the transphobic nature of the workplace, transgender workers may experience lower career inclusion and unequal occupational opportunities. however, in angel’s case, the line manager’s pledge of support allowed her to become herself at work. she crafts this freedom of expression by saying: ‘that’s how i started having conversations about transitioning from male to female. i then had informal conversations with my team. we’d be having lunch, and i would find a way to introduce the topic of lgbtqi and see how they react to it. i would also make it comfortable for them to talk to me about their suspicions.’ it is a given that young employees entering the world of work require good role models to guide them in navigating the new workplace environment successfully. by showing a diversity of gender identities, management can serve as role models for individual transgender employees and guide and support them in their journey towards personal and career growth (fletcher & marvell, 2023). however, working for a large organisation such as angel’s institution, she had to work with other stakeholders outside her domain. it is at this level that angel experienced various forms of prejudice and workplace discrimination, including career demotion, forced positioning, symbolic violence and subtle bullying in the workplace. angel narrates how she was treated differently and prejudiced when she started wearing dresses, makeup and heels. one example that angel narrated was: ‘recently, we met with numerous stakeholders, and one male stakeholder member insisted that i order lunch. it was the way that the person was saying it in front of everybody, and he would sometimes say bro, bro, i’m talking to you, and i mean everybody could see that i look and am dressed as a female; it made me feel extremely violated.’ another form of prejudice and discrimination experienced by angel during her transition was her career demotion, as she was subtly treated as a junior and given work that was below her position. she narrates this experience as follows: ‘i get asked to do very trivial stuff, like set up meetings. i feel sometimes like i’ve been forced down the ladder to start again afresh … sometimes it feels like they’re like we are women born women, and we’re going to teach you how to be a woman.’ angel further explains her experience of prejudice as that of forced positioning. in her words, she describes this positioning as: ‘people try to put a timeline on the process, so they ask how long it will take. thus, it often feels like i’m being restricted from transitioning comfortably in my own time and space.’ angel also found workplace policies non-inclusive in that they refer to generic issues around sexual harassment. however, they fail to capture the nuances that transgender employees experience. considering angel’s case, i argue that gender identity policies and staff development can help employees appreciate and support their transitioning colleagues by assisting employers in creating welcoming workplaces for transitioning employees. (kleintop, 2019). one of angel’s concerns was the assumed nature of her workplace. she found that people saw it natural to talk about her story without asking her or to easily name her as an example of the transformation of public spaces without her consent. these points of reference made an unfortunate assumption that she was comfortable with her story being told anywhere and anyhow. furthermore, they assumed that gender transitioning was a uniform process and that one trans story would be generic to all without understanding the dynamics involved in the process: ‘what i don’t like is people assuming that all lgbtq people are made to be ambassadors, advocates, and activists in the workplace. the workplace should not put that pressure on people. inevitably, the workplace expects that the person must play the role.’ steffens et al. (2016) argue that these forms of actions are bound to have negative social and emotional consequences and can profoundly impact the transgender employee’s ability to make friends and meet romantic partners. in summing up angel’s sexual identity in the workplace, it can be deduced that being a young aspirant professional navigating her gender and career transition, the journey is not a straightforward path. it means that angel has to assert herself in these changing roads and depend on her resilience. conclusion the article explored the experiences of a young transgender employee at the crossroads of gender and career transitions in a south african workplace. the findings illuminate several critical issues, including prevalent workplace discrimination, the impact of uninformed assumptions and the need for more inclusive policies. angel’s case highlights the complex intersections between gender identity, career development and workplace dynamics, emphasising the importance of fostering a culture of respect and understanding. the study reveals gaps in implementing south africa’s progressive constitution in protecting transgender rights in the workplace. it underscores the need for employers to develop systems that consider transgender workers’ identities, with clear transformational goals to address inequalities. recommendations include developing transitioning-at-work policies, adopting zero-tolerance approaches to transphobia and commemorating events like trans day of visibility. future research should explore these themes across diverse workplace contexts to develop comprehensive strategies for supporting transgender employees in their professional journeys, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and equitable work environments. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions b.m.d. declares that they are the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data supporting this study’s findings are available upon request from the author. however, they are not publicly available because of privacy or ethical restrictions. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references anderson, m.l., & goodman, j. 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(2011). the challenge of change: the transition model and its applications. journal of employment counseling, 48(4), 159–162. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01102.x steffens, m.c., niedlich, c., & ehrke, f. (2016). discrimination at work on the basis of sexual orientation: subjective experience, experimental evidence, and interventions. in t. köllen (ed.), sexual orientation and transgender issues in organizations: global perspectives on lgbt workforce diversity (pp. 367–388). springer. tomaszewski, l.e., zarestky, j., & gonzalez, e. (2020). planning qualitative research: design and decision making for new researchers. international journal of qualitative methods, 19, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920967174 walworth, j. (2003). managing transsexual transition in the workplace. lesbian gay bisexual transgender (lgbt) resource center (pp. 1–25). university of southern california. creating sustainable change through inclusive practices references about the author(s) anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation brown, a. (2024). from the margins to the mainstream: lgbtq+ professionals’ lived experiences in the education workplace. african journal of career development, 6(2), a156. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.156 note: special collection: care and support for queering the role of educators in the workplace. editorial from the margins to the mainstream: lgbtq+ professionals’ lived experiences in the education workplace anthony brown copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in recent years, the dialogue surrounding inclusivity within south african educational environments has gained significant traction, particularly in relation to the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (lgbtq+) educators and students. the necessity for safe, enabling, and inclusive workplace environments in schools and institutions of higher learning is increasingly recognised as vital not only for the well-being of lgbtq+ individuals but also for the overall health of educational institutions. as all employees in educational settings play a crucial role in fostering inclusive learning environments, it is imperative that they themselves are supported and protected within their professional contexts (brown, 2024). research indicates that educators advocating for gender and sexuality diversity often face systemic challenges that manifest in various forms of backlash and discrimination, impacting their professional identities and job satisfaction. baker and lucas (2017) highlight that lgbtq+ educators and support staff in educational settings frequently encounter a hostile climate characterised by microaggressions and overt discrimination, leading to significant mental health challenges and career instability. this aligns with maji et al. (2024), who emphasise the pervasive nature of workplace discrimination against lgbtq+ individuals, observing that such experiences contribute to heightened stress and diminished job satisfaction, ultimately affecting their effectiveness in the classroom. the systemic barriers to lgbtq+ inclusivity in educational settings are often rooted in broader societal norms that perpetuate heteronormativity and cisnormativity. white et al. (2018) discuss how these norms create a culture of silence around lgbtq+ identities within educational institutions, resulting in a lack of policy frameworks that support queer educators. this silence not only undermines the well-being of lgbtq+ staff but also deprives students of role models who can affirm their identities and foster an inclusive learning environment. there is a pressing need for institutional policies that affirm the rights of lgbtq+ employees and students in educational settings, facilitating a safer and more supportive workplace (brown, 2024). moreover, studies show that employees who identify as lgbtq+ often navigate complex identity management strategies to cope with the challenges of their work environments. for instance, research by cui (2022) reveals that many lgbtq+ educators feel compelled to conceal their identities to avoid potential backlash, which not only affects their personal well-being but also hinders their ability to authentically engage with students on issues of diversity and inclusion. this phenomenon underscores the urgent need for educational institutions to implement robust support systems, including mentorship programmes and professional development opportunities that specifically address the challenges faced by lgbtq+ educators (lee, 2023). the implications of fostering inclusive workplaces extend beyond individual well-being; they are integral to creating a transformative educational experience for all students. educators and administrative staff in educational settings who feel cared for in their identities are more likely to engage in teaching practices and support that promote equity and inclusion. research conducted by fantus and newman (2021) indicates that inclusive educational environments not only benefit lgbtq+ employees in education settings but also enhance the learning experiences of all students by fostering a climate of respect and understanding. thus, the call for inclusive policies, training programmes, and supportive networks is not merely a matter of equity but is essential for the holistic development of educational communities. creating sustainable change through inclusive practices educational institutions must actively work to dismantle the heteronormative frameworks that marginalise lgbtq+ staff. this requires comprehensive inclusion strategies, including anti-discriminatory policies, safe reporting mechanisms, and continuous dialogue on gender and sexual diversity (mizzi, 2022). furthermore, it is crucial for educational leaders to engage with and amplify the voices of lgbtq+ staff, fostering a culture where difference is not merely tolerated but celebrated as a source of strength. the integration of lgbtq+ inclusion within educational workplaces aligns with broader efforts to enhance equity and well-being across sectors. thus, the well-being of educators and other staff is intrinsically linked to the creation of educational spaces that affirm all identities. this special issue brings together a collection of thought-provoking articles that explore diverse perspectives on queering educational workplaces. it addresses the critical gaps in the existing literature and institutional practices regarding the support and inclusion of lgbtq+ educators and support staff. the overarching theme emphasises the importance of creating inclusive, supportive spaces where personal identities are affirmed, professional development is nurtured, and systemic barriers are critically examined. by highlighting the experiences of queer, gender-diverse, and sexuality-diverse educators and support staff, i seek to amplify their voices and advocate for necessary reforms in educational policy and practice. as educational institutions endeavour to create environments that are safe and inclusive for all, it is vital to recognise and address the unique challenges faced by lgbtq+ employees. this special issue aims not only to critique the existing barriers but also to celebrate successful initiatives that promote queer inclusion within educational settings. by fostering a collective discourse on care and support for lgbtq+ educators and support staff, we hope to contribute to a more equitable and affirming educational landscape where all individuals can thrive. in her study, j. rossouw (2024) examines the tensions life orientation educators experience when balancing personal religious beliefs with their professional responsibility to teach inclusive sexuality education, revealing how deeply personal values can shape pedagogical practices. e.r. awarab and a. brown’s (2024) article investigates the complexities namibian life skills teachers face while navigating sexuality education amid cultural and legal ambiguities. this work underscores the intersectional challenges of policy implementation in conservative contexts. b.m. diale’s (2024) case study offers a nuanced look into the dual career and gender transition of a transgender educator, addressing the need for comprehensive workplace support policies tailored to marginalised identities. similarly, l.m. ubisi’s (2024) article shifts focus to hostel carers in residential schools for the visually impaired, exploring the role of non-traditional educators in providing comprehensive sexuality education and highlighting gaps in support structures for this essential group. o. kagola (2024) presents the case of a same-sex desiring male teacher working in a traditionally feminised foundation phase, offering insights into positive inclusive practices that foster belonging. this article challenges conventional gender norms and reinforces the value of diversity in early childhood education settings. a. brown’s (2024) autoethnography reflects on the use of self-disclosure as a pedagogical tool, illustrating how lgbtq+ educators can disrupt heteronormative assumptions to create more inclusive classrooms, despite the risks involved. s.n. maseko’s (2024) article delves into the experiences of queer educators in high school environments, focusing on the delicate balance between advocacy and assimilation. it provides critical recommendations for improving support systems to ensure these educators thrive while navigating complex professional spaces. r. venketsamy, z. hu, and n. naicker (2024) examine the experiences of queer foundation phase teachers, uncovering how discrimination impacts well-being and job performance, while advocating for improved institutional practices to support lgbtq+ educators. altogether, these articles offer a comprehensive exploration of the intersection of personal identity, professional responsibility, and institutional dynamics in education. they provide valuable insights into the importance of fostering care, support, and diversity in educational workplaces, advancing the discourse on queering educational environments for both educators and students alike. references awarab, e.r., & brown, a. (2024). teaching sexuality in a climate of ambiguity: namibian life skills teachers negotiating intersectionality. african journal of career development, 6(2), a143. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.143 baker, s.j., & lucas, k. (2017). is it safe to bring myself to work? understanding lgbtq experiences of workplace dignity. canadian journal of administrative sciences/revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 34(2), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1439 brown, a. (2024). out in the classroom: self-disclosure as a ‘pedagogical tool’. african journal of career development, 6(2), a142. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.142 brown, a. (2024). shifting professional and personal identities of the cisgender scholar focusing on lgbt research. african journal of career development, 5(1), a82. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.82 cui, l. (2022). “i had to get married to protect myself”: gay academics’ experiences of managing sexual identity in china. asian journal of social science, 50(4), 260–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajss.2022.05.007 diale, b.m. (2024). on the crossroads: gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee. african journal of career development, 6(2), a139. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.139 fantus, s., & newman, p.a. (2021). promoting a positive school climate for sexual and gender minority youth through a systems approach: a theory-informed qualitative study. american journal of orthopsychiatry, 91(1), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000513 kagola, o. (2024). positive inclusive experiences of a same-sex desiring male foundation phase teacher. african journal of career development, 6(2), a144. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.144 lee, c. (2023). coming out in the university workplace: a case study of lgbtq+ staff visibility. higher education, 85(5), 1181–1199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00884-y maji, s., yadav, n., & gupta, p. (2024). lgbtq+ in workplace: a systematic review and reconsideration. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 43(2), 313–360. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-02-2022-0049 maseko, s.n. (2024). to advocate or assimilate: lessons of queer educators navigating their high school space. african journal of career development, 6(2), a134. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.134 mizzi, r. (2022). creating inclusive workplaces for lgbtq international educators: voices from the field. international education journal: comparative perspectives, 21(2), 129–138. rossouw, j. (2024). balancing faith and duty: challenges in teaching inclusive sexuality education. african journal of career development, 6(2), a131. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.131 ubisi, l.m. (2024). queering the role of hostel carers within the sexuality education of visually impaired learners. african journal of career development, 6(2), a133. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.133 venketsamy, r., hu, z., & naicker, n. (2024). foundation phase teachers’ diverse sexual orientations and job experiences: a south african study. african journal of career development, 6(2), a132. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i2.132 white, a.j., magrath, r., & thomas, b. (2018). the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual students and staff at a further education college in south east england. british educational research journal, 44(3), 480–495. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3443 abstract introduction careers and psychobiographical studies aims of the study theoretical lens brief history of zimbabwe (1930–2000) brief personal and career sketch of tsvangirai (1952–2018) methodology theory application discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tinashe t. harry department of industrial and organisational psychology, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa citation harry, t.t. (2023). morgan richard tsvangirai’s career development from a psychobiographical approach. african journal of career development, 5(1), a101. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.101 case study morgan richard tsvangirai’s career development from a psychobiographical approach tinashe t. harry received: 18 aug. 2023; accepted: 07 oct. 2023; published: 07 nov. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract this study uses the four-stage career model and social cognitive career theory to explore the career development of morgan richard tsvangirai, a zimbabwean trade unionist and political figure. publicly available data were analysed, emphasising the impact of psychobiographies on career theories and the role of purpose in shaping careers. contribution: the study contributes to understanding significant individuals from non-western-, educated-, industrialised-, richand democratic (non-weird) contexts and how careerographies can enhance career theories and provide role models for underrepresented youths. keywords: morgan tsvangirai; careerography; psychobiography; zimbabwe; non-weird; career development. introduction for years, zimbabwe was a one-party nation as people considered going up against mugabe and the zimbabwe african national union–patriotic front (zanu-pf) suicidal (magaisa, 2018; smith, 2018). tsvangirai, however, stood courageously against the rule of the zanu-pf (marongwe et al., 2022). consequently, many considered him a symbol of resistance, hope, and the face of the struggle against the brutality of the zanu-pf (magaisa, 2018; marongwe, 2022). in so many ways, his name from the 1990s became synonymous with zimbabwe’s opposition politics. as such, it is impossible not to mention tsvangirai in any socio-political narrative in post-colonial zimbabwe (marongwe et al., 2022). his leadership inspired many zimbabweans and opposition political parties in other african countries (phiri, 2022). given this, career counsellors can learn a lot from tsvangirai’s career development trajectory. studies have demonstrated that youth from disadvantaged backgrounds face career barriers and challenges, for example limited access to career education services, intrapersonal issues (e.g. lack of interest), poverty, internal conflicts (self-concept, self-efficacy), insufficient self-awareness, multiple experiences of discrimination based on socio-economic status, ethnicity, and gender discrimination (albien & naidoo, 2018; mcmahon et al., 2008; naidoo & van schalkwyk, 2021; park-taylor, et al. 2021). it is, therefore, important to study the lives of extraordinary individuals who have faced similar circumstances and understand how they navigated their career development. tsvangirai was thus deemed appropriate for this study, given his background. to understand tsvangirai’s career development, the researchers adopted a careerography approach, a subspeciality of psychobiography (ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b). careerography uses a career development theoretical lens to examine a significant individual’s work experiences and career life course (mayer, 2019; park-taylor et al., 2021; van niekerk et al., 2019). careerographies involve anchoring a study in a psychological theory and play an important role in developing and refining theories (ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b; van niekerk et al., 2019). the main aim of this study was thus to describe and interpret tsvangirai’s career development through the lens of the career development frameworks by greenhaus et al. (2019) and the social cognitive career theory (scct) (lent & brown, 2006, 2008, 2012; lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). careers and psychobiographical studies of late, several psychobiographical studies have been written. however, psychobiographies anchored in career development theories are limited (mayer, 2019; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b; van niekerk et al., 2019). park-taylor et al. (2021) argued that careers shape how we view ourselves and the world. career development is profoundly complex (cohen, 2003), and career development theories simplify career behaviours to make them easier to understand (albien & naidoo, 2018; lent et al., 2002). career development theories thus give us a solid interpretive framework to understand better individuals’ career behaviour, interests, satisfaction, motivations, and choices, as well as the contextual factors that directly or indirectly affect career outcomes or development (mayer, 2019; park-taylor et al., 2021). studying the career development of extraordinary individuals through career development theories allows us to validate or reframe current theories (kovary, 2018; park-taylor et al., 2021; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b; van niekerk et al., 2019). many youths from marginalised backgrounds still have limited access to occupational role models (albien & naidoo, 2018; mcmahon et al., 2008) and are not well represented in the workplace (maree, 2020, 2021; mcmahon et al., 2008; park-taylor et al., 2021). consequently, the career-related interests of youth are somewhat stereotypical, fluid, and narrow (lent, 2013; maree, 2020). studying the career development of historically significant subjects from non-western-, educated-, industrialised-, richand democratic (non-weird) contexts allows us to understand better how we can use career development theories in career counselling sessions with people from disadvantaged backgrounds (mayer et al., 2023; mcmahon et al., 2008). furthermore, park-taylor et al. (2021) state that the other benefits of a careerography include: learning diverse career theories in an applied case study format, enhancing career counselling skill development through training in in-depth interviewing, learning the importance of socio-cultural-historical context in understanding career and work patterns across time, promoting interdisciplinary scholarship with historians and sociologists, advancing methodological pluralism, and promoting multicultural and multilingual skill development. (p. 36) careerography can thus be a valuable tool in career education as it improves access to diverse career role models for underrepresented and marginalised youths (park-taylor et al., 2021; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b). this study thus addressed the following questions: (1) how can we understand tsvangirai’s career development through the different stages of the career development frameworks by greenhaus et al.? (2) what role did early and ongoing contextual influences play in tsvangirai’s career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and career goals and behaviours? aims of the study the aims of this study were fourfold: (1) to reconstruct and interpret tsvangirai’s career development through the lens of established theories of career development, that is, greenhaus et al. (2019) and lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002); (2) to contribute towards studies focussing on career development of extraordinary individuals from a psychobiographical perspective (e.g. bigony et al., 2021; mayer, 2019; park-taylor et al., 2021; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b; van niekerk et al., 2019); (3) to contribute to further developing and refining the career development theories (park-taylor et al., 2021; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b); and (4) to assess the applicability of the two theoretical models to tsvangirai’s career development. theoretical lens while we need to understand the different career phases that tsvangirai went through, it is also crucial to understand how early and contextual influences shaped his career development. the primary purpose of this study was to apply the career development theoretical models of greenhaus et al. (2019) and lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002) as interpretive lenses to understand tsvangirai’s career development. greenhaus et al. (2019) career development model career development perspectives typically present a series of predictable stages linked to chronological age (greenhaus et al., 2010). greenhaus et al. (2019) career development model is based on the integration of work, family, and self-development dynamics. the authors also acknowledge that other factors, such as sociocultural background, gender, business dynamics, and globalisation, influence career development (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). they identified the following four stages of career development: occupational and organisational choice (0–25 years), early career stage (25–40 years), middle career stage (40–55 years), and late-career stage (55-onwards) (greenhaus et al., 2019). unique developmental tasks, issues, and themes an individual goes through in their career development characterise these career stages (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). social cognitive career theory lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002), building upon the work of bandura’s (1986, 1999) social learning theory and hackett and betz’s (1996) career self-efficacy theory, proposed the scct. lent et al. postulated that the model comprises two primary components: early influences that act as a precursor of socio-cognitive variables and ongoing contextual influences that serve as deterrents, moderators, and direct career development facilitators. researchers have emphasised the importance of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal goals, and socio-structural variables in career development (byars-winston & rogers, 2019; lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). self-efficacy refers to people’s evaluations of their ability to execute courses of action to achieve personal goals successfully. outcome expectations refer to personal beliefs about the expected consequences of implementing particular behaviours (bandura, 1986, 1999). social cognitive career theory postulates that self-efficacy and outcome expectations are important mediators between personal factors or inputs (e.g. ethnicity, race), background contextual factors (e.g. family influences, anticipated social support, expectations), and academic and career choice behaviours (bandura, 1999; byars-winston & rogers, 2019; lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). bandura (1986, 1999) claimed that self-efficacy beliefs are primarily constructed and modified through four experiential sources: (1) personal performance accomplishments, (2) socially persuasive communication, (3) vicarious learning, and (4) physiological and affective states. greenhaus et al.’s and lent et al.’s theories view career development as a life-long personal process. both approaches address how the sense of self influences career decision-making. both the theories place emphasis on developmental stages and how various factors impact career decisions. these theories, however, pose two different questions: greenhaus et al. (2019) – what developmental tasks, themes, and issues do individuals go through in different career development phases? lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002) – what factors shape people’s social cognitions throughout their lives? greenhaus et al. (2019) view career development as a progression through different stages influenced by various factors. lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002) elaborate on individual developmental stages and how early and ongoing learning experiences influence career self-efficacy, behaviours, and outcome beliefs. the two theories offer a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between individual development and career decision-making across an individual’s lifespan. brief history of zimbabwe (1930–2000) zimbabwe, formerly known as southern rhodesia, is a former british colony and a landlocked southern african country. in order to gain its independence, the country went through different violent struggles, for example anglo-ndebele war (ndebele uprising) i and ii (1893–96), ndebele-shona uprising, commonly referred to as the first chimurenga (war) (1896–97), second chimurenga nationalist liberation struggle (the 1960s and 1970s), and the third chimurenga land reform programme initiated by the zanu-pf in the early 2000s (chung, 2005; tekere, 2007). the 1930s to 1960s saw the growth of black opposition, resulting in the formation of two nationalist parties (i.e. zanu and zimbabwe african people’s union [zapu]) towards colonial rule (sachikonye, 1997, 2004). in the mid-1960s, the liberation struggle claimed thousands of lives and traumatised and displaced many others. the colonial regime utilised violence and other forms of coercion, for example detention, torture, and killings, to block independence (sachikonye, 2004). in 1980, robert mugabe and zanu won the election, and mugabe became the first prime minister of independent zimbabwe (tekere, 2007). post-independence, however, nationalists also utilised violence and intimidation to mobilise supporters and hinder democratic processes (ellert, 1989; sithole, 1999). consequently, zimbabwean political culture has been ingrained with violence post-independence (alexander, 2000; sachikonye, 1997, 2004). in 1982, mugabe and zanu accused the zapu leader, joshua nkomo, of wanting to overthrow the government (kriger, 2005; sachikonye, 2004). subsequently, one of the bloodiest atrocities (commonly referred to as gukurahundi) perpetrated by the north korean-trained fifth brigade occurred between 1982 and 1987, claiming thousands of lives (alexander, 2000; chan & gallagher, 2017; kriger, 2005; sachikonye, 2004). it ended with signing of a unity agreement between mugabe and nkomo to form zanu-pf. this is a typical example of the extent to which the nationalist party could go to consolidate power. other political parties were formed but failed to oppose zanu-pf because of intimidation of voters preand post-elections, violence against opposition leaders and supporters, and vote-rigging (dorman, 2003; muzondidya, 2009; phiri, 2022; sachikonye, 1997, 2004). consequently, mugabe never lost an election until 2000. on the other hand, zimbabwe did not have strong trade unions post-independence (alexander, 2000; yeros, 2013). the zimbabwe congress of trade unions (zctu) was formulated after the merger of federations into one body (raftopoulos & sachikonye, 2001). the zctu and zanu-pf had a close relationship as a relative of mugabe, albert mugabe, was the organisation’s secretary general (sachikonye, 1997). in 1987, zctu stressed its independence from zanu-pf. however, the country was already facing high unemployment, inflation, and maldistribution of wealth (phiri, 2022; sithole, 1999). the university of zimbabwe students led the first mass movement against the government. they protested against corruption, mugabe’s plan for a one-party state, and his proposed shift to a neo-liberal programme (economic structural adjustment programme, esap) in 1988 (sachikonye, 2004). as the secretary-general (sg) of the zctu, tsvangirai supported the mass movement and was detained for 6 weeks. in the 1990 general elections, the zctu did not endorse any party favouring multiparty democracy. in 1997, zctu organised stay-aways or protests and poor governance by the ruling party as the country’s currency, stock market, and economy all crashed (marongwe, 2022). notably, the zctu was now at the centre of the political movement, resulting in the formation of the movement for democratic change (mdc) in 1999. in february 2000, the mdc and the national constitutional assembly (nca) defeated the government in a referendum for a proposed constitutional reform bill (magaisa, 2018). it was the first time that mugabe lost a referendum, and such an achievement showed that mugabe and zanu-pf could be defeated (magaisa, 2018). brief personal and career sketch of tsvangirai (1952–2018) unless otherwise specified, this section relies mainly on tsvangirai’s autobiography, morgan tsvangirai: at the deep end (tsvangirai & bango, 2011). school years tsvangirai was born in 1952 in a rural zimbabwean area. from age 12, he grew up in a country going through a civil conflict called the rhodesian bush war or second chimurenga or zimbabwe war of independence, which ended in 1979. tsvangirai was the firstborn of nine siblings. he was born to lydia and dzingirai-chibwe tsvangirai. although he was born in a low socio-economic class, he grew up in a consistently caring and loving family. his mother was the primary caregiver, while his father travelled within zimbabwe and to south africa, searching for work opportunities. his parents struggled with the pressures of poverty because of limited formal education. in 1959, he started his schooling journey. tsvangirai attended catholic public schools throughout his education (hudlestone, 2008; mashakada, 2019). his education was marked by travelling and staying with relatives to get an education in the initial stages of his schooling career. between 1964 and 1965, he had to move between families, schools, religious settings, and districts. in 1964, tsvangirai witnessed one of his teachers being assaulted by the police. in the following year, 1965, another teacher taught the class about the disadvantages of colonialism and raged against the ian smith regime. in 1968, tsvangirai enrolled at a same-sex boarding school, where he met people from other areas other than his hometown. he was at this school for 2 years, actively participating in extra-curricular activities such as debating, science experiments, and other school competitions. being the firstborn and having several younger siblings, tsvangirai had to plead with his poverty-stricken father to continue with his schooling. in 1970, he enrolled for another 2 years of high school and successfully passed ordinary-level examinations after four high school years. in high school, he was exposed to various sources which further informed him about history, politics, information, and current affairs. consequently, more exposure enhanced his knowledge of political issues, the emergence of independent, black-ruled african states, and the intricacies of racial discrimination against black advancement. as his understanding improved, he became more interested in politics and societal issues. however, he could not pursue this interest as he wanted to help his parents provide for his siblings. his father also pressured him to search for employment soon after schooling. trade unionist career in 1972, tsvangirai’s career began as a sweeper and trainee in a small family textile company. his career as a trade union activist commenced in 1973 when he listened to a veteran trade unionist addressing a union meeting and decided to join a trade union as a budding trade unionist. in 1973, he became the family’s sole breadwinner as his father retired. consequently, he had to put professional and personal growth on hold as he helped his family. his involvement in trade union activities increased when he started working as a mine operator in 1975. he became the secretary of the zanu-pf’s local structure and led the local branch of the mineworker’s union. like many other black men of his era, tsvangirai was prepared to die for mugabe, a hero who helped the country achieve black majority rule in 1980 (smith, 2018). he was later elected to be the second vice-president of the associated mine workers union of zimbabwe (amwuz) in 1983, and in 1985, he was elected to be the first vice-president of amwuz. as his trade union activities increased, he terminated his employment in 1986 as a general foreman to focus on his trade union activities. tsvangirai progressed through the ranks within the trade union, which saw him becoming the secretary general (sg) of the largest and most influential trade union in the country, zctu, in 1988. he also became the sg of a regional trade union, the southern africa trade union coordination council (satucc), representing all the major trade union federations in the the southern african development community (sadc) in 1993. as zimbabwe’s living and working conditions deteriorated, the zctu unceasingly confronted and challenged mugabe and zanu-pf’s economic policies. to this end, tsvangirai was imprisoned, humiliated, and beaten up by security forces as the government now regarded him and the zctu as enemies. political career in 1998, tsvangirai was appointed chairman of the nca, a civil society formed to challenge perceived arbitrary changes to the lancaster house constitution by mugabe and zanu-pf (mashakada, 2019; sachikonye, 2004). the formation of the nca was another turning point in tsvangirai’s career, as he had moved from shop floor politics to political opposition politics (marongwe, 2022). it became apparent that there was a need for a political party to address the socio-political and economic fundamentals not only for the workers but for all zimbabweans. an opposition political party, the mdc, was formed in 1999, with tsvangirai being the inaugural leader. under his leadership, the mdc performed commendably well in the local government and the parliamentary and presidential elections it participated in between 2000 and 2018 (marongwe & mawere, 2016; marongwe et al., 2022). however, his leadership was put under scrutiny by his members. he has been accused of undemocratic tendencies, including his long-serving party presidency, unilateral appointments, abuse of office, autocracy, and womanising (marongwe et al., 2022). consequently, in 2005, a group of intellectuals, with tsvangirai being regarded as uneducated, led by arthur mutambara (a professor), formed another mdc to protest tsvangirai’s leadership. from 2009 to 2013, tsvangirai and his party formed a government of national unity (gnu) with zanu-pf and the other mdc, which saw tsvangirai becoming prime minister. although an uncomfortable and uncertain time, the gnu is credited with bringing economic and social stability to the country, providing much-desired relief (chan & gallagher, 2017; marongwe, 2022). unfortunately, despite those achievements between the two parties, tsvangirai lost the 2013 presidential elections. compared to the previous elections, the 2013 elections were not marked with overt disruption and violence (chan & gallagher, 2017). tsvangirai was arguably outsmarted by mugabe, leading to the mdc losing the elections (chan & gallagher, 2017; smith, 2018). it is reported that after the 2013 election defeat, the mdc wanted a new president. however, that did not transpire. in 2016, tsvangirai revealed that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. despite this revelation, he remained the president of the mdc until his death. even with a terminal illness, he was re-elected as the presidential candidate for the mdc alliance (an alliance of opposition political parties, especially the breakaway mdcs) in 2017 (ap archive, 2017; sabc news, 2017). tsvangirai died in february 2018, aged 66 years, before the 2018 presidential elections. notwithstanding his shortcomings, in so many ways, from the mid-1990s until his death, tsvangirai’s name became embalmed in zimbabwe’s opposition politics to zanu-pf. over time, he, too, became a controversial personality, politician, senior government official and leader of probably the country’s largest post-independence opposition party (marongwe et al., 2022). as such, it is hard not to mention morgan richard tsvangirai’s name in any socio-political narrative in post-colonial zimbabwe. much information has been written about tsvangirai’s life, from his trade union and political activism to the scandals of his marriages and sexual escapades after the death of his first wife. however, no studies explore his career development using a psychobiographical approach (harry & van niekerk, 2023). methodology research design erikson’s (1959/1980) suggestion that adults seek meaning through work and love or through ‘successfully mastering intimacy versus isolation and generativity versus stagnation’ remains true even today (park-taylor et al., 2021, p. 34). a careerography, as outlined by park-taylor et al. (2021), would thus ‘focus on generating a deep understanding of an individual’s striving for generativity throughout an individual’s life, taking into account the role of familial, educational, cultural, psychosocial, and other considerations’ (p. 36). a psychobiography was thus chosen to interpret and explain how the complex interaction of life experiences, specific life events, and historical and cultural contexts shaped tsvangirai’s career development (bigony et al., 2021; elms, 1994; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021; schultz, 2005; van niekerk et al., 2019). sampling given his significant contributions to the zimbabwean political landscape, tsvangirai was purposively chosen as a subject for this study (magaisa, 2018; marongwe, 2022). he was influential in the workers’ causes, opposition politics, gender discourses, and concepts of justice and social harmony (magaisa, 2018; marongwe, 2022). notably, it is impossible not to mention tsvangirai in any socio-political narrative in post-colonial zimbabwe (marongwe et al., 2022). data collection, processing, and analysis data for this study were gathered from a variety of publicly available primary sources (autobiography, i.e. tsvangirai & bango, 2011, as well as thoughts and reflected interviews he conducted, e.g. ap archive, 2017; france 24 2017; sabc news, 2017) and secondary (i.e. hudlestone, 2008; magaisa, 2018; marongwe et al., 2022; oneko, 2018; phiri, 2022; smith, 2018) sources. guidelines proposed by various psychobiographical researchers and methodologists were employed during the data processing (e.g. mayer et al., 2023; park-taylor et al., 2021; ponterotto & park-taylor, 2021a, 2021b). greenhaus et al. (2019) theoretical framework was used as a template for data collection (see table 1). in the remainder of the section, the data are extracted and analysed through the theoretical lenses of greenhaus et al. (2019) and lent et al. (1994). while lent et al. (1994) theory does not have different stages as the greenhaus et al. (2019) theory, the two theories apply to tsvangirai’s career development as they show the chronological progression as well as the precursors, moderators, and facilitators or deterrents of his career development. table 1: data processing and analysis matrix. chronologically tracing tsvangirai’s life allowed the author to explore the critical events and analyse them through the lenses of the two theoretical frameworks. greenhaus et al. (2019) and lent et al. (1994) are complementary as greenhaus et al. focus on different stages of career development, and lent et al. focus on self-efficacy and outcome expectations that influence career behaviours. a joint analysis enabled the author to understand tsvangirai’s career as a trade unionist and a political activist, illustrating how it emerged as a product of his socio-political-economic environment. ethical and quality criteria considerations the researcher applied ponterotto and reynolds’ (2017) ethical guidelines and ponterotto’s (2014) best practices for psychobiographical research. the considerations to safeguard ethical standards included exclusive reliance on publicly available data and handling the life history data with respect, objectivity, and empathy. trustworthiness was used to enhance the consistency and reliability of the study (creswell, 2013), and data triangulation, that is reliance on different data sources, was applied to enhance the study’s rigour (du plessis, 2017). the author understood tsvangirai’s social and historical context to have an adequate frame of reference. furthermore, as an african black male who grew up in the same environment as the subject, the author acknowledges that his identity and worldview may have impacted the data analysis and interpretations. this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. theory application in this section, tsvangirai’s career development is described and interpreted through the theoretical lenses of greenhaus et al. (2019) and lent et al. (1994, 2000, 2002). greenhaus et al. (2019) theory applies to tsvangirai’s career life chronologically. lent et al. theory highlights the key events and experiences that may have impacted his trade union and political activist career. the author aimed to develop a narrative of his career development as he attempted to understand how career lives are constructed. occupational and organisational choice (1970–1977) – the mineworker tsvangirai was born in a poverty-stricken family in the zimbabwean rural areas as the firstborn of nine siblings. his parents wanted tsvangirai to get an education. although the family lived in poverty, his father understood the importance of education and encouraged tsvangirai to continue schooling. his father told him stories about black people he admired in other countries, such as teachers, clerks, and black persons in leadership positions. in 1970, tsvangirai was still in high school, where he better understood history, politics, information, and current affairs. as a result, he developed an interest in political activism. he continued witnessing violence between the nationalist parties and the torturing of young black political activists, for example between zapu and zanu, reading about young activists in neighbouring countries such as malawi, zambia, and botswana, removal of black people from their ancestral lands by the colonisers. unsurprisingly, despite all the chaos surrounding him, his family background substantially affected his career development (byars-winston & rogers, 2019; lent, 2013). tsvangirai entered the organisational context soon after he completed high school in 1972. several factors affected his career exploration, such as growing up in a rural area, living in poverty, limited opportunities for black people, and parental expectations of him as a firstborn (lent & brown, 2008, 2012). he did not get to explore different careers as he had to settle for work to assist his family financially. tsvangirai could not choose career goals and personal values independent of his family (erikson, 1959/1980). tsvangirai’s career choice arguably happened in 1973 when he joined a trade union as a budding trade unionist. the chosen career was consistent with his interests and values (cohen, 2003; lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). he, however, had to remain in the peripherals as he was more focussed on being the sole breadwinner of his family. tsvangirai, as a budding trade unionist, had to learn how to converse with his employers, who were openly racist. during this period, he learned to persevere, be tolerant, and deal with people from diverse backgrounds. in 1973, tsvangirai remarked that he felt a ‘whiff of independence’ when his father retired and left him alone in another town (tsvangirai & bango, 2011, p. 77). this may suggest that he did not have a sense of independence from his father or family or could not view himself as a unique being (erikson, 1959/1980). in 1975, after his siblings had completed high school and his promotion to general foreman, he became actively involved in trade unions and political activities. tsvangirai became the secretary of zanu-pf’s local structures and was elected to lead the local branch of the mineworkers’ union. whereas it is expected that at this stage, most people explore a variety of vocational pursuits (erikson, 1959/1980; greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019), tsvangirai, with a sense of independence, became absorbed in trade union activism. compared to the typical age range suggested by greenhaus et al. (2019), tsvangirai completed this stage earlier (aged 20 years) when he entered the organisational context. there was limited exploratory behaviour during this stage. following the scct, this is the first evidence of the noticeable effects of early influences and ongoing contextual factors, for example gender role socialisation, family background, and gender role stereotyping, on career choices and implementation of actions (lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). the contextual factors acted as moderators for the career behaviour shown by tsvangirai at this stage (lent & brown, 2013). tsvangirai’s early interests in activism were bypassed by personal goals (providing for the family), self-efficacy (individual capabilities), and outcome expectations (i.e. monetary) (byars-winston & rogers, 2019; lent, 2013). early career stage: establishment and achievement (1977–1997) – the trade unionist his career as a trade union activist continued gaining momentum in his early career stages (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). tsvangirai was elected to lead the local branch of amwuz. at the same time, he was also the secretary of the zanu-pf local structures. tsvangirai recognised that he could contribute more through his involvement in trade union activities early in life. he embraced this by leaving the zanu-pf structures and his employment as a mine worker, giving himself to trade union activities and learning more about trade unions. he established himself as a trade union activist in zimbabwe and southern africa after he was elected the sg of the zctu and satucc (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). during this period, he was exposed to the plight of workers and ordinary citizens. one could also argue that it was time he discovered his calling as an activist (oneko, 2018). in terms of his career development, it seems like his socialisation into the zanu-pf structures and culture was limited as he left the political party (de cooman et al., 2009; saks & gruman, 2011). on the other hand, he absorbed the values, internalised the culture and learnt the processes of trade unions, as shown by his commitment to their activities (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). his early career stage was made up of acceptance by his colleagues, demonstrated by the elections he won in the trade union ranks (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). he honed his empathy skills in the trade unions, mobilising people, conciliation, and bipartisanship. this stage was characterised by events such as being arrested for partaking in protests, unlawful detentions, death threats, zctu and government arguments, and rejection of the zctu by the ruling party (magaisa, 2018; marongwe, 2022; tsvangirai & bango, 2011). nonetheless, tsvangirai remained committed to sustaining his career as a trade union leader despite the challenges and several calls for the trade union to contest elections (greenhaus et al., 2010, 2019). interestingly, of note was that other populist post-colonial african leaders, for example presidents kaunda (zambia), banda (malawi), and doe (liberia), were voted out as people demanded greater respect for fundamental human rights and open societies. at the same time, trade unions and their leaders became more involved in political issues, for example poland’s solidarity movement, fredrick chiluba (zambia) and chakufwa chihana (malawi) (raftopoulos & sachikonye, 2001). however, the zctu remained apolitical and established as a strong labour movement (tsvangirai & bango, 2011). tsvangirai’s experiences in this stage partially align with the description proposed by greenhaus et al. (2019). this stage had limited career exploration as he moved from political to trade union structures (an earlier stage activity). findings indicate that tsvangirai recognised his role as an activist in his early career stage. subsequently, tsvangirai and the trade unions had a sense of mutual acceptance as he sustained his involvement and commitment. in contrast, the trade union accepted him as a trusted and valued member (greenhaus et al., 2019). he embraced this role by addressing employees’ grievances as a trade union leader. such self-transcendence gave him a sense of meaning and purpose (frankl, 2014). in accordance with the scct, early influences such as observing the use of violence and coercive tactics against opposition political leaders by zanu-pf and the failure of trade union leaders who turned into politics (e.g. chakufwa chihana) may have influenced tsvangirai’s career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and career behaviour, for example his choice to continue in the trade union ranks rather than join the political arena (lent, 2013). his self-efficacy could have been high, given his role in trade unions. yet, outcome expectations were low as he might have expected adverse reactions from the ruling party. thus, tsvangirai won several elections in the trade unions, which anchored his advancement and stimulated a sense of self-efficacy (byars-winston & rogers, 2019; lent, 2013; lent & brown, 2012). midcareer stage (1997–2007) – the politician tsvangirai’s profile as a trade union activist continued gaining momentum in the mid-career stage. in 1998, tsvangirai was the face of large-scale protests against the government. as the country’s economy plunged and the ruling party refused to engage with zctu, tsvangirai and the zctu leadership continued developing a serious interest in politics (marongwe et al., 2022). in the same year, he was chairman of a civil society coalition that sought constitutional reforms in zimbabwe, that is the nca. the civic organisation defeated the government’s proposed constitutional reforms (dorman, 2003). in 1999, tsvangirai played a significant role in forming the mdc and was subsequently elected as the party’s president (magaisa, 2018; mashakada, 2019). tsvangirai remarked, ‘i went into politics not as a career choice but in response to the burning desire for change from a nation already in a crisis of governance and as a patriotic necessity’ (oneko, 2018). the success of nca in 2000 was significant as it showed that mugabe and zanu-pf could be defeated as it was the ruling party’s first time losing an election (dorman, 2003; magaisa, 2018). in 2000, the mdc contested their first parliamentary (general) elections and won 45.6% of the vote compared to 47.2% of the zanu-pf. consequently, this became the first substantial opposition to the zanu-pf regime. although the party did well in the elections, tsvangirai failed to win a seat in parliament as he lost the elections. however, the results were overturned by judge james devitte as the victor was accused of using violence and intimidation to win the election against tsvangirai (meldrum, 2001). the presidential campaign of 2002 was characterised by violent land occupation strategies, widespread deployment of terror through zanu-pf’s youth militia, restructuring of the judiciary, persistent threats from the ruling party leaders and war veterans against the citizenry, restrictions on independent media, zanu-pf’s control of the media (marongwe, 2022; sachikonye, 2004; smith, 2018). tsvangirai and the mdc faced a herculean task in the face of the challenges and obstacles the ruling party created. an army chief, general zvinavashe, is quoted stating that the military will ‘not accept, let alone support or salute anyone with a different agenda that threatened the very existence of our sovereignty, our country and our people’, and general chiwenga also stated ‘we will not support anyone other than president (robert) mugabe, who has sacrificed a lot for this country’ (musavengana, 2009). such statements were meant to instil fear in tsvangirai and the electorate. in the late 1990s and early 2000s, tsvangirai, as the leader of the mdc, endured several unlawful detentions, beatings, torture, and ridicule at the hands of mugabe and zanu pf. thus, the pleas of the workers and the ordinary citizens and the successes of the zctu, nca, and mdc stimulated him to reaffirm and modify his career goals and choices despite the threats (greenhaus et al., 2019). tsvangirai maintained productivity during this career stage and showed no signs of checking out (greenhaus et al., 2019). it is possible that his self-concept precipitated a change in career path from trade union activism to political activism (barclay et al., 2011; donohue, 2007). as scct predicts, tsvangirai’s career self-efficacy was enhanced by encouragement from others, for example becoming the sg of zctu. interestingly, in the early 1990s, he was verbally encouraged to enter the political discourse officially. although there was excitement for change, there was also anxiety about the potential outcomes given the history of opposition political parties. consequently, he initially did not engage in politically related career activities (lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). interestingly, despite the certain negative outcome expectations, in 1999, tsvangirai chose to lead an opposition political party instead of avoiding that career choice. through personal belief and perseverance, he could embrace this role as a political leader. as scct predicts, this could suggest that tsvangirai’s career self-efficacy was enhanced by his previous accomplishments in the trade unions, the success stories of trade unions in other countries, encouragement from others who believed he had the ability, and the excitement of the possibility of a democratic country (lent, 2013, lent & brown, 2013; lent et al., 2002). although he faced adverse conditions as an opposition leader, he found a purpose that motivated him to persevere in his leadership role (byars-winston & rogers, 2019). late career stage (2007–2018) – staying committed as in the previous career stage, tsvangirai remained committed and a productive contributor (greenhaus et al., 2019) to fighting for democracy by campaigning and contesting in elections despite the obstacles. arguably, his productivity gained momentum as he had more responsibilities, including leading the opposition party and culminating with being the prime minister of zimbabwe in 2009. however, his love life may have threatened to overshadow his achievements in his political career (i.e. the maintenance of dignity; greenhaus et al., 2019). in 2017, although there were controversies around his love life, uncertainties about his health, and his leadership abilities, tsvangirai was elected to lead the mdc alliance (an opposition coalition). his colleagues continued viewing him as a productive contributor to the cause of democracy. in january 2018, a month before his demise, he stated that younger generations had to take up the leadership (france 24, 2017; sabc news, 2017). however, no evidence suggests that tsvangirai was planning on retiring or handing over power to another person. he described himself as a ‘symbol of resistance, of democratisation in this country’ and said that ‘sustaining that brand is very, very difficult’ (ap archive, 2017). tsvangirai said that mugabe used to be his role model, and like any other political leader, he had grand ambitions. considering that he died while still the opposition party president, did he somehow also have ambitions to remain the party’s president for an extended period like his ‘role model’ mugabe? if he did not have a terminal illness, did he have plans to hand over power to other party members? would he act as a mentor to other people if he did not have a terminal illness? considering that tsvangirai had been an activist for an extended period, it is possible that he felt that leaving his position would have been akin to leaving his self-concept or identity behind (mollica, 2006). tsvangirai was confident in his sense of purpose and meaning even in the face of death (erikson, 1959/1980; frankl, 2014). conversely, this may suggest that tsvangirai lacked a sense of fulfilment with his successes as an opposition leader (erikson, 1959/1980). tsvangirai likely experienced despair over the missed opportunities and failures he experienced in his career. in 2017, tsvangirai remarked that it was impossible to oust mugabe democratically after a successful coup by emmerson mnangagwa and the military (sabc news, 2017). this may suggest that he reflected on the failures and missed opportunities of removing mugabe. hence, the disinclination to disengage from his role. thus, tsvangirai’s experiences and the greenhaus et al. (2019) model are misaligned. nonetheless, tsvangirai’s contributions towards the cause of the workers, opposition politics, governance, gender discourses and concepts of peace, justice, democracy, and social harmony are unquestionable. tsvangirai’s self-efficacy was developed and strengthened by his activism achievements as a trade union and political activist where other people had failed. tsvangirai had developed a strong career self-efficacy, which promoted persistence despite setbacks and obstacles. discussion in this careerography, the researcher attempted to frame, understand, and interpret tsvangirai’s career development through established career development theories. examining tsvangirai’s career development from multiple theoretical lenses promoted a more holistic understanding of his trajectory (ponterotto & reynolds, 2013, 2017). by conceptualising tsvangirai’s career development through the career development theory and the scct model, the important and key events that unlocked his career as a trade union and political activist were noted. from greenhaus et al. (2019) career development framework, it is evident that tsvangirai’s career development significantly matches the proposed model. from the scct lens, career self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations and personal goals played a significant role in personal agency, career behaviour and career development (lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002; mcmahon et al., 2008). tsvangirai’s career development was encompassed by barriers from childhood until late adulthood. despite the likelihood of experiencing adverse outcomes, he had a higher interest in the area and wilfully acted to enact his choices (byars-winston & rogers, 2019; cohen, 2003; lent et al., 1994, 2000, 2002). arguably, will to meaning or a sense of purpose and hope motivated him to engage in these activities despite the adverse outcomes (frankl, 1988, 2014; maree, 2021). his career was imbued with passion and a sense of meaning and purpose. unquestionably, his values, career self-efficacy, self-transcendence, and attitude in the face of adversity energised his career development (frankl, 1988, 2014). career counselling practices should thus integrate meaning and purpose in their models, given the current socio-economic context characterised by uncertainty and rapid changes (maree, 2020). baumeister (1991) described meaning as a ‘mental representation of possible relationships among things, events, and relationships’ (p. 15). meaning thus helps people to make sense of their experiences. research has shown that a sense of meaning is important, especially when faced with adverse life events (frankl, 1988, 2014; maree, 2020). in a world of work filled with complexity, chaos, and constant uncertainty, career interventions and practices should explore the search for meaning and existential themes to help clients ‘until they find personal meaning and authentic existence with their vocation choice’ (cohen, 2003, p. 207). it is difficult to state what he would have done next if he had not been diagnosed with a terminal illness, given that he was reluctant to disengage from his leadership role. as highlighted by other authors, this study calls for more studies on the career development of extraordinary individuals, especially from non-weird contexts, to reframe, modify and formulate suitable career development models. further studies are also needed to understand how purpose and meaning impact career development in the face of adversity. future studies can also use multiple research methods (e.g. idiographic and nomothetic) and apply multiple theoretical lenses to have a holistic understanding of extraordinary individuals and their career development. conclusion given tsvangirai’s parents and childhood experiences, one could assume he was destined to be an ordinary worker. his career trajectory shows success takes more than family background, early exposure, and ongoing contextual influences. it was the sense of purpose and meaning that had a profound impact on his career development. arguably, the findings further indicate that his own needs did not overly absorb tsvangirai; if he had been, he would not have risked his life by accepting to be the opposition leader. many zimbabweans became hopeful because of tsvangirai’s courage, compassion, determination, empathy, resilience, and unwavering dedication. to this end, tsvangirai was a social reformer throughout his career. he took up his role with great conviction and relentlessly pursued his ideals and values. tsvangirai was a driving force behind the introduction of opposition political parties in zimbabwe, the fight for freedom of expression, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and the incipient culture of corruption. his work as an activist should inspire many others to remain steadfast despite overwhelming oppression and tragedies. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions t.t.h. the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request or on public domains. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author, and the publisher. references albien, a.j., & naidoo, a.v. 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(2007). a lifetime of struggle. sapes books. tsvangirai, m., & bango, w.t. (2011). morgan tsvangirai: at the deep end. penguin random house south africa. van niekerk, r., prenter, t., & fouché, j.p. (2019). doing psychobiography: the case of christiaan barnard. in s. laher, s. kramer, & a. fynn (eds.), transforming research methods in the social sciences case-studies from south africa (pp. 168–185). wits university press. yeros, p. (2013). the rise and fall of trade unionism in zimbabwe, part i: 1990–1995. review of african political economy, 40(136), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2013.795143 abstract introduction research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ezekiel majola department of post-school, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation majola, e. (2025). reimagining career empowerment in south african tvet: a freirean critique of policy and pedagogy. african journal of career development, 7(1), a173. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.173 original research reimagining career empowerment in south african tvet: a freirean critique of policy and pedagogy ezekiel majola received: 11 apr. 2025; accepted: 03 july 2025; published: 22 aug. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in south africa, technical and vocational education and training (tvet) is often promoted as a means to enhance employability. however, dominant policy frameworks tend to emphasise economic outcomes and labour market alignment, often neglecting the pedagogical dimensions crucial for empowering students. objectives: this article aimed to critique the structural limitations of policy-driven tvet reforms and to foreground the importance of pedagogical transformation. it examined how critical, humanising pedagogies – drawing on paulo freire’s problem-posing approach – could bridge the gap between macro-level policy and micro-level teaching and learning experiences. methods: the article employed a critical interpretive approach, informed by paulo freire’s pedagogy and stephanie allais’s structural critique of qualifications frameworks. empirical data were drawn from a participatory action research (par) study involving 15 tvet graduates, whose post-study experiences illuminated the interplay between policy, pedagogy and career development. results: findings revealed that policy reforms alone were insufficient to achieve transformative outcomes. graduates described how rigid, standardised curricula and competency-based assessments limited their agency and failed to prepare them for meaningful, adaptable and socially relevant careers. the data highlighted the need for dialogical, inclusive pedagogical practices that respond to students’ lived realities. conclusion: reimagining tvet requires more than structural reform – it demands pedagogical transformation rooted in student voice, critical engagement and social justice. without this shift, tvet risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than empowering students to access decent work and live dignified lives. contribution: this article contributes to vocational education scholarship by offering a freirean critique of south african tvet policy and pedagogy. it highlights the significance of linking structural reform to pedagogical change and argues for student-centred, participatory approaches that foster critical consciousness and career agency. keywords: freirean pedagogy; technical and vocational education and training (tvet); participatory action research (par); student agency; south africa. introduction technical and vocational education and training (tvet) in south africa has been positioned as a strategic instrument for economic growth, youth employment and skills development, often underpinned by a human capital approach that links education to labour market needs (allais, 2012, 2019; ngcwangu, 2014, 2015). while this policy orientation has yielded important debates around qualifications frameworks, skills shortages and employability, it frequently neglects the broader human development dimensions of vocational education – particularly its potential to promote career empowerment, critical agency and social inclusion. emerging critiques of south africa’s tvet landscape, such as those advanced by allais (2019) and allais and wedekind (2020), offer valuable macro-level analyses of policy misalignments, employer disengagement and structural inefficiencies. however, these analyses tend to overlook the pedagogical and epistemological dimensions of vocational learning – the very processes through which students might develop not only occupational competencies but also the capacity for critical thinking, career adaptability and socio-political awareness. this article argues that such omissions weaken the transformative potential of tvet, especially in contexts of persistent inequality and youth marginalisation. drawing on paulo freire’s critical pedagogy, this article reimagines tvet not simply as a site for skills training but as a space for nurturing students’ voices, agency and participation in shaping their futures. it critiques the prevailing ‘banking’ model of education within tvet, in which students are treated as passive recipients of expert knowledge, and instead advances a problem-posing pedagogy grounded in dialogue, reflexivity and praxis (freire, 1970; freire & shor, 1987). such an approach aligns with the african journal of career development’s commitment to promoting sustainable decent work through education that affirms human dignity and enhances career resilience. methodologically, the article is grounded in a critical theoretical framework, which is concerned with unveiling power dynamics and promoting social transformation through education (cohen et al., 2011; mertens, 2007). this framework aligns closely with paulo freire’s emancipatory pedagogy, which views education as a practice of freedom rather than a tool of compliance. the empirical insights are drawn from a participatory action research (par) study involving 15 south african tvet graduates (majola, 2024). participatory action research’s collaborative, dialogical and emancipatory principles resonate with freire’s pedagogical philosophy (balwanz & hlatshwayo, 2016; mertens, 2015), making it an appropriate methodology for exploring student agency and systemic reform in vocational education. these graduates, through critical reflection, offered rich narratives that illuminate the contradictions between policy aspirations and lived educational experiences – underscoring the need for pedagogical transformation grounded in students’ realities. this argument builds on but also diverges from the structural critiques advanced by allais (2019), in two key respects. firstly, while policy analysis highlights critical systemic gaps, it often underplays the classroom-level dynamics where educational transformation must begin. secondly, by failing to foreground student agency and participatory pedagogy, much of the current discourse risks reinforcing a technicist vision of tvet that sidelines the lived realities of students. in contrast, this article proposes a freirean reorientation that links macro-level policy debates with micro-level pedagogical change – thereby offering a more holistic and human-centred vision of career empowerment within tvet. the sections that follow examine key limitations in current tvet policies outline the theoretical underpinnings of a freirean approach to career development and present empirical evidence illustrating the power of humanising pedagogy in vocational education. in doing so, the article calls for a reimagining of tvet that not only equips learners with occupational skills but also empowers them to navigate complexity, pursue meaningful work and contribute to a more just and inclusive society. research methods and design methodology this article adopts a critical-interpretive methodology, combining policy critique, conceptual inquiry and reflective analysis, all anchored in freirean pedagogy. this aligns with the transformative paradigm (mertens, 2007), which prioritises equity, justice and the empowerment of marginalised voices. the study is rooted in critical traditions that interrogate neoliberal rationalities and expose the socio-political functions of tvet (cohen et al., 2011), especially where policy and pedagogy intersect to shape the lived experiences of students and lecturers. empirically, the research draws from a par process involving 15 tvet graduates engaged in dialogical reflection and collaborative critique (balwanz & hlatshwayo, 2016; majola, 2024). participatory action research, as a methodology centred on collective meaning-making and transformation, resonates with freire’s concepts of praxis and conscientisation (freire, 1970; freire & shor, 1987). data generated from learning cycle group (lcg) meetings offer grounded insights into the disconnect between policy promises and post-graduation realities, allowing participants to articulate their disillusionment, aspirations and critical agency. theoretical framing: critical theoretical and policy analysis this article draws on paulo freire’s radical pedagogical theory (1970, 1974) to interrogate the ideological foundations of south african tvet policy. freire’s critique of the banking model challenges educational systems that treat students as passive recipients of knowledge. in contrast, he advocates for dialogical, praxis-based education – a continual cycle of reflection and action that enables transformation (freire & shor, 1987). at the core of this is conscientisation, the development of critical consciousness through which learners come to understand and challenge structures of oppression. in parallel, the article employs a critical policy lens, drawing on allais’s (2012, 2019, 2025) structural critique of south africa’s qualifications frameworks. allais exposes the technocratic and economistic logics embedded in these frameworks, which reduce education to its instrumental value for labour market alignment. she highlights how qualifications frameworks have evolved into bureaucratic instruments that marginalise teaching and learning by fetishising modular, decontextualised outcomes. however, allais’s analysis primarily remains at the macro-structural level. this article extends her critique into the pedagogical realm, arguing that policies such as the national certificate (vocational) [nc(v)] prioritise standardisation and employer alignment while suppressing critical thinking, interdisciplinarity and learner agency. here, freire’s theory enriches the critique by illuminating how power operates within the classroom, not just through policy but in pedagogical relationships and epistemic hierarchies. to deepen this analysis, the article incorporates the capabilities approach (nussbaum, 2011; powell & mcgrath, 2019; sen, 1999), which reorients education from employability towards human flourishing, freedom and agency. while freire stresses collective critical action, the capabilities approach insists on expanding learners’ substantive freedoms to pursue lives they value. both frameworks share a normative commitment to human dignity and social justice. by synthesising these perspectives, the article argues for a reimagined tvet that moves beyond technical fixes and economic reductionism. it proposes a dual orientation – structural and pedagogical – that not only confronts systemic inequality but also transforms the classroom into a space for agency, voice and critical engagement. in doing so, it offers a holistic understanding of empowerment that is both materially and epistemically grounded. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the nelson mandela university research ethics committee (no. h21-edu-pge-021). results reclaiming the purpose of technical and vocational education and training through student voice this section presents empirical insights drawn from a par study involving 15 tvet graduates in the eastern cape province of south africa. data were generated through lcg meetings, a freirean-inspired dialogical space where participants critically reflected on their educational experiences, social conditions and visions for change. the par approach ensured that participants were not merely research subjects, but co-researchers and co-theorists, engaging in collective meaning-making and inquiry. sessions were transcribed, collaboratively reviewed and thematically analysed to identify recurring patterns, contradictions and emergent possibilities. the findings are organised under four interrelated empirical themes that emerged inductively from participant narratives: (1) disillusionment and institutional betrayal, (2) the weight of structural marginalisation, (3) emergent praxis and reimagining tvet, and (4) pedagogical incompetence and the absence of dialogical teaching. these themes reflect both the depth of participants’ critique of current tvet systems and their capacity to theorise alternative futures. theme 1: disillusionment and institutional betrayal participants expressed profound disappointment in how the tvet system, particularly the nc(v), failed to deliver on the promises of employment, further study or socio-economic mobility. this sense of institutional betrayal was a dominant thread throughout the data: ‘i thought my certificate would change my life, but i am still struggling. i try to stay positive, but i feel lost. what was the point of all that studying?’ (participant, zws, 07 october 2021) ‘i didn’t enrol in college to sit at home … what for? only to struggle like this?’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) ‘yes, i might be hungry coming to school … but we had to come to college because we want to change our lives and that of our families.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) these reflections echo freire’s (1970) critique of the banking model of education, where learners are treated as passive recipients of content without the consideration of their real-world aspirations and constraints. the nc(v), although designed to promote work-readiness, often left students with credentials that were not recognised by universities or employers (majola et al., 2024). this contributed to feelings of despair, futility and alienation: ‘you find out the emails about the internships are only sent out to n6 graduates … with your level 4, you cannot qualify.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) this deep sense of disenchantment illustrates how institutional systems, although presented as empowering, can perpetuate false promises – a form of symbolic violence, wherein the appearance of opportunity masks deep structural exclusions. theme 2: the weight of structural marginalisation while some critiques targeted institutional policies, many participants located their struggles within broader structural inequalities, including poverty, spatial exclusion and economic instability: ‘we can talk about our problems, but then what? will anything change? is there going to be food on our tables when we go back home?’ (participant, qrs, 10 october 2021) another participant further states: ‘everyone here can tell you poverty is real in the township … but we have to stand up with hope that education can help us improve.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) these voices point to the contextual realities that tvet policy often ignores. the policy rhetoric of ‘access’, ‘skills pathways’ and ‘employability’ does not align with the lived conditions of most graduates. as ngcwangu (2019) argues, the employability discourse shifts responsibility to individuals while obscuring the systemic barriers that undermine real opportunity. graduates feel qualified yet under-valued, caught in liminal spaces between educational achievement and economic exclusion. the national qualifications framework (nqf) and outcomes-based logic are also implicated in reproducing this marginalisation (gamble, 2018). participants noted the hollowing out of education into tick-box exercises, where critical engagement and holistic development are replaced by compliance: ‘for now, i don’t have hope … education has not changed my life. it just added more problems.’ (participant, pqm, 10 october 2021) these data support allais’s (2012, 2019, 2025) claim that the competency-based model has prioritised measurable outputs over ethical or developmental concerns. it reduces learners to units of labour potential, failing to cultivate the capabilities – such as voice, self-determination and relational support – that are central to humanising pedagogy (freire, 1970; powell & mcgrath, 2019). theme 3: emergent praxis and reimagining technical and vocational education and training despite the challenges, participants also demonstrated critical awareness, solidarity and agency – hallmarks of freirean praxis. through dialogical engagement in lcgs, many moved from expressing despair to envisioning collective strategies for change: ‘we as tvet students need to look out for one another … it’s good to have someone in your corner whom you can go through things with together.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) ‘algoa tvet college is not helping us get internships as they promised. our efforts as a group will go a long way.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) ‘a whatsapp group where we can have discussions, group calls – something like that … is a brilliant idea.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) these excerpts show how participants were not passive victims but were actively theorising their conditions and organising to change them. the formation of the tvet student movement group was a concrete act of collective praxis, embodying freire’s idea that education must link reflection with action. their suggestions for peer-led workshops, mentorship and digital collaboration are examples of grassroots pedagogical innovation: ‘workshops can help a great deal, whereby we can teach and learn from each other – how to answer questions in an interview …’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) participants also expressed long-term political aspirations, linking their individual struggles to broader community upliftment: ‘i don’t want to settle for being someone’s slave my whole life … i want to change things – for me, my family, and our black community.’ (participant, bgt, 02 october 2021) these voices align with freire’s (1970) notion of conscientisation – the awakening of critical consciousness. as students recognised the systemic nature of their exclusion, they began imagining education not as adaptation but as transformation. this challenges dominant policy discourses that define vocational education purely through the lens of employability: ‘my goals didn’t change, but i’m somewhat stuck … employers are reluctant to hire us tvet graduates. i am very much frustrated.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) far from anecdotal, these reflections represent epistemic insights – grounded, situated critiques that reveal how students theorise and resist the contradictions of tvet. they signal a shift towards pedagogical humanisation, where students are recognised as subjects of history, not objects of policy. theme 4: pedagogical incompetence and the absence of dialogical teaching a fourth theme that emerged from the study concerns the pedagogical shortcomings and lack of dialogical teaching in tvet colleges, which significantly undermines students’ ability to engage critically with their education (freire & horton, 1990; freire & shor, 1987). participants expressed deep frustration with both the absence of reliable instruction and the dominance of rote-based, exam-oriented teaching methods that left little room for reflection, inquiry or dialogue – central tenets of freirean pedagogy. as one participant reflected: ‘we were constantly under pressure to prepare for exams and meet assignment deadlines … there was no space for reflection or critical thinking.’ (participant, gtr, 16 october 2021). the curriculum structure of the nc(v), which includes up to seven subjects per term, compounded this problem: ‘with nc(v), we were pressed for time – tests, assignments, and exams. we always had something to submit … doing seven subjects is very hectic, and you need to study all these subjects, or you will fail.’ (participant, qrs, 16 october 2021). students were not only pressured by an overloaded curriculum but also disillusioned by inconsistent attendance and minimal engagement from lecturers: ‘we would waste our bus fare to go to school, and the lecturers do not come … we were supposed to attend five or six classes a day, but maybe got two.’ (participant, nyp, 16 october 2021) another added: ‘you enrol in college with determination … but when the lecturers stop showing up, your passion also fades. some students just give up.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) this lack of instructional reliability and commitment erodes trust in the educational process and reinforces freire’s (1970) critique of the banking model – where education becomes a transaction devoid of relational or emancipatory value: ‘i just focused on passing exams, trusting the lecturers to teach what was needed for me to graduate and get a job.’ (participant, xyt, 16 october 2021) ‘truth be told, what made us come from the townships is getting employment after college more than anything else, trusting the knowledge from the teachers makes it possible for one to pass without any delays, to enable you to have a qualification to get into employment.’ (participant, xyt, 16 october 2021) these voices reveal that the urgency of economic need narrows students’ educational focus to credential attainment, often at the expense of critical engagement or social awareness. yet this is exacerbated – not mitigated – by instructional practices that fail to invite student participation or foster dialogical inquiry. dialogical teaching practices, while central to freirean pedagogy, are difficult to implement in the current institutional culture of tvet colleges. rigid curricula, bureaucratic accountability pressures and overloaded class schedules prevent lecturers from creating space for dialogue or reflection. although alternative models like project-based or challenge-based learning exist in theory, many institutions still rely on didactic instruction, rote memorisation and exam-focused content delivery (vimbelo & bayaga, 2023, 2024). participants’ testimonies point to the consequences of this pedagogical rigidity and lack of institutional responsiveness: ‘many of us were committed to completing our studies, but that commitment became meaningless when lecturers didn’t come to class regularly or didn’t teach well.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) ‘we reported lecturer absenteeism to the campus manager, but nothing changed. instead, lecturers became hostile.’ (lcg meeting, b01, 16 october 2021) these structural and pedagogical failures collectively undermine the potential for education as a humanising, empowering practice. instead of fostering critical thinking, curiosity or social transformation, the system too often reinforces student disengagement, mistrust and resignation. together, these four themes provide a nuanced and grounded critique of tvet’s structural, pedagogical and policy failures. but they also offer a vision for reclaiming vocational education as a transformative and dialogical practice, where students’ experiences are the starting point for reimagining more inclusive futures. the discussion section builds on this foundation to propose concrete strategies for integrating freirean principles into institutional policy and practice. discussion bridging the macro and micro – linking policy and pedagogy in technical and vocational education and training this discussion draws together the conceptual, policy and empirical threads of the study to explore how the structural imperatives of south african tvet interact – often problematically – with the everyday pedagogical experiences of students. building on the four key themes identified in the findings – disillusionment and institutional betrayal, the weight of structural marginalisation, emergent praxis and reimagining tvet and pedagogical incompetence and the absence of dialogical teaching – this section argues that sustainable tvet reform requires more than structural policy change. it demands a transformation of the pedagogical practices and power relations that shape the learning encounter. the limits of structural reform without pedagogical change the first theme – disillusionment and institutional betrayal – reveals the emotional and intellectual impact of policy failure on students. participants described how the nc(v), although policy-framed as a pathway to opportunity, produced feelings of abandonment and futility. these accounts underscore that macro-level reforms, such as qualifications frameworks and curriculum alignment, do not automatically translate into meaningful change for learners. this disconnect aligns with powell (2021) and vally and motala (2014), who caution that policy interventions, if not grounded in pedagogical transformation, remain symbolic and ineffective. lecturers, too, experienced disempowerment as they struggled to implement a rigid, technicist curriculum that left little space for contextual adaptation (vimbelo & bayaga, 2024). this echoes allais’s (2025) critique that policy-driven reform often imposes top-down mandates without investing in the pedagogical capacity of those responsible for implementation. without room for critical reflection or classroom-level innovation, both students and educators become subjects of a system that stifles rather than liberates. these findings affirm the argument by allais and shalem (2018) that narrow competency-based approaches flatten the complexities of teaching, reduce students to assessable outputs and ultimately deprofessionalise lecturers. structural marginalisation as a pedagogical challenge the second theme – the weight of structural marginalisation – demonstrates how socio-economic inequality invades the classroom. participants’ reflections reveal that poverty, spatial inequality and policy volatility undermine tvet’s capacity to deliver on its emancipatory promise. these conditions are not simply external but are embedded in the everyday context in which teaching and learning unfold. students frequently arrive at college facing hunger, long commutes and digital exclusion – realities that remain invisible in curriculum policy and implementation. freire (1970) insisted that education must begin with learners’ lived realities. however, as ngcwangu (2019) argues, the dominant employability discourse displaces these realities in favour of individualised responsibility, leaving broader structural forces unexamined. participants’ narratives exposed how the nc(v) qualification, framed as a route to opportunity, in practice excludes students from both employment and university access. these testimonies validate critiques by allais (2019) and powell and mcgrath (2019), who warn that tvet frameworks driven by labour market logic can reinforce rather than dismantle inequality. these findings also resonate with vally and motala (2022), who maintain that educational reform devoid of attention to socio-economic contexts risks replicating injustices. from a freirean perspective, this is a pedagogical failure – it denies students the opportunity to critically examine and challenge their circumstances, and it restricts the curriculum to technical content devoid of transformative potential. praxis and the emergence of critical agency the third theme – emergent praxis and reimagining tvet – offers compelling evidence of student agency and hope. in contrast to the narrative of passive tvet graduates, participants enacted freire’s (1970) concept of praxis: critical reflection linked to action. through the formation of peer support structures, proposals for student-led workshops and the articulation of collective demands, learners demonstrated their capacity to theorise and challenge institutional neglect. students did not merely recount grievances; they envisioned alternatives. their proposals for digital collaboration platforms, community engagement and curriculum reform illustrate their role as knowledge producers. this aligns with the capabilities approach advanced by powell and mcgrath (2019), which frames education as expanding learners’ real freedoms and capabilities – not merely as preparation for predefined roles. these voices represent more than personal frustrations – they constitute counter-narratives to dominant policy discourses. as soudien (2023) argues, recognising students as epistemic agents is foundational to reimagining socially just education. in this light, the student narratives presented here function as theorised insights, grounded in lived experience and oriented towards structural transformation. technical and vocational education and training lecturers as agents of change the data also underscore the pivotal role of lecturers in either facilitating or hindering transformative pedagogy. theme four, in particular, highlights how pedagogical incompetence, absenteeism and an overburdened curriculum obstruct students’ ability to meaningfully engage with their learning. students spoke of lecturers who frequently failed to attend classes, relied on rote delivery methods and neglected opportunities for critical dialogue. these failings not only eroded student trust but also undermined the educational process itself, illustrating the dangers of a system overly focused on compliance and assessment. this reinforces porres’ (2022) and vimbelo and bayaga’s (2023, 2024) argument that policy reforms must be accompanied by sustained investment in lecturer development – not only in technical competencies but also in the cultivation of dialogical, student-centred pedagogical approaches. the absence of such practices limits the possibility of a humanising educational experience, particularly when lecturers are disempowered by rigid, centrally imposed curricula. professional development must therefore go beyond administrative training and engage deeply with the broader goals of education – social justice, cultural responsiveness and the empowerment of both educators and learners. as vally and motala (2022) assert, educators should be seen not merely as implementers but as co-creators of curriculum and institutional culture. their professional agency must be restored if tvet is to become a space of liberation rather than marginalisation. reframing policy and pedagogy as interconnected dimensions reclaiming tvet as a transformative space requires a fundamental shift in how we conceptualise the relationship between policy and pedagogy. policy must cease to function as a prescriptive apparatus and instead become an enabling framework that supports flexibility, responsiveness and humanisation in teaching and learning. this includes legitimising student and lecturer voice in curriculum design, adopting formative and reflective assessments and creating institutional spaces for participatory decision-making. the testimonies from students and lecturers in this study reveal the contours of such a vision. they point to a vocational education system that prioritises dialogue over delivery, relationality over regulation and collective empowerment over individualised adaptation. these principles echo freire’s (1970) insistence that education must be a practice of freedom – one that equips learners not just to survive but also to critically engage and transform their world. in this spirit, the study affirms that macro-level policy reform must be inseparable from micro-level pedagogical change. as mcgrath et al. (2020) and the vet africa 4.0 collective (2023) contend, the future of vocational education depends on its ability to nurture socially conscious, critically engaged citizens. by anchoring tvet in the lived experiences and aspirations of students and empowering educators as facilitators of change, we can begin to move beyond technocratic reform towards a genuinely emancipatory model of vocational learning. conclusion this article has argued that meaningful transformation in tvet requires more than structural adjustment – it demands pedagogical reinvention rooted in the lived realities of students. while south africa’s policy frameworks often frame vocational education as a technical response to labour market challenges, this approach neglects the human, ethical and political dimensions of education. building on allais’s structural critique and extending it through the lens of freirean pedagogy, the article has offered a conceptual and empirical bridge between macro-level reform and micro-level classroom practice. the study foregrounds student voices not as anecdotal evidence but as epistemic contributions that illuminate what education should become. furthermore, student voices suggest that lecturers emerge not as mere implementers of rigid curricula but as potential agents of critical transformation – provided they are given the professional and policy space to act. at the heart of this reimagining is a call for tvet that does not treat students as workers-in-training, but as human beings capable of shaping their futures. this means developing not only technical skills but also the capabilities to aspire, critique, collaborate and transform. it means rejecting the banking model in favour of dialogue, praxis and solidarity. and it means shifting from compliance-driven reform to participatory and humanising educational practices. this vision is both pedagogical and political. it calls on policy-makers to go beyond efficiency metrics and to invest in inclusive, critical and context-sensitive tvet systems. it challenges institutions to centre student and community knowledge and to create spaces where education becomes a practice of freedom. future research must deepen this work by expanding participatory engagements across more institutions and geographies. but even now, one thing is clear: tvet can only empower if it listens to, learns from and is transformed by those it claims to serve. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the contributions made by the research participants during the data generation. competing interests the author declares that no financial or personal relationships inappropriately influenced the writing of this article. author’s contributions e.m. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data supporting this study were generated through learning circle group (lcg) meetings and life narrative interviews conducted and are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, e.m. no external datasets were used. because of the sensitive and personal nature of the data collected, they are not publicly available to protect participant confidentiality. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency, or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content. references allais, s. 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(2024). transforming mathematics education in tvet colleges through humanising pedagogy. iete journal of education, 65(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/09747338.2024.2324808 abstract introduction goals of the study research methodology rigour of the study synthesis of the findings the pandemic as a multifaceted shock to career construction for students the identity construction of young people challenged by the global pandemic the pandemic as a threat to identity coping with threat to identities coping strategies through career counselling activities to support meaning making models of career counselling and guidance interventions supporting the development of these coping strategies limitations of the study implications for research, practice, policy, and future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) valérie cohen-scali national institute for labor studies and vocational guidance, conservatoire national des arts et métiers, paris, france whitney erby lynch school of education, boston college, chesnut hill, united states of america citation cohen-scali, v., & erby, w. (2021). the development of coping strategies for young people to construct their identity in times of the covid-19 pandemic. african journal of career development, 3(1), a38. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.38 review article the development of coping strategies for young people to construct their identity in times of the covid-19 pandemic valérie cohen-scali, whitney erby received: 13 may 2021; accepted: 31 aug. 2021; published: 20 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the global coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has had a major impact on young people across the world. many students struggle to complete their studies amidst the pressure of the pandemic and have many difficulties constructing their identity and career which is crucial at this period of life. an overview of the main effects of the pandemic on their identity and career development is presented. objectives: the first objective is to highlight the challenges faced by youth regarding their identity and career development, particularly the challenges induced by the covid-19 pandemic. the next objective is to explore different strategies that may be implemented to ameliorate the effects of the career shock induced by the pandemic. lastly, the goal is to propose career guidance and counselling interventions that professionals may utilise to help young adults to cope with the career-related consequences of the covid-19 pandemic. method: this article was informed by an overview of the current psychosocial literature. relevant literature was reviewed and critically analysed. it was also informed by the review of an empirical experience with a group of students who kept diaries during pandemic confinement periods. results: the analysis resulted in three sets of psychosocial strategies that youth can develop in order to face the difficulties associated with the covid-19 pandemic. each set of coping strategies is related to a specific career intervention that may be implemented by career guidance and counselling practitioners. conclusion: to support the development of adaptive coping strategies for the youth, career and counselling professionals need to address the three main types of challenges that are described. keywords: covid-19; identity; coping strategies; career interventions; students. introduction young people, particularly students from many countries around the world are suffering from the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and the confinement that it has produced (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; blustein & guarino, 2020). not only have young people had to deal with the uncertainty in which they are immersed, but they have also been confronted with disruptions to their personal and professional lives (blustein et al., 2020; mariot, mercklé, & perdoncin, 2021). this upheaval in their professional lives has been defined as a career shock, which is described as: [a] disruptive and extraordinary event that is, at least to some degree caused by factors outside the focal individual’s control and that triggers a deliberate thought process concerning one’s career. (akkermans, seibert, & mol, 2018, p. 4; see also akkermans et al., 2020) the covid-19 pandemic presents several aspects of a career shock for the youth, especially for students, many of whom have been forced to re-consider their career choices (belghith, ferry, patros, & tenret, 2020). students have been forced to change their lifestyles, to convert to on-line studying, and to relinquish their internships in companies both domestic and abroad. career shocks can influence the way people manage their careers and make decisions about their future. like other transition situations (anderson, goodman, & schlossberg, 2011), career shocks can have short-, mediumand long-term effects that are difficult to predict, but which are not necessarily negative. on the contrary, they can induce positive effects, constitute opportunities and lead to changes for a more satisfying life. thus, it is also possible to associate the effects of the pandemic with epiphanies, described as ‘interactional moments and experiences (that) alter the fundamental meaning structure’ and ‘leave marks on people’s lives’ (denzin, 2014, p. 52). the covid-19 pandemic may be called a major professional event for some people, given that it is ‘touching every fabric of … life’ (denzin, 2014, p. 53). nevertheless, this major professional event can destabilise a well-established and long-standing career system in some way. this is the case for many students who have a well-established professional project or those who work in the restaurant or cultural sector and who can no longer work because of the suspension of these activities. these situations also underline that a career is a complex psychosocial construct, as underscored by the chaos theory of careers (bright & pryer, 2011). this theory underlines that careers are dynamic and complex open systems that are very sensitive to changes and that predictions about what is going to happen next are very difficult to draw. the life design approach highlights the place of identity as a psychological regulator when many changes appear in people’s lives. the major psychological activity of ‘self constructing’ (collin & guichard, 2011; guichard, 2009) and of ‘career construction’ (savickas, 2011) recognises identity as a fundamental resource that supports career development (pouyaud, 2015). goals of the study firstly, the goal of the study is to identify the main psychological and social effects of the pandemic on the career choices and career paths of young people in france and the united states. the guiding explorative research questions are as follows: to what extent might the covid-19 pandemic make identity construction more difficult and how might young people react? secondly, a goal is to discuss various global coping strategies that may be implemented by young adults to manage the career shocks induced by the pandemic. thirdly, we aim to examine the role of career interventions in supporting young adults in their self-construction in this specific context. research methodology the methodology was based on two processes. firstly, we conducted a brief, adapted qualitative review of the psychosocial literature related to identity and career development in social crisis situations. groups of papers that were examined possessed the characteristics that are relevant to the phenomenon studied (booth, 2001). subsequently, the findings were integrated and synthesised, using the following procedure: the abstracts for material from a number of databases were identified. we started by engaging in a systematic reading of the abstracts using the terms ‘covid-19’, ‘identity’, and ‘career development’. we simultaneously searched articles and book chapters in both french and english from a wide range of sources. we assessed the data and removed duplicate sources when necessary. then, after reading the articles, we determined the appropriateness of each source, before incorporation into the corpus. general inclusion criteria were sources addressing (1) identity, (2) career development, (3) students (4) crisis. exclusion criteria were articles not related to these thematics. an empirical based method has also been implemented in order to capture the students’ perception of their situation. indeed, this synthesis has been enriched by the implementation of a photobiographic diary conducted with a group of 7 masters’ students at a university in paris, during a 1-month confinement period in france in november 2020. each student volunteer was asked to keep a daily photo diary. the instructions given to them were as follows: ‘take a photo each day that corresponds to your current mood and write a few lines to describe your feelings at this moment’. the students kept the daily photo diary for 1 month. afterwards, content analysis of the diary photos and writing was conducted. this work helped to identify the main psychological difficulties that the students experienced and the main coping strategies that were developed in order to address them. this experiment had a status of confirmatory analysis (booth, 2001). rigour of the study each step of the study was rigorously conducted. the main content of this study was first presented at the online cannexus congress (cohen-scali, 2021) to career counselling practitioners who made comments and provided feedback regarding their own professional experience. their comments and suggestions have been considered to improve and clarify the present study. synthesis of the findings in this first section, the main psychological effects of the pandemic on young adults are described. in the following section, we explore the ways in which the pandemic may be associated with an identity threat for youth, and the coping strategies that emerge as a result. the third section outlines the connection between these coping strategies and the career counselling interventions needed to develop them. we conclude briefly with a reflexion on the challenges associated with the construction of innovative career counselling interventions. main psychological effects of the pandemic on young adults the covid-19 pandemic can be analysed as a career shock for the youth that might affect their identity construction in diverse ways. the pandemic as a multifaceted shock to career construction for students this section highlights the different facets of career shock induced by the pandemic for young people, particularly in france and the united states. since the covid-19 pandemic began, many young people in some vocational training courses most affected by the pandemic (tourism, catering, hospitality, culture, etc.) were not able to complete internships or apprenticeships in a company. the absence of these corporate experiences makes it impossible to develop hands-on professional and organisational socialisation, which is central to allowing students to learn about the world of work and refine their professional projects. indeed, organisational socialisation is the process by which an individual learns the ‘ropes’ of an organisational role and develops the knowledge and skills necessary to assume this role (van mannen & schein, 1979). it allows individuals to move from being an ‘outsider’ of the company, to being a participatory and effective member (feldman, 1976). this activity involves the search for information, social interactions with professionals, and the development of adaptive strategies (morrison, 1993). during these internship experiences, newcomers initiate organisational identity work, which refers to how individuals shape a sense of self vis-à-vis their environment (kreiner & murphy, 2016, p. 278; see also kreiner, hollensbe, & sheep, 2006) which leads to the development of the aptitude to build organisational identities and to move from one identity to another. more generally, these corporate activities help young people to move into adulthood and influence professional identities in construction. they can be considered as rites of passage promoting autonomy, responsibility, self-confidence and can thus help youth to become adults (mortimer & shanahan, 2003). corporate immersions include a didactic dimension by enriching academic teaching, offering opportunities to learn differently, through observation and action (glaymann, 2015). many young people in education and vocational training have seen their training trajectory become destabilised. moreover, the pandemic has resulted in the impoverishment of young people in both france and the united states, because of numerous job losses, in particular odd jobs for students. more than 700 000 salaried jobs have been lost in france, particularly in sectors in which young adults work such as hotels and restaurants, sports and leisure, and tourism. at the end of 2020, the unemployment rate for young people in france rose to 28%. additionally, 36% of students in france have had their paid activity interrupted (belghiti et al., 2020). in the united states, the unemployment rate for workers between the ages of 16 and 24 was 25.3% during the peak of the pandemic in april 2020 (bls, 2020). many young people who have no social support resort to social assistance, charities, and ngos for basic necessities such as food and shelter. furthermore, most young people are unsettled when it comes to plans for the future. this additional income not only played an economic role for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, allowing them to meet their basic needs, but these jobs also had an important role in the construction of professional identity (finch, mortimer, & ryu, 1997) fostered adaptability (monteiro & almeida, 2015) and commitment in work (sortheix, dietrich, chow, & salmena-aro, 2013). another facet of the career shock is linked to the switch to distance learning. this situation does not allow students to fully experience the status of being a student and does not allow student socialisation and the development of the ‘student profession’ (coulon, 1997). in france, the socialisation of students varies according to the universities (orange, 2017; paivandi, 2015). mutual aid between students, the presence of teachers, support systems for students who experience difficulty (tutoring, additional training in the methodology, education support, etc.), as well as social, cultural, and union activities that are irreplaceable for a successful integration into the university, have been almost completely cancelled. in addition to this lack of socialisation, which is particularly felt by undergraduate students, distance education carried out without sufficient preparation does not always offer good learning conditions. in some regions of france, 25% of students do not have a working computer and only 17.6% have access to a stable, fast, and unlimited internet connection (martin & paye, 2020). in the united states, a recent survey revealed that more than 9 million school children do not have consistent access to reliable internet facility at home (des, 2018). this is particularly true for students from lower-income backgrounds. in these conditions, it is difficult to follow the lessons and to do teamwork. a survey carried out in france at the start of the pandemic in april and may 2020 (mariot et al., 2021), showed that 36% of young people aged 18–24 reported that they never leave their homes (compared to 25% of the total population). about 46% of students have moved to new housing accommodations and have returned to live with their parents. similarly, in the united states, the percentage of young adults aged 18–29 living at home with at least one of their parents has risen to 52%, which is the highest level recorded since the great depression (anderson & kumar, 2020). these different elements, as well as the fear for their health and that of their relatives have led many students in both france and the united states to develop psychological distress. many of these students suffer from social isolation, especially foreign students. young people aged 18–30 were the category of the population most affected by the loss of social relations (46.4% against 37.2% amongst 37–45-year-olds) (mariot et al., 2021). moreover, a portion of students claim that they feel exhausted (35%), feel psychological distress (31%), despondency or sadness (28%), and discouragement (16%) (belghiti et al., 2020). there is also an increase in alcohol consumption and addictions, especially to drugs and to video games. during the pandemic, social ties have been more difficult to maintain, whilst support from relatives and the mobilisation of support networks remains particularly crucial. a consequence has also been that one in four young people in france (belghiti et al., 2020) had to modify their professional or training plan or wish to stop their studies. of these young people, 8% of them wish to find new training opportunities or are looking for a new career choice and 4% plan to interrupt their studies following confinement. additionally, some students have questioned the relevance of their projects. specifically, 45% of students are pessimistic about their professional integration possibilities. students in the united states have had similar experiences. a study of us college students found that 13% of students who were surveyed reported that they delayed graduation whilst 40% reported that they had lost a career opportunity including a job or internship. furthermore, 29% of students reported that they expect to earn less money when they are 35 years old (aucejo, french, araya, & zafar, 2020). clearly, the lifestyles, self-perceptions and plans of young people have been strongly shaken by this pandemic. thus, most young people from the middle and underprivileged classes of france encounter the same concerns as many young people from the countries of the global south, for whom the struggle for survival is daily and who often do not have the opportunity to build projects. we are therefore confronted with a generalised development of the economic and social precariousness of youth. given that youth is a period of life that often involves decisions around vocational choice and labour market integration, the consequences of this crisis have had particularly substantial effects on the professional identity development of young people. the identity construction of young people challenged by the global pandemic identity is structured and organised from childhood and takes shape in adolescence. as erikson explains: [identity formation] begins where the usefulness of identification ends. it arises from the selective repudiation and mutual assimilation of childhood identifications and their absorption in a new configuration, which, in turn, is dependent on the process by which a society (often through subsocieties) identifies the young individual recognizing him as somebody who had to become the way he is, and who, being the way he is, is taken for granted. (erikson, 1959, in mcadams & zapata-gietl, 2015, p. 82) during adolescence, ego is under the pressure of two opposing poles: identity synthesis and identity confusion (erikson, 1968). identity synthesis is a resumption of past and present identifications in a larger set of ideals relating to oneself and determined by oneself. it leads to registering one’s present in an anticipated future. identity synthesis corresponds to the synchronic and diachronic integration of the young person’s seemingly disparate aspects of the self, including their varied and possible conflicting roles, relationships, values, and beliefs. it provides a sense of unity of the self. identity confusion, on the other hand, refers to an inability to develop a coherent set of ideals on which to build one’s adult identity. in adolescence, this sense of continuity and coherence develops, and a set of goals, values, and beliefs emerge that constitute the uniqueness of each individual. in emerging adults (arnett, 2000) and young adults, this process of defining oneself ‘in a certain way’ crystallises under the influence of contexts, experiences, and social relationships. the period of young adulthood is a phase in which relationships of intimacy, partnership and affiliation with others are built up, which allows the emergence of a feeling of belonging to an age group united in a community and sharing a collective culture. subsequently, marcia (marcia, waterman, matteson, archer, & orlofsky, 1993) brought to light the importance of the processes of exploration of oneself and of one’s environment, as well as the role of engagement in activities on identity building. these two dimensions make up four identity statuses: foreclosure, achieved identity, identity diffusion and the moratorium. young people who do not explore their environment and quickly engage in a lifestyle choice or activity have been associated with foreclosure status. moratorium status corresponds to young people who continue to explore their environment for an extended period. identity diffusion occurs when young people neither explore nor engage in a career choice. finally, achieved identity corresponds to a double activity of exploring various professional, ideological, and interpersonal options and possibly making certain commitments (kroger, 2015; mcadams & zapata-gietl, 2015). for meeus (2011), this identity development process has three dimensions: commitment, in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment. the interplay amongst these dimensions captures the continuous identity dynamic. however, the context of a health crisis inducing a restriction of activity opportunities makes it impossible to implement these psychological processes, which are crucial for the identity development of adolescents and young adults. the role of strategies to manage career shock induced by the pandemic these identity development processes may be difficult to implement because the pandemic may generate threats to identity. the pandemic as a threat to identity in many countries, the pandemic situation has led to periods of confinement, that is to say the obligation to remain at home and limit as much as possible movements and interpersonal face-to-face contact. these periods of confinement can be likened to a situation of rupture in the trajectory of many people and in particular young people. if we refer to de gaulejac’s model of social exclusion (de gaulejac & taboada-leonetti, 1994), several factors lead to social exclusion. the first factor is economic. the pandemic crisis has increased employment problems and has created employment uncertainties. individuals whose professional and social positions were fragile before this crisis (informal work, short multi-contract, contract, etc.) may find themselves unemployed, and uncertain if they will be able to resume their jobs after the pandemic. the second factor relates to social ties. the crisis has strained social and family relationships, depriving individuals of social integration into invaluable relational networks. furthermore, some individuals, especially students, can no longer rely on state protection and welfare policies for support. finally, the last factor is symbolic. individuals are often evaluated based on their social utility. people who do not meet these standards are perceived to be of little value to society. these societal demands can lead to feelings of failure and a sense of self-devaluation. these factors form the backdrop for the biographical breaks as a first step in the process of social exclusion. this step is characterised by a loss arousing a strong negative emotion (it can be initiated by the death of a loved one, a loss of employment, a long illness, a sudden disability, a traumatic accident …) that: [t]he individual fails to master or manage emotionally or materially. sometimes she denies the rupture, not accepting reality, sometimes she maintains unrealistic solutions cultivating the fiction of an immediate outcome. at this stage, the rupture is above all psychological. most of the time, the individual stays in his home environment while changing his attitude. it becomes versatile: anger, calm, and despondency follow one another alternately, eroding the image of oneself. (de gaulejac & taboada-leonetti, 1994, p. 118) the types of reactions reported (belghiti et al., 2020; mariot et al., 2021), show that many young people during the pandemic are experiencing such objective and subjective ruptures. in addition, this very first rupture induces a higher sensitivity to further ruptures. indeed, the way in which the initial rupture is managed can lead the individual to be more vulnerable to other difficulties and additional ruptures. each break in life might challenge and weaken the usual functioning of identity. for breakwell (1986, 2001) breaks and abrupt transitions, such as the loss of a job, or feeling constitute threats to identity. to this view, identity has two planes: a content dimension with all the characteristics which define social (group memberships, roles, social categories labels, etc. ) and personal identity (values, attitudes, cognitive style, etc.). the other plane is the value dimension. each element of the identity content dimension has a positive or negative value and corresponds to the affective and emotional aspects of identity (breakwell, 2001). these elements compose the structure of identity and are regulated by two processes. on the one hand, assimilation-accommodation refers to the way in which individuals integrate and interpret new information and incorporate it into their identity. it also includes the subsequent adjustment that takes place so that this information becomes part of the identity structure. on the other hand, the evaluation corresponds to the processes of meaning making and giving value to the elements contained in identity (seeing certain aspects of oneself as positive or negative). moreover, these processes of identity are guided in their operation by four principles that are desirable states for the structure of identity, at least in western societies. these principles vary across the life span and the social contexts: continuity in time and space, uniqueness (or the fact of being distinguished from others) feeling confident and in control of one’s life, and sense of personal worth (jaspal & breakwell, 2014). threats to identity are situations that challenge continuity, distinctiveness, or self-esteem and are the product of social influence processes set into motion by the changing pattern of intergroup and interpersonal relationships in the pandemic context: [a] threat to identity occurs when the processes of identity, assimilation-accommodation and evaluation are, for some reason, unable to comply with the principles of continuity, distinctiveness and self-esteem, which habitually guide their operation. the reason for this obstruction constitutes the threat. (breakwell, 1986, pp. 46–47) job losses, social isolation, the inability to engage in normal social relations, and massive uncertainty about the future can challenge feelings of continuity and coherence, but also the feeling of self-worth. these experiences therefore disrupt the processes of regulating identity. situations of major disruption constitute threats affecting identity processes and principles which then require individuals to develop coping strategies. coping with threat to identities for kastersztein (1990), people living with threats to identity produce specific strategies. these strategies are implemented to overcome difficulties in achieving certain goals, or ‘identity victories’. these strategies are: [i]ndividual or collective behaviours, conscious or unconscious, adapted or unsuitable, put in place to achieve these victories against an adversary who can be oneself, others in concrete interaction, or the social system. (kastersztein, 1990, p. 31) individuals produce strategies related to their perception of what is involved in the situation, the issues, and the perceived goals. individuals who feel a sense of identity threat can pursue three objectives. the first objective is differentiation. differentiation results in psychological processes that lead the person to move towards new behaviours and living spaces, and to invent new dimensions of judgements or evaluations of ways of being with others. the second objective is social visibility. to reach this objective, individuals aim to become visible, or to obtain full recognition of their existence in the eyes of others. they want to have their value recognised to ‘count for something’. the third objective is individuation or singularisation. this objective leads to affirming one’s singularity, or one’s difference through creativity and the production of works. singularisation is a psychological necessity that must be expressed for all individuals, whatever the context. coping strategies to face identity threat are defined as ‘any thought or action which succeeds in eliminating or ameliorating threat can be considered a coping strategy, whether it is consciously recognized as intentional or not’ (breakwell, 1986, p. 79). these strategies can have different targets. they can be targeted towards withdrawal from the social context, particularly the material, social or ideological aspects which generate threat. the individual may move into a new, less threatening social position. another option is to revise the identity structure, based on the content or value dimensions to allow identity to work in accordance with the different identity principles of continuity, distinctiveness, and self-esteem. three families of coping strategies have been pinpointed. firstly, intrapsychic strategies aim to modify the relationship with oneself, with processes relating to the representations that the person has of themselves and of the problem encountered. these are related to the assimilation-accommodation processes. they are based on two categories: deflection strategies and acceptance strategies. deflection strategies entail the refusal to modify either the value or content dimensions of identity (deny, depersonalisation, fantasy, etc.). the acceptance strategies result in the revision of one or both dimensions of identity in a manner congruent with threat. they can result in changes inducing a loss of positivity and distinctiveness or the development of a new outlook on oneself which reinforces a sense of self-worth. indeed, these acceptance strategies ‘represent creative adaptations which may rely upon preliminary redefinition and re-attribution tactics’ (breakwell, 1986, p. 93). secondly, interpersonal strategies refer to a modification of relationships with others to cope with threat, or a modification of social interactions, and can result in movement towards a less threatening position. these strategies relate to actions involving negotiation with others. the interactionist approaches of identity have broadly documented this set of actions underlining the way roles can be modified regarding the contexts (goffman, 1963). thirdly, intergroup strategies refer to the relationship with society and with other social groups. these strategies consist of individuals utilising their various affiliations to limit perceived threats. the attitudes of others towards the person can be modified according to their knowledge of the person’s belonging to certain other groups. additionally, group support and group action are strong coping strategies involving intergroup dynamics. intergroup strategies include joining with people who share similar difficulties, in order to help each other by seeking and sharing information and by building a collective awareness of the problem encountered so that group members can become stronger. a combination of these strategies can be used to enable young people to face the numerous and significant difficulties caused by the pandemic crisis. career interventions to develop coping strategies in this final section, we examine the career counselling activities that could be implemented to support the development of these three groups of coping strategies (breakwell, 1986). then, we present a set of three existing innovative career counselling interventions that involve both individual and collective action, and can be used to encourage students to develop the types of coping strategies that may be more useful to them. coping strategies through career counselling activities to support meaning making we have identified nine groups of activities based on the coping strategies presented that are related to the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activities that can be used to support students in the development of strategies to face identity threats during the pandemic (table 1). table 1: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activities supporting the development of three sets of coping strategies amongst students, to face identity threat during the pandemic crises. these activities are aimed at meaning-making for the individual and the development of self-perception, ideas of how the self is perceived by others, and the perception of others. it is a set of transformative activities by individuals based on their own perceptions. as malrieu (2003) explains: the individual gives meaning to each of their activities and becomes a person by extracting it from its domain of origin, by referring it to one or more other domains, within which it is in turn designated and resigned. indeed, to distance from a situation that generates dissatisfaction, its objectification must occur in an orderly chain of memories. the past must be the object of an intellectual activity oriented towards the search for the conditions of each event. (p. 67) these activities which are focused on communication make it possible to reconsider the meanings of the different facets of the self and of identity offered in a society and to renegotiate and redefine one’s roles. these activities promote the establishment of a new intersubjective convention (barbier, 2006). they focus on self-development. processes of self-regulation, intentional self-development and identity construction are intimately linked to the linguistic structures (brandtstädter, 1999). according to bakhtin (1977) ‘it is not mental activity that organizes expression, but it is expression that organizes mental activity, which models it and determines its orientation’ (p 122-123). most of the activities presented in table 1 need language and dialogues to be implemented and contribute to acting towards creating meaning (meanacting). meanacting has a directionality and involves creating signs towards what the person might become. it also contributes to meaning through the creation of new signs. as explained by josephs, valsiner and surgan et al. (1999) ‘the sign prepares the person for new encounters with the world that might happen, but that are not to be taken for granted’ (p. 258). the sign may be an internal representation of a desired event or action that guided intention to act. the process of meaning-making involves the development of intentionality, defined as ‘the capacity to perform an action on purpose’ (mascolo, fischer, & neimeyer, 1999, p. 147). the role of career counselling is to engage individuals in a quest for a different perspective on their lives. it involves a process of deconstruction-reconstruction and co-construction (savickas, 2011). the goal is to revise the individuals’ understanding of their life. in the following section, we introduce three career counselling intervention models based on existing narrative techniques that could encourage the development of coping strategies described above to support students who are facing difficulties connected to the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic. models of career counselling and guidance interventions supporting the development of these coping strategies the three models briefly introduced below must be incorporated into guidance intervention systems to help young people, especially students, to face the current crisis, and to strengthen their identities by acting at the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and collective levels. the three models are the life design counselling approach (savickas, 2012), contextual action theory and practice (young, domene, & valach, 2015) and the emancipatory livelihood guidance approach (eds. hooley, sultana, & thomsen, 2018). life design approach and the development of identity skills at the intrapersonal level at the intrapersonal level, life design can be considered as an approach that is able to support the reorganisation of individual identities and the development of intrapsychic strategies. it allows individuals to become authors of their life and not just actors. as authors of their life, they can increase their capabilities and are not limited to merely reacting to changes. life design’s interventions contribute to identity changes by activating, stimulating and developing personal resources. this approach aims to give people back some control over their lives. based mostly on narratives and dialogues, two main methods have been developed in this perspective. these two methods, even if they have different theoretical foundations, can be used separately or one after the other with the aim of activating the reflexivity related to identity organisation. firstly, savickas’ career construction interview (savickas, 2011, 2012) is an intervention based on one to three sequences with a counsellor who aims for the co-construction of a new self-portrait of the client. to achieve this self-portrait, the counsellor asks five questions: (1) who did you admire when you were growing up? (2) do you read any magazines or watch television shows regularly? (3) what is your favourite book, movie or shows? (4) tell me your favourite saying or motto (5) what are your earliest recollections? following this interview, the counsellor prepares a portrait which is discussed with the person. finally, a set of actions to make the portrait evolve, are defined. this method may help young people to create a clear picture of themselves and of who they want to become. the second main method is the life design counselling dialogues (ldcd) of guichard (guichard, 2009; guichard, bangali, cohen-scali, pouyaud, & robinet, 2017). this model is based on the representation of an identity organised in several subjective identity forms (sif), which can be related to different spheres of life and activities carried out in these life contexts. the intervention makes it possible to visualise and modify the organisation of these different sifs, thanks to the realisation of a series of interviews (between 2 and 4) and a mapping of the identity system. the intervention also follows four main stages. the first one aims to identify the sifs of the person in his current and past life. the counsellor helps the person to deepen these sifs and to explore different aspects of the relationship of the self, with specific objects and with others, in each of their spheres of life. individuals identify certain relationships with certain activities in these spheres that suit them and others that they would like to develop. then, they establish links between sifs and gradually end up considering a more or less important reorganisation of their identity system. young adults may benefit from this dialogue to enlighten them on the barriers and available supports that may help them to adapt to a new situation. overall, research and practices relating to these life design interventions have shown that they promote changes in the person’s perception of themselves and their future prospects (pouyaud, bagali, cohen-scali, robinet, & guichard, 2016). intrapersonal strategies may be developed with these interventions that allows the person to consider one’s life differently, and to become more positive, optimistic, and proactive. the approach described below is based on the development of collaborations with other non-career guidance professionals, who are considered to be the main resources to assist young people with the development of the interpersonal strategies needed to adapt to difficult situations. the contextual action approach to develop interpersonal strategies to promote interpersonal coping strategies, each individual will have to rely on powerful relational resources to define ambitious goals and to form new projects. the contextual action approach (young et al., 2015) is based on the idea of a conceptual link between action and career. action corresponds to a behaviour directed towards a goal. several actions with common objectives are considered as projects. several similar projects important in the person’s life lead to a career. these sets of actions are often designed jointly, with peers, a romantic partner, relatives, a teacher or a counsellor. they emerge from a process of communication and consultation which can lead to projects. this approach highlights the role of social interactions and in particular conversations with friends and family to define vocational projects. recently, the author has developed career counselling interventions with young newcomers to canada (domene, young, & wilson, 2019). it consists of integrating a significant person in their social environment in the reflection and communication on the intentions of action and the projects of the young person, to promote a co-construction of joint actions and projects. part of the intervention consists of a self-confrontation, where the person can listen to their story or the conversation in order to deepen their reflection. this intervention makes it possible to develop projects by relying on proximal relationships and by promoting the quality of these interactions: [w]orking with the significant other person, engaging in joint conversations that are observed and contribute to the identification of the dyad’s joint project, and the identification of ways in which the project can be enhanced. (domene et al., 2019, p. 570) the emancipatory guidance approach and intergroups coping strategies this third approach focuses on the development of intergroup coping strategies. designed by hooley et al. (2018), the approach considers guidance in its political mission, as well as emancipation, and development of the power to act amongst the most deprived or vulnerable people. it focuses less on individual psychological resources, and more on communities in their role of social and political actors. guidance is conceived as a set of collective and community actions in the fight against oppression, exploitation, inequalities, and precariousness. guidance interventions must enable people to better understand their social situation by helping them to build a critical awareness and to fight to improve their situation. from this point of view, counsellors are informants on rights but also lawyers who will defend these individuals and help them to make their voice heard. however, it is also about encouraging people to work together, and to support each other to become more influential players in their environment. this approach promotes collective activities that are likely to have social visibility and assist in the development of individual and collective skills, such as photovoice, that promotes the creativity of vulnerable groups. it adopts a holistic perspective on careers and encourages young people to think about what makes work decent and life better. young people come to think about the necessity to live in a fair and equitable society. interventions are based on career education, experimental learning, group projects, and volunteering. they consider social justice and green guidance and individuals are able to explore the relationship between their lives and the whole context. these three sets of interventions are necessary in the current context because they offer complementary perspectives to support young people in the development of useful coping strategies allowing them to face identity threats, by offering a wide range of methods that all focus on empowering people individually and collectively. limitations of the study as this article is based on a selective review and empirical experiences, it is acknowledged that certain sources may not have been available for inclusion. however, the issues raised by this work are strongly documented, especially in relation to identity construction of young adults, in situations of social and individual crisis. implications for research, practice, policy, and future research this research is relevant to the field of career development, education, and social inclusion and it should prompt further research into the area. in most countries, the covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the major social and personal difficulties met by young people. this context does not allow identity to follow a positive course of development which leads to career perspectives being questioned. governments of all countries need to recognise the current problems and rapidly propose policies and practices to support the training, and the social and psychosocial support of this population. future research will need to implement these sets of career development programmes and evaluate their efficiency on the development of coping strategies for constructing young adults’ identity. conclusion the difficulties imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, and the need for young adults to develop coping strategies leads to the necessity of new multifaceted career counselling interventions to be conceived in a coordinated manner. career development interventions must be more than even centred on the reinforcement of competences for the support of identity construction in interaction with others and the larger environment. practitioners have to face several challenges to develop these innovative interventions (ed. maree, 2019). firstly, most counselling and guidance professionals are discovering ‘cyber-guidance’ during this pandemic. until the pandemic, it was not customary to offer remote online career counselling interviews. today, this is becoming the rule. however, access to digital tools and their mastery is the first challenge that must be overcome by clients and practitioners. this is a huge source of inequality given that many families either do not have the devices necessary to connect to the internet, or are sharing a single device amongst an entire family (anderson & kumar, 2020; brunner & maurin, 2019). the second challenge is to conceive more adjusted career interventions. given the complexity of individual and collective situations, interventions must adopt an engineering perspective. engineering is defined as ‘an activity whose product is conception and evaluation and more broadly the monitoring of an intervention built especially in relationship with a particular situation’ (barbier, 2017, p.124). this activity relates to the idea of a ‘council’ composed of different people (some being practitioners, others being significant persons working together). the aim is to design specific and individualised interventions related to the person’s specific questions. finally, the third challenge is that career counselling interventions need to integrate a global perspective. they must be conceived as a holistic societal mission. this pandemic crisis reinforces the need for guidance to engage in a new paradigm integrating a critical perspective related to both social justice and to the question of climate change and the protection of natural resources. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.c-s. made the conceptualisation of the article. w.e. added specific examples from her country, made the formal analysis, and reviewed the writing. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding informations this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the references provide access to the data and information provided in the text. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, m.l. 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(1979). toward a theory of organizational socialization. research in organizational behaviour, 1, 209–264. young, r.a., domene, j.f., & valach, l. (2015). counseling and action. springer. abstract introduction the genogram as assessment and therapeutic tool research methodology: self-reflective narrative three-dimensional narrative inquiry space reflections on the career-focused genogram as pedagogical method for encouraging phenomenological consciousness conclusion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) karlien conradie department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation conradie, k. (2025). encouraging phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists by using embodied career-focused genograms. african journal of career development, 7(1), a166. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.166 original research encouraging phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists by using embodied career-focused genograms karlien conradie received: 17 feb. 2025; accepted: 06 may 2025; published: 24 june 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: student educational psychologists must learn to navigate the unfathomable depths of human experience with nuanced insight. however, a diagnostic checklist approach is increasingly dominating psychological practice, emphasising biomedical symptoms and subsequent pharmacological treatment above deeper psychological insight. a phenomenological approach to experience may serve as a buffer against the reductionist medicalisation of ordinary lifeworld matters. the genogram’s inherently embodied character renders it an appropriate teaching tool for developing phenomenological consciousness. objectives: this article is a self-reflective narrative on how i propose using the career-focused genogram to increase phenomenological consciousness among student educational psychologists. methods: this exploratory investigation used a self-reflective narrative research approach to understand the career-focused genogram as a pedagogical strategy to encourage phenomenological consciousness among student educational psychologists. reflective teaching journal entries and teaching notes serve as the foundation for this investigation. results: my teaching experiences using a deweyan framework of analysis revealed three major themes: the genogram as a metaphorical function of the phenomenological orientation; the career-focused genogram as an integrated life-career ecology; and the self-constructed career-focused genogram as an embodied engagement activity. conclusion: the career-focused genogram as an enactment of the phenomenological condition of embeddedness can be used to promote a pluralistic psychology education that values both scientific and philosophically orientated approaches towards understanding and appreciating the depth and nuance of matters related to the lifeworld. contribution: this article offers a contextual perspective to existing literature on the importance of a philosophically orientated educational psychology curriculum as an alternative to a technicist diagnose-and-treat curriculum. keywords: phenomenological consciousness; student educational psychologists; career-focused genogram; embodied engagement; pedagogical strategy; self-reflective narrative. introduction phenomenological consciousness suggests an ontological awareness of human experience in its complexity. it is the capacity to be able to deeply relate with oneself as an integrated or embodied lifeworld situatedness, a relational enactment anchored in structures of experience, such as language (story), place (internal, psychological experience, context), temporality (past, present, future) and historicity (being part of historical unfolding or actuality) (merleau-ponty, 1964, 2001; moran, 2013). phenomenological consciousness, as a philosophical mindset, is not typically included in mainstream psychology textbooks, despite a plea to revive awareness for the discipline’s philosophical background (murphy et al., 2024; woods, 2003). the disconnect between philosophy and educational psychology has been noted in educational psychology courses around the world, which place limited emphasis on the philosophical roots of educational psychology (alexander, 2003; hibberd & petocz, 2023; murphy, 2003). the risk here is that theoretical frameworks, concepts and phenomena may be reduced to disembodied, essentialist learning, instead of being inhabited and understood on a deeper, more personal level. what is important is not only what student educational psychologists know but also how they know, in this case responding to and apprehending experience in a conscious manner. in other words, they experience immersed engagement characterised by a comprehensive state of perceptual, intellectual and emotional attentiveness and openness (moran, 2013). in such circumstances, knowledge is not external to the student but rather reflects intentional, immersed being-in-the-world (husserl & moran, 2012; moran, 2000). educational psychology acknowledges that an embodied being-in-the-world – or connected experience – is fundamental to deeper meaning making and that ‘higher cognitive abilities such as critical thinking and problem-solving extend throughout the body’ (macrine & fugate, 2022, p. 16–17). well-known phenomenological approach of the phenomenologist merleau-ponty (2002) has provided the foundation for scholars in educational psychology to conceptualise embodied learning as the synthetisation of physical (body) and mental (affective, intellectual) processing qualities, resulting in a unified, being-in-the-world experience. it is important to be reminded that in this context, phenomenology is understood and practised as ‘an attitude or style of attending to experience’ rather than a thinking style as in descriptive phenomenological research (halling, 2012, p. 2079). the educational psychology curriculum and classroom can support students in cultivating appropriate phenomenological consciousness by encouraging the principle of embodied learning. this means that students will get exposed to teaching that emphasises experience as a deeply connected, interwoven unity, rather than ‘separate mental and physical mechanisms that are isolated from one another’ (stolz, 2014, p. 474). in this article, i provide a self-reflective narrative of my understanding of how the genogram, as part of the career psychology module,1 could be used to encourage phenomenological consciousness with student educational psychologists. through my teaching of career psychology, i aim to assist students to understand and engage with a phenomenological consciousness as a particular mindset. it is by way of phenomenological engagement that the tenderness of another’s lifeworld is acknowledged and recognised (abbs, 2005; van manen, 2017). in recent years, i have deliberately moved away from teaching students only about the genogram as a clinical and assessment tool to rather helping them view the genogram as a metaphor for embodied lifeworld situatedness. the genogram’s inherently embodied character renders it an appropriate teaching tool for exploring phenomenological awareness. over the previous two to three decades, concerned scholars and practitioners in the fields of psychology and psychiatry have expressed concerns about the medicalisation of everyday human life challenges. in this article, the term ‘medicalisation of life’ refers to the dominant trend of classifying normal aspects of the human condition as mental disorders, thereby diminishing the complex interplay of neurology, personal psychology, relationships and larger social environments in the development of mental challenges (martínez, 2023; strong et al., 2015; thomas, 2021). strong et al. (2017) suggest that, in addition to increased medically orientated regulation of psychology practice, there is a growing tendency to medicalise ordinary human experiences such as stress, grief and sadness. an increased emphasis on diagnosis appears to be playing a role in the present medicalisation trend. several authors (e.g. conrad, 2007; frances, 2013; fawcett et al., 2020; greenberg, 2014, 2019, 2025; martínez, 2023; strong et al., 2015) have pointed out that as the dsm-5 (american psychiatric association [apa] 2022) diagnoses have increasingly come to inform and regulate psychological practice, undue emphasis on biomedical symptoms and subsequent pharmacological treatment has been encouraged at the expense of deeper psychological understanding. according to frances, one of the dangers of using diagnosis as the sole focus of all treatment or support is that therapists ‘often adopt a symptom checklist approach’ (2014, p. 283). as a result, such a diagnosis-and-treat approach leads to a reductionist medicalisation of the human condition into surface symptoms, ignoring the intricate interplay of neurological function, personal psychology and family and social settings (frances, 2013, 2014). in a climate of reductionist medicalisation, we are reminded of reflective practice as buffer against the dominance of a technocratic, checklist approach in psychological practice. writers such as boud et al. (2013), mezirow (1998) and dewey (1938) have established a widely acknowledged corpus of work describing reflective practice as an epistemology that opposes a technocratic approach to practice. critical reflection entails delving deeper into experiences and phenomena as they relate to both the individual and the larger social environment (rowley et al., 2022). in the context of medicalisation, this means a renewed emphasis on the biopsychosocial conceptualisation of human experience, with the aim of transforming the existing diagnose-and-treat strategy into a more cautious and comprehensive evaluation approach. however, reflective practice requires a phenomenological style of attending to experience, specifically ontological openness and receptiveness, implying being sensitive to experience as embodied situatedness or being-in-the-world (halling, 2012; hansen, 2015; maile, 2024). the awareness of existence as a unified experience (husserl & moran, 2012; moran, 2013), also referred to as phenomenological consciousness, could therefore be considered a necessary professional competence. as halling (2002) has commented in his discussion on teaching phenomenology as a style of attending: phenomenology deepens our appreciation for the depth and nuances of experience, whereas traditional psychology, in giving priority to theory and technique over experience, fosters an overvaluation of technical expertise. (p. 35) the present paper contributes to the medicalisation discourse in the field of psychology education and training, specifically educational psychology, by demonstrating how embodied exercises like the career-focused genogram could assist students in cultivating phenomenological consciousness as future professionals. this is important because, without education and training in establishing phenomenological consciousness, student psychologists will be less equipped in their practice to navigate the unfathomable meaningfulness of human experience with nuanced understanding. furthermore, developing a philosophically orientated educational psychology belongs to a pluralistic approach to psychology education and practices that values ambivalence, tentativeness and diagnosis equally. this paper is organised as follows: the first section provides a brief discussion of the genogram as assessment and therapeutic tool. the next section outlines the self-reflective narrative as research methodology, including a deweyan delineation of the narrative inquiry space particular to my investigation. the article ends with three specific reflections on the career-focused genogram as pedagogical method for encouraging phenomenological consciousness as a particular mindset. the genogram as assessment and therapeutic tool as human beings, we are situated in families of origin as well as choice. our lives and engagement with others and the world are therefore not separated from our family system but are shaped and guided by our family as well as a larger socio-cultural history. being a tool for therapeutic assessment and intervention, the genogram can assist people in becoming more aware of their interrelated historicity. within the broader health and helping professions, the genogram is a visual depiction of the composition and structure of an individual’s family system spanning approximately three generations (alexander et al., 2022). genograms as therapeutic assessment and intervention tools are used to identify and explore the systemic influence of family history, cultural heritage, life events, relational dynamics, patterns of functioning and other family-related factors and characteristics on a person’s life, development and learning (mcgoldrick et al., 2020). the term ‘genogram’ originated in ancient greek and refers to a drawn or written representation (‘gram’) of a family’s genealogy (‘geno’) (schroder, 2015). the conventional genogram, as it is generally understood and used in family therapy, serves as an assessment tool for mapping and understanding family structure and history, hereditary and psychological factors, as well as relationship dynamics of mainly biologically related members across time (tobias, 2018). furthermore, the traditional genogram mostly focussed on the destructive aspects of relationships, distressing life events and individual pathology influencing a family system, often in the absence of strength-based and resilience-based characteristics as well as complex societal–historical transitions (taylor et al., 2013). however, the contemporary genogram aims to map and describe more than simply an individual’s ancestry, namely biological or marital relatedness, as stated by mcgoldrick et al. (2020). it also attempts to include broader socio-cultural influences central to the development of a person’s identity. shifting perspectives on family recognise that relatedness encompasses more than family-of-origin history but also includes family-of-choice history as well as cultural and social relatedness (carsten, 2012; schneider, 2010). recent genogram developments allow greater flexibility and curiosity and include non-genetically related family members, such as extended family members, kinship supports and the larger community, as well as relational strengths, resilience, vulnerabilities, support networks and resources (michiel-derksen, 2022). the original genogram has evolved into a valuable therapeutic intervention method for facilitating a deeper understanding of how transgenerational family patterns, including relationship dynamics, historical events and the larger sociocultural context, may influence an individual’s experience of the world in which they currently live and learn. modern genograms track and explore the way that factors and characteristics have shaped family members’ identity and functioning generationally. furthermore, the predominantly therapist-centred nature of the traditional genogram has made room for co-construction and client–therapist collaboration or self-created application of the genogram in learning about the connection between someone’s family history and personal life story (joseph et al., 2023). since its inception as predominantly an assessment tool in the field of family therapy and in later years also as self-development tool, the continually developing genogram enables new and detailed insights into individuals’ past and present life experiences, as well as future growth and well-being possibilities (mcgoldrick, 2016; tobias, 2018). benefits of the use of genograms, especially with children and young people, include ‘being a rich source of information; enhancing engagement, communication and rapport; improving self-awareness; identifying strengths within the family system and highlighting areas for intervention’ (tobias, 2018, pp. 96–97). as a result of their dialogical and narrative character, contemporary genograms are regarded as culturally sensitive tools that can be utilised in socially diverse contexts, such as adoptive and foster care families as well as minority groups and trauma-exposed populations (storlie et al., 2019). to this end, the traditional linear three-generation family model has been expanded to include more culturally appropriated genograms such as sociograms and the career-focused genogram. sociograms the sociogram as therapeutic tool is used to gain insight into the sociodynamics of a particular family or system of social relationships (andreyko & subashkevych, 2020). a clear view of the family or social system is obtained in identifying and evaluating interpersonal relationships among members in terms of emotional closeness, availability of support and nature of communication. exploring the overall quality of relationships and their impact on an individual’s identity, personal growth and decision-making processes is a critical component of the sociogram as therapeutic strategy (giacomucci, 2021; moreno, 1948). besides personal characteristics, such as age, skill and occupation, the sociogram emphasises relational characteristics, including how members know one another, their shared knowledge, the nature of their communication and the quality and frequency of their interactions. a sociogram depicts an individual’s family and other significant social relationships with circles representing the number of members. certain criteria are used to obtain insight into a family, such as emotional closeness, the presence of support, communication style and the quality of relationships. firstly, as outlined in andreyko and subashkevych (2020) and giacomucci (2021), the size of the circles represents the importance of members in a person’s life, as perceived by that individual. in addition, the individual’s personal circle reflects possible high or low self-appraisal. secondly, the locations of circles relative to one another as well as the distance between them provide an insight into the nature of member relationships. for example, the remoteness of a circle may indicate conflict or a sense of rejection, whereas circles overlaying or inside one another may suggest an undifferentiated identity. thirdly, the arrangement of circles could offer insight regarding the emotional bond among members. circles arranged in a linear order may suggest the absence of a warm relationship; however, freely arranged circles at varying distances from each other may show a degree of closeness among family members. career-focused genogram like the conventional genogram, the career-focused genogram describes the individual’s family tree over three generations. the career-focused genogram, which is co-created with a client, can be drawn, painted, built in the form of a collage or even sculpted in a sand tray using miniature objects (parker-bell & osborn, 2023). with a career-focused genogram, however, the focus is on the work–life engagement, such as career satisfaction, work attitudes, interests and career-decision considerations of the members during their lives (di fabio, 2015). furthermore, the career-focused genogram provides a pictorial presentation of an individual’s family career history, made up of a myriad of career–life-related elements such as career choices, life roles and beliefs, significant life events, occupations, work, career aspirations and perceived expectations, relational dynamics, strengths, resources and conflicts (alexander et al., 2022). when clients are provided the opportunity to also view their career–life development as a socio-cultural process as opposed to mainly biologically determined, a deeper level of reflection becomes possible (buxbaum & hill, 2013; joseph et al., 2023). the career-focused genogram allows for an in-depth exploration of the individual’s sociocultural background, career goals and aspirations, as well as their own and other people’s personal attributes, values and beliefs related to work that have been transmitted through generations (di fabio, 2010). as a reflective life–work engagement counselling tool, anchored in constructivist notions of self-awareness, self-reflection and personal meaning making, a career-focused genogram can enable individuals and therapists to discuss the often-unexamined influences of family career narratives as well as larger social systems, including extra-familial relations, peer associations and the broader socio-cultural environment on individuals’ understanding of their career development (guichard, 2009; maree, 2020; savickas, 2020; storlie et al., 2019). student educational psychologists are trained to use the career-focused genogram as a self-exploratory tool that helps individuals to become aware of the substantial intergenerational familial as well as larger socio-cultural influences on their life–work comprehension, choices and decisions. since i began training students in the application of the career-focused genogram as a part of connected life–work engagement counselling (maree, 2025), i have become convinced that it is more than just an assessment and therapeutic tool. in the following sections, i shall discuss my understanding of the career-focused genogram as embodied engagement and how i have reflected on it as a pedagogical strategy to encourage phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists. research methodology: self-reflective narrative reflective practice, as defined by boud and walker (1991), dewey (1986), kolb (2014) and schön (1983, 2016), is a deliberate process of contemplation and evaluation of experiences and events to generate transformed professional knowledge and insights. bolton (2006) describes reflective practice as ‘the pearl-grit-in-the-oyster’ of education (p. 204) – a perspective characterised by intentionality and commitment that makes possible pedagogical improvement through continuous, meaningful exploration of teaching practices. when i, therefore, examine the how and why of teaching the career-focused genogram, i engage in a continuous learning and growth process. bolton (2006) points out that an effective mode of reflective practice is through personal and professional narrative exploration. in this study, i used a self-reflective narrative research approach, which allowed me to think more deeply about the pedagogical use of the career-focused genogram (clandinin, 2006; connely & clandinin, 2006). wei (2023) points out that narrative inquiry renders a sense of particularity and deep understanding that generalised abstractions cannot achieve. thus, such an approach appears appropriate in the careful exploration of how the embodied career-focused genogram might be employed to foster phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists. narrative inquiry is based on dewey’s theory of experience and builds upon the criteria of continuity, interaction and situation (clandinin & connely, 2000; connely & clandinin, 2006). according to clandinin and connely (2000), narrative inquirers are ‘in the midst of a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, always situated somewhere along the dimensions of time, location, personal and societal’ (p. 144). these three components combine to create the narrative inquiry space of reciprocity, wherein the inquirer seeks to make sense of an experience while both shaping and being influenced by the meaning-making process (figure 1). figure 1: deweyan delineation of the narrative inquiry space. the first component of the narrative inquiry space is continuity, encompassing past, present and future experiences. all experiences are intrinsically linked and so continuing, having evolved from and influencing one another (wei, 2023). the second component of the narrative inquiry space, called interaction, emphasises the relational character of the inquiry process. the narrative inquirer’s personal experiences are embedded in larger social, cultural and institutional conditions. the third component of the narrative inquiry space, which is situation, highlights how experiences are linked to a broader societal zeitgeist. the current study’s narrative inquiry space is thus a confluence of pedagogical experiences and impressions throughout the last decade that evolved from my concern for the development of student educational psychologists’ onto-phenomenological or embodied consciousness. the following section will offer a deweyan delineation of the narrative inquiry space particular to my investigation. three-dimensional narrative inquiry space the component of continuity: a continuous pedagogical concern my teaching experiences over the last decade have resulted in a more clearly articulated pedagogical perspective. since my early years as a lecturer, teaching and training student educational psychologists, i have been fascinated by how my students explore and comprehend the psychological dilemma of being and becoming. a deep interest in human experience as inherently hermeneutic-phenomenological that is meaningful and intentional ‘engagement in a particular lifeworld reality situated in time, place and historicity’ (conradie, 2024, p. 111) has gradually crystallised into the heart of my teaching – to evoke student educational psychologists’ sense of embodied consciousness. the phenomenology of embodied awareness is based on the work of edmund husserl and maurice merleau-ponty (in moran, 2013). embodied consciousness as a philosophical approach refers to phenomenological involvement that is consciously sensitive to how the body or physicality and subjectivity exist as an interconnected and unified experience. merleau-ponty (1964, 2001) suggests that a unified experience involves the body inhabiting space and time as transcendental situatedness or the lived experience. this ‘interlocking network of intersubjectivity’ indicates an ontological relationship or a single stream of consciousness (moran, 2013, p. 289). for merleau-ponty (in moran, 2013), embodiment manifests itself ‘culturally and symbolically, in language, myths, stories and rituals’ (p. 292). in recent years, i have become interested in the way that the genogram can serve as a symbolic representation of embodied consciousness. this article discusses my reflection on viewing the career-focused genogram as a phenomenological embodied pedagogical gateway to encourage phenomenological consciousness among student educational psychologists. the component of interaction: relational knowing and doing dewey’s second component of narrative inquiry is interaction, which reminds us of the interconnectedness of experience – personal and circumstantial, individual and contextual (clandinin & connely, 2000; connely & clandinin, 2006). my personal teaching experiences are therefore embedded into a broader teaching and learning narrative that informs the module of career counselling, namely a learning-centred pedagogy. the aim of this approach is to foster a participatory learning community by emphasising students’ engagement in the learning process and their responsibility for it. bremner (2021) states that a learning-centred approach is focused on learning as a collaborative endeavour whereby students take control over their learning and knowledge building, both individually and through their interactions with others. the component of situation (context): a crisis of disconnect and fragmentation as previously said (section 3), the third component of the narrative inquiry space, namely situation, emphasises the connection between a larger societal zeitgeist and my (lecturer) pedagogical experiences and perceptions on the formation of student educational psychologists’ onto-phenomenological consciousness. the contemporary societal zeitgeist can be defined as a shift from the industrial age of acceleration, opportunity and progress to the mediatisation age of ecological fragmentation and disintegration (chistyakov, 2021, p. 80–81; han, 2022). digital natives or generations raised with the internet are conditioned from an early age to a consumerist system whereby the value of everything is based on its commodification. this is because the present generation was born into a digitalised and social media world that is rife with frantic marketing, amassed information and constant communication (alexander, 2004; barter, 2023; chistyakov, 2021; morse & blenkinsop, 2020). in his publication undinge (which can be translated into english as non-things), notable philosopher byung-chul han (2022) argues that the order of tangible objects of meaning, which contributed to the deeply human need for psychological grounding and substantiality, is rapidly being displaced by the digital order, which mainly favours the amassing of data and information, ‘leaving humans disembodied’ (p. 5) and ecologically disconnected. according to byung-chul han (in morgan, 2023), mediatisation constitutes a lifeform, a particular reality in which the real or ‘that which is authentic’ (p. 318), is transformed into the artificial: communicating without community, collecting information without gaining insight and accumulating followers without encountering others. han (2020) suggests that within a consumerist culture, reality is mainly perceived in terms of ‘short-lived information, as opposed to lingered perception’ (p. 7). unequivocally foregrounded is the informatisation of human lifeworlds; thus a reality that is mainly perceived in terms of ephemeral information consumption, as opposed to interpreted experience. within such a consumerist culture, people are deprived of experiences that are often defined by embodied consciousness that is rooted in time, space and historicity. this deeply psychological loss leaves humans disembodied and ecologically disconnected. as a lecturer, i fear that students will become less and less appreciative of cultivating a sense of embodied consciousness in a society that is becoming ever more immersed in digital informatisation and consumerism. phenomenological engagement highlights the meaningfulness and tenderness of the lifeworld reality, as opposed to just concrete registering and measuring of sensations or perceptions from the outer world. woven into the embodied consciousness disposition is the empathic attitude, which can be defined as an intentional concern with our own as well as another’s life-world experience (zahavi, 2004). in the context of professional psychology, the empathetic attitude or being sensitively aware of our own psychological landscape and behaviour as well as how we view others and the world that we share is certainly part of the repertoire of qualities that a psychologist should possess. reflections on the career-focused genogram as pedagogical method for encouraging phenomenological consciousness ortlipp (2008) and thorpe (2010) argue that using a teacher journal to observe our own thinking and to become aware of specific pedagogical insights over time allows us to monitor and improve our teaching. for this investigation, reflection was conducted at the end of each lecture by utilising a reflective teaching journal and teaching notes. while writing in my teaching journal, i became increasingly aware of the career-focused genogram as a pedagogical strategy to evoke student educational psychologists’ sense of phenomenological consciousness. a content analysis of the reflections in my reflective teaching journal and teaching notes was conducted using a grounded-theory strategy. content analysis provides researchers with numerous significant advantages, one of which is a content-sensitive strategy that is more concerned with meaning and context than with simple data description or counting (krippendorff, 2018). a grounded-theory strategy involves the emergence of theoretical knowledge and insights that are underpinned by my teaching reflections and narrations and have been systematically examined and analysed (glaser, 2011; noble & mitchell, 2016). my teaching reflections were analysed for themes related to the embodied career-focused genogram as a pedagogical method for encouraging phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists. three distinct themes emerged from a global analysis of the reflections in my teaching journal: theme 1. the genogram as metaphorical function of the phenomenological orientation, theme 2. the self-constructed career-focused genogram as an embodied engagement practice and theme 3. the career-focused genogram as an integrated life–career ecology as shown in figure 2. figure 2: global analysis of the reflections in my teaching journal. the genogram as metaphorical function of the phenomenological orientation the genogram acts as a metaphor of the phenomenology of embodiment; in other words, a symbolic manifestation of the interwovenness of the bodily or physicality and subjectivity as an ‘undivided, unitive consciousness’ (blackstone, 2021, p. 36). such an embodied experience implies that the bodiliness of family members represented in a genogram is no longer just in a particular contextual space or time; it rather inhabits these as transcendental situatedness – the lived body or the lived experience (merleau-ponty, 1964, 2001). hence, career–life development is not an objective entity to be described only in terms of patterns, characteristics and events but is rather a subjective and relational enactment (imaginative involvement) anchored in structures of experience, such as language (story), place (internal, psychological experience and context), temporality (past, present, future) and historicity (being part of historical unfolding or actuality) (conradie, 2024, p. 112). for merleau-ponty (in moran, 2013), embodiment manifests itself ‘culturally and symbolically, in language, myths, stories and rituals’ (p. 292). thus, the phenomenology of embodiment is manifested in the genogram. the implication is that the career-focused genogram serves as more than just an assessment tool or exercise; it also encapsulates the phenomenological condition of embeddedness and relationality. the following theme indicates a connection between the self-constructed genogram and the embodiment thesis of transcendent situatedness (lived experience) rooted in the bodily or physicality of being in the world (merleau-ponty, 1964, 2001). the self-constructed career-focused genogram as an embodied engagement practice the effective use of self-constructed genograms in therapist training to encourage improved insight and increased self-awareness has been well documented (connolly, 2005; lim, 2008). the self-constructed career-focused genogram can thus be used as a vehicle through which students can explore and develop insight into their own embodied ways of being, knowing and doing. assigning students the task of self-constructing a career-focused genogram related to the structures of experience, including language, place, temporality and historicity (ricoeur, 1979), enables them to inhabit a particular situatedness or livingness. in other words, students’ sense of being-in-the-world (husserl & moran, 2012; moran, 2000), the skill of deeply relating with oneself, can be stimulated through the lens of their own family narratives. while creating their genograms, students ask themselves the following questions: what does it mean to be a human being (a member) and within this world (family)? what is happening right now? what is being experienced? in this way, the self-constructed genogram is recognised as embodied engagement, shifting from a predominantly instrumentalist assessment tool to embodied undergoing – consciously experiencing the livingness of life–work engagement. the career-focused genogram as an integrated career–life ecology as a result of the intricate and dynamic intersection of uniquely inner (personal) and outer (social or world) environments, the career-focused genogram symbolises an ecosystem – an integrated, meaningful career–life reality (maree & di fabio, 2018). although career counselling is often aimed at facilitating individual professional growth, such personal career development initiatives ought to be deeply tied to one’s relationship with the world, particularly if the intention is to serve a collective, therefore, just and sustainable purpose (carosin et al., 2021). guichard (2018, 2020) presents a timely argument for career counselling interventions that encourage the establishment of ecologically sustainable lifeworld realities for all humans compared to merely including some individuals in existing salaried employment systems. indeed, career–life development exists as an interconnected, embodied situatedness that encompasses the lifespan, as opposed to a hierarchical and meticulously decided set of jobs (guichard, 2022; maree, 2024; savickas et al., 2009). guichard asserts that career counselling interventions grounded in ecological sustainability ideals such as social fairness and dignity inspire individuals to contemplate, ‘what can i do to contribute to a decent and equitable collective life?’ (2022, p. 583). the genogram’s inherently integrated character renders it an appropriate teaching tool for exploring the phenomenologist concept of embodiment awareness. such a phenomenologically oriented pedagogy prioritises an interconnected and shared-planet reality, with an emphasis on the intrinsic value of life, labour and relationships rather than their status as resources or commodities for consumption (figure 2). conclusion human beings have a deep desire for phenomenological experience, which is to be intentionally aware of the significance of what they are living through in everyday life. the philosophical orientation of phenomenological consciousness can thus be defined as an ontological openness towards attending to and comprehending complex human experience. using a self-reflective narrative inquiry approach, this paper tells of my understanding of applying the career-focused genogram as a pedagogical strategy to promote embodied engagement and phenomenological consciousness among student educational psychologists. phenomenological consciousness is vital for professional reflection and can be taught to student educational psychologists (erlandson, 2014; hansen, 2015; maile, 2024). this article has shown that the self-constructed career-focused genogram, as an embodied, ontological learning activity, can be incorporated into educational psychology education programmes to promote the development of phenomenological consciousness. the findings offer a contextual perspective to existing literature on the importance of a philosophically orientated educational psychology curriculum as alternative to a technicist diagnose-and-treat curriculum. future research on the teaching and training of student educational psychologists should explore trainees’ perspectives on developing phenomenological awareness in order to approach their work with greater depth and nuance. the genogram, as a symbol, is a natural carrier of embodied lifeworld situatedness and has the potential to be used not just as an assessment and therapeutic tool but also as an enactment of the phenomenological condition of embeddedness and relationality. by doing so, lecturers will be able to foster phenomenological consciousness in student educational psychologists. furthermore, the career-focused genogram as enactment of the phenomenological condition of embeddedness can be used to promote a pluralistic psychology education that values both scientific and philosophically oriented approaches towards understanding and appreciating the depth and nuance of matters related to the lifeworld. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the language editor for the editing of the text and the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive recommendations. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions k.c. declares that they are the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information the author received no financial support from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, k.c. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. it does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the author is responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references abbs, p. 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(2004). beyond empathy: phenomenological approaches to intersubjectivity. phenomenology. critical concepts in philosophy, 2, 179–200. footnote 1. career psychology is part of a master of educational psychology course at a south african university that prepares student educational psychologists to register with the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa). the module ‘career psychology’ explores a broad understanding of the diverse theory base of career psychology, with the aim of preparing student educational psychologists to formulate a theoretically sound and integrative case conceptualisation, while also developing a road map for practising career counselling and assessment. this should enable students, with proper psychometric training and practical experience, to conduct theoretically integrative career counselling. the aim of integrative career counselling is to help people see their life–work reality as dignified and meaningful (maree & di fabio, 2018). abstract introduction literature review: learner-on-teacher violence and the experiences of teachers an intersectional lens to early-career young cisgender women teachers’ experience of learner-on-teacher violence research methods results deductively derived themes discussion limitations of the study implications of the findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) huma e. kganya department of sociology, school of social sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa tshepo b. maake department of sociology, school of social sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation kganya, h.e., & maake, t.b. (2025). an intersectional analysis of early-career young cisgender women teachers’ experiences of learner-on-teacher violence. african journal of career development, 7(1), a171. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.171 original research an intersectional analysis of early-career young cisgender women teachers’ experiences of learner-on-teacher violence huma e. kganya, tshepo b. maake received: 07 apr. 2025; accepted: 10 june 2025; published: 28 aug. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: learner-on-teacher violence is a growing global concern, and south african schools are not exempt from this issue. however, the specific experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers remain underexplored, despite their heightened vulnerability at the intersection of sex, gender, age, physical appearance and structural factors such as inadequate institutional support. objectives: this article presents an intersectional analysis of how intersecting identity markers, such as sex, gender and age, alongside physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities, shape the heightened susceptibility of early-career young cisgender women teachers to violence from male learners. method: the study used qualitative research, conducting eight interviews with early-career young cisgender women teachers from secondary schools in tshwane, gauteng. results: the findings show that young cisgender women teachers are especially vulnerable to male learner violence, influenced by a small age gap and patriarchal gender ideologies. this vulnerability impacts their psychological well-being, affecting their interactions with learners and the school environment. conclusion: the intersection of sex, gender, age, physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities produces a distinct form of learner-on-teacher violence, underscoring the specific risks faced by early-career cisgender women teachers. this vulnerability requires targeted attention and intervention to protect them from male learner violence. collaborative efforts from the department of education and schools are necessary to support and safeguard these teachers, especially in schools with a history of violence. contribution: this study enhances our understanding of how male learner violence affects the teaching experiences and well-being of early-career young cisgender women teachers in secondary schools. keywords: sex; gender; age; physical appearance; female teacher; male learner; secondary schools; violence; south africa. introduction learner-on-teacher violence is a growing phenomenon in south africa, affecting the teachers’ and learners’ well-being in the school environment (mahome, 2019; mthanti, 2023; ndlovu, 2023; venketsamy, 2024). ndlovu (2023) highlights that schools in gauteng have been under siege for the past 5 years, with increasing incidents of gangsterism and school violence. in this period, there were 40 stabbings, 10 shootings and 16 violent crimes recorded. among these, 26 incidents were linked to gangsterism, 45 to learner-on-learner violence, one to teacher-to-teacher violence, six to learner-on-teacher violence and four to teacher-on-learner violence (ndlovu, 2023). these statistics demonstrate that violence in south african schools is a multifaceted crisis requiring urgent intervention. literature has established that patriarchy contributes to violence in schools, rendering women teachers vulnerable to violence from male learners (lehfid & bakkali, 2025; pietersen & langeveldt, 2024). in terms of gender, while both women and men teachers experience violence, women teachers are often targeted more than men. this can be attributed to patriarchal values in society, where men are seen as dominant and women as vulnerable (pietersen & langeveldt, 2024). although women have been reported as more susceptible to learner-on-teacher violence, this study acknowledges that the violence may be experienced differently by early-career young cisgender women teachers based on their age and level of experience, which may position them in differing degrees of vulnerability. while some studies have demonstrated that boy learners often perpetrate learner-on-teacher violence against their women teachers, limited south african studies have paid specific attention to the gendered aspect of learner-on-teacher violence. in addition, little attention has been given to the experiences of early-career young cisgender women who are employed in secondary schools. learners in south african secondary schools are usually between the ages of 15 and 19 years, while early-career young cisgender women teachers are in their 20s. the small age gap between the two creates challenges for the early-career young cisgender women teachers who may be more vulnerable to violence than older and more experienced cisgender women teachers. therefore, this study explores how different aspects of identity and broader social structures shape the experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers who face violence from learners in secondary schools. the research question that the study seeks to address is: how do intersecting identities and structural vulnerabilities shape early-career cisgender women teachers’ experiences of violence from male learners in south african secondary schools? the study’s objectives were achieved through qualitative interviews with eight early-career young cisgender women teachers who are formally employed by the south african national department of education in secondary schools around the tshwane municiplaity area in gauteng province. literature review: learner-on-teacher violence and the experiences of teachers this section reviews literature on teachers’ experiences of violence in schools, with a specific focus on the gender and age dynamics of this kind of violence. learner-on-teacher violence is an escalating international concern, with studies showing that teachers across different countries experience various forms of aggression, ranging from verbal abuse to physical assaults and even threats with weapons. violence in schools has long been a pressing concern, affecting the well-being and professional stability of teachers. some teachers observed decreased aggression during coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) because of reduced student interactions, while others observed increased online aggression (de ceballos & carvalho, 2021). a united states (us) based meta-analysis conducted by longobardi et al. (2019) examined 24 studies on teacher-directed violence. the findings revealed that victimisation rates ranged from 20% to 75% within 2 years, with an average prevalence of 53%. over a teacher’s career, victimisation rates stood between 32% and 40%. while physical attacks and theft were common, verbal aggression and other less direct forms of violence were even more prevalent (longobardi et al., 2019). similarly, a report by the american psychological association confirmed that violence against teachers is on the rise across the united states of america (mcmahon et al., 2022). some teachers have suffered severe physical assaults, with incidents leading to hospitalisation. teachers also reported frequent threats requiring police intervention, with many expressing relief at not being physically harmed during the online learning period (mcmahon et al., 2022). this persistent issue invades every aspect of life, from institutions and workplaces to homes and streets (lehfid & bakkali, 2025). historically, teachers commanded respect and prestige, but this status has drastically changed. today, teachers not only face verbal abuse and harassment but also physical confrontations and threats within their classrooms (lehfid & bakkali, 2025). this undermines the educational process and damages the morale and effectiveness of teachers. in morocco, violence against teachers has become widespread, frequently surfacing on social media (lehfid & bakkali, 2025). this violence includes verbal, physical, psychological and even sexual aggression, affecting teachers regardless of their gender. factors contributing to this violence include students’ academic struggles, exposure to violence, media influence, peer pressure and acts of revenge. teacher-related factors, such as perceived weak personalities or critical feedback, can exacerbate the problem. the consequences are severe, leaving teachers feeling insecure, withdrawn and in extreme cases, leading to absenteeism or resignation (lehfid & bakkali, 2025). further, school-related gender-based violence (srgbv) has become a significant concern, often linked to gendered stereotypes. school-related gender-based violence includes bullying, corporal punishment and other forms of abuse, underscoring the power dynamics between genders (lehfid & bakkali, 2025; mosito & sitoyi, 2024). research consistently shows that violence against teachers is not only widespread but also leaves lasting physical, emotional and professional consequences (de ceballos & carvalho, 2021; mthanti, 2023; okeke & windvoël, 2024). a study conducted by de ceballos and carvalho in brazil (2021) found that young female teachers with heavy workloads and low incomes were disproportionately affected by school violence. they reported experiencing physical violence (22.9%), verbal abuse (42.9%), theft or robbery (36.4%) and threats or attacks with weapons (7.0%). these incidents significantly impacted their physical (56.0%) and emotional (40.6%) ability to work, with 42.9% fearing that continued violence could force them out of the profession. similarly, in south african secondary schools, female teachers often face heightened vulnerability to violence in the classroom. one disturbing example of this occurred when a teacher was physically attacked and killed by a learner in the classroom. in another tragic incident, a young female teacher was stabbed to death by a learner during a grade 8 lesson. the teacher had spotted the learner cheating while invigilating and confronted him, which led to the fatal attack (makhasane, 2022). similarly, fakude (2022) reports that a teacher recounted an incident where she was physically assaulted by an 11-year-old learner, resulting in a dislocated shoulder. these incidents highlight the critical issue of how gender and age intersect to increase the risk of violence against female teachers. learner-on-teacher violence has become an alarming issue in south africa, reflecting the broader violence prevalent in communities. masinga and sibanda (2024) argue that the media reports on violence in schools paint a distressing picture of escalating violence, turning schools into unsafe environments for both learners and teachers (masinga & sibanda, 2024). south africa is recognised as one of the most violent countries globally, with school-based violence against teachers being a common and deeply troubling phenomenon (venketsamy, 2024). teachers face both passive and active violence, including physical and psychological harm. venketsamy’s (2024) qualitative study found that at least two in every 10 teachers experience violence, ranging from verbal abuse to physical attacks, in south african schools. cases have been reported where learners throw books at teachers, physically assault them, swear at them, display arrogance and even blackmail them. baxen (2021) and fakude (2022) argue that violence against teachers is not limited to physical aggression but also includes non-physical forms such as verbal abuse, psychological harm and cyberbullying, all of which contribute to fear and trauma. fakude (2022) and thobane et al. (2023) highlight that verbal abuse is the most prevalent form of learner-on-teacher violence. this includes threats, insults, derogatory language and sexually harassing remarks, all of which contribute to a hostile school environment. substance abuse is another major contributor to violence in schools. zwane (2021) emphasises that alcohol consumption among learners exacerbates school violence, making classroom discipline nearly impossible. a study conducted by thobane et al. (2023) across four schools in alexandra and soweto found that 65% of the 69 participating teachers identified substance abuse as the leading cause of school violence. alcohol was the most commonly abused substance (reported by 57% of teachers), followed by marijuana (48%) and tobacco products (46%). teachers also reported that dagga and other drugs were frequently brought to school, with some learners attending classes under the influence, severely disrupting the teaching and learning process. alarmingly, some parents normalised their children’s drinking habits and failed to recognise the dangers of such behaviour (thobane et al., 2023). the psychological effects of learner-on-teacher violence are profound. verbal abuse, in particular, has both shortand long-term consequences, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), anxiety, social withdrawal, low self-esteem and even substance abuse among affected teachers (mthanti, 2023; thobane et al., 2023). furthermore, thobane et al. (2023) argue that verbal abuse often precedes physical violence and, if not addressed, escalates over time. the existing literature overwhelmingly supports the assertion that learner-on-teacher violence is a pressing issue that significantly affects teachers and their ability to perform their duties in the workplace. however, this literature presents a gap as it hardly explores the intersectionality of identities, which informs unique and different experiences of learner-on-teacher violence perpetuated against early-career young cisgender women teachers in south african secondary schools. to address this gap, the study employs an intersectional lens, which is elaborated in the following section. hence, the purpose of this intersectional study is to unpack these teachers’ realities and document their unique point of vulnerability as informed by intersecting identity markers. the section titled ‘an intersectional lens to early-career young cisgender women teachers’ experience of learner-on-teacher violence’ discusses the theoretical framework that informed this study. an intersectional lens to early-career young cisgender women teachers’ experience of learner-on-teacher violence the study employed intersectionality as both a theoretical and analytical framework to unearth how intersections of identity markers, including sex, gender and age, together with physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities, create a unique point of vulnerability for early-career young black cisgender women teachers in secondary schools. crenshaw (1989) coined the term intersectionality in her criticism of feminist theory and the anti-racist politics for using a single-axis framework in attempts to dismantle racism and sexism, arguing that the separation of these issues marginalises black women as they experience both simultaneously. as such, intersectionality highlights the interconnectedness of various identity markers, such as gender, sex, race, class, sexuality and age, and examines how these overlapping identity markers shape women’s experiences of oppression, discrimination and violence. crenshaw (1989, 1991) argues that women, particularly black women, experience forms of discrimination that cannot be fully understood by considering just one aspect of their identity, such as race or gender, separately. she holds that these interconnected identity markers collaboratively shape individual and collective experiences of marginalisation and inequality. in line with crenshaw (1989), may (2015) asserts that intersectionality demonstrates how lived identities, structural systems, various forms of power, areas of marginalisation and modes of resistance intersect in dynamic and changing ways. as such, intersectionality, therefore, challenges the notion of isolated issues, such as racism, sexism or ageism. instead, it emphasises the interconnection of these forms of discrimination and examines how their overlapping effects operate in dynamic ways to marginalise and position specific groups at various points of vulnerability and oppression. since the introduction of the concept of intersectionality, scholars across various disciplines in the global north and the global south have employed it to understand the complex interplay of interlocking identities and how these intersecting factors influence experiences of identity formation, oppression, domination, discrimination and vulnerability (collins, 2015; donley & johnson, 2024; meer & müller, 2017; ngidi et al., 2020). these studies highlight the significance of the intersectional framework in understanding particular experiences of vulnerability, both within global contexts and specifically in south africa. intersectionality is specifically relevant in exploring the experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers who encounter unique challenges in south african secondary schools, as they navigate both gendered and sexand age-related vulnerabilities within an environment of learner-on-teacher violence. the intersection of sex, gender and age plays a critical role in understanding the heightened vulnerability of early-career young cisgender women teachers to learner-on-teacher violence. from an intersectional perspective, young female teachers are positioned in a unique power dynamic, where their sex, gender and age intersect with physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities to create a particular point of vulnerability. the relatively small age gap between these young teachers and their male students may result in power imbalances that heighten the risk of violence. congruent with the intersectionality theory, this intersection of sex, gender and age should not be viewed in isolation, as the combined effects of these identities interact with existing patriarchal sex and gender ideologies that normalise violence against cisgender women, particularly in south africa where gender-based violence is continually rising (masinga & sibanda, 2024; oparinde & matsha, 2021). patriarchy and ageism create a layered experience of marginalisation for these early-career young cisgender women teachers, because the combination of their youth and sex and gender increases the likelihood of being perceived as less authoritative or deserving of respect by male learners. research methods this study was informed by the interpretivist research paradigm as it sought to gain insights into the experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers through their narratives. in line with this paradigm, the study employed a qualitative research design to unearth the lived realities of early-career young cisgender women teachers from their social contexts. sampling and selection of participants as a result of the study’s sensitive nature, the participants were selected through a combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques. in line with the purposive sampling technique, a selection criterion was developed that participants had to meet to participate in the study. because of the sensitivity of the topic, which made access to the participants a challenge, we relied on referrals through snowball sampling to identify additional participants. we identified a few teachers who fit the criteria through personal networks, and these teachers were able to refer some of their colleagues whom they knew had experienced learner-on-teacher violence sometime in their career. the participants were young cisgender women, meaning that their gender identity corresponds with their biological sex assigned at birth. in the interviews, the participants referred to themselves as both females and women when narrating their experiences. they are all formally employed in secondary schools within the tshwane municipality and have experienced violence from learners in their workplaces. participants were included based on the following criteria: female teachers aged between 23 and 29 years have experienced learner-on-teacher violence early-career stage, with 1 to 4 years of teaching experience currently employed at public secondary schools in tshwane participants who had never experienced learner-on-teacher violence were excluded. in addition, teachers were excluded if they did not meet the age or experience requirements and were not based in tshwane. table 1 presents the demographic profile of participants, providing a detailed description of the sample. all participant names listed in table 1 are pseudonyms assigned to protect their identities. table 1: profile of the participants (pseudonyms used). data collection and analysis data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted on the school premises, either in private office during lunch breaks or in classrooms before or after school hours, depending on participants’ availability. given the sensitivity of the topic, all interviews were conducted individually, and responses were kept confidential. the interviews were guided by a structured interview schedule developed before data collection, within the framework of the interpretivist paradigm, which seeks to explore and understand individuals’ lived experiences in their social contexts. the design of the interview questions was informed by the theoretical lens of intersectionality and related concepts such as patriarchal gender dynamics, power relations and vulnerability within school environments. this conceptual grounding ensured that the interview schedule aligned with the study’s objective to uncover how early-career young cisgender women teachers experience and interpret learner-on-teacher violence. for instance, participants were asked questions such as ‘what are the characteristics that put you at risk of being victimised by learners?’ and (2) ‘in what ways do you think your age influences the likelihood of experiencing learner-on-teacher violence?’ these questions aimed to probe personal experiences, perceived risk factors, impacts of victimisation and the availability of support structures. following data collection, braun and clarke’s (2006, 2019) six-phase thematic analysis was employed. a primarily deductive approach was used, with pre-established themes derived from relevant literature and theoretical foundations guiding the analysis. while the coding was data-driven, it was also conceptually informed, ensuring coherence with the intersectionality framework. themes that emerged included factors placing early-career young cisgender women teachers at risk, with sub-themes such as age, gender and physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities. ensuring trustworthiness to ensure the trustworthiness of this study, we adopted key strategies recommended by schurink et al. (2021), including reliability, credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability. reliability was ensured by using a clear and unambiguous interview guide and conducting face-to-face interviews, which allowed for clarification and follow-up questions. data triangulation was employed by interviewing eight participants, enabling comparison of responses. credibility was achieved by purposively selecting participants with relevant experience, engaging in reflexivity and triangulating data across multiple settings. dependability was maintained through an ongoing audit process, with both authors reviewing all steps in the research process. confirmability was supported through a detailed audit trail and the use of verbatim quotes to illustrate findings. transferability was addressed by providing thick, contextual descriptions of the methods and setting, enabling readers to assess the applicability of findings to other contexts. ethical considerations ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the university of south africa, college of law research ethics committee (ref: st 27 of 2020). to protect the participants’ identities, they were all allocated pseudonyms that were used in the transcripts and any reports written from the data. in addition, all information, including the transcripts and field notes, was kept in a password-protected google drive folder that could only be accessed by the researchers. arrangements were made with a councillor to assist in cases where the participants could experience psychological harm; however, none of the participants experienced any harm. results the intersection of gender, sex, age and physical appearance as a point of vulnerability for early-career young cisgender women teachers this study explored the lived experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers who have been subjected to learner-on-teacher violence in south african public secondary schools. drawing from in-depth qualitative interviews, the research examined the complex interplay of gender, sex, age, physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities that contribute to the heightened vulnerability of this demographic group. the analysis employed a deductive method of analysis, where we developed predetermined themes based on the literature and thematically analysed the data to develop and refine the themes. table 2 outlines the themes, emphasising how the intersection of identities with social structures, gendered power dynamics and structural inequalities shapes the participants’ experiences. key themes, such as the intersection of age, gender, sex and physical appearance, gendered power dynamics and patriarchy, psychological impact, age-related challenges and structural vulnerability were found to significantly inform the teachers’ experiences of learner-on-teacher violence. what emerges is a sobering picture of how layered vulnerabilities, rooted in social constructs and power imbalances, converge to place early-career young cisgender women teachers at risk of learner-on-teacher violence within the school environment. table 3 provides an overview of the system of reference employed in conducting the deductive analysis. table 2: themes and sub-themes identified through thematic analysis: deductively derived themes. table 3: system of reference for deductive analysis: group and participant referenced. examples of participants’ verbatim responses are provided in the section ‘deductively derived themes’ to substantiate their perceptions and reflections. deductively derived themes theme 1: intersectionality as a framework of vulnerability participants, such as dimakatso, dikeledi, rorisang and kearabetsoe, emphasised that their intersecting identities, being young, cisgender women and physically small, exacerbated their vulnerability to learner violence: ‘gender, physical appearance, and age are the characteristics that put teachers at risk of being victimised by learners.’ (dimakatso, 25-year-old, teacher) ‘the characteristics that put teachers at risks of being victimised by learners are their age, being younger between the age of 25 and 40, being a woman and physical appearance, if you don’t have any muscles, these learners thinks that they can take advantage of you, and you will not be able to defend yourself.’ (kearabetsoe, 29-year-old, teacher) similar to dimakatso, kearabetsoe noted age and sex as contributing factors to violence against the teachers, clearly explaining that learners tend to fear male and older teachers. she observes, ‘the older and male ones, which are between the ages of 50 and 60, are less targeted. the learners fear them.’ her narrative highlights the role that sex and age play in marginalising young cisgender women who teach in secondary schools. additionally, the violence related to physical attributes suggests that physical appearance can be a predisposing factor for violence: ‘not having too many muscles in your body puts one at risk of being attacked by these perpetrators.’ (rorisang, 23-years-old, teacher) the participants’ narratives in this section are a reflection of how gender, sex, age and physical appearance create an intersectional point of vulnerability for early career young cisgender women teachers in secondary schools. these findings demonstrate how the intersection of identities shaped how authority was perceived within classrooms, with participants viewed as less threatening and therefore more easily targeted. these beliefs reflect deeply ingrained societal cisgender norms, where being a man and physically stronger is equated with authority and safety. these findings demonstrate an intersectional vulnerability and structural marginalisation within the secondary school context. the idea that being ‘skinny’ or not having ‘muscles’ correlates with vulnerability reinforces societal stereotypes about women’s physical strength and perceived authority. moreover, these findings reinforce existing literature that suggests that women, particularly young women in male-dominated environments, are at heightened risk of experiencing aggression and violence (bhana, 2015; cherishe & shumba, 2011; mcmahon et al., 2022). theme 2: gendered power dynamics, sex-related stereotypes and patriarchal ideologies in the classroom participants reported that learners often questioned their authority based on assumptions about their sex and age. letta observed: ‘if you are younger and female, learners tend to think that you cannot defend yourself.’ (letta, 25-year-old, teacher) these perceptions reinforce power imbalances informed by the learners’ perceptions of the female sex as weaker and defenceless, exposing young cisgender women teachers to persistent challenges in managing the classroom. this aligns with sibisi (2016), who noted that teachers who are perceived as inexperienced and lack confidence increase vulnerability to learner misbehaviour. several narratives pointed to the reinforcement of gendered power structures within the school context. the actions of violence by male learners towards their teachers were interpreted as reflections of deeper patriarchal attitudes within the school culture. participants reported disproportionately targeting of cisgender women teachers by male learners, indicating ingrained patriarchal attitudes that position females as inferior to males: ‘other teachers are more affected or vulnerable to such attacks than others because of their gender, as in my school, the majority are female.’ (thabang, 23-year-old, teacher) ‘the characteristics that put teachers at risk of being victimised by learners are gender, being a woman and physical appearance, being a bit skinny.’ (anna, 26-year-old, teacher) such reflections point to the presence of patriarchal attitudes among learners that facilitate gender-based targeting and stereotypes about females, reinforcing systemic inequalities within school settings. this finding is consistent with bhana’s (2012) study on gender-based violence in south african schools, which highlights that female teachers often experience aggression from male learners as a means of asserting dominance. in many cases, these incidents are reflective of the patriarchal societal attitudes that devalue cisgender women’s authority, perpetuating a cycle of gender-based victimisation in secondary school spaces. the issue of male learners violating cisgender women teachers is particularly concerning, considering that bhana’s (2012) study was conducted over 10 years ago, and our current study reports a similar trend, highlighting the urgency in addressing this issue. overall, the findings highlight how patriarchal gender and sex-related ideologies inform the violence that young cisgender women teachers experience in secondary schools. these ideologies not only affect how male learners view and treat young cisgender women teachers but also how these teachers might perceive their authority and role in the classroom. the intersectionality of sex, gender and age also shapes potential resistance to this violence, as early-career young cisgender women teachers might struggle to assert their authority in a context where they face both the challenges of being perceived as young and women. understanding these dynamics through an intersectional lens encourages the development of targeted interventions. theme 3: psychological impact of learner-on-teacher violence experience of violence had a lasting emotional toll on the participants. most participants experienced psychological trauma not only from the incidents of violence themselves, but also from the distressing reality of having to return to work and teach in classrooms alongside the very learners who had violated them. the participants explained: ‘my self-confidence is gone; i am not even confident to stand in front of learners and teach.’ (dikeledi, 28-year-old, teacher) ‘i feel fearful and threatened. i do not know what will happen next time if i reprimand these learners.’ (letta, 25-year-old, teacher) ‘this incident [violent attack] has instilled fear in me, i am affected psychologically since i am now anxious when i must go to my class, not knowing what will happen.’ (dimakatso, 25-year-old, teacher) these narratives highlight symptoms consistent with trauma, including fear, anxiety and diminished self-esteem. the prevalent violence in schools instils fear among the young cisgender women teachers who have to continue working in environments where they are threatened with violence daily. these findings align with previous studies that suggest that exposure to violence in the workplace can lead to long-term emotional and mental health challenges, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, burnout and disengagement (mthanti, 2023; windvoël, 2023). the emotional aftermath of these violent incidents extended beyond the immediate trauma. teachers experienced prolonged distress and a lack of confidence, and even considered leaving the profession: ‘the impact this has on me is that it has affected me psychologically, that i fear the learners, even considering career change.’ (kearabetsoe, 29-year-old, teacher) this cumulative psychological burden threatens their professional sustainability and long-term well-being. this aligns with research indicating that exposure to violence can result in a loss of self-efficacy, making it difficult for victims to assert themselves in their professional roles (de ceballos & carvalho, 2021; de wet, 2010). a lack of confidence among teachers can further exacerbate classroom management challenges, as learners may exploit perceived weaknesses, leading to a cycle of continued aggression. from an intersectional standpoint, these findings provide insight into the psychological and emotional implications that learner-on-teacher violence has on early-career young cisgender women teachers. the study reveals how these teachers’ well-being is adversely affected by the violence they encounter. the intersection of sex, gender and age positions these teachers at the intersection of multiple sources of stress related to gendered violence perpetrated by male learners, combined with the challenges of being early-career young cisgender women teachers navigating a new and potentially hostile school environment. the emotional impact of this violence should be understood, taking into consideration the intersection of sex, gender and age, as older, more experienced cisgender women teachers may have more authority or coping mechanisms to handle such violence, while younger cisgender women teachers may lack both the social capital and experience to mitigate these forms of aggression and psychological challenges. theme 4: age-related challenges in authority minimal age gaps between young teachers and their learners often led to a breakdown in the teacher-student dynamic: ‘the younger the teacher, then they tend to think that they have the same interest with their teachers, which leads to conflicts.’ (johanna, 24-year-old, teacher) similarly, letta narrated her experience of physical violence from the older learners while trying to reprimand them for making a noise in the classroom: ‘when entering the classroom, i found them [learners] making noise. i started reprimanding all of them to settle down. two male learners stood up; they were the eldest in the classroom. they then came straight to me and started confronting me, pointing fingers at me. the other one then threw a textbook at me, while the other one shoved me around.’ (letta, 25-year-old, teacher) letta’s experiences demonstrate how the little age difference between the teachers and older learners in the classroom can lead to violence, particularly when the teachers try to practice their authority within the classroom. it is evident from letta’s narrative that the learners undermined her authority; hence, they resorted to violence when she only requested that they reduce the noise. this blurred boundary often led to a lack of respect, weakening the teacher’s authority and opening the door to conflict and potential violence. this finding aligns with research indicating that minimal age differences between learners and teachers can blur professional boundaries, undermining the teacher’s ability to assert control (fakude, 2022; pahad, 2010). when learners perceive their teacher as an equal, they may be more likely to engage in disruptive or aggressive behaviour, particularly in environments where respect for authority is already tenuous. teachers like johanna noted how age proximity led to learners viewing them as peers. this collapse of professional boundaries eroded teacher authority and increased tension within the classroom. theme 5: institutional inadequacies and isolation participants also expressed dissatisfaction with school responses to incidents of violence. many felt unsupported by school leadership and believed that violence against teachers was either ignored or minimised, leading to feelings of isolation: ‘all learners and teachers are aware of code of conduct. there are no preventative measures covered in the school’s code of conduct. just sanctions for transgression, suspension or giving a learner a note to ask their parents to come to school for a meeting.’ (johanna, 24-year-old, teacher) ‘no formal support structures. if learners suffered the same consequences as teachers, then this could improve the situation. teachers suffer suspension from school without salary for any misconduct, whereas, in some cases, learners are simply just moved from one school to another and continue with their lives as if nothing happened.’ (anna, 26-year-old, teacher) ‘there are no formal support structures for teachers who have been victimised. a learner who victimises a teacher is suspended.’ (dimakatso, 25-year-old, teacher) based on these narratives, it is prevalent that the participants do not feel empowered in their workplaces when it comes to addressing learner violence. while there is a code of conduct that prohibits learner-on-teacher violence, the participants demonstrate concern around the violence, arguing that the current disciplinary measures are insufficient to deal with the violence in the schools. the participants demonstrate dissatisfaction with the severity of disciplinary measures taken by the schools, arguing that they are not enough to protect them from learner-on-teacher violence in the schools. this impacts their sense of safety within the school environment. discussion the intersection of gender, sex, age, physical appearance and structural vulnerabilities in learner-on-teacher violence the findings of this study underscore how the intersection of gender, sex, age and physical appearance, together with structural vulnerabilities, contributes to early-career young cisgender women teachers’ vulnerability to learner-on-teacher violence. the data indicate that young cisgender women teachers, because of their sex, gender, age and physical appearance, are perceived as less authoritative by male learners, which places them at greater risk of verbal, emotional and physical aggression. this is consistent with existing literature on learner-on-teacher violence, which suggests that gendered power dynamics and patriarchal structures contribute to the mistreatment of women teachers in schools (lehfid & bakkali, 2025; pietersen & langeveldt, 2024). the participants’ narratives illustrate that their physical appearance further compounds their vulnerability. for instance, dikeledi narrated that she was targeted because she is 28 years old and a bit skinny and short. the participants’ narratives of how their physical appearance renders them vulnerable to violence align with the mcmahon et al. (2022) study, which found that younger and physically smaller teachers often face a greater likelihood of being perceived as weak or incapable of defending themselves, thus increasing their exposure to aggression from students. perceived authority and power imbalance a critical theme that emerged from the findings is the perception of young cisgender women teachers as lacking authority, which is a crucial factor contributing to violence. letta’s remark that ‘if you are younger and female, learners tend to think that you cannot defend yourself’ highlights how both gender, sex and age intersect to undermine the authority of early-career cisgender women teachers. this finding is supported by fakude’s (2022) study, which found that young female teachers in secondary schools often struggle to establish their authority because of the small age gap between them and their learners. for example, johanna held that learners tend to see the younger cisgender women teachers as their peers, leading to conflicts when the teachers try to practice their authority or instil discipline in the classroom. this suggests that learners may not recognise or respect professional boundaries, further weakening the teacher’s authority. previous research by buthelezi (2021) similarly found that younger teachers, particularly women, often experience difficulties maintaining discipline in classrooms because of a lack of perceived legitimacy in their roles. psychological impact of learner-on-teacher violence the psychological toll of learner-on-teacher violence on young cisgender women teachers is another significant finding of this study. many participants reported experiencing fear, anxiety and a loss of self-confidence as a result of their experiences with violent learners. these findings align with studies conducted in other contexts, such as the research by de ceballos and carvalho (2021), which found that violence against teachers has long-term emotional and psychological effects, leading to anxiety, ptsd and, in severe cases, career abandonment. similar trends were observed in south africa by venketsamy (2024), who found that many teachers who experience violence from learners consider leaving the profession because of persistent fear and stress. the role of patriarchy in learner-on-teacher violence the findings of this study further highlight the role of patriarchal norms in shaping the experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers. participants described instances where boy learners used their perceived superiority to intimidate women teachers. thabang, for example, stated, ‘other teachers are more affected or vulnerable to such attacks than others because of their gender.’ this finding resonates with the broader literature on gender-based violence in schools. oparinde and matsha (2021) argue that patriarchal attitudes contribute to gender-based violence in educational institutions, where boy learners feel entitled to challenge and dominate women teachers. this aligns with the observations of bhana (2015), who found that women teachers often experience disrespect and aggression from boy learners who have internalised societal gender hierarchies. addressing learner-on-teacher violence: policy and intervention given the severity of the violence experienced by early-career young cisgender women teachers, targeted interventions are necessary to address this issue. the findings suggest that educational institutions and policymakers must implement strategies to protect early-career young cisgender women teachers, including enhanced security measures, structured mentorship programmes and stricter disciplinary actions against learners who engage in violence. research by windvoël (2023) highlights the importance of school-based intervention programmes that provide psychological support for teachers and training on conflict resolution strategies. furthermore, we recommend that policies aimed at addressing school violence should include gender-sensitive approaches that consider the unique vulnerabilities of early-career young women teachers. before concluding, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study, which may influence the interpretation of the findings. limitations of the study several limitations emerged during the interview process that influenced the study’s findings. one significant limitation was related to participant withdrawals. despite initially agreeing to participate or scheduling interviews, a total of nine teachers ultimately withdrew from the study. of these, eight were from two schools in tshwane west and one from a school in tshwane south. notably, five of the withdrawals came from a single school in tshwane west, where the participants expressed concern about potential retaliation from the school principal because of the sensitive nature of the research topic. while this might be viewed as a limitation in terms of sample size, these withdrawals carry deeper meaning and reflect some of the core themes identified in the study. the expressed fear of speaking out illustrates the structural vulnerabilities that exist within school environments, especially those marked by institutional inadequacies and the absence of supportive leadership structures. teachers’ reluctance to participate because of fear of reprisal underscores the lack of institutional protection, which in turn silences victims and conceals incidents of learner-on-teacher violence. thus, the high withdrawal rate, rather than being a mere methodological limitation, is in itself an indicator of the climate of fear and disempowerment within certain school settings. it reinforces the study’s findings about the intersectional vulnerabilities of young cisgender women teachers and the urgent need for safe, supportive environments that enable teachers to speak out about their experiences without fear of retaliation. implications of the findings the findings of this study have several implications for various stakeholders. the study underscores the urgent need for school management teams to prioritise the safety and support of early career young cisgender women teachers, who are often subjected to learner-on-teacher violence rooted in gendered, sexand age-based power dynamics. it is essential for schools to establish internal protocols and foster a culture where educators can report incidents without fear of retaliation. at the policy level, the department of basic education should review and strengthen current frameworks on school safety, including a more robust implementation of the national school safety framework. furthermore, the findings highlight the necessity for targeted professional development programmes that equip teachers with practical skills to manage classroom aggression and protect their mental and emotional well-being. for teacher training institutions, there is a pressing need to expand curricula to include modules on behavioural management, resilience-building and the psychological impact of school violence, particularly as it affects vulnerable teaching demographics. overall, the study reveals systemic gaps in institutional support structures, which often contribute to the silencing of teachers who experience violence. addressing these gaps requires policy interventions that are inclusive, trauma-informed and gender-sensitive to ensure safer and more equitable working environments for all teachers. while the study is grounded in the south african public school context, the issues of learner-on-teacher violence, structural vulnerability and gendered power dynamics are not unique to south africa. similar patterns have been documented in other countries, particularly in lowand middle-income settings, as well as in under-resourced urban schools globally. as such, the findings of this study may offer insights for international policymakers, educators and researchers working to develop inclusive and protective school environments worldwide. conclusion this study investigated the experiences of early-career young cisgender women teachers who encountered learner-on-teacher violence through an intersectional lens, taking into account the combined impact of intersecting identity markers such as sex, gender, age and physical appearance, along with structural vulnerabilities (patriarchy, gender and sex-related stereotypes and psychological well-being), to identify these teachers’ specific points of vulnerability to male learner violence in secondary schools. this study contributes to the growing body of literature on learner-on-teacher violence by highlighting the unique vulnerabilities encountered by early-career young cisgender women teachers. the findings of this study, analysed through an intersectional framework, call for specific, targeted interventions to protect and support early-career young cisgender women teachers. by recognising that sex, gender, age and physical appearance intersect in ways that exacerbate the violence these teachers encounter, education policymakers and schools can develop strategies that address the particular vulnerabilities of early-career young cisgender women teachers. the study suggests that collaborative interventions should be designed to mitigate the risks associated with these intersecting factors, alongside structural vulnerabilities. this approach aims to provide support not only to the teachers themselves but also to shift harmful patriarchal and ageist attitudes within the secondary school environment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions h.e.k. and t.b.m. were involved in conceptualising the article and contributed to the writing. h.e.k. collected the data, and both authors collaborated on the analysis. t.b.m. reviewed the final draft of the manuscript and made editorial corrections to its content and structure. both authors worked together on all sections of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data associated with the study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, t.b.m. because of the sensitivity of the topic, it cannot be made publicly accessible. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references baxen, e. 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(2021). educators as victims of learner-on-educator violence in south african schools: a model for countering the violence against teachers. doctor of education thesis, university of south africa. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10500/28405 abstract background method results ethical consideration discussion limitations and recommendations for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nicola taylor centre of research excellence, jvr psychometrics, johannesburg, south africa department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa chris beukes south african career development association, pretoria, south africa citation taylor, n., & beukes, c. (2019). a life design-related career development intervention for working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related sectors. african journal of career development 1(1), a2. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.2 case study a life design-related career development intervention for working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related sectors nicola taylor, chris beukes received: 21 may 2019; accepted: 28 may 2019; published: 13 june 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract this study examined the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career adaptability of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. participants were employed at a manufacturing workshop in a south african correctional centre. a mixed-methods intervention study design was implemented. the participants completed a number of career-based assessments during the intervention. the results indicated that the participants were well prepared to face the career challenges presented by industry 4.0 and that the intervention shows promise in improving career adaptability in working adults. more longitudinal research with diverse participants is needed. keywords: group career construction counselling; mixed-methods intervention study; integrated qualitative–quantitative approach; career interest profile; maree career matrix; career adapt-abilities scale; self education employability device. background according to deloitte’s (2019) latest survey on the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0), there is a growing gap in the skills that employees are required to have to face the demands of industry 4.0. the threat (or promise) of digitalisation and automation means that manual labourers, technicians and artisans may have to learn different skills to remain relevant by functioning as an expert in guiding the activities of robots and other automated processes, rather than doing the work themselves (deloitte, 2019). this would require reskilling or retraining of the workforce to develop these new skills, which implies a need for a certain readiness on behalf of the workforce to accept a change in the nature of their work. what is promising is that leaders in organisations are looking to train existing employees rather than hiring new ones when introducing task automation and increased digitalisation into the business. while they do provide training opportunities for their employees, leaders also expect employees to take control of their own career trajectories (deloitte, 2019). this means that, like it or not, many more people may experience mid-career changes than have ever before. as new types of jobs emerge, so will new career paths, and various sectors of industry may need to prepare for upskilling employees for jobs that have not previously existed. employees will also need to develop an element of career adaptability to navigate the changes in the new world of work (savickas & porfeli, 2012). one of the major roles that sector education and training authorities (setas) play in the south african context is to provide education and training opportunities to develop the necessary skills to be able to work in the sector that they represent. one of the setas likely to be hard hit by automation is the manufacturing, engineering and related services seta (merseta). in its 2015/2016–2019/2020 strategic plan, merseta committed to an ‘[i]ncreased publication of research products that inform cutting edge solutions in the sector’ (merseta, 2014, p. 35). to meet the demand set by industry, merseta has set out the following objective: ‘career development, advice and support for the flexible labour market implied by the advent of advanced manufacturing and industry 4.0 must be put in place to empower current and new entrants manage their career aspirations and development’ (merseta, 2018, p. 58). subsequently, the merseta initiated a feasibility study in collaboration with the south african career development association (sacda) and the university of south africa (unisa), termed ‘indigenous career management interventions for youth and adults’. up until now, career development interventions implemented by the setas have been primarily focused on the youth. while youth development is a critical focus area, setas have not yet addressed the career development needs of working adults in their various sectors. this study forms part of the merseta initiative to begin providing possible seta-supported career development interventions for their organisations in partnership with sacda. this case study is also part of a larger feasibility study with two main objectives: firstly, to determine the effectiveness of an integrative south african-based career development intervention for employees in the form of a life design-related intervention; secondly, to validate the use of non-psychological instruments that can be used by entry-level career development practitioners (cdps). aim of the study the aim of this study is to examine the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. method participants and context a purposive and criterion sampling was used in the study. the participants consisted of 72 employees in a south african correctional services manufacturing workshop (33 officials and 39 inmates), who participated in a life design career development intervention. they completed the south african version of the career adapt-abilities scale (caas; maree, 2012), the maree career matrix (mcm; maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b), the career interest profile (cip; maree, 2017a) and the self education employability device (seed; beukes, 2010). research design a mixed-methods intervention with the implementation of a quantitative and qualitative data construction design was used (qualitative and quantitative data were constructed simultaneously). the cip and the mcm were used to facilitate the intervention and provide career development guidance to participants. the caas was used to test the research hypothesis that the intervention improves career adaptability, while the seed was implemented to assist individuals in exploring their employability skills. instruments career interest profile the cip (maree, 2017a) is a south african-developed career assessment instrument that helps individuals identify: (1) their central career–life themes, (2) their main career-related interests, issues and concerns and (3) their advice from within as to how they can turn issues and concerns into themes of hope that can advance their individual life projects. the cip is a qualitative (storied or narrative) career-story questionnaire, not a psychological test. respondents are asked to select five areas of interest that they like and five areas that they dislike from a list of 19 career categories. they also answer a number of self-reflection questions and incomplete sentences. research indicates that the selection of cip interests is relatively stable over time, and that the career categories are related as expected to other career interest questionnaires. being a qualitative assessment instrument that facilitates qualitative career counselling interventions, the cip does not have psychometric properties as such, but has been demonstrated to be an effective career counselling instrument (maree, 2017a). maree career matrix the mcm (maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b) reflects individuals’ attraction to 19 job categories by asking them to rate their interest and skill levels in 152 different occupations. the results are then combined and represented on the mcm. the psychometric properties of the mcm were deemed to be acceptable (maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b), with good reliability and validity evidence. career adapt-abilities scale the caas was developed by savickas and porfeli (2012). it is a multi-factorial self-rating measure comprising 24 items (four scales, each with six items) that describe the career adaptability of the individual. the four scales measure concern, control, curiosity and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing transitions, developmental tasks and work traumas. the 24 items make up four subscales used in south africa by maree (2012), demonstrating good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.91) and satisfactory factor structure. self education employability device the seed (beukes, 2010) is a 60-item self-exploration assessment instrument that can be used to assist individuals in exploring their employability skills. each item represents a employability skill. the items cluster together to provide feedback on 12 scales relating to employability. the 12 scales measure attitude, service, creativity, barriers, foundation, core, sectors, career, work, goals, network and transitions. procedure the strategy used in the current study is based on the paradigm and associated strategy explained by savickas (2011). career construction counselling (for life design) techniques from different sources and authors were used (maree, 2015, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; savickas, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2016; savickas et al., 2009). two workshops were held in gauteng in march and april 2019, each lasting 2 days. on day 1, participants began by completing the caas, followed by completing the cip, the mcm and the seed. the administration was supervised by registered psychology professionals. on the afternoon of the first day, career construction counselling-related interaction was conducted between the attending psychologist and the different groups, using the power of the audience technique (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b). individual groups of participants were given approximately 90 min to reflect on their career stories in their groups. thereafter, participants and the psychologist discussed and integrated participants’ mcm, cip and seed outcomes in the larger group. to facilitate these discussions, the psychologist and participants used an ‘integrated career choice and construction conversation template’ to capture their identity, values, themes and interest patterns. on day two, participants were invited to reflect on their outcomes individually (to the bigger group), while the others (the audience) reflect on prompts by the psychologist and the participant (counsellee) without addressing the counsellee directly. they concurrently self-reflected on the psychologist’s questions to the counsellee. this enabled the counsellees to identify not only central career–life themes but also other significant aspects (e.g. values or areas for development) that might emerge through the counsellees’ responses to questions in the mcm, cip and seed. in addition, counsellees were guided to differentiate between their career interest patterns as revealed by a comparison of the overlap between mcm outcomes in terms of their career interests and confidence, the interest category patterns that emerged from part two of the cip, as well as the seed. next, the focus shifted to reflections on how to potentially convert painful themes (e.g. never having been ‘good enough’ in the eyes of others) into themes of hope and of inspiration – all the while advancing their individual career–life projects. by asking counsellees what they believe they could do to address ‘areas for growth’ and ‘messages’ they took from their favourite quotations, and why they regard certain happenings as their biggest successes, they were prompted to draw on their inner advice to themselves to advance their self-awareness, clarify their career identities, choose careers and clarify their unique career–life projects (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b). ultimately, career choice and life design-related recommendations were finalised. in addition, based on responses to questions in the cip and, especially, their reflections on these responses, relevant psycho-educational and psychosocial information was dispensed. in essence, participants did not only receive ‘traditional’ career counselling. by acting as audience and soundboard for counsellees’ reflections and providing them with a safe space in which they could express themselves unreservedly, they also advanced their fellow counsellees’ sense of self, self-awareness and critical consciousness. sessions were concluded by the completion of each participant’s summary of fields for job analysis and, ultimately, his or her vision and mission statement. after the caas was administered for a second time, participants were requested to reflect on how they experienced the sessions. results the assumption checks that were performed found that there were minor issues with normality and some outliers were present within the groups. when working with smaller homogenous samples, violations of the basic assumptions that underlie parametric statistical analyses tend to occur. an effective way of dealing with assumption violations is to use robust statistics because they are not drastically impacted by deviations in assumptions (erceg-hurn, wilcox, & keselman, 2013). robust statistics are reported for the internal consistency reliability coefficients for each instrument. participants were asked to rank their five preferred interests on the cip, which were counted and summed to give an indication of the five most preferred interests. practical–technical was the highest rated interest, with 64 candidates ranking it in their top five interests. this was followed by engineering and the built environment (43); entrepreneurship, running and maintaining a personal business (34); social, caregiving and community services (26) and executive and management practice (23). only participants in the first workshop intervention (officials) completed the mcm (n = 32). the internal consistency reliability estimates were still all satisfactory for both the interest scales and confidence scales (table 1). the five highest interest scales for this group were engineering and the built environment; executive and management practices; entrepreneurship; practical–technical; and social, community services and teaching. these are in line with the nature of the work done by the participants and the interests indicated in the cip. these five also make up the top five confidence scales for the participants. table 1: internal consistency reliability and descriptive statistics for the maree career matrix (n = 32). the internal consistency reliability coefficient for the total caas scale was 0.90 (table 2), which is comparable to the reliability obtained for a previous south african sample (maree, 2012). the reliability coefficients were acceptable for all subscales, except for curiosity, which was lower than 0.70 for the pre-test, but higher for the post-test. the test–retest reliability of the scores was calculated (correlations corrected for attenuation), but we expected them to be lower, as it was expected that scores would change before and after the intervention. there were statistically significant mean score differences before and after the intervention on all scales of the caas, except for control (table 3). the effect sizes were small, with an average increase in scores of one raw score point per subscale, and three raw score points overall. table 2: internal consistency and test–retest reliability for the scales of the career adapt-abilities scale (n = 68). table 3: related samples t-test for career adapt-abilities scale. the internal consistency reliability coefficients for the seed scales were all satisfactory, apart from the attitude, foundation and fields scales, which fell below 0.65 on both cronbach’s alpha and mcdonald’s omega values. it is possible that the reliability is lower because of the fact that these scales contain only four items each. the content of these scales will be reviewed for future assessments. on average, participants rated the seed scales relatively high (close to 4.00 for most responses), with the highest average item scores on the core and career scales (table 4). table 4: internal consistency reliability and descriptive statistics for the self education employability device (n = 68). ethical consideration ethical approval for this study was granted by the university of johannesburg’s college of business and economics rec (cberec18gen01). participants were recruited using a first-come first-serve offer, as there were limited spaces available. participation was voluntary, and participants were assured that their individual responses would be kept confidential, and that they could withdraw from the study at any time without negative consequences. they continued to receive remuneration while participating in the career workshop, and received a certificate of participation that would add credibility towards inmates’ parole applications. all data are stored in secure, access-limited folders and will be anonymised once everything has been collated at the conclusion of the larger study. discussion this study represents a response to repeated calls for research on group-based career counselling (see, e.g. whiston, li, mitts, & wright, 2017). the aim of the study was to examine the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. the below findings are related to the literature on the influence of group career construction interventions on people’s ability to manage changing occupational contexts. the findings are consistent with the positive outcomes of earlier studies that examined the value of a life design-related intervention using a quantitative and qualitative approach (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b; maree, 2019; rehfuss & di fabio, 2012). the results also align positively with whiston, brecheisen and stephens’s (2003) finding that career counselling-related interventions frequently encompass a general counselling component and that a structured group intervention approach seems to yield more effective outcomes than an unstructured approach. the interests elicited from both the cip and mcm instruments were very closely aligned. it makes sense that engineering and the built environment and practical–technical interests would come to the fore, given the nature of the work that the participants do on a daily basis. what was enlightening was the endorsement of the executive and management practices and entrepreneurship interests. this suggests a desire to either start and run their own business, or to give direction and manage others’ activities. there is a need in some sectors in the automotive trade (e.g. panel beating and automotive spray painting) to support the development of small businesses in the industry (redflank, 2018), and the results of this case study support the assumption that there is at least an appetite for entrepreneurship in the existing workforce. the social, community services and teaching interest was most likely linked to the officials involved in the study who had teaching experience and degrees, and offers an alternative route in the sector for individuals who are passionate about teaching and skills development. with regard to career adaptability, it was promising that this group of employees scored slightly higher on average on the pre-test on the caas (item mean = 4.00) than the south african standardisation sample (item mean = 3.88; maree, 2012) and other employed south african adults (item mean = 3.71; coetzee, ferreira, & shunmugum, 2017). this suggests that this group is well on their way to being ready to face the challenges of industry 4.0. the lower than desired internal consistency reliability coefficients for the pre-test score on the curiosity scale of the caas was corrected in the post-test, and may have been a function of the small sample size. the lower test–retest reliability scores are expected, as career adaptability is intended to improve after such a career intervention. in fact, the differences in scores from the pre-test to post-test are encouraging, as they provide an indication of the success of the intervention in enhancing participants’ career adaptability and, consequently, their employability (savickas, 2019; urbanaviciute, udayar, & rossier, 2019; van der horst & klehe, 2019). it would also equip employed adults with an enhanced ability to face the challenges posed by industry 4.0 to their career path trajectory. the only scale that showed no statistically significant difference in preand post-test scores was the control scale, which can be understood given the context and nature of the sample – no matter the intervention, it is unlikely that people would have any greater control over their current circumstances if incarcerated. in conclusion, it seems plausible to state that the outcomes of the study confirm the findings of maree (2016a, 2016b), del corso and rehfuss (2011) and others regarding the constructive influence of inspiring feedback during and after an intervention (confirmed by the qualitative findings, which are reported on elsewhere). in addition, the findings provide support for peng and chen’s assertions (2014) that career construction-related interventions can provide good support to people who lack a sense of purpose in their lives. in terms of the seed, it is hypothesised that the higher scores on most items could be because of a lack of understanding of each of the skills. to test this hypothesis, a description of each of the 60 employability skills will be provided together with the context surrounding employability skills. the need for honest answers to ensure a true reflection of current skill levels for the purpose of effective personal development will also be communicated. limitations and recommendations for future research results should be interpreted with due circumspection because this was a small, limited study. moreover, we used a pre–post design without a control group. future studies should involve larger groups of diverse participants, using quasi-experimental designs (with alternative treatment and no-treatment control groups). in addition, it is essential to conduct regular follow-up to determine the longer term effectiveness and sustainability of the benefits of the intervention to enhance the generalisability of the findings. other quantitative and qualitative instruments could also be considered in future research. it seems key, too, to assess participants’ sense of self, self-worth and career–life identity. lastly, the development of instruments similar to those used in this study and their implementation in localised and, particularly, in group contexts is essential. conclusion the results of the first phase of this research project show great promise for the feasibility of the intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. the findings also confirm savickas’ (2019) assertion that life design-related intervention revitalises people’s suppressed dreams, advances their career adaptability and enables them to convert their pain into hope-filled prospects. while the initial sample is small and limited to a single working environment, preliminary findings indicate that the intervention holds value in enhancing the career adaptability of working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related (mer) services sector. the psychometric results also show promise for the use of these assessments with workers in skilled trades and related occupations. while this case study is simply a pilot for the larger feasibility study, these early results provide motivation to continue with the project. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the project collaboration partners, namely, merseta, unisa and sacda, for supporting this research in the manufacturing, engineering and related services sector, with special thanks to ms ester van der linde for her contribution to the career development profession; dr erna gerryts, ms gillian schultz and ms thandeka langa for facilitating the career development interventions; mr brett gregory and ms kerry martin for data analysis assistance; and the team at jvr psychometrics for their unfailing support throughout the data collection and capturing processes. competing interests n.t. is a director of jvr psychometrics, which received payment for the use of some of the assessments used in the study, and for the time spent on data collation and analysis. she did not personally benefit from any payment. n.t. is also a statistical editor for the african journal of career development (ajcd). c.b. is the ceo of sacda, which received funding for the study, but as a non-profit organisation, he does not personally benefit from the funding. he is also a member of the editorial board of the ajcd. authors’ contributions n.t. was responsible for gaining ethical approval, data analysis and the compilation of the case study. c.b. was responsible for project management and the delivery of the intervention, and contributed to the case study write-up and final sign-off. funding this research was funded by merseta. data availability statement the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to the nature of the sample and certain ethical restrictions due to the nature of the data. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references beukes, c. j. 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(2017). effectiveness of career choice interventions: a meta-analytic replication and extension. journal of vocational behavior, 100, 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.010 abstract introduction theory of planned behaviour attitude subjective norm perceived behavioural control aim of the study research methods and design findings discussions conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) itumeleng dube department of public administration and management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa sizile makola department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa pumeza saliwe department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ramodungoane tabane department of psychology of education, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation dube, i., makola, s., saliwe, p., & tabane, r. (2023). high school learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment sector. african journal of career development, 5(1), a77. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.77 original research high school learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment sector itumeleng dube, sizile makola, pumeza saliwe, ramodungoane tabane received: 22 mar. 2023; accepted: 17 oct. 2023; published: 04 dec. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of learners on careers in the built environment. the industry is confronted with a critical shortage of skilled workers, which significantly hampers its growth and labour productivity. this workforce scarcity mainly stems from a lack of effective strategies for recruiting and retaining learners in construction programmes. objectives: the objective of this study was to examine the perceptions of learners on careers in the built environment. method: this study examined the perceptions of 43 previously disadvantaged black high school learners, regarding careers in the built environment sector. using the planned behaviour theory, qualitative questionnaires investigating learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment were used to collect data. the data were thematically analysed using the braun and clarke’s six phases of analysis. results: the findings indicate that a learner’s attitude towards a career influences their decision in selecting it or not. the career perceptions of the community and significant others affect the career choice of a learner. conclusion: the built industry must ensure that it attracts new career entrants; there is thus, a need for the built environment to conduct career talks and disseminate information about the different careers in the industry. adequate career information allows learner to choose careers confidently. contribution: this study contributes towards assisting the built environment sector in creating an attractive value proposition for learners to join the sector. it will also assist the sector to know which kind of information they need to disseminate to attract learners in choosing careers. keywords: learners; planned behaviour; built environment; career choice; construction industry. introduction the construction industry is globally seen as one of the major contributors to the economic development of a nation. the industry is widely considered to be the world’s largest industrial employer of labour, with an estimate of around 7.7% of global employment before the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic (international labour organization [ilo], 2021). construction careers have yet to become a preferred choice among learners. as a key player in the south african economy, the construction industry should be a viable career choice for the next generation. the engineering council of south africa (2021) reported that in 2020, out of 15 501 learners that were eligible to study engineering, 80% of them decided not to enrol for the qualification. this indicates that even though learners qualify for professions in the built environment, they do not prefer the careers on offer in the industry. the occupations that are in high demand in the south african engineering sector include that of production manager, civil, industrial, and engineering manager (rasool, 2021). aghimien et al. (2019) state that young graduates are not showing any interest in pursuing careers in the built environment, and this has caused a skills shortage in the industry. the ability to achieve the objective of economic growth and eradicate poverty in south africa is hindered by the shortage of engineers in the industry (akinradewo et al., 2022). the construction industry plays a pivotal role in the south african economy, contributing an income of r436.7 billion in 2020, which is a 2.4% decrease from the year 2017 (statistics south africa, 2020). statistics south africa (2020) also reported that from 2017 to 2020, employment in the built environment decreased by 7.2%. furthermore, these decreases in jobs were reported in the construction of civil engineering structures (89 010 jobs), construction of buildings (17 972 jobs), construction by specialist trade contractors (10 480 jobs) and other building installations (8505 jobs). one crucial aspect is that there is a serious lack of young persons who enter the industry for their career (hugo et al., 2018; ochiba et al., 2022). the built environment is suffering from upskilling staff, skills retention, skills transfer from older, experienced employees to younger employees (mashego, 2021; shikweni et al., 2019). according to statistics south africa (2023), the gross earnings in the construction sector decreased by 2.7% in march 2023 as compared to the previous year, resulting in the sector being ranked 5th in terms of pay. one of the other major issues facing the construction industry lies in the lack of skilled workers, which has digressed over time (haupt & harinarain, 2016; ostadalimakhmalbaf et al., 2021; windapo, 2016). research shows that the south african education system does not produce the required graduates with the desired demographics to implement employment equity; moreover, the sector and the country are experiencing a loss of critical developmental skills (akinradewo et al., 2022; safcec, 2019). according to yokwana et al. (2016) and haupt and madikizela (2009), white men still being in top management positions make the built environment unattractive to women and black people as a meaningful career. dithebe et al. (2022) report that the skilled labour force in the construction sector of south africa is in shortage. fika et al. (2021) attribute the shortage of skills in the construction industry to inadequate and inappropriate (soft) skills among young graduates. there have been several studies that have tried to understand why the built environment is not able to attract skilled workers. other studies have explored the reasons why the built environment has had a shortage in skilled labour (akomah et al., 2020; brucker juricic et al., 2021; ceric & ivic, 2020; kim et al., 2020; mohd fateh et al., 2022). yet, there have been limited studies in exploring the perceptions of learners on careers in the built environment. there is an imminent need to understand the career perceptions of the next generation, especially those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. the remnants of apartheid school policies have had adverse effects on the ability of career guidance to help learners successfully transition from school to work or further education and select careers (jonck & swanepoel, 2019; mahlangu, 2011). in addition, makola et al. (2021) state that the underresourcing of black public schools in south africa affects the school’s ability to offer effective career guidance to learners. with the state of public education in south africa mainly affecting black learners, those enrolled do not have access to the information that will grant them the opportunities to select suitable careers. therefore, this study sought to answer the following research question, ‘what are the views of high school students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds regarding careers in the built environment following their attendance at a career talk?’. ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour was used as a theoretical framework in understanding the intentions of learners regarding careers in the built environment. planned behaviour is a model that has been widely used in psychology; it is concerned about the intended behaviours of individuals (ajzen & fishbein, 1980). the theory of planned behaviour has been used to predict the decisions that have important implications such as career decisions (gorgievski et al., 2018). ajzen (1991) suggests that a person’s planned behaviour could be precisely predicted using three primary assumptions of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. the theory of planned behaviour has been used to understand and predict the complex behaviour of individuals. mothibi and malebana (2019) mention that a person’s behaviour or intentions are determined by their own evaluation of personal belief, perceived social pressure, and capability to perform said action. with the need to understand learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment, a qualitative research design was employed. using a qualitative questionnaire, data were collected from grade 10–12 learners from previously disadvantaged schools. it is believed that the study will make two major contributions. firstly, in understanding the perceptions of previously disadvantaged learners on careers in the built environment. secondly, aiding the built environment sector in constructing career guidance programmes that will attract learners. the next section of the article reviews the literature on the theory of planned behaviour. this is followed by the goals and methodology of the research. the findings and discussions are then presented. theory of planned behaviour the theory of planned behaviour (figure 1) looks at the intent of a premeditated action at a specific time and in a specific place (bosnjak et al., 2020; miller & howell, 2005; neneh, 2017). according to ajzen (1991), intentions are motivated actions to be exerted by an individual to achieve a particular behaviour. however, this planned behaviour will only be carried out if the person has a positive attitude towards the act, combined with positive perception from significant others and control of the intended action. hariko and anggriana (2019) mention that when making career decisions, a person will need to know and understand themselves, appropriate career information, and career goals. with regard to planned behaviour, there are three primary assumptions, namely, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control (lungisa et al., 2019). using these primary assumptions of planned behaviour, one could accurately predict a person’s intentions (ajzen, 1991). these primary assumptions are discussed below. figure 1: theory of planned behaviour. attitude sorsdahl et al. (2013) state that attitude is what the individual thinks about performing a specific behaviour – their belief can be positive or negative. if the attitude towards an act is positive, it is likely that it will be actioned out. attitudes are derived from a set of beliefs, evaluations of outcomes, and consequences pertaining to a particular behaviour (sanne & wiese, 2018). access to information allows individuals to form attitudes, skills and knowledge towards their careers and the world of work (hariko & anggriana, 2019). according to cunningham and kwon (2003), the attitude towards performing a task will be positive if that activity will yield the desired outcomes, while unfavourable results will contribute towards a negative attitude. therefore, a positive attitude would constitute that a particular behaviour will result in a beneficial and enjoyable outcome (hamilton and terblanche, 2018; neneh, 2017). for the purpose of this study, the learner’s perspective or attitude towards the built environment is explored. subjective norm the subjective norm principle looks at the perceptions that significant others, friends, and the community of the individual hold about a behaviour (lungisa et al., 2019; mfazi & elliott, 2022). this means that people will easily partake in an act that is positively perceived by significant others and the community. there is a possibility of social pressure from family and friends that might influence a particular action of planned behaviour (neneh, 2017). according to hariko and anggriana (2019), family and peers form an integral part of the support structure of an individual – this relationship can be a driver of or a barrier to one’s career choice. individuals could take part in behaviour that does not necessarily benefit them, but the action might put them in good standing with people close to them. learners tend to compromise career choices in order to remain consistent with family wishes and preferences (ma et al., 2014). akinradewo et al. (2022) highlight that providing parents with career opportunities and industry information in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) will help combat the skills shortage in the built industry. if more information about a career is known to significant others and the community, they could influence perceptions about the career in question. the more accepted a behaviour is, the more likely it is to be carried out. in the case of this study, learners might choose a career in the built environment because their significant others and community might perceive this decision as a good one. perceived behavioural control several factors such as skills, time, money, cooperation from others and opportunities affect planned behaviour (ajzen, 1991). according to mfazi and elliott (2022), perceived behavioural control refers to believing in one’s ability to use available resources when executing an activity. tsui et al. (2019) state that people’s choices are influenced by their environment, significant others and the prevalence of barriers or support factors. individuals want to do things that are within their own will, where they are in control; planned behaviour is about being able to control actions that follow intent. the level of success highly influences planned behaviour: the more likely for the objective to be achieved, the more willing the individual is to carry out the action. hamilton and terblanche (2018) mention that despite an individual having a positive attitude and positive subjective norm, it can still be difficult to perform the set behaviour. in a study, gweshe and brodie (2019) found that learners with a fragile identity towards their own ability in mathematics did not aspire to careers that required the subject. according to nephawe (2018), career choices require learners to know their interests, talents, weaknesses, strengths and abilities. when individuals realise that they have the resources, skills, time and money to achieve an objective from a planned behaviour, they will go ahead with the action. in the current study, the theory of planned behaviour was used to explain the learners’ attitudes, their intentions and their perceived behaviours relating to the built environment careers. it is assumed that if significant others and the community at large view building-related vocational skills as valuable and positive, learners would be encouraged to embrace built-related subjects as a career of choice during their studies at technical, vocational education and training (tvet) and at higher education institutions. indeed, the same is true of the many in the unskilled labour force who have joined the construction industry because of various personal circumstances. what is key, is the highlighting of the significance of this industry in all its forms. the built environment industry is a huge sector and it is one of the largest industries that contributes to the economic development of the country. within the built environment, there are crane operators, ironworkers, plumbers, painters and brick layers. these careers may not necessarily need learners to pursue tertiary studies at higher education institutions. learners can also choose to go into the built environment immediately after high school because of significant others encouraging them into the world of work, as a result of a majority of the people in the community doing it. aim of the study the aims of the study were firstly, to understanding the views of previously disadvantaged learners on careers in the built environment. secondly, to aid the built environment sector in constructing career guidance programmes that will attract learners. research methods and design a qualitative research approach which adopted a case study design was used in this study to understand high school learners’ perceptions of careers in the built environment sector. when using a qualitative approach, researchers are able to describe in detail the feelings, opinions and experiences of participants, and explain the meanings behind their actions (saunders & lewis, 2018). according to mcguirk and o’neill (2016), qualitative research should be used when seeking to understand the experiences people have through multiple interpretations, multiple frames of references at certain events and places. the main assumption of the study is that learners from previously disadvantaged schools have limited knowledge and understanding of careers in the built environment. because of competing teaching responsibilities, time constraints and limited curriculum, life orientation teachers at previously disadvantaged schools are not able to fully contribute to the career development of learners (albien & naidoo, 2017). these constraints experienced by previously disadvantaged schools, therefore, impact the interest and willingness of learners in choosing careers in the built environment. in this study, learners attended career talks about the built environment, which influenced them to also view jobs in this field as viable career options. case study designs imply selecting a limited number of study subjects or a small geographical area (yin, 1994). according to crowe et al. (2011), case studies are useful when employed to get an in-depth understanding of an issue, phenomenon or event. the focus of this study was on the experiences of learners attending a built environment career talk and how it had influenced their perceptions of careers in the sector. the qualitative questionnaire used in this study was developed to examine the opinions and views of learners about careers after they had attended a career talk focussing on built environment careers. questionnaires are used to collect data on people’s awareness of events, opinions, attitudes, social interactions, behaviour and experiences (mcguirk & o’neill, 2016). the questionnaire used in this study contained the following questions: what did you like about the careers presented today? what did you not like about the careers presented today? what would make you choose in the built environment sector over other careers? participants and setting the 43 participants selected for this study included grade 10–12 learners who were attending the annual department of public works and infrastructure (dpwi) winter school programme. figure 2 and figure 3 indicate the gender and grade distribution of the participants which were made up of 23 females and 20 males. the winter school programme aims to empower top-performing grade 10–12 maths and science learners from previously disadvantaged public high schools that are adopted by the dpwi. the aim of the dpwi programme is for the learners to take up built environment studies in higher education institutions and ultimately be absorbed into the department. while at the school camp, the participants attended career guidance presentations on careers in the built environment. figure 2: gender distribution of participants. figure 3: grade distribution of participants. the career presentations were delivered by alumni of the dpwi programme who are now employed by the dpwi. the alumni also went through the winter school, finished their basic schooling, and were afforded bursaries to study in higher education institutions and pursue careers in the built environment. the talks presented by the alumni did not only cover the careers but also included the life stories of how and where they grew up to motivate the learners. diale (2022), funk and parker (2018), and matshabane (2016) emphasise the importance of black role models in encouraging learners in related careers. table 1 indicates the career fields which the speakers represented, as well as the race and gender of each speaker. table 1: demographics of speakers from different built environment careers. because of the researchers’ involvement in the community engagement asset mapping: breaking the cycle of poverty the research site was conveniently sampled. according to etikan et al. (2016), convenient sampling refers to a target population that was not randomly selected; participants meet in geographical proximity and availability requirements, and they have the willingness to participate in the study. data collection and analysis in this study, data were collected from 43 conveniently sampled high school learners using a qualitative questionnaire. before the participants filled out the qualitative questionnaire, there was an info session, where the researchers explained the purpose of the study and ethical considerations the learners had when it came to the study. the participants were given about 30 min to fill out the qualitative questionnaire after the built environment career talks. table 2 shows the activities followed to collect the data in the study. the learners were recruited, where they volunteered and consented to take part in the study. once all the students were gathered, the purpose of the study was communicated, and the ethical rules were explained. the researchers attended the built environment career talks, where students could ask the presenters questions. after the career talks, the researchers gave the learners 30 min to answer three open-ended questions in the qualitative questionnaire. when the learners needed clarity on some of the questions, the researchers were there to offer guidance. table 2: data collection activities. the collected data were then thematically analysed using braun and clarke’s (2006) six phases of analysis. according to scharp and sanders (2019), thematic analysis is the process of identifying salient aspects within large data sets, and reporting on the patterns found. the three open-ended questions that were answered were used as the data analysis framework. the first step of the six phases of analysis was skipped because there was no need for transcription of the participants’ responses. firstly, the analysis started with researcher 1 reading and re-reading the participants’ responses to determine items of interest. secondly, the coding process was followed to identify latent and obvious content. thirdly, codes were examined to determine if any trends emerged. fourthly, the themes were chosen and assessed in line with the aim of the study in mind. lastly, the emerging themes were named. researcher 1 sent the analysis to the other researchers of the study to provide an external check on the analysis process and the resulting themes. this was to ensure dependability of findings. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct the study was granted by the university of south africa, college of education (clearance number: 2017/02/15/90179617/04/mc). the volunteers were asked to complete a paper-based questionnaire at the end of the built environment career talks. a questions-and-answers session was held, during which the researchers explained the research ethics, the reasons for completing the questionnaires, the participants’ rights, and anonymity. each of the participant provided their own consent to participate in the study; this was in addition to the parental consent that was also received. findings a total of five themes were derived from the data. to ensure the trustworthiness, the responses are presented with no editing or correcting of grammar and spelling. each of the themes are discussed in detail below. careers as acts of service some of the participants saw careers in the built environment as an opportunity to improve the world around them and to make a difference: ‘for me to be able to make a change this is the perfect opportunity. changing the built environment ensures the change we need as south africans. changing an environment and make it a better one you increase the drive in people who have lost hope to live and be better person you increase the hope you now live in a better world and want to make a change for future generations.’ (grade 12, female, 17 years old) ‘in own place where grew up in, i want to change people’s place cause they don’t look happy at all, so that why i’ve chose architecture cause i believe in change.’ (grade 12, male, 17 years old) ‘it is that they offer society with a wide range of improvement and create opportunities to develop the country or world in construction and infrastructure.’ (grade 11, male, 16 years old) this finding supports the notion that the learners have a positive attitude towards a career in the built environment, and that their decision might be influenced by their significant others, their community and their environment. subjective norm is largely influenced by the perception of significant others or the learners’ surrounding communities. the positive or negative perception of an act by a community or loved ones would influence behaviour. furthermore, the perception of the community or loved ones has a significant influence on the intent of behaviour. the participants in this study indicated that a career in the built environment would not only fulfil them but also benefit their community and their loved ones. the support from loved ones and the community encourages the participant in selecting a career in the built environment. better understanding of the built environment careers some of the participants expressed that the career talks helped them to get a better understanding of the careers that were available in the built environment, giving them a better vantage point in choosing their career. the participants mentioned the following: ‘the career that i found interesting today was the one of q.s [quantity surveyor] because the presenter outlined it very clearly and it gave me a better understanding of what a q.s really is and what they do. the career presented today gave me an eye opener on which and what i would like to do after matric. what i really like the most is the fact that i was actually inspired.’ (grade 11, male, 16 year old) ‘i got to gather and learn more things that i earlier did not know. what i really liked the most was that the career that i’ve always and wanted to follow was wonderfully introduced and everything about it was made specific and i even got to know the reequipment that i am supposed to have in order for me to apply and be accepted.’ (grade 12, female, 18 years old) ‘the presentations today had been an enlighten one. loading incredible ideas and thoughts that may help one to understand any subject or object in the world. energetic and profound speakers that shook my thinking region of public works. because of these presentations i now know what profession should i go after. careers presented everything that i mentioned above and explain the reason for this promptness of the speakers. these careers do not require much but a definite goal.’ (grade 12, male, 20 years old) a lack of information can become a possible barrier in choosing a career. the findings in this study are similar to those of makola et al. (2021) and ngoepe et al. (2017), where career talks had expanded the learners’ knowledge and had helped them in selecting or affirming their careers. the more knowledge learners have on a particular career, the more they are self-reliant in making career choices. having more information on a career gives learners a sense of behavioural control, giving them confidence and removing barriers that might influence decisions. furthermore, having more information on a career increases confidence, affecting the attitude towards that career. realising personal traits for careers many participants indicated that through the career talks they could deduce that their own, personal traits were suitable for the career they aspire to choose in the built environment: ‘we will forever build and the built environment sector is a very broad sector. it is forever improving. i am a very hands-on person so i feel like this is where i belong.’ (grade 12, male, 17 years old) ‘being specific i chose quantity surveying profession it suits my characters very well. i usually do civil engineering at my school and i want to go further with it. i also got to know that my character really match with this career, i like working with numbers, i also like working with money. those are the reasons why i choose the career in the built environment.’ (grade 12, female, 18 years old) the planned behaviour theory looked at the influence of perceived behavioural control on deciding on intent. this finding indicates that learners will likely choose a career in the built environment as some aspects of their personal traits will be within their control to be able to have a successful career in the built environment. built environment jobs are jobs of the future some of the participants expressed that careers in the built environment are jobs of the future, citing that these jobs in the built environment will always be needed, resulting in greater job security: ‘there are many job opportunities and the careers presented can never get out of value because life is all about buildings without them there won’t be life. they also let youngsters to enrich this world of ours with beautiful buildings, applying their minds.’ (grade 12, female, 18 years old) ‘according to what i see or the perspective that i see this all from, choosing a career in the built environment sector would be me securing my future for life. i mean a person working in the built environment sector, you’ll have a job because people will always need houses, roads and safe water pipes and all of that comes from the built environment sector.’ (grade 12, female, 17 years old) these findings indicate that learners have a positive attitude towards careers that offer better job security. careers with better job security, positively influence the perception of learners, resulting in a positive attitude in selecting the said career. the findings above indicate that built environment has several careers that are considered as jobs of the future and that offer stability. gaps in the career talks not all impressions of the career talks were positive, as some of the participants were not happy with certain aspects of the presentations. this can influence the attitude towards a career in the built environment. participants said the following: ‘the people presenting these careers were over doing it, i felt forced to do these careers. the careers that were presented today were mostly about money and i don’t like the concept of being in the built environment for money, i want to be in it for change and not money.’ (grade 12, female, 17 years old) ‘they are complicated need one that knows their dream knowing that i still do not know mine, so it was hard to choose. only told us the good things about the careers other than difficulties and mistakes people make. so that we do not do the same mistake.’ (grade 10, female, 15 years old) this finding indicates that the career talks should not only focus on the positive aspects or on how much money a person can make; the presentations should also highlight the challenges that come with the job. the not-so-positive attributes of careers need to be shared so that learners fully understand the type of career that they are choosing. the findings also show that the way the career is presented could negatively influence the attitude of the learners towards built environment. as mentioned in the literature above, a negative attitude towards an action will mostly result in non-participation in the said behaviour. discussions influence of exposure to careers in the built environment the purpose of this study was to understand the views of previously disadvantaged learners on careers in the built environment. career choices made by high school learners who are interested in the built environment are influenced by their attitudes towards the industry or career, subjective norms of significant others, and perceived behavioural control they have in performing tasks in the career. exposing learners to careers in the built environment can significantly influence their decisions in choosing careers in the industry. the exposure enables the learner to make a calculated decision when it comes to careers in the built environment. it is important for learners to attend career exhibitions so that they know that the built environment encompasses more than building houses and schools (chileshe & haupt, 2007; cruz & kellam, 2018). yoel and dori (2022) found that exposing learners to stem programmes in high school leads to stem careers being chosen later in life – especially for those who were not intending on choosing stem careers. in their study, minooei et al. (2017) found a relationship between intention and confidence in the participants who had more information on the built environment. having more information on a career gives learners a sense of behavioural control, giving them confidence and removing barriers that might influence decisions. the impact of career talks on perceived behavioural control the informative built environment career talks gave the learners an opportunity to analyse their own perceived behavioural control in the built environment. the career talks informed the participants about the traits required for careers in the built environment. this gave the learners an opportunity to determine if their own personal traits aligned with the requirements for performing some of the tasks in the built environment. the findings support those of anssi et al. (2017) and arif et al. (2019) who found that learners perceived personal attributes, especially self-efficiency to be an integral part of selecting their career. mohtar et al. (2019) found that self-belief and the ability to perform required activities affect the career interests of learners. the career talks gave the learners the self-belief, self-efficiency and confidence to select careers in the built environment as they now know whether they have the abilities to perform the required tasks. in their study, jonck et al. (2019) found that learners experienced a high level of anxiety in selecting a career if they did not have sufficient self-knowledge to make the correct decisions. positive attitudes towards careers in the built environment most of the participants reflected a positive attitude towards the built environment, as they saw that choosing a career in the industry offers better job security and that the career will help make south africa a better place. this indicates that the learners regard careers in the built environment as opportunities to create a better world. most of the learners in this study come from poor backgrounds where the infrastructure such as roads and bridges are dilapidated or lacking (mathye et al., 2022; tshuma, 2022). in a study by kant et al. (2018), they found that their american indian or alaska natives participants who predominantly come from poor backgrounds wanted to study in science, technology, and engineering fields as those careers would allow them to make a difference in their community. the influence of the environment and the community around the participants was evident, as it was perceived that careers in the built environment would allow them to improve the lives of others and make the world a better place. this indicated that if the learners selected a career in the built environment and used their skills to improve their surroundings, the community and significant others around them would perceive this behaviour as positive. thus, for a sense of belonging to prevail, learners would want to steer themselves to what the community desires, not to disappoint those close to them. factors influencing career choices in the built environment most of the learners indicated that careers in the built environment were jobs of the future and that is the reason why they would choose to work in the industry. in their study, tsui et al. (2019) found that career choices were shaped by job stability and prospects. many of the learners placed a higher priority on job security and prospects the career offers. chileshe and haupt (2007) in their study found that learners ranked salary, working conditions, opportunities for promotion, and lifelong learning opportunities as factors that influence their career decisions. a study by rasheed et al. (2019) found that learners put security needs over physiological needs when deciding on a career path in the built environment. ahmed et al. (2017) mention that it is natural for learners to align themselves with careers that offer superior job opportunities and a secure future. jonck et al. (2019) found that learners became indecisive about their careers if they were not sure that they will find employment. presenting the dark side of built environment careers the opportunity to attend the career talk on the built environment helped the learners to gain more information on careers in the industry. for most of the participants, this newfound information re-affirmed the positive attitudes they already had about careers in the built environment. however, for some participants, the new information on careers came with aspects that affected their attitude towards the built environment negatively because of the lack of balance in the information provided on the built environment careers presented. baruch and vardi (2016) state that communicating the dark sides of careers gives a more balanced perspective – where people can compare the opportunities against the threats. highlighting the less attractive features of careers will allow the learners to fully analyse their capabilities to handle the hardships that come with the career, thereby reinforcing their behavioural controls. limitations and implications of the study the study was not without limitations. as a small sample was used, additionally convenient sampling was employed; therefore, the findings cannot be generalised. a larger varying sample could be used in future studies where researchers could use the planned behaviour theory to explore the perceptions of learners on other stem sector careers. the findings of the study corroborate the assumptions in the theory of planned behaviour. a positive attitude leads to a higher chance of the learner selecting a career in the built environment. in the context of this study, our findings support and extend the concept of subjective norm. the participants come from disadvantaged communities with dilapidated infrastructure; therefore, their environment influences their career decisions to enter the built environment sector. hence, they see careers in the sector as an act of service, rather than an act for their own personal and financial gain that comes with being employed in the built environment sector. it is not only the significant others but also the environment such as the living conditions that one comes from that can influence career choice in the built environment. especially considering the concept of ubuntu, which is a principle that most of the participants in this study would abide by. the study also confirms the assumptions of behavioural control. behavioural control is one’s ability to use available resources to carry out an act or behaviour. the learners gravitated towards careers in the built environment as they believed that they had the skills and talents required for careers in the sector. the participants in the study believed in their abilities in maths and science to meet the criteria required to study and work in the built environment. the more confident the learners in their abilities, the more they will carry out the action and pursue careers in the built environment sector. conclusion in conclusion, the study has found that learners saw working in the built environment as an act of service and not as an opportunity of self-enrichment. the findings reveal that learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are not only influenced by their significant others, but their environment also has an influence in their career choice. this implies that learners would consider how their career choice would impact their environment and community. although planned behaviour (ajzen, 1991) has proven to be useful in predicting an individual’s intention, the findings in this study have highlighted that the background of the individual and influence of environmental factors need to be considered. considering the background and environment of the learner may provide more useful information in understanding the intent of learners choosing careers in built environment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all the authors of this article belong to the same community engagement group and were involved in different duties in authoring this article. i.d was responsible for conceptualising the article, correspondence, writing, analysing data and finalising the article. s.m. was responsible for the methodology, data collection and editing. p.s. was responsible for the literature review and data collection. r.t was responsible for initiating drafts and proofreading. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are openly available from the corresponding author, i.d., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references aghimien, l., oke, a., & aigbavboa, c. 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(2016). the influence of mentors’ gender on the psychosocial and career mentoring of women in the south african construction industry. journal of construction project management and innovation, 6(2), 1392–1412. https://doi.org/10.10520/ejc-5e1948aab abstract introduction research methods results discussion and practical implications conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) annelisa murangi department of psychology and social work, faculty of health sciences and veterinary medicine, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia optentia research unit, faculty of humanities, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia audrey maletzky department of psychology and social work, faculty of health sciences and veterinary medicine, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia citation murangi, a., maletzky, a. (2025). the role of flourishing on career well-being and turnover intention of employees in entry-level positions. african journal of career development, 7(1), a175. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v7i1.175 original research the role of flourishing on career well-being and turnover intention of employees in entry-level positions annelisa murangi, audrey maletzky received: 07 may 2025; accepted: 17 sept. 2025; published: 20 nov. 2025 copyright: © 2025. the authors. licensee: aosis. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract background: millennials and generation z tend to constitute most of the employees in organisations, especially in entry-level positions. given the ongoing changes in the workforce, having a younger, more aspirational and tech-savvy workforce can create enormous difficulties for both the company and the employees. objectives: to investigate the relationship between flourishing and career well-being of employees in entry-level positions in selected private organisations in windhoek. to investigate the relationship between flourishing and turnover intention of employees in entry-level positions in selected private organisations in windhoek. methods: a quantitative, cross-sectional correlational research design was employed in this study. through purposive sampling, 119 entry-level employees at selected private organisations in windhoek, namibia, participated. results: flourishing, which entails psychological, social and emotional well-being, positively and significantly correlates with career well-being of entry-level employees. social well-being significantly impacts entry-level employees’ intentions to resign. conclusion: when entry-level employees flourish, they thrive in their careers. as such, interventions focused on the emotional, social and psychological well-being of entry-level employees are crucial. contribution: organisations must enhance their human resources practices to ensure that entry-level employees’ well-being is safeguarded in the workplace. keywords: flourishing; career well-being; turnover intention; entry-level employees; windhoek; namibia. introduction the ability to work represents a vital component of an individual’s identity, as it provides not only the basic needs of individuals and their families but also shapes the identity of individuals greatly (blustein, 2019). graduates in various disciplines often look forward to paid employment as a reward for the knowledge and skills they have acquired through years of studying. however, for most graduates, paid work begins at entry-level positions in organisations, irrespective of educational qualifications. this has the potential to negatively impact flourishing of these employees, satisfaction with their career and could exacerbate further into resignations. the current study argues that when entry-level employees flourish, how they feel and function in their career is also enhanced. these assertions are amplified by the findings of the current study, where flourishing (psychological, social and emotional well-being) in the current study was found to positively and significantly correlate with career well-being of entry-level employees. social well-being was uncovered to significantly impact entry-level employees’ intentions to resign. based on assertions made by various authors (see international labour organisation [ilo], 2018; marquardson & elnoshokaty, 2020; mccoy & masuch, 2007; tesone & ricci, 2006), entry-level work can mean that employees are paid lower, compared to those who have been in the company for longer, or that the employee has newly acquired knowledge in a specific domain but does not have practical exposure to what the work entails. workforce demographics across organisations indicate that millennials and generation z tend to make up most of the employees at organisations in entry-level positions. there are new challenges and complexities for businesses with each new generation in the labour force (schwartz et al., 2020). given the ongoing changes in labour market landscape, having a younger, more aspirational, tech-savvy workforce, although necessary for the efficiency of the organisation, can also create enormous difficulties for both the company and the employees. these problems could include coping with drastic changes within the job, inadequate remuneration, issues of hierarchy and bureaucracy and inevitably also lead to turnover (macovei & martinescu-bădălan, 2022). it is noteworthy that most issues arising from employee turnover have a detrimental effect on an organisation’s finances. examples include the expenses incurred in advertising, training and compensating the employees who must occupy these vacant positions (pieters, 2017). it could be argued that work not only has remunerational value for employees but also offers employees platforms to build meaningful relationships, contribute to something valuable, use knowledge and skills, develop knowledge and skills, in addition to enhancing one’s standard of living (murangi, rothmann & nel, 2022). this is essential for flourishing of individuals. keyes and annas (2009) posit that flourishing is subjectively and uniquely experienced by each employee, underpinned by social well-being, psychological and emotional well-being. specific to emotional health, an employee’s work environment must be marked by job satisfaction and positive affect (rothmann et al., 2019). work satisfaction refers to all aspects of the current employment in terms of employee expectations, such as positive emotions like thankfulness, pride or delight and general happiness within one’s position at work. negative affect would therefore contain all the opposing unpleasant emotions, which include anxiety, boredom, stress or wrath, that an employee experiences at their place of employment. the occurrence of negative emotions must be minimised in the workplace, as they can negatively affect how employees feel and function and inevitably lead to a work environment filled with frustrations and anger. psychological well-being is characterised by employees experiencing a sense of autonomy, relatedness and competence, being engaged in their work and finding work meaningful (rothmann et al., 2019). these conditions are crucial for employees to feel and function well at work, which has the potential to positively spill over into other spheres of an employee’s life. in addition to the aforementioned dimensions, social well-being in the workplace manifests as social acceptance, identifying social relationships, a sense of belongingness and embracing diversity (keyes, 1998; rothmann et al., 2019). if employees are affected emotionally, psychologically and socially, there is no doubt that the way they feel and function at work and even beyond work is negatively affected. in the context of this study, when entry-level employees languish, rather than flourish, their career well-being can become compromised. career well-being is described by bester et al. (2019) as a component of optimum human performance and personal growth attained by means of self-management of career development. as such, career flourishing heavily depends on one’s control of their career development and goals, which would ultimately lead to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. given the changing roles of both men and women, career well-being for some is moored in the work–life career environment, creating implications for work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. an individual is more likely to achieve overall career development and succeed in their line of work if they are employable and flexible over the long term while juggling the benefits and drawbacks of contemporary employment requirements. in the end, this could reduce the number of entry-level employees planning to quit, boost employee retention and promote overall employee flourishing. it is thus imperative to investigate the role of flourishing on career well-being of entry-level employees, as well as their turnover intention. research objectives the objectives of the study were as follows: to investigate the relationship between flourishing and career well-being of employees in entry-level positions in selected private organisations in windhoek. to investigate the relationship between flourishing and turnover intention of employees in entry-level positions in selected organisations in windhoek. literature review the relationship between flourishing and career well-being a study by ho and chan (2022) aimed to identify the organisational and personal resources that form part of career well-being and that contribute to employee flourishing. the study was conducted on 400 working adults from both social and personal service industries in hong kong. the findings showed that when an organisation fosters positive psychological resources such as optimism, resilience and confidence within a working environment, it nurtures functional psychological flourishing within an employee over the long run, therefore contributing to the individual’s long-term flourishing. in the changing landscape of work, it is imperative that interventions are introduced, based on employees’ work context, that focus on enhancing both shortand long-term flourishing. psychological capital is crucial for employee flourishing, especially in the fast-paced place of work where a plethora of pressures inherent to the work environment are found (youssef-morgan, 2024). furthermore, a study conducted by arslan and bayraktar-uyar (2020) in turkey aimed to establish whether career decidedness and career distress influence psychological and subjective well-being. the study, which included 338 university students, concluded that career decision-making positively benefitted a student’s psychological and academic well-being, whereas career distress had the opposite effect. this essentially indicates that students tend to perform better mentally and have more positive experiences with life when they have optimistic attitudes about their careers as opposed to when they have negative ones. negative experiences can be attributed to numerous factors, such as being undecided about one’s career path, financial constraints at academic institutions, academic difficulties and an overall lack of well-being. these factors can hinder one’s ability to take total control of one’s career path, which can result in career distress. additionally, another study by colakoglu (2005) aimed to conduct research on the relationship between career boundarylessness and individual well-being. the study was conducted in philadelphia (united states), and data were gathered from 201 employed professionals. the results of the study suggest that having a boundaryless career positively influences an employee’s ability to determine and influence the pacing, shape and direction of their career, which results in career autonomy. thus, career autonomy was found to be instrumental in positively enhancing an employee’s psychological and physical well-being. this, in turn, positively impacted career satisfaction and overall individual flourishing. boundarylessness refers to the action of having no constraints or limitations when it comes to one’s career goals and being able to grow without limitations. if an employee is given the opportunity to pace and shape their career, they can take full ownership of their development, thus increasing autonomy, which positively impacts their career well-being. furthermore, a study conducted by gujral et al. (2012) aimed to study the influence of emotional intelligence on well-being as well as employee behaviour. emotional intelligence can be argued to be a crucial component of emotional well-being because individuals known to have good control and awareness over their emotions tend to be more emotionally stable. emotional stability involves being able to self-regulate and identify one’s own emotions as well as someone else’s. this can be beneficial, particularly because it promotes a good relationship with oneself and fosters empathy for others, especially in a work environment. therefore, it can be theorised that emotional well-being can be a good determinant of overall flourishing and employee behaviour. the study was conducted in india, and 87 young professionals were administered different tests. the researchers found that there was a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and general well-being, and both contributed to employee behaviour, which is critical to job performance and overall career well-being. in addition, a study by crowther (2018) aimed to establish the relationship between workplace status and psychological well-being. workplace status is a significant component of one’s career, as it establishes one’s rank, responsibilities and recognition among working peers. therefore, it can be theorised that it would have a relative effect on one’s psychological well-being. data were collected from 70 employees from different organisations around northumbria university in england. the results found that perceived workplace status was positively related to psychological well-being as well as workplace inclusion. therefore, the study concluded that hierarchical status within the workplace is a key organisational concern, impacting an employee’s well-being and the organisation. if an employee feels recognised, appreciated and even rewarded for a job well done, it tends to increase their autonomy, learning ability and overall job engagement. this, in turn, increases their psychological well-being, resulting in an increase in flourishing for the employee. lastly, a study conducted by cramer and hunter (2019) aimed to establish the relationship between working conditions within an organisation and emotional well-being, utilising a sample of midwives. working conditions play a major role in employees’ job satisfaction, and it can further be argued that if working conditions are not up to par, it can gravely affect the flourishing of employees within an organisation. the results presented by this study indicate that various types of poor emotional well-being in midwives are directly interrelated with working conditions, including low staffing, high workload, low support from colleagues, lack of continuity of career, challenging clinical situations and low clinical autonomy. the discussions above point to the fact that flourishing is crucial for career well-being. although investigated in other countries with different contextual factors and employment settings, it is interesting to see the consistent findings, indicating the significant relationship that exists between flourishing and career well-being. in view of the above, the following four hypotheses were proposed: h1: flourishing has a significant positive relationship with career well-being of entry-level employees. h2: emotional well-being of entry-level employees has a significant positive relationship with career well-being. h3: social well-being of entry-level employees has a significant positive relationship with career well-being. h4: psychological well-being of entry-level employees has a significant positive relationship with career well-being. the relationship between flourishing and turnover intention several researchers globally investigated the relationship that exists between flourishing and turnover intention. marais-opperman et al. (2021) conducted a study in south africa on stress, flourishing and intention to leave of teachers. the study concluded that flourishing at work was positively associated with perceived positive stress and low perceived distress. perceived positive stress indirectly and negatively impacted teachers’ intentions to leave through flourishing. in addition, another study conducted by janse van rensburg et al. (2017b) aimed to study supervisory support, flourishing and the intention to leave of employees in higher education. there were 339 participants from three south african universities who participated in the study. the results of the study found that supervisor support predicted flourishing at work, which in turn predicted intention to leave. if employees feel that supervisors are not supportive, they will experience less work engagement and meaning in the workplace, which will increase their intention to leave. while the opposite can be true, if an employee experiences favourable supervisory support, they tend to flourish more, decreasing their intention to leave. furthermore, another study conducted by janse van rensburg et al. (2017a) aimed to study the relationship between person-environment fit, flourishing and the intention to leave. the study included 339 academic employees from south africa. the results conclude that person-environment fit predicted intention to leave, both directly and indirectly through flourishing, meaning that when the employee is compatible with their working environment, they flourish more, thus decreasing intention to leave. whereas if an employee is incompatible with their working environment, they tend to languish, which increases their intention to leave. in addition, a study conducted by redelinghuys et al. (2019) aimed to establish a relationship between flourishing and intention to leave. a sample of 258 secondary school educators in the gauteng province of south africa was used in the study. the results showed that workplace flourishing negatively predicted intention to leave. a negative prediction in this instance means that once an employee experiences workplace flourishing, they would not consider leaving the organisation, increasing employee retention. lastly, a study by gregoriou et al. (2023) aimed at investigating the level of organisational commitment and job satisfaction in association with intention to leave among physicians in cyprus. it can be argued that job satisfaction and organisational commitment form part of subjective well-being, especially in one’s career flourishing. approximately 690 physicians working in the public health sector participated in the research. the results of the study indicated that a large percentage of physicians working in the public hospitals and healthcare centres of cyprus reported their intention to leave their job because of the lack of flourishing within their organisation, which derived from low levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction. the study also confirmed that organisational commitment and job satisfaction were negatively correlated with intention to leave. the evidence on the relationship between flourishing and turnover intention is compelling. while the context-specific factors causing employees in various sectors to compel employees to leave are different, the empirical evidence provided in this section shows that, indeed, flourishing is one crucial factor that must be capitalised on to retain employees. in view of the above, the following four hypotheses were proposed: h5: flourishing has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention of entry-level employees. h6: emotional well-being has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention of entry-level employees. h7: social well-being has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention of entry-level employees. h8: psychological well-being has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention of entry-level employees. theoretical framework the social exchange theory (set) by blau (1964) is used as theoretical framework in the present study. according to the set, employee’s behaviour is influenced largely by how they perceive their leaders’ interactions and engagements in the workplace. relationship marked by support and valued aspects of work, such as rewards and remuneration, is most likely to be reciprocated by enhanced employee effort and dedication (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005). this theory suggests that employees evaluate these exchanges with reference to their work experience, impacting how employees feel and function, and inevitably their optimal career functioning, and the decision to stay or leave. further, when these perceived exchanges are fair and rewarding, employees respond with positive attitudes and behaviours such as enhanced engagement and strengthened commitment, an antecedent to organisational citizenship behaviour (saoula et al., 2019). this, in turn, enhances well-being, both general and professional, diminishes turnover intention. in conceptualising the study, entry-level employees who are afforded opportunities to grow professionally in their work, with clear career mobility pathways in the workplace, are more likely to make the most of the time they have as entry-level employees, thereby positively contributing to their career well-being. in contrast, employees whose entry-level jobs are marked by poor recognition and rewards, with a lack of autonomy and treated unfairly compared to those who are in employment for longer, enhance the precarious work situation of these employees, propelling employees to resign (allan et al., 2021). research methods participants and setting a quantitative, cross-sectional correlational research design was used in this study. the target population for the study was entry-level employees at private organisations in windhoek, namibia. the sample, which was purposively selected, consisted of 119 participants, both men and women of different ages, with different marital statuses as well as different academic qualifications and duration of employment, etc. demographic results one hundred and nineteen participants took part in the study, of which 60 participants (50.4%) had recently started working in that position, 26 participants (21.8%) had been working in a position that requires little to no experience, 25 participants (21%) had been working in a position that requires little to no training and 7 participants (5.9%) had been working in a position that requires little to no higher-level education. in contextualising the study, the participants who participated in the study met criteria for inclusion in the study based on the conceptualisation of entry-level employees. the above sample characteristics are aligned to the assertions made by various authors (see ilo, 2018; marquardson & elnoshokaty, 2020; mccoy & masuch, 2007; tesone & ricci, 2006) that entry-level work entails that employees are paid lower, compared to those who have been in the company for longer, or that the employee has newly acquired knowledge in a specific domain but does not have practical exposure to what the work entails. in the context of the participating private organisations, the majority of participants have a grade-12 certificate or a diploma, as their highest qualification, which is a qualification appropriate for most entry-level work within the namibian labour market. in addition, slightly more men, compared to women, occupy these entry-level positions. this is a common pattern in namibia, where more women advance to further their studies post-grade-12, compared to men (zimba et al., 2025). the age range of most entry-level employees is between the ages of 31 years and 40 years. this is interestingly unique, as ideally, most individuals post-grade-12 would be in the age brackets of 20–30. the rest of the demographic data is presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of sample (n = 119). measuring instruments flourishing at work scale the flourishing at work scale developed by rautenbach and rothmann (2017) measures flourishing in the workplace for employees. this scale has 21 items that measure participants’ emotional, psychological and social well-being in their workplace. an example of an item is ‘during the past month at work, how often did you feel happy?’ the reliability coefficient of this scale ranges from 0.77 to 0.95. this rating is regarded as a high reliability score, which means that the measure produces similar results under consistent conditions and can be reliable. turnover intention scale the intention to turnover scale, developed by sjöberg and sverke (2000), was used to gauge employees’ intention to quit. three items are included, each with a 5-point rating system that ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). an exemplification of a solitary dimension is, ‘i feel like i could quit this job’. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.83 is reported on this scale, which means the measure has high reliability. career well-being scale this study made use of the career well-being scale, developed by coetzee et al. (2020), which assesses three states of career well-being: the meaningfulness and positive affective states (6 items, such as ‘i feel my career provides me with the skills and experience i need to easily find new employment’), the state of career networking and social support (4 items, such as ‘i find it easy to reach out to others to help and support me in achieving my career goals’). a 7-point likert-type scale is used to rate the 14 items (1 being strongly disagreed and 7 being strongly agreed). research procedure the study adopted an online survey method (created through google forms), where a link was circulated to the different entry-level participants of windhoek-based private organisations in namibia. the researchers visited several privately owned organisations for permission to conduct research. the organisations received the links and shared them with all employees. the participants who were willing voluntarily participated in the study. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of namibia, department of psychology and social work research ethics committee (ps-soahs-fhsvm-2023/06). prior to collecting the data, the researcher obtained information regarding ethical considerations as well as informed participants of the nature and objectives of the study. informed consent was obtained from participants in the form of a document stipulating their voluntary status to participate in the study as well as their complete freedom to withdraw from the study at any point. confidentiality and/or anonymity were utilised in the sense that participants did not provide any personal identifying details, for instance, their names, on the questionnaires. additionally, the participants were also assured that their responses would not be specifically linked to the individual. participants could withdraw from the study at any time they deemed fit, as participation is entirely voluntary. no negative consequences were incurred for terminating participation. results descriptive results the internal consistency of all scales indicated they were suitable for namibian use. the flourishing at work scale developed by rautenbach and rothmann (2017) using a south african sampling statistic to measure well-being with 21 items provided a cronbach’s alpha of 0.96. the career well-being scale developed by coetzee et al. (2020), yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.97. the turnover intention scale developed by sjöberg and sverke (2000) yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.82. therefore, the scales are valid for use in the namibian context. correlational analysis data were analysed and computed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 29.0. using pearson correlation, a correlational coefficient, which indicates the strength of the linear relationship between two variables, was used. as a main independent variable, flourishing was uncovered to positively and significantly relate to career well-being of entry-level employees. as conceptualised in the study, well-being is divided into emotional, psychological and social dimensions. as shown in table 2, there is a statistically significant positive relationship between emotional well-being and career well-being (r = 0.56, p < 0.05; large effect). in the same vein, there is a statistically significant positive relationship between psychological well-being and career well-being (r = 0.60, p < 0.05; large effect). lastly, there is a statistically significant positive relationship between social well-being and career well-being (r = 0.53, p < 0.05; large effect). this is in tandem with findings from ha & lee (2022) and xu et al. (2022), who found positive significant relationships between flourishing and career well-being. as such, the current study fails to reject h1–h4. table 2: correlations. in addition, the study found a positive, yet insignificant relationship between flourishing and intention to leave (r = −0.13, p < 0.05; small effect), implying that flourishing does not significantly impact the intention to leave of entry-level employees in private organisations. however, the study uncovered a statistically significant negative relationship between social well-being and intention to leave (r = −0.20, p < 0.05). the findings contradict what was found by marais-opperman et al. (2021) and redelinghuys et al. (2019), who uncovered negative significant relationships between flourishing and turnover intention in different work populations. as such, the study rejects the h5, h6 and h8 and fails to reject h7. discussion and practical implications findings of the study the study findings are unique in that they focus on entry-level employees. the findings rather reveal that flourishing positively relates to career well-being of entry-level employees. the study found a statistically significant positive relationship between flourishing and the career well-being of entry-level employees in private-based organisations. this is important to note, as employees in entry-level positions are mostly starting with forming a career identity as they acquire practical knowledge and skills. a’yuninnisa et al. (2023) established that there is a significant relationship between flourishing and career well-being, indicating that when employees function and feel well at work (be it emotionally, socially and psychologically), their career well-being and functioning are also enhanced. in further analysis of the dimensions of well-being with career well-being, the study uncovered a significant positive relationship between emotional well-being, psychological well-being and career well-being. a negative insignificant relationship between flourishing and intention to leave was found, indicating that flourishing (as measured by emotional, psychological and social well-being) has no significant bearing on entry-level employees’ intention to quit their work. based on the demographic information in the current study, it is key to note that most of the entry-level employees who participated in the study had a grade-12 certificate as highest qualification. in the namibian labour market, individuals are employed on the basis of their acquired knowledge and skills and having only a grade-12 certificate would equate to lower-paid employment opportunities. it could be assumed that being paid low or being in a low-status job will affect how an employee will feel and function. a study by barrera-osorio et al. (2023) examined the relationship between what is called the great frustration at work and intention to leave. it was found that although young adults are languishing within their employment, they cannot afford to leave because of a lack of opportunities, financial or family commitments, or simply because they are not getting anywhere with their job search. namibia is no exception, as job opportunities are quite limited as well. this could explain why the highest number of entry-level employees in the current study are those who only have acquired their grade-12 certificate or diploma. this could further explain, although not entirely, the insignificant relationship between flourishing and turnover intention, which was uncovered in the current study. this could imply that for the advanced generation z and the millennials in entry-level positions in private organisations in namibia, turnover intention and eventual turnover will continue to increase, if not intervened upon. further, the study found a significant negative relationship between social well-being and intention to leave, indicating that employees with high social well-being are less likely to leave their workplace. hennicks et al. (2022) established a relationship between social well-being, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) and intention to leave. if people do not feel part and parcel of an organisation or do not experience social well-being, they are more than likely to resign. it could be argued that for entry-level employees, it is important to form meaningful work relationships and networking to make their experiences at work more meaningful. co-worker support can come in the form of emotional and work and administrative support, which helps boost efficiency and productivity (murangi & bailey, 2022). the study provides crucial information on career well-being and turnover intention of entry-level employees in the namibian context, which can be used in intervention development. initially, organisations that employ entry-level employees must rethink their human resource practices and processes to facilitate an organisational culture that fosters learning and career growth opportunities for entry-level employees. entry-level employees are considered inexperienced and less qualified (ilo, 2018). as such, an organisational culture provides an innate social system in any organisation that aids in high commitment to organisational values, goal-directed behaviour, closer social relationships among members of the organisation, competitive advantage because of the deep beliefs of values and customs shared among colleagues and overall low employee turnover. according to alberto (2023), a positive workplace culture can have a significant impact on employee retention, performance and engagement. when employees feel connected to their colleagues and company mission, they tend to work as a team and have higher morale. additionally, good cultural environments improve employee well-being and communication. it can also attract the best talent and create a good reputation for the organisation. therefore, it would be essential for private organisations to foster a non-toxic organisational culture by means of providing their staff with opportunities to interact. this can be accomplished by team building or social activities such as wellness programmes or year-end functions. furthermore, the study found a significant positive relationship between flourishing and career well-being of entry-level employees in a private windhoek-based organisation. to perform at their best, be independent, adjust to change and effectively manage their professions, employees need to have good mental health. to increase the psychological well-being of employees, organisations can review employee needs. employees should also be allowed to file complaints monthly about issues they face within the organisation; this can better assist the organisation in dealing with complexities when they arise. furthermore, to fairly make decisions that equally benefit or apply to everyone, the organisation should implement policies that can abolish unfair treatment at work and maintain impartiality. in summary, employees have a responsibility to themselves and the organisation as a unit to perform optimally. if an organisation’s human capital is in shambles, the organisation inevitably becomes disadvantaged because of employee dissatisfaction. it is imperative for both entry-level employees and organisations to find common ground to promote flourishing. as proposed in the interventions, at the organisational level, employee training and development are crucial for career growth. one-on-one training of an employee, organisation-specific assignments to foster self-confidence and autonomy, action learning, coaching and mentoring, business participation and social corporate responsibility in terms of employee investments and social programmes can all be used to bolster employee growth. limitations of the study there was a dearth of prior research on the subject, which restricted access to publications about entry-level workers. it is important to note that there might be variations on the conceptualisation of entry-level employees in the namibian labour market, compared to other work settings at an international level. it is recommended that further research is geared towards establishing a universal, yet contextualised, conceptualisation of entry-level employees in different work sectors across the globe. this study was limited to a quantitative research approach, using a correlation research design. there was a short period allocated for data collection, and the researcher only focused on private institutions based in windhoek. this study was also cross-sectional; questionnaires were used to collect data, and the study was unable to determine a cause-and-effect relationship of variables. the three variables that were examined in this study were flourishing, intention to leave and career well-being. however, other factors, such as job satisfaction, work engagement and budgetary restrictions, may also have an impact on employee career well-being and turnover intention. future research should examine these elements along with additional variables. government institutions should be included in future research, as the study was limited to only private institutions in windhoek. conclusion the study emphasised that when entry-level employees flourish, they thrive in their careers. as such, interventions focused on the emotional, social and psychological well-being of entry-level employees are crucial. organisations must enhance their human resources practices to ensure that entry-level employees’ well-being is safeguarded in the workplace. consequently, this will enhance the competitive advantage of the organisation, fully utilising the knowledge and skills that entry-level employees bring to the organisation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a. murangi wrote and edited the article as well as conducted data analyses for the article. a. maletzky conceptualised the study, collected data and wrote the article. funding information data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data were created or analysed in this study. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, a. murangi. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references alberto, l. 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(2024). psychological capital and mental health: twenty-five years of progress. organizational dynamics, 53(4), 101081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2024.101081 zimba, r.f., kasanda, c.d., haihambo, c.k., kudumo, m., kapenda, h.m., neshila, k.f., & sheyapo, m. (2025). namibian university students’ views on male students’ educational underachievement. namibia educational reform forum journal, 33(1), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.21083/ajote.v13i3.7605 abstract introduction ecological systems theory framework research methods and design findings discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maria r. fernandes department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa kamilla v. rawatlal department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation fernandes, m.r., & rawatlal, k.v. (2024). exploring factors that influence students’ career decision making at a south african university. african journal of career development, 6(1), a99. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.99 project research registration: project number: 16034156 original research exploring factors that influence students’ career decision making at a south african university maria r. fernandes, kamilla v. rawatlal received: 17 july 2023; accepted: 14 nov. 2023; published: 29 feb. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: student career decision-making has attracted research attention in the last two decades especially when it comes to choosing tertiary education. exploring current experiences that influence undergraduate students in career decision making is seen as critical to informing career counselling practice and/or intervention. such initiatives are seen to benefit academic institutions and academic advisors. objectives: this study explored both individual and systemic influences through gauging the experiences of a sample of undergraduate students. method: utilising a qualitative design and a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the research aimed to contribute to explore trends influencing career decision making of students in higher education, through semi-structured interviews and thematically analysing interview transcripts. the interview questions were explored in relation to the ecological systems framework. results: the study identified both internal and external factors (themes) influencing the decision-making process of students in higher education. the application of an ecological systems approach was found to be best aligned to understanding this phenomenon in practice. conclusion: making a career decision can be a challenging task and individuals often face many difficulties prior to or during this process. factors identified were located at both the individual level and systemic level of influences and highlighted the significance of ecological models to design intervention. contribution: the role of different factors that influence young people’s career decision making in developing contexts such as south africa, contributed to knowledge on informed approaches in career decision making to support career counsellors and academics in designing appropriate career counselling intervention to address contemporary realities. keywords: ecological systems theory; career decision making; young adults; south african context; third year psychology students. introduction globally, more young people than ever before are entering university programmes. the number of students at south african universities has doubled since the country became a democracy in 1994. prior to the democracy, the apartheid system created disparities between racial groups, with schools for black learners being underfunded (seabi, 2012). this increasing student population reflects a rich diversity of cultural groups and students from different social economic backgrounds. moreover, young people have faced many socio-political changes that have opened up study opportunities and broader career options. the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has imposed major challenges with individuals needing to make adjustments to their social, work, and study roles. generational changes and differences between gen x and millennials and gen z point to changes that need to be made in the working environment. gen x includes those born between 1965 and 1981, millennials are individuals born between the years 1981 and 1996 and gen z’s are individuals born between the years 1997 and 2012 (hernandez-de-menendez et al., 2020). all the participants fell into the millennial and gen z category; therefore, it was important to identify how these generations thought, behaved, and how they are changing the work environment. these evolving adjustments have been challenging for this heterogeneous student body, resulting in the need to research career decision-making and attendant factors influencing this process. the global literature is rich in providing empirical evidence about the factors influencing career decision-making. there has also been an increasing focus in the past two decades on investigating career decision-making pertaining to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) careers in western countries (abe & chikoko, 2020). recently, abe and chikoko (2020) have highlighted the need to explore how career decision-making is informed in the south african context to inform contemporary practice and intervention. a career is viewed as the ‘totality of an individual’s lifetime of learning and work’ (falaye & adams, 2008, p. 222). louw and louw (2015) similarly stated that a career contributes significantly to an individual’s sense of identity. a career provides an individual with the opportunity to be creative or productive and thereby is a form of self-expression (louw & louw, 2015). a career also determines an individual’s place and status in society (louw & louw, 2015). bandura et al. (2001) purport that self-efficacy beliefs are important shapers of children’s aspirations and career trajectories. several studies also identify significant factors influencing career decision-making and include the context in which the individual lives, their educational attainment, and their personal aptitudes (falaye & adams, 2008). in this study, the ecological systems theory framework was used as it includes both internal and external factors (bronfenbrenner, 1974). this brings an ecological understanding of where these factors/influences are situated in an individual’s environment and on their career development and choices. broadly, the influences could be grouped into the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem (weiten & hassim, 2016). this study explores the different factors that affected young adults’ career decision making. the literature review provides a background of the factors that previous research had identified as affecting the career decision-making of young adults. the findings from the literature review reveal that young adults faced a daunting task of choosing a career that would remain relevant in the modern technological workplace. there were a number of factors that emerged from the literature review that influenced career decision making in young adults. the ecological systems theory allowed for a systematic identification and exploration of the different levels of influence in the south african context. ecological systems theory framework the ecological systems theory provides a meaningful framework to explain the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and external characteristics that play a role in an individual’s choice of career. the theory identifies five environmental systems that impact how an individual acts and the decisions they make, including decisions regarding career choice (bronfenbrenner, 1974). bronfenbrenner (1974) sees the individual as existing in several different systems, all of which interact in a complex manner. at the centre of the systems is the individual (age, gender, education level, personality traits etc.) (buser et al., 2014). moving outwards into the microsystem, factors include the individual and other people who are involved in his or her immediate environment (weiten & hassim, 2016). the microsystem has a significant impact on the individual as the individual interacts with this system the most, from birth to adulthood (darling, 2007). it relates to the people the individual has direct personal contact with, as well as, groups, such as family and schooling, with direct impact on an individual’s development (weiten & hassim, 2016). the mesosystem involves reciprocal interaction between various microsystems and can include schools and neighbourhoods and interaction between parents and educators (weiten & hassim, 2016). the exosystem represents the social setting surrounding the individual and the links between social settings that do not involve the individual but still influence them, such as employment opportunities (chinyamurindi, 2016), competition in the field (olaosebikan & olusakin, 2014), and job security (weiten & hassim, 2016). lastly, the macrosystem refers to cultures and subcultures each of which has its own beliefs and value systems (weiten & hassim, 2016). the overarching cultural systems impact the interior systems (darling, 2007; dodge & welderufael, 2014). the interview questions in this study were structured so that answers could be examined in relation to these systems, identifying how factors given by third-year psychology students at a south african university fitted into this framework and how the findings compared to those in previous studies. this allowed the research to have an element of understanding regarding the individual and the context in which that individual lived to determine what made them choose their career path. students may base their choices on external influences (exosystem and macrosystem influences) such as monetary expectation (chinyamurindi, 2016), employability (quinter & edwards, 2011), or cultural background (mhlongo & o’neill, 2013). intrapersonal influences (microsystem influences) such as personality (olaosebikan & olusakin, 2014) and interpersonal influences (mesosystem influences) such as vocational assessments (maree & taylor, 2016) could be significant. in reality, a career choice is often decided with little awareness or experience of the real world (kazi & akhlaq, 2017). young adults are forced to make critical career decisions at a stage when they often do not realise the importance of their decision and may not be informed fully about their choices. despite the growing body of knowledge and evidence relating to career decision-making, research that specifically addresses south african young adults and their experiences in career decision making is lacking (seabi, 2012). a knowledge gap exists with even less having been written about the factors used in career counselling to help individuals achieve a career, particularly in south africa (seabi, 2012). given the high failure and dropout rates in south africa, it is necessary to explore and understand the factors that lead young adults towards a certain career in order to minimise dropout and increase career satisfaction (seabi, 2012). manik’s (2014) study also highlights the fact that the absence of career guidance or inadequate career guidance prior to entry into university appeared to contribute to students’ dropout. one individual stated that: [a]t school i aspired to be an accountant. i got straight a’s for accounting and maths and thought this [career] was for me but i think i needed to know more about this career. the level of accounting at school is very different from what is taught at university. (manik, 2014, p. 150) this showed that students were unaware of how to select subjects or modules correctly at university level and were also unaware of what subject choices in high school would prepare them for university. this was exemplified by the covid-19 pandemic as career guidance and counselling in schools was curtailed, resulting in increased anxiety and uncertainty in students (jäckel–visser et al., 2021). many students, therefore, made uninformed, random, and haphazard career choices. research methods and design a qualitative research approach was used, utilising hermeneutic phenomenology and thematic analysis to analyse the interviews conducted. both were needed to analyse the findings in this study as hermeneutic phenomenology analysis was needed to provide the researcher with a comprehensive description of the factors driving the career decision experiences of the participants and thematic analysis was needed to identify common themes throughout the interviews. hermeneutic phenomenological research approach: in this approach, the researcher aimed to create rich and deep accounts of a phenomenon through intuition, while focusing on uncovering the meaning of the data rather than accuracy (oerther, 2020). according to fuster (2019), the five principles for hermeneutic phenomenology are as follows: committing to an enduring phenomenon or concern. having a clear perspective towards the question being asked. examining the experience as it is lived by others. describing and explaining the phenomenon through writing and rewriting. considering part of the texts and the texts as a whole. hermeneutic phenomenology attempts to provide the best opportunity to ‘give voice’ to the experiences of individuals (sloan & bowe, 2014, p. 1292). the focus is on understanding shared experiences by searching for themes and interpretively engaging with the data (sloan & bowe, 2014). the shared experiences of the researcher and the participant are used to analyse what is familiar, common, and self-evident to the researcher (abe & chikoko, 2020). the process involves a ‘hermeneutic circle’ in which the researcher constantly goes back and forth between part of the text and the text as a whole, to establish truth by discovering and interpreting phenomena (willig, 2013, p. 44). this process was achieved through semi-structured interviews between the researcher and individuals where i viewed the recordings multiple times in order to produce meaning from the entire data. dependability, confirmability, credibility, and transferability of the study i attempted to achieve dependability and confirmability by ensuring the consistency of the research findings (christensen et al., 2015). i used an audit trail to replicate the data to facilitate this (merriam, 2002). an audit trail is a detailed description of how the data were collected, how the categories were derived, and the decisions made (merriam, 2002). a pilot interview served as a practice to the interview questions and received feedback on the topic, as well as, the interview method (griffee, 2005). the study also ensured credibility by using triangulation and member checking (christensen et al., 2015). credibility refers to the extent to which a study is reliable and relevant, especially with respect to the level of agreement between participants and the researcher (griffee, 2005). data triangulation involves comparing at least two sources of data (christensen et al., 2015). this was achieved through member checking, when i would ask participants for their feedback on my conclusions to determine if the findings reflected their experiences (christensen et al., 2015). this ensured credibility as the participants either confirmed or denied whether my conclusions truly reflected their experience. the study was limited to the context of the students at the university. the ideas from the study can be transferable to other populations where there is a gap in clarity and understanding of the phenomena (moon et al., 2016). study population purposive sampling to identify participants was used. purposive sampling is a type of non-probability sampling where individuals of the target population are chosen because of the qualities they possess (christensen et al., 2015). this involved identification and selection of individuals who were in their third year of psychology. both males and females from all races were chosen in this study and also those who had access to the internet. the researcher included 10 participants in their third year of psychology at a south african university in the province of gauteng. participants needed to be proficient in english, have access to the internet, and have a computer/phone with zoom. this sample size allowed for the unfolding of new ideas. it was small enough so that extensive, case-oriented analysis could still be achieved (christensen et al., 2015). data collection and analysis this study made use of semi-structured interviews. the questions posed to the participants were open-ended and non-directive so that the question itself did not influence the answers given in order to better reflect the students’ personal experiences (willig, 2013). the duration of interviews lasted between 30 and 45 min in order to understand the investigated phenomenon. the interviews took place via video calls using zoom as a platform. the video calls were recorded. open-ended questions were included such as: are you enjoying your course and/or programme you have selected? what does a career mean to you? how would you define a career? what do you plan to do in the future with your course and/or programme? as a third year student in psychology, please can you tell me what factors you think influenced your career decision making as a young adult? what resources and/or services influenced your career decision making? can you think of a situation(s) or individual(s) that influenced your career choice? the interview recordings were transcribed by the researcher and the transcripts were then analysed by means of hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. analysis of interview recordings was achieved by the researcher immersing herself in the data collected (abe & chikoko, 2020). this involved viewing the recordings multiple times in order to produce meaning from the entire data (willig, 2013). the data were also analysed by using thematic analysis. the focus was on identifying common themes developed inductively from the data collected (anderson, 2007). a list was made to identify connections and differences between the themes (willig, 2013). the themes were then meaningfully categorised, together with quotations that illustrated each theme (abe & chikoko, 2020). ethical considerations informed consent was obtained by the participants in writing. they were also informed that their responses during the interview would be recorded and gave their consent for audio and visual recordings to be conducted for the intended purposes of the research study. the participants were informed that they could keep their videos off if they wanted during the interview. all recordings are kept with the researcher in a file that is password-protected, which will be deleted after a period of 15 years. the use of pseudonyms in the study ensured the privacy and confidentiality of participants when the findings were reported. the participants were also informed that they had a right to withdraw from the study without the fear of being penalised. no participant had a negative reaction to the interviews as i sent all participation information sheets and consent forms that explained the interview process before interviews began. ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the university of pretoria’s faculty of humanities research ethics committee (study approval number hum002/0721). findings the findings of the study are presented in terms of the components of the ecological framework, that represent microsystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem influences. the findings represent the identified common themes that occurred frequently, as well as themes that were unique to an individual interview. microsystem influences theme 1: personality all of the participants stated that their career matched their personality. common remarks made were ‘it’s my passion’ and ‘i’ve always found it interesting’. seven participants also stated that they wanted to ‘help people’. theme 2: exposure to mental illness eighty per cent of participants chose a career in psychology after having been exposed to mental illness or consulting with psychologists. some participants were exposed to psychology or psychologists through their own counselling sessions. one participant stated ‘i was taken to see a psychologist and i really liked it’ (participant 0, psychology student, 03/02/2022). other participants were exposed to mental illness through either a family member, friend, or romantic partner when they stated ‘i have a younger brother … he’s diagnosed with adhd’ (participant 4, psychology student, 03/04/2022), ‘one lady that i was studying with … she nearly killed herself’ (participant 3, psychology student, 04/04/2022), and ‘i had a couple of friends and my ex-girlfriend in school who had depression’ (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022). theme 3: parental influence half of participants stated that their family/parents played a role in their choice of career. these participants were influenced either through having a parent who had a career in the field of psychology, or through suggestions from parental figures that influenced their choice of career. some responses were ‘i saw my stepfather … he was a clinical psychologist and i got that inspiration from him’ (paticipant 1, psychology student, 08/03/022) and ‘… at some point in time, [my father] mentioned the word psychology … and from that day i was interested in [psychology]’ (participant 4, psychology student, 03/04/2022). in other instances, participants were not influenced by their parent’s career path – ‘… my family, as i said, we’re farmers, farm people for generations and generations … so for me going off and studying psychology … it’s very strange … uncharacteristic of my family’ (participant 6, psychology student, 13/04/2022). others were pushed into a different career by their parents/family than what they had initially been wanted: i wanted to become a biokineticist and everybody said to me, “no, that’s a waste of your brains don’t do that”… that definitely nudged me to more intellectually demanding sort of fields. (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022) theme 4: career indecisiveness a total number of four participants were undecided in their career path and as to why they chose psychology in their third year of university. some were undecided about which field of psychology they wanted to pursue, while others were unsure about a career in psychology altogether, as shown by the statements ‘… i’ve been contemplating going into neuropsychology or health psychology … it’s still a bit more on the fence’ (participant 9, psychology student, 03/06/2022) and ‘i’m not sure’ being used (participant 7, psychology student, 13/05/2022). theme 5: academic achievement/ psychology as a second career choice two participants stated that psychology was not their first choice of career. statements such as ‘i wanted to do engineering, but my marks were not good enough’, ‘i actually started liking psychology … but [it] wasn’t my initial choice’ (participant 0, psychology student, 03/02/2022), and ‘… essentially i wanted to go into the special forces for a while, but at the time i was very unfit’ (participant 5, psychology student, 12/04/2022) were given to the researcher. theme 6: gender and gender stereotyped roles only one participant stated that gender and gender stereotypes affected their career decision making. this participant shared that she wanted to become a detective in the police force, but was discouraged by her family as shown by the statement ‘… when i told my parents this…their automatic response was you’re a girl … you’re a girl and that’s not usually a job that girls do’ (participant 8, psychology student, 13/05/2022). mesosystem influences theme 7: interpersonal relationships over half of the participants stated that speaking to either their teachers, student advisors, family friends, or individuals at career expositions helped them to choose their career path. one participant stated that a career exposition helped them decide their career as: … i spoke to the representative of humanities and they showed me … the requirements that you need … what it entails … and then i was hooked. that’s when i decided this is what i want to do (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022). many other participants also took advantage of the abundance of school and university staff and resources when looking into psychology as a career and made use of the ‘faculty student advisors’ and spoke to a ‘few practicing … psychologists’. theme 8: vocational assessments among this category, only one participant stated that they had completed a career test. this participant completed a career assessment that helped them choose their career path: [… w]e did career assessments and psychology, like becoming a psychologist was … the first option for me … so i think that made a huge difference in … deciding what i want to do (participant 8, psychology student, 13/05/2022). exosystem influences theme 9: monetary expectation/financial stability a small number of participants stated that financial stability was an important factor in choosing a career. monetary expectation and being able to pay for basic necessities was prominent for two of the participants in their definition of a career. one participant stated that they made a change from a philosophy career path to psychology because of money: i can’t be a philosopher … even someone with a degree in philosophy does not have any money. you know, they’re running very short on money and all those things. so the career, the definition of a career at the time for me was something that can sustain you (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022). similarly, another participant stated ‘… a career to me would be stability. so being able to financially support yourself’ (participant 6, psychology student, 13/04/2022). theme 10: employability/job security only one participant stated that job stability was an important factor in their choice of career. this participant stated that at the beginning of the career decision making process, they thought about which field would give the most security: … i considered going for a safe option in terms of studies. i thought of doing maybe a bcom … a needed job … i was even thinking of transferring to education for the sake of job security … i think job security became a big aspect of career choice. (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022) theme 11: racial discrimination one participant stated that discrimination was one factor that pushed them towards psychology as a career choice. this participant experienced racial discrimination during their youth and noted that this is what prompted them into psychology, to be able to understand why and how such discrimination occurs: ‘… i was the only chinese there … there was a certain incident that happened that night and it … irritated me a bit and i really wanted to understand why from that day … i was, like, ridiculed for my race’ (participant 4, psychology student, 03/04/2022). macrosystem influences theme 12: media approximately 90% of participants used media to find out more about their career choice. participants stated that they were exposed to psychology through the media, either through their own research or through movies and social media. many of the participants used google as means to gain more information about their choice in psychology as a career, with one participant stating, ‘… when you hear about, let’s say for example psychology, and you don’t really know what it is, you open the internet, google and get more information’ (participant 1, psychology student, 08/03/2022). some participants were influenced by documentaries, mainly through the crime documentaries on serial killers. when asked about what situations or individuals influenced their career decision making, one participant remarked: ‘i’m going to have to go back to the documentaries … i love them’ (participant 0, psychology student, 02/03/2022). another stated ‘… i had this hobby of looking up on my own time, as a hobby looking into psychology things. looking into how people’s brain’s work, you know, serial killers stuff’ (participant 6, psychology student, 13/04/2022). other participants noticed the number of mental illnesses highlighted on social media which made them want to pursue a career in psychology – ‘… social media has, at this point, become more aware of all the mental issues that people face on a daily basis … and it kind of puts in more in your face’ (participant 8, psychology student, 13/05/2022). theme 13: familial socio-economic status two participants explained that their career choice was affected or hindered by familial socio-economic factors. one participant first began studying at a college, but had to leave because of a lack of funds: ‘… i had to drop out because my family couldn’t afford it. i don’t come from a particularly affluent family’ (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022). this participant continued to explain that receiving a bursary from the university allowed him to follow his dream: ‘… i had this almost dream of studying psychology and now i had a bursary which enabled me to do that’ (participant 2, psychology student, 17/03/2022). in contrast, another participant had to put pursuing their passion and furthering their education aside as they experienced a tragedy in the family that forced them into a paying job: … my dad passed away. i think i was doing my final year of my general degree and then there was no one to take care of the family. so there is reason why i couldn’t continue, i was already under pressure in my third year and then i had to look for a job. (participant 3, psychology student, 04/04/2022) theme 14: cultural background a total of two participants cited their cultural background as a factor for their choice in career. the researcher was able to gain a deeper understanding of an african culture perspective on mental illness as one participant explained: … i come from african culture, some other people who are going through stress … they are becoming sangomas. and when you look at it, it’s the, it’s not a spiritual gift, they are going through mental illness. (participant 3, psychology student, 04/04/2022) this participant continued that they lost contact with their best friend after the friend was convinced she had a ‘gift’ and was told by traditional spiritual leaders that her friends and family were ‘bewitching’ her when in fact, all the friend needed was some mental health help. another participant spoke about the cultural stereotype of asians and how their parents wanted them to conform to this: ‘… i’m asian so my parents weren’t fully on board with the idea of me studying psychology… they more preferred me doing engineering or medicine or something more asian[y]’. (participant 4, psychology student, 03/04/2022) theme 15: covid-19 one participant reported that covid-19 affected their career. this could possibly be because of this participant being the only one in the study who was working or had work experience prior to studying third year psychology. this participant stated: ‘… i’ve been retrenched twice … i joined a company and then covid came … i was impacted negatively’ participant 3, psychology student, 04/04/2022. however, this participant managed to use this as an opportunity to begin studying again and decided to study psychology. discussion the results of the study provided new insights into the relationship between the individual and their microsystem influences. the results of the study supported darling’s (2007) statement that the microsystem had a significant impact on the individual as the individual interacted with this system the most. not only did microsystem influences have the most themes (6), it also identified personality as the greatest career influencing factor by the participants. personality this was the most decisive influence in their career decision. the participants indicated that their personality was a good match to their career choice in psychology by using words of emotion such as ‘love’ and ‘passion’. thus, they were aware of their personality type without being administered a test. in determining the effects of personality on choice of career as a public accountant, dibyaguna and budiartha’s (2020) research revealed an individual who had a personality that was characterised by discipline, diligence, hard work, and willingness to accept difficult assignments, was more likely to succeed as a public accountant. similarly, the participants in this study who had a keen interest in understanding how people think and behave were more likely to succeed in a career in psychology. the finding of this study where participants stated that they chose a career in psychology because they wanted to help people was consistent with the findings by sinai-glazer (2020), who investigated the trusting and loving relationship between social workers and their clients. as a result, the social workers made a positive impact on their client’s lives. the participants in this study who had an innate desire to help others would therefore have a beneficial and fulfilling career in psychology. exposure to mental illness the exposure to mental illness through other people or through their own experience of it was an alarming theme that emerged in this study. in a study by huang et al. (2019), results revealed that in the past 30 years, most mental disorders became more common in china. the study supported the findings of this study as 80% of current participants were exposed to mental illness either through someone else or through having experienced it themselves. it is important to note that the results of this research indicated that the participants were exposed to mental illnesses before the covid-19 pandemic. thus, exposure to mental illness had already influenced them to choose psychology as a career choice. research showed that the covid-19 lockdown in south africa increased the prevalence of mental health illness/disorders by at least 20% (kim et al., 2020). this suggests that exposure to mental illnesses is likely to be a significantly important factor in the career decision making of future generations. parental influence parental influence was another important factor in career decision making both in related literature and in this study. individuals interact with their parents from birth and continue to do so into their adulthood (darling, 2007). as a result, parents were influential figures in the participants’ lives for half of the participants (50%) in the study. this was similar to olaosebikan and olusakin’s (2014) study in which 48.36% of the respondents confirmed their parents influenced their career choice. similarly, dodge and welderufael (2014) confirmed that a majority of students stated that they had conversations with their parents or had observed their parents at work to gain ideas about potential careers. however, the other 50% of the participants in this study did not support the results in the reviewed literature. olaosebikan and olusakin’s (2014) and dodge and welderufael’s (2014) studies revealed that individuals were often reluctant to pursue a career that their parents disapproved of and that parents’ unfavourable attitudes towards a certain career impacted the students’ choice of career. this proved untrue for some participants who expressed the thought that although their parents disapproved of their career choice in psychology, they still pursued it. also, other participants chose a career completely different from their parents. this study provided a new insight into the relationship between parents and their influence over their children. half of the participants were influenced by their parents, while the other half were not. this revealed that although parents still influenced and shaped a large part of their children’s lives, parental influence was becoming less dominant than reported in previous studies conducted in the past. indecisiveness indecisiveness was an unexpected theme that emerged from the results of the study. this was disconcerting as these participants were in their third year of university and were still undecided in their career choice. surprisingly, they were even uncertain whether psychology was a viable career option for them. levin et al. (2022) conducted a study on the five types of career indecision. these were individuals who were unmotivated, generally indecisive, unrealistic, uninformed, and conflicted (levin et al., 2022). the participants in this study fell into the generally indecisive type (three participants) and the conflicted type (one participant). the results of levin et al.’s (2022) study revealed that females had a greater likelihood of being indecisive. the results of this study supported these claims as all the participants who stated they were undecided in their career choice were females. low academic achievement was confirmed in this study as the participants who did not have the required qualifications to be accepted into their first choice of career were uncertain and undecided about an alternative career path, which builds on existing evidence from kazi and akhlaq (2017) where a lack of academic grades prevented students from choosing their preferred career path. in addition, tentama and abdillah’s (2019) study was consistent with the findings in this study as individuals who had low academic achievement tended to be hesitant in choosing and determining their career path. these results suggested that academic achievement or being unable to meet the requirements of a particular career forced individuals to reconsider their career path, making the career decision process more difficult for them. gender and gender stereotyped roles gender and gender stereotyped roles demonstrated that gender was not a major influencing factor in this study. hill and giles (2014) stated that more men held a university degree as compared to women. this study challenged this assumption as 7 out of the 10 participants were women who were currently working on achieving a degree. according to lourens (2014), most studies affirmed gender-matched careers in order to avoid stigmatisation, inequality, or embarrassment. the results of this study proved gender matching as insignificant as a low number of female participants stated that gender influenced their career decision making. moreover, 3 out of the 7 female participants were studying highly scientific based subjects such as genetics and physiology which were considered more male dominant options. very few, if any studies have been completed on the question of whether young women still feel stigmatised in the modern contemporary working world. one participant in this study stated that she was steered away from a career in the police force because of being a female. in addition, kazi and akhlaq’s (2017) study also noted that female participants’ families were against their choice of career as they felt that it was unsafe for a female. gender stereotyping is not a thing of the past and measures should be taken to include women in all professions, as well as, provide them with a safe and professional workplace (begeny et al., 2020). the results of this study contributed to a clearer understanding of the reciprocal interaction between various relationships in an individual’s life in the mesosystem. it also provided a better understanding of vocational assessments and what was needed to provide students and career counsellors with adequate information about career decision making. interpersonal relationships interpersonal relationships proved to be the greatest influencing factor in the mesosystem. numerous studies have shown that individuals’ perceptions of their teachers or other people in a high academic standing had an impact on their motivation, academic achievement, and engagement with that subject (mameli et al., 2019). the results of this study supported these findings as four of the participants were influenced by their teachers/lecturers/career exposition representative’s positive and encouraging attitude towards that subject. vocational assessment vocational assessment was important to identify and evaluate the factors that could best predict career success (maree & taylor, 2016). one participant stated she used a vocational assessment that helped her to choose psychology as a career option. maree and taylor (2016) also stated that vocational assessments were important guides for individuals to have successful lives and make meaningful contributions to society. however, the results of the study contradicted this statement as 9 out of the 10 participants did not undergo any vocational assessment, yet the participants indicated that they were happy with their choice of career. this study supported maree’s (2012) claim that there was a lack of vocational and career services available to young people in south africa. the lack of vocational assessments was evident as 90% of the participants did not complete a vocational assessment in high school to determine their aptitude, strengths, and weaknesses. the exosystem influences of this study built on the existing interpretation in which social settings did not involve the individual directly, but still influenced them (weiten & hassim, 2016). monetary expectations and financial stability monetary expectations and financial stability were influential in the decision of a career for two participants. these results confirmed existing evidence which quinter and edwards (2011) revealed in their study that career choice was determined by potential income. one participant made a career change to psychology because of the lack of future income. another participant chose psychology so that they could have financial stability. these results also built on existing evidence by moeketsi and mgutshini’s (2014) and zainal et al. (2012) who found that individuals abandoned their first career choice because of the low financial rewards it provided. little literature exists, if any, which states that monetary expectations or financial stability do not influence career decision making. this could be because most individuals expected that their career would be able to provide them with a comfortable life. participants who did not state that finances were an influencing factor in their career decision, possibly did not think it was appropriate to state finances as a factor for their choice to the researcher, but in all possibility were still influenced by it. employability and job security the results of myburg (2005), chinyamurindi (2016), and quinter and edwards (2011), in which all three studies suggested that these were important factors in an individual’s career choice, corresponded with the results of one participant in this study who stated that job security was an important aspect of career choice. based on the results of other studies, job security, income, and job availability were frequent factors that affected career decision making of young adults (abdo, 2016). however, the rest of the participants did not cite employability or job security as important in their choice of career. this could possibly be because of the participants’ failure to take this factor into consideration when they chose psychology as a career or they viewed psychology as already offering an extensive employment market for them. discrimination discrimination was an important factor that emerged from the results of the study. this is important as south africa has a history of racial discrimination. despite the end of apartheid in south africa, racial discrimination still persists. while the results of this study showed that racial discrimination was a motivating factor for only one participant, the results of other studies revealed that people of colour suffered from more discrimination than white people in the workplace and thus, racial discrimination had an impact on job satisfaction (shum et al., 2020). the results of this study did not align with the results of other studies. from the results of this study, racial discrimination was interpreted to be more of a motivating factor in career choice than a barrier to career decision making and job satisfaction. the results of this study provided new insights into the macrosystem influences on career decision making. media media is frequently used by young people frequently to learn about life-related issues, job markets, and different professions. in this study, media had ignited youngsters’ interest in a particular career and motivated them to make career decisions. the media constituted the largest influencing factor in the macrosystem. it was also the second largest influencing factor in the study as a whole with 90% of the participants citing the media as a way to obtain information about psychology as a career choice. these results were consistent with those of yunusa et al. (2022), in which they found media to be an important factor in students’ career decisions. the individuals in their study were significantly influenced by movies, characters, the internet, books, and newspapers (yunusa et al., 2022). similar results were obtained in this study, where many of the participants used the internet, books, and movies to choose psychology as a career choice. the power of media, as noted from the results of this study, revealed that young adults were being influenced by what the media portrayed. this was similar to yang and chang’s (2022) research in which they also indicated that the media reflected the individual’s environment. the results of this study suggested that the identity of many of the participants was tied to the media. this revealed that the media was a powerful system that not only controlled the source of information individuals were exposed to, but it also created individuals who were dependent on the media to fulfil their goals and manage how they thought and behaved (yang & chang, 2022). familial socio-economic status this was not a major factor in the participants’ career decision making. while some participants did cite a lack of money for university fees or changes in the household that caused money to become scarce, these participants did not let their family’s economic troubles affect their career. similar to these results, kazi and akhlaq’s (2017) study also revealed that most of the participants stated that financial constraints did not prevent them from pursuing the career of their choice. these results contradicted the statements by mhlongo and o’neill (2013), in which they suggested that families from a low socio-economic status could have limited access to basic needs and a good education, thus, having a limiting effect on an individual’s career decision. there is no current research being conducted about the effect of familial socio-economic status on the career decision making of young adults in south africa. therefore, this research was relevant as it provided some insight into the socio-economic status of some of the participants in this study who applied for the nsfas (national student financial aid scheme) and were granted a student loan to achieve their career goals. some participants found employment and only after having saved enough money, continued with their career goals in psychology. this suggested that individuals who did not have a high socio-economic status did not, or no longer, relied on their family to pay for their university fees. rather, they sought personal financial aid or were willing to delay preferred studies and work independent of their family until they could afford to study in the career of their choice. cultural background cultural background also was not a major factor in the participants’ career decision making. only two participants mentioned their culture during the interview. these results differed from those of olaosebikan and olusakin (2014) who stated that individuals with a strong sense of family obligation felt the need to reciprocate their parents’ benevolence afforded to the community in order to maintain their family’s name and reputation. the participants in this study who stated cultural background as a factor were from african and asian cultures that tended to embrace the notion of collectivism. however, they did not feel the need to place their parents or communities above their career passion and career choice. this could be because of westernisation and assimilation of western attitudes in foreign cultures, as young adults were adopting a more western culture (akosah-twumasi et al., 2020). the results of this study refuted the results of akosah-twumasi et al.’s (2020) study as the participants in this study resisted their parents’ desire of conforming to a more appropriate career path. this suggests that culture or assimilation of western culture is an increasingly important factor to be studied in career decision making and in creating appropriate career approaches for individuals. the covid-19 pandemic the covid-19 pandemic that began in late 2019 should be taken into account when considering career decision making. although only one participant stated that covid-19 affected their career, it is important to discuss this theme as the pandemic has implications for future career choice. the covid-19 pandemic provided a ‘career shock’ for many individuals around the world as there was widespread job insecurity, loss of income, and social distancing (akkermans et al., 2020, p. 1). the covid-19 pandemic has also had a significant impact on the mental and emotional health of individuals. researchers have agreed that the covid-19 crisis had and continues to have a tremendous impact on society, both in the short term (a health crisis) and in the long term (an economic crisis) (baert et al., 2020). the negative career consequences caused by covid-19 also resulted in positive aspects such as opportunities for career development, skill upgrades, and changing work arrangements that would not have normally come about (akkermans et al., 2020). this was true for one participant in this study who decided to further their education after losing their job because of the pandemic. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic will influence career decision making among young adults for many years to come. young adults may seek employment where they are most likely to retain their position despite negative global events. millennial and gen z generations all the participants fell into these two generations. millennials choose careers which provide freedom and creativity in their work (russo et al., 2020). millennials are socially conscious individuals who have a desire to change their society for the better (russo et al., 2020). gen z are accustomed to the importance of individuality which leads them to the expectation that they can ‘pick and choose’ what they want to do (chillakuri, 2020, p 1283). many of the gen z individuals have not yet entered the world of work. it is predicted that gen z’s will want to work without fixed hours or place, prefer unconventional professions, place more importance on materialistic goals and technology, look for job opportunities world-wide, and try different careers to find the one that suits them best (hernandez-de-menendez et al., 2020). millennials and gen z’s are very materialistic individuals who view money and expensive items as important to life satisfaction (yadav & chaudhari, 2020). thus, financial reward in a career will be of great importance to them. research into millennials and gen z’s in the workforce is important as these two generations are changing conventional workplace expectations to place more importance on their own career goals and needs. an understanding of their needs and beliefs is important to generate appropriate methods, approaches, and opportunities for their employment and satisfaction in life as more than 1.5 billion people of the world’s population of 6.7 billon are between the ages of 10 and 24 years (un, 2009). most significant is the fact that about 70% of the young people live in developing countries where social, economic, and health challenges are greater than that of the industrialised countries (un, 2009). fatusi and hindin (2010), in researching adolescents and youth in developing countries, also highlight that today’s generation of young people are approaching adulthood in a world vastly different from previous generations – a world where acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids), globalisation, increasing urbanisation, electronic communication, migration, economic challenges, among other external forces, have radically transformed what it means to be young. this changed landscape is adding to the challenge of physical, psychological, economic, and social transition which ordinarily typifies the lives of adolescents as they move from childhood to adulthood (fatusi & hindin, 2010). this also highlighted the importance of exploring career influences from the perspectives of young people in developing contexts such as south africa. they further indicate that while the transition from childhood to adulthood is regarded as universal in nature, the experiences of adolescence is not universal. the need to further research generational transitions and youth emerging in different developmental contexts is thus indicated as paramount. this highlights the need for academia to invest more in research and studies involving young people in developing contexts such as south africa. recommendations future studies should engage experiences of young people in different and diverse contexts to gain a better understanding of their career decision-making. personality tests should be administered to increase the validity of the results. ongoing research should be conducted on the gen z generation’s career trajectories to investigate the enabling and challenging factors affecting their career decision-making. career tests should reflect the diverse career possibilities available in being self-employed and account for the skills and interests of millennials and gen z. limitations while respondents were expected to be proficient in english, they may have expressed themselves differently in their own language. the reflexivity of the researcher could have biased the interpretation of the results as the researcher used her own previous experience in career decision making. as the study’s sample was purposive and not randomly selected, the results of the study cannot be generalised. member checking was hindered as some participants did not respond to the researcher’s attempts at obtaining feedback. the research was also conducted at a single tertiary-level institution. students at different tertiary-level institutions could have dissimilar perspectives and experiences on intrapersonal and interpersonal level influences. conclusion themes that emerged reflect the influence of individual and systemic influences, with the individual level influences as being most dominant. the utility of a systemic, ecological approach to identify and intervene on different levels of influence in career decision making was highlighted. furthermore, the research identified that young people might consult with different sources of information in order to gain some clarity and sought out alternatives to their career decision making. no one medium stands out. young adults used their own experiences to choose a career path that would likely help their community or others in some way. they were also likely to choose a career in which they gained a better understanding of themselves even if this went against parental, cultural, and societal norms. the ecological model in identifying sources of influence for intervention was deemed as most relevant as it accommodates the dynamic nature of career decision making influences in the 21st century. eliciting the voices and experiences of young people growing up in different, non-western societies and forging career paths require due consideration of policy makers in basic, higher education, and labour institutions in the south african context. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the students who participated in the study. this article is partially based on the author’s thesis of the degree of master of arts in psychology at the university of pretoria, south africa, with supervisor dr k.v. rawatlal, received november 2023. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions the authors are the sole contributors to the study. m.r.f. is the master’s student who conducted the study and write-up of the manuscript. k.r.v. was the supervisor of the study who supported and assisted with the conceptualisation of the study, the study design, the write-up, and the submission of the manuscript for publication. funding information this research received no specific grant from 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(2012). current issues in hospitality and tourism: research and innovations. crc press. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/salleh-radzi/publication/328694466_ramadan_bazaar_international_tourists abstract introduction background and context theoretical framework: the heteronormative world of work research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rauna k. haitembu department of applied educational sciences, faculty of education and human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia emilia n. mbongo department of applied educational sciences, faculty of education and human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation haitembu, r.k., mbongo, e.n., & brown, a. (2023). the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment. african journal of career development, 5(1), a94. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.94 original research the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment rauna k. haitembu, emilia n. mbongo, anthony brown received: 03 may 2023; accepted: 03 july 2023; published: 23 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: previous research about transgender people’s workplace experiences has confirmed intense levels of discrimination and prejudice. there is a particular silence on trans people’s experiences in the job interview. objective: the objective of this study was to explore how transgender people are dealt with in job interviews. method: this single case-study approach explore the experiences of transgender youth in presenting for a job interview. an in-depth semi-structured interview was the primary data-collection method. content analysis was applied to the data and yielded a discussion focusing on the various job interview experiences affecting perceived discrimination, career aspirations and personal well-being. results: this study describes how selma, a transgender woman, was subjected to overt discrimination based on her gender expressions considered incongruent with expected norms. her feminine voice and mannerisms resulted in her being ridiculed and humiliated during the interview process. in some instances, the interview process was interrupted in a hostile manner to confirm whether she was a man or a woman or to pressure her to speak like a man. this study suggests that the namibian labour market insists on compulsory cis-heteronormative embodiment. conclusion: this study calls for awareness training about transgender people and workplace inclusivity. it also recommends that employers develop and implement a post-interview feedback tool to explore invited interviewees’ experiences. contribution: this study highlights how job interviews, as an entry requirement to the job market, are riddled with prejudices, stereotypes of and discrimination towards transgender people. keywords: transgender; cisgender; heteronormativity; job interview discrimination; gender stereotypes; career aspirations. introduction for many people, the excitement of university graduation is soon replaced with the desperation to secure employment (augart & liebel, 2022; tamang & shrestha, 2021; van lill & bakker, 2022). job-seeking and subsequent job-interview processes are stressful experiences in themselves. these processes may be even more stressful and complex for transgender graduates as they navigate their professional selves and their non-conforming gender expression in a cisgender-compulsory world (see bryant-lees & kite, 2021; everly et al., 2016; lecroy & joshua, 2019). transgender people are individuals who have adjusted their gender identity in different ways, to live as the ‘opposite’ gender to what they were assigned at birth (suárez et al., 2022). these transformations could include surgical interventions, cross-sex hormone therapy and/or altering gendered appearances and behaviours (köllen, 2018). in contrast, cisgender individuals are those people whose gender identity matches their biological sex (köllen, 2018). transgender people living in societies that valorise and reproduce cisgender identities and expressions are punished for their so-called deviation. the discrimination experienced by transgender people is called transphobia. this bias is motivated by a force of revulsion or ignorance that a person is transgender and the aversion to interacting with them (hill, 2002) or failure to acknowledge them as the gender they wish to be recognised as. international literature about transgender people’s workplace experiences confirms intense forms of undisguised transphobia (dray et al., 2020; johnson et al., 2022; kyaw et al., 2022; verbeek et al., 2020). transgender people in the netherlands were found to earn a significantly below-average salary, lower than that of their cisgender counterparts (geijtenbeek & plug, 2018). in india, transgender employees reported organisational neglect and a lack of professional growth (mustanski & liu, 2013). the transgender workforce in australia suffered transphobic behaviour by others, physical and sexual abuse, persecution and intimidation from colleagues (irwin, 2002). transgender people in the united states reported prejudices with promotion applications (grant et al., 2011) and biases in dismissal decisions (badgett et al., 2007). these studies illustrate that a person’s gender identity, more so for those of gender minorities, has a remarkable impact on their employment experiences. in examining the landscape of gender diversity in the african continent, a concerning pattern emerges regarding the silence surrounding transgender workplace experiences. this silence can be attributed to a combination of repressive laws and pervasive social attitudes towards non-heteronormativity. many african countries still have laws that criminalise same-sex relationships and transgender identities, creating a hostile environment for individuals to express their gender identity authentically (human dignity trust, 2020). these legal barriers perpetuate discrimination and exclusion in the workplace, as transgender individuals often face invisibility, harassment and limited employment opportunities. while emerging literature on the international front explores the employment experiences of the transgender labour force, it has barely broached the subject of transgender people seeking employment, specifically their interview experiences. transphobia during hiring processes is often the result of negative stereotypical views that transgender people are at greater risk or display higher levels of mental ill-health, suicide ideation and human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) infection (bockting et al., 2013; drydakis, 2017). transgender people could be undermined and seen as not suitable or less productive for the labour market (fontanari et al., 2019). consequently, hiring discrimination could lead to higher levels of unemployment among gender minorities. this study provides insights into the interview experiences of a new teacher-education graduate in namibia, who identifies as transgender, while pursuing employment. background and context it is, therefore, worth exploring research about transgender people pursuing employment and workplace experience in a country such as namibia, which is perceived to be an egalitarian society but which, in practice, may not affirm or protect minority sexual orientations and gender identities (venditto et al., 2022). othered sexual and gender identities lie at the centre of socio-cultural and political contestations because of the unrepealed colonial law, known as the combating of immoral practices act of 1980 that criminalise same-sex sexual acts between males (brown, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022). in hindsight, by suspending the enforcement of the sodomy law, namibia seems to pave the way for promoting inclusivity. however, the lack of political will to scrape these redundant laws hampers the fostering of social acceptance that could ultimately create a more equitable and just society for all its citizens (brown, 2019). at the time of writing this article, the supreme court of namibia passed a judgement that recognises same-sex marriages concluded abroad to a foreign spouse (igual, 2023). this landmark ruling has shed light on the importance of equality, dignity and inclusivity, challenging societal prejudices and fostering a more tolerant and accepting society. at present, the unintended consequence of this judgement deepened the divisions within namibian society, with some individuals and groups supporting and celebrating the decision (de vos, 2023) as a step towards equality and inclusivity, while others vehemently oppose it, citing religious, cultural or moral objections (matthys, 2023; nakashole et al., 2023; shinovene, 2023). as the authors concluded the writing of this article, there are heightened social tensions and conflicts that may risk the safety and well-being of namibians identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) (thomas & karuuombe, 2023). these developments demonstrate that it is not uhuru (freedom), yet for the lgbt community in namibia, social justice is still a distant reality. since namibia’s independence from apartheid south africa, its former colonial ruler, there is no existing namibian law that prohibits the embodiment of non-heterosexuality. however, the presence of colonial sodomy laws still shapes the impression that all non-heterosexual identities and expressions are illegal in this country (office of the ombudsman, 2013). this results in systemic discrimination towards all identities that fall outside the normed heterosexual constructions in all ecologies including the workplace (the other foundation, 2017). neighbouring south africa implemented a post-apartheid constitution that affirms diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. it also explicitly granted labour laws such as the labour relations act (1995), the basic conditions of employment act (1997) and the employment equity act (1998) that guarantee protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identities (luiz & terziev, 2022; rosvall et al., 2020). on the contrary, the only law in democratic namibia that directly protected the labour rights of diverse sexual orientations, act no. 6 of 1992, was repealed because of persistent political homophobia and transphobia (brown, 2019). there also remains a resistance to the legacy apartheid law act no. 81 of 1963, sex reassignment policy, that permits gender reassignment surgery or identity change (the other foundation, 2017). the reason could be that another inherited apartheid law, the prohibition of disguises, act no. 16 of 1969, was adopted to prohibit crossdressing (the other foundation, 2017). democratic namibia, however, maintains umbrella equity laws that guarantee freedom, fairness and respect to all citizens (npc, 2004). these laws prohibit discrimination of its citizens based on diversity. for instance, sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.3 of the vision 2030 state that ‘all namibians who are able and willing have the opportunity to be gainfully employed or have access to productive resources’ and ‘enjoy the fruits of unity in diversity’, respectively (npc, 2004:16). considering the repeal of the aforementioned labour law, and with it, its provisions on the protection against discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation, the acclaimed diversity discourse in namibia seems a farce concerning inclusivity. it is apparent from these contradictory pieces of legislation that diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are not included in namibia’s construction and protection of diversity. in general, there is very little knowledge of the interview experiences by transgender people when seeking employment. it is challenging to identify and document debates on the presence or absence of job interview discrimination (pager, 2007). one reason for this is that it remains unreported in many instances. amid the prevalent repressive beliefs about non-heterosexuality in various social ecologies in namibia, it is important to raise awareness of discrimination based on a person’s gender expressions. emerging sexuality research in namibia (see brown, 2017, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022) is relatively limited to the social experiences of people of sexual orientation and gender minorities. for this reason, we are interrogating the employment-seeking experiences of a transgender individual, with particular attention to the job interview process. theoretical framework: the heteronormative world of work the atmosphere in the workplace is fundamental to the social and personal well-being of employees, as they spend much time at work. a welcoming and inclusive work environment may result in increased levels of job satisfaction and productivity (köllen, 2018). inclusivity and diversity are buzzwords in many organisations’ mission statements and inclusive work policies. workplaces that are open and accepting lead to all employees being able to participate in all areas of work, in turn leading to job satisfaction and emotional well-being (tran 2021). however, many workplaces lack inclusivity, and research indicates that heteronormativity is constantly reinforced through clear and subtle boundaries (everly et al., 2016). holmes (2019) argued that heteronormativity is one of the most long-standing and enduring hierarchical social systems that define what is normal regarding binary gender norms. in many societies, those who exhibit even the slightest deviation from the so-called standard are stigmatised (link & phelan, 2013). this reinforcement of beliefs and practices is also adopted in the workplace. many researchers have documented the numerous challenges that transgender individuals face daily. köllen (2021) maintained that heteronormative environments promote stereotyping. similarly, corlett et al. (2022) stated that in some organisations, transgender employees are not taken seriously by colleagues. furthermore, corlett et al. (2022) contended that heteronormativity is exhibited in many workplaces through regulations, norms and interactions between employees, as well as the choices people make about the way in which they express and discuss their gender. people whose behaviour or appearance does not meet normed gender expectations are frequently the targets of discrimination or harassment, for instance, men who appear ‘too feminine’ or women who behave ‘too masculinely’. similarly, hollis and mccalla (2013) reported that gender-diverse individuals encounter workplace bias, stigmatisation, discrimination and bullying. correspondingly, brown and diale’s (2017) study of lgbt student teachers at a south african university reported having experienced stigmatisation while out at school-based learning activities (teaching experience and observation). heteronormativity positions heterosexuality as the norm and determines what is typically expected from those believed to be heterosexual; those who deviate from the norm are positioned as ‘others’ (corlett et al., 2022). as a result, too often discrimination, harassment and even exclusion from jobs result from these perceived binary notions of gender and sexuality (heise et al., 2019; thepsourinthone et al., 2022). challenges at work for non-heterosexual people include issues such as feeling uncomfortable with the dress code expected for people of a particular sex and moderating one’s mannerisms to conform to expectations (corlett et al., 2022; goldberg et al., 2021). therefore, heteronormativity significantly influences how transgender employees and job-seekers are treated. heteronormative workplaces could lead to less job satisfaction and productivity for transgender employees and affect their emotional well-being. research methods and design this study aimed to conduct an in-depth exploration of the experiences of transgender people in pursuit of employment, specifically during job interviews. a qualitative single case-study approach was followed. this approach provided rich data that may be analysed and interpreted in depth to provide an understanding of the lived experiences of the participants; in this case, a trans youth seeking employment (selma, a 24 year old graduate) and, through this, a deeper understanding of the situation (gaya & smith, 2016). the primary data collection method was a face-to-face semi-structured interview that lasted for approximately 1 h. the sensitivity of the investigation motivated the use of this method, which enables a participant to describe their experiences clearly (denzin & lincoln, 2003). content analysis was applied to the data and yielded rich insights into the experiences of the participant and what they mean for her career aspirations and personal well-being. extensive verbatim quotes have been included in this study to support the findings (khayatt, 1992). although this article describes a single case study, the data are derived from a larger study on southern african perspectives of gender violence towards gender-non-conforming and transgender people, including the lived experiences of trans people in namibia. ethical considerations although this study describes a single case study, the data are derived from a larger study on southern african perspectives of gender violence towards gender-non-conforming and transgender people, including the lived experiences of trans people in namibia. ethical approval for the wider study was granted by the university of johannesburg (sem 2-2020-172). the participant was a former student of first and second authors and was approached to participate in the larger study. the participant signed a consent form that guaranteed confidentiality and allowed her to withdraw from the study at any given point should she wish to. results this study intended to bring an understanding of the realities of career choices and job-seeking experiences of transgender university graduates. the data analysis in this article draws on the experiences of selma (a pseudonym) during the job interviews she attended. selma is a transgender woman who has not yet had her sex description or name altered in the birth register; therefore, when applying for jobs, she is forced to use her birth name and other information on her official identity document, which still reflects that she is male. the discussion that follows focuses on the discrimination that selma perceived in job interviews, which has affected her career aspirations and personal well-being. we acknowledge that no single study can ever capture the totality of job-seeking and workplace experiences for transgender people. considering the literature on the work life of trans people, we could not locate any study that focused on their interview experiences in the namibian context. selma’s experiences, are therefore highlighted as an insight into what transgender people may experience during job interviews. the job interview process is a significant component of the employment process, as it is usually the first in-person exposure to a prospective employer, often in the form of a panel interview. it is at this meeting that the panel may speculate on the perceived gender and/or sex ‘misalignment’ of a transgender interviewee. selma hinted at this by noting that she would be invited to interviews based on her curriculum vitae (cv), but it was at the interview stage that she experienced discrimination: ‘it was hopeless trying to get a job. i explored the job market upon my graduation. you know, i would be invited to interviews. i took it that my cv must have impressed them, hence i was invited to the interviews.’ selma drew our attention to the overt inferior treatment she received, based on her deviation from orthodox hegemonic masculinity. once the panel picked up on her effeminate voice, their interview questions invasively interrogated her gender. selma explained how her experiences of being scrutinised in interviews discouraged her in her efforts to seek a teaching position: ‘i found that the interview panel members wouldn’t take me seriously. i don’t know whether they knew me or if it was my female tone of voice or my girly mannerisms that made them treat me differently. i participated only in seven interviews and lost interest based on how i was treated. i know some people could attend 40 before they get a job.’ in conversations with other interviewees for the same position, she learnt that her interview experience did not match theirs – it was curtailed and less thorough than others: ‘the interviewees for the post would always ask each other question afterwards on how they responded to certain questions. i was surprised to discover that i was asked only a few questions as opposed to other straight applicants. my time for interviews was seemingly shorter.’ selma mentioned how she encountered ridicule and humiliation during the interviews, as the interview panel members were more interested in enquiring about her gender identity. she further indicated that it was difficult for her to articulate herself properly, as the interview panel members were judgemental of her mannerism during the interview sessions. the panel pressured selma to explain her interest in teaching and created the impression that she was inferior and needed to apologise, and therefore not a ‘proper’ candidate for the profession: ‘in almost 80% of my interviews, they wanted to know if i am a woman or man. they would ask what my interest in teaching is. they would even ask, “why are you talking like that?” i became so discouraged during the interviews. all i could do was to apologise for my behaviour.’ the stereotypical discrimination selma experienced during the job interviews, based on her gender expressions, made it clear to her that her job opportunities were limited, which reduced her career aspirations and expectations: ‘during my third interview at one high school, an interview panel member stopped me and shouted, “can you talk as a man!?” i didn’t continue with the interview. i don’t know if the guy knows me or something, but he just told me, “talk as a male teacher”. i stood up and left after i decided not to continue with this humiliation. … during all the interviews, they would promise to call and give the outcome. they never called back.’ these pervasive interview experiences are unavoidable, despite selma’s efforts in the negotiation, self-surveillance, conformation and moderation of her gender identity, for example, by wearing clothing traditionally worn by men or sporting a ‘male’ hairstyle. the fact that transgender people must ‘manage’ their identity during interviews highlights the oppression they experience: ‘i was always reminded that interviews are formal so i couldn’t wear female clothing as i was classified as a male teacher. i just had to look like a male. i was desperate to get a job and i know [dressing] like a female would disqualify me. i am sure i wouldn’t even be allowed to enter the interview room.’ ‘i would even cut my hair to fit the male image, as my lecturers always insisted that i wear the formal clothes for male teachers during school-based studies.’ selma’s passion to work with children was sparked by her mother: a role model in the teaching profession. however, the lasting impressions during her job interviews resulted in a disconnection between her vision and the actual treatment she received, ultimately causing resentment for the profession. these feelings emanate from the interview experiences that selma is not a ‘proper’ teacher and would not be considered for any related employment: ‘mom is a teacher. the way she loved her children, i just loved the admiration of her towards the children, it was just perfect, and i loved it. her love for kids made me to love kids! that is what made me fall in love with teaching. i believe i would be a good teacher too. after this these horrifying interview experiences, i don’t think i am interested in it anymore. although i love teaching, i’m done seeking for a job.’ my mother encouraged me to try another interview. i lost all interest and decided to try another field. she conceded defeat and ultimately registered for a different study programme so that she may pursue a different career path. she hopes that her new career interest will be smoother for gender and sexually diverse identities than the teaching career she originally aspired and successfully studied towards: ‘i feel like i have wasted three years of my life on campus. i worked my butt off for this diploma and nothing pays off. i got the qualification but then i’m here, unemployed. i now registered for accounting and finance. others told me transgender people are better accepted in that environment and you can live freely. i know transgender people who are working in this career, yah, especially in banks and stuff.’ she directly attributed her difficulty to secure a teaching job to the fact that she is transgender, as evidenced by the following statement: ‘i know [i] did not get a job because i’m transgender, i’m different’. discussion the process of career development and attainment is influenced by the individual’s systems (school, society, community, etc.) and their interactions within these systems (e.g. with peers, parents and other community members) (köllen, 2018). the content analysis showed how selma experienced overt discrimination in recruitment and hiring, specifically during the interview process. her narrated job interview experiences were marked by prejudice, uncertainty and (un)recognition. this section discusses how perceived incongruent expressions in a static and essentialist gender environment during the interviews compromised selma’s employment opportunities. transitioning from university into a world of work had turned out to be a distressing experience for selma. these data support previous literature (see bryant-lees & kite, 2021; everly et al., 2016; lecroy & joshua, 2019) stating that although a candidate’s resume may meet all the requirements for a given post, the interview process subjects the person to recruitment and hiring biases. selma’s conflicting transgender traits (e.g. her effeminate voice and mannerisms versus her male clothing, haircut, and official documentation) led to her being devalued, ridiculed and stigmatised. during job interviews, she received unequal treatment from her fellow graduates. all these factors effectively penalised her in her search for potential employment opportunities. selma was no longer measured according to her competence for the job in question but by her ‘anomalies’ in gender expression. these findings correlate with a study by drydakis (2015), in which people of minority gender identities were reported to have been the subjects of direct discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice based on the expression of their gender. persistent heteronormative embodiment requirements affected selma’s chances of securing employment. one can infer from these findings that the socially required orthodox hegemonic gendered expressions within certain careers and their attitudes about diverse gender identities monopolise employment opportunities in namibia. selma was subjected to invasive interrogation about her fitness for the teaching profession, while in other instances there was a direct regulation and mockery of her ‘transgressive’ gender expression. namibia’s brutal legacy of intolerance to othered identities, infused with colonial beginnings, has directly thwarted selma’s potential and her future. prior research (e.g. rosvall et al., 2020) validates the findings that bias seeps in during job-hiring interviews and becomes inevitable when panel members detect any deviation from cis-heteronormative expressions. it is apparent that the insistence on cisgenderism in environmental-societal systems (von bertalanffy, 1968) has led to limitations for selma during job interviews. in certain instances, selma was not given a chance to respond to all questions to demonstrate her competencies that would allow the interview panel members to make an informed judgement of her abilities. moreover, this could be interpreted that the interview panel members unanimously found that she was unsuitable to be hired. the prohibition of discrimination in the namibian labour laws has been deliberately ignored during all of selma’s interviews. while these legal statutes on labour as promulgated by the national public commission (npc, 2004) clearly state that all namibians who meet job requirements (through their qualifications, experience and level of training) should be given a fair opportunity to gain employment, selma’s interview experience demonstrated otherwise. despite selma’s holding the required qualification, the assailing and hostile treatment during the interviews was based on her inability to perform acceptable hegemonic masculine expressions. the persistent repertoire from the interview panel members to persuasively confirm whether she is a woman or a man is indicative of the normalisation of only cis-heteronormative gender identities being recognised in the namibian labour market. these job interview experiences resonate with previous findings (brown, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022; the other foundation, 2017) that the dominant heteronormative namibian communities hold distorted perceptions and stereotypical attitudes towards disenfranchised diverse sexual and gender identities. however, the ‘disciplinary production of gender affects a false stabilisation of gender in the interests of the heterosexual construction and regulation of sexuality within the reproductive domain’ (butler, 1990:135). often overgeneralised, negative and inaccurate stereotypes (allport, 1954) about transgender people in africa have resulted in fatalities, gruesome violence and social rejection (human dignity trust, 2020). the questioning of selma’s interest in teaching could be seen as an overgeneralised stereotype that teachers who identify as lgbt are at risk of being socially framed as unsuitable for the teaching profession (msibi, 2019) because they are assumed to have the potential to sexually molest learners (ferfolja, 2007). this misconstrued view could influence the selection process and presentation of questions to the transgender job applicant. in the case of this study, selma was not even granted the standard courtesy of communication regarding the outcome of any of the interviews she attended. environmental factors such as financial security have an influence on individuals’ seeking or keeping a job, even if they are not satisfied with their career choice (kyaw et al., 2022). even though selma was not comfortable with the hostility and discrimination showed towards her during the interviews, her socio-economic background forced her to remain positive in seeking employment. other researchers (e.g. chen & zhou, 2021; goldberg et al., 2021) have also reported struggles with optimism and decreased motivational levels emanating from the interview experience. stereotyping has been reported to influence the career paths of transgender individuals (köllen, 2021). however, one can endure these pressures only so much before seeking alternatives. the hopelessness and despair that selma felt discouraged her from seeking a teaching position and caused her to register for a different study programme altogether, even though this will take years to complete. selma hopes that the new course she registered for to be more friendly towards gender-diverse people than the teaching career she originally aspired to and studied for. this view is supported by goldberg et al. (2021) and rosvall et al. (2020), who stated that transgender people choose careers they think will be more accepting of them than others. individuals who are subjected to discrimination when job seeking are far more likely to consider changing careers to ones in which they feel safe. choosing a career that one does not identify with could have an influence on the future job satisfaction of the individual and lead to work-related stress (stark et al., 2020). selma’s sombre exploration of an alternative career path could have long-term implications for her socio-economic stability. selma still (or once again) finds herself in the career-exploration stage, while in theory she could already have established her career alongside her cisgender peers who graduated at the same time as her and are now employed. consequently, selma will start working at an advanced age, which could compromise her life ideals and goals. these financial implications might lead to stress that could affect her well-being later in life. conclusion the objective of this study was to explore how transgender people are dealt with in job interviews. while previous research has explored the workplace experiences of trans people, very few studies have been conducted on transgender job applicants’ experiences during interviews. the results of this study have important implications for research and practice in the field of career development for transgender individuals in namibia and beyond its borders. it is argued that the residue of the unrepealed colonial sodomy law in namibia continues to perpetuate and reinforce the unequal citizenry of non-heteronormative identities. consequently, present archaic colonial laws fuel unquestioned and acceptable institutionalised values of injustice and discrimination towards citizenry of diverse gender and sexual identities in namibia. we found that selma’s ‘transgressive’ gender expression during the interview process produced doubts in the minds of the interviewers, causing them to disregard and disrespect her professional capacity for employment opportunities. while there is no law in democratic namibia that prohibits the embodiment of diverse gender identities, the reversal of the only labour law that protected sexual and gender diversity signals that not all people are recognised in the workplace. the different interviews that selma attended demonstrate that employers were hesitant or even unwilling to hire a trans person, probably owing to the pervasive misconceptions about non-heteronormativity. namibia will have to unequivocally ‘unsilence’ its citizenry of diverse genders and sexualities, as cis-heteronormativity affects every aspect of their lives. beyond namibia, the study illustrates the interview discrimination faced by trans people in intensively cis-heteronormative environments. if transgender individuals cannot perform the common expressions of heteronormativity in the world of work, during the interview process in particular, this could limit their chances of finding employment. furthermore, the discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice that selma was subjected to during the interview process – an often-stressful period of transition from university to workplace opportunities – indicate a need to change the stigma around transgender individuals and communities’ attitudes towards them. job interview panels need to be reminded to set aside their prejudices and exercise impartiality towards all candidates, including people of diverse gender identities. other parts of the world, where laws prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, may be held up as examples of best practices. it is perhaps time for employers to develop post-job-interview feedback mechanisms to elicit interviewees’ experiences of the processes that could reduce discriminatory behaviour during interviews. recruitment units should develop mandatory training to sensitise employers about the lives of people of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the authors have collectively conceptualised and developed the full manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data will be made available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allport, g.w. 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(1968). general system theory: foundations, development, applications. braziller. abstract introduction objectives study design setting sample intervention data collection data analysis results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle jäckel-visser department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa stephan rabie department of psychiatry and mental health, faculty of health sciences, university of cape town, cape town, south africa anthony v. naidoo department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa izanette van schalkwyk department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa francois j. van den berg department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa chantel streicher department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation jäckel-visser, m., rabie, s., naidoo, a.v., van schalkwyk, i., van den berg, f.j., & streicher, c. (2021). developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions. african journal of career development, 3(1), a40. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.40 original research developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions michelle jäckel-visser, stephan rabie, anthony v. naidoo, izanette van schalkwyk, francois j. van den berg, chantel streicher received: 24 june 2020; accepted: 22 oct. 2021; published: 10 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: south african schools have been severely impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic in 2020. state-imposed restrictions to mitigate the spread of the infection have significantly limited direct interpersonal contact, curtailing the existing career guidance and counselling activities in schools. crucially, in low-income settings, the social distancing regulations implied that in a year of increasing anxiety and uncertainty, many high school learners would have had to make important career-related decisions with limited or no tacit career guidance. objectives: in response to these challenges, this study developed a self-directed career guidance intervention to provide continued career guidance support for grade 9 learners amidst the unfolding global pandemic. method: a cross-sectional mixed-methods design was employed to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of the intervention amongst a sample of 498 learners across eight high schools in the cape winelands district, western cape province, south africa. results: favourable quantitative results were obtained assessing learners’ experiences of participating in the intervention and on the perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. participants reported a mean score of 41.25 (out of 50) for acceptability of the intervention. in addition, they reported a mean score of 17.1 (out of 20) for perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. in terms of feasibility, qualitative findings revealed that the intervention improved learners’ self-knowledge and career directionality. conclusion: the mixed-methods results confirm the feasibility and utility of implementing a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst secondary school learners. whilst learners reported positive evaluations of the self-directed career guidance booklet, they also expressed the need for one-on-one or group engagement with the intervention content. keywords: career development; covid-19; self-directed approach; career guidance intervention; high school learners. introduction the role and provision of career guidance and counselling at secondary school level are critical in supporting young adolescents for taking initial steps in formulating their post-school study and career goals (hartung, porfeli, & vondracek, 2005; watts & sultana, 2004). for many black south africans, equality of opportunity and access to quality post-school education are often hampered by a lack of resources and the lingering legacy of apartheid (albien & naidoo, 2018; maila & ross, 2018). in low-income settings, external factors such as economic deprivation, high youth unemployment rates, lack of access to career services and resources, and absence of parental support severely undermine the career development process (dube, 2019). this is the reality for many south african high school learners, who have to contend with limited support and access to services and resources as they face making important career-related decisions (pillay, 2020; rabie, visser, naidoo, van den berg, & morgan, 2021). one of the first career milestones for the south african high school learner is formally selecting the subjects in grade 9 for the final phase of their secondary education (grades 10–12). in the absence of adequate career guidance and counselling, these decisions are often made haphazardly or randomly (akhurst & mkhize, 2006), without due consideration for the post-school career trajectories linked to this decision (naidoo et al., 2019). ill-considered subject choice decisions taken at this stage may limit or compromise study options after matriculating (gottfredson, 2005; streicher, 2020) for many learners. superimposed on these challenges, the sudden escalation of the highly infectious global coronavirus disease 2019 (covid–19) pandemic in 2020 (world health organization [who], 2020a) resulted in emergency regulations, with the south african government instating strict lockdown measures (ramaphosa, 2020) to limit the spread of the infection. in 2020, south african high schools were impacted with immediate extended school closures and were challenged to adapt to remote learning modalities. when schools reopened, many schools adopted a rotation system with half of each class attending school every alternate week to comply with social distancing regulations. these drastic measures resulted in limited direct teacher-to-learner contact and less time available to cover the normal curriculum via remote learning. furthermore, existing career guidance activities were severely limited if not entirely curtailed given the restrictions of the pandemic (ramrathan, 2020; van bruwaene, mustafa, cloete, goga, & green, 2020). in response to these emerging restrictions, the current study was forced to pivot and adapt its established delivery mode to a self-directed career guidance intervention aimed at assisting the grade 9 high school learners in making informed decisions about their careers (streicher, 2020). the self-directed intervention required the learner to take responsibility for their own learning and development by working through a manualised booklet (streicher, 2021). this can promote a sense of agency and empowerment (morris, 2019), with several research studies indicating that self-directed learning can positively enhance learners’ career decision-making abilities (briska & dislere, 2018; de bruin & cornelius, 2014; holland & rayman, 2013). the established project is a joint social impact collaboration between the departments of psychology and industrial psychology at stellenbosch university (2020) and eight resource-constrained partner high schools within a 30-km radius of the campus. the project utilises a student-based service-learning approach to provide career guidance through psychometric assessments and guidance workshops. the project intentionally links academic modules in the postgraduate programmes of both the departments with a community engagement objective, whereby students are afforded the opportunity to apply their career psychology theoretical knowledge and practical skills in appropriate community settings. the project specifically targets grade 9 learners, as this is a pivotal gateway year in which learners need to choose their school subjects for the senior high school phase (streicher, 2021). see naidoo et al. (2021) and rabie et al. (2021) for a full description and evaluation of the established intervention. considering the emerging covid-19 pandemic disruptions, the project had to revisit its established design to accommodate the covid-19 ‘no-contact’ requirement specified by both the western cape education department authorities and the university’s research ethical committee, yet still providing postgraduate students the opportunity to be involved albeit remotely with community engagement. a hybrid intervention was conceptualised incorporating a combination of self-directed and electronic career resources. a self-directed interactive booklet, the grade 9 self-directed career guidance booklet (scgb) (2020), was developed with various self-assessment exercises designed to have grade 9 learners explore their self-knowledge and various career-related attributes, including favourite subjects, hobbies, interests, achievements, role models and personality traits. to supplement the self-directed manual, electronic resources were developed by postgraduate students and made available on a dedicated career website (https://careerguidanceproject.co.za), as well as on a youtube channel with career-related videos. supplementary resources were also provided as a hard copy resource kit for each school to ensure learners had access to the basic resources in the likelihood, they were not able to access the project’s website. albien and naidoo (2016) advised that learner access to distance or remote learning platforms and resources cannot be assumed as most learners do not have smartphones or can afford data connectivity costs. thus, learners from lower socio-economic communities (with attendant limited access to public libraries, smartphones, tablets and computers), face significant barriers to source information about the world of work. poor access to career information can contribute to learners making uninformed subject choices at school without a clear career plan in mind (maila & ross, 2018; streicher, 2021). several of the partner schools have functioning computer facilities, but these can only be accessed during school hours. the scgb (2020) was translated into afrikaans, the home language of 60% of the learners in the eight partner schools. the booklets together with snack packs and an evaluation questionnaire were delivered to the schools in the third term when lockdown restrictions were lifted. learners were incentivised to complete the booklet and to fill out an evaluation form as it was crucial to obtain feedback in order to improve the intervention given the uncertainty of the covid-19 pandemic trajectory. an essay competition was also launched with a prize offered at each school for the best essay describing how the booklet assisted the learner’s career development process. survey data were subsequently gathered from the learners to assess the utility and impact of the self-directed approach adopted during the covid-19 lockdown in the 2020 academic year. objectives in order to address pertinent career development needs of grade 9 learners in south africa amidst the covid-19 pandemic, the objectives of the study were: to adapt the conventional delivery format of the grade 9 career guidance intervention to develop a self-directed career guidance booklet to support grade 9 learners with self-knowledge exploration and career-related resources to assist with making informed subject selection decisions to develop a hybrid career guidance intervention incorporating a self-directed booklet and electronic resources (website resources and informational videos) to gather cross-sectional data on the feasibility and acceptability of the self-directed intervention to gather cross-sectional, self-report qualitative data on the perceived impact of the self-directed intervention on career preparedness. study design this study was conducted using a cross-sectional mixed-methods research design. for the quantitative component, a survey design was employed to obtain systematic feasibility and acceptability data on the intervention. for the qualitative component, a deductive qualitative survey design was employed to gather in-depth feasibility and acceptability data on the intervention from which themes were extracted. setting this study was conducted in six low-income communities within a 30-km radius from the campus. in particular, the intervention was implemented in eight quintile two schools catering for the poorest learners in the respective communities. the communities are characterised by high rates of poverty and unemployment, and attendant sequelae such as high crime rates and school attrition. crucially, schools in these communities are often understaffed and under-resourced, with limited access to career guidance services and resources (maree, 2010). sample participants were recruited by convenience sampling with universal inclusion. that is, the project approached the principals at the participating schools to extend invitations to all grade 9 learners to inform them of the study. the learners received information leaflets detailing the study, and those who expressed interest and who provided parental consent forms and assented to participate were included in the study. the intervention was delivered to 1684 grade 9 learners across the eight secondary schools, and a subsample of n = 498 participants provided feedback on the intervention. this subsample constitutes the unit of analysis in this study. the mean age of the sample was 15.27 years (standard deviation [s.d.] = 0.792), ranging between 13 and 18 years of age. most of the subsamples were female participants (n = 237; 47.5%), with 86 learners (17.3%) not indicating their gender. the majority of the participants indicated afrikaans as their home language (57.6%), with 37 (7.4%) english-speaking participants and 89 (17.9%) isixhosa-speaking participants. a total of 85 (17.1%) participants did not indicate their home language. intervention the self-directed career guidance intervention is an adaptation of grade 9 career guidance intervention reported by naidoo et al. (2019). in response to the covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the project team adapted the original format of the intervention into a hybrid intervention incorporating self-directed and virtual (online electronic) resources. in particular, the content delivered during the original group-based career guidance workshops was adapted into a self-directed career guidance booklet. the booklet (2020) included various self-complete exercises that were designed to assist grade 9 learners explore knowledge-of-self pertaining to their career interests, personality traits, achievements and role models. the booklet also provided pertinent career related information regarding guidance in making school subject selection, ways of engaging with environmental challenges, and links to various career resources and local tertiary institutions. in addition, resources on study skills, motivation to succeed at school, setting goals in career planning and developing a career action plan were included in the booklet, based on recommendations made by life orientation teachers. crucially, for the first time, the booklet was developed in both english and afrikaans to provide more learners with access to information in their home language (streicher, 2020); an isixhosa translation of the booklet has been subsequently published. moreover, to ensure that the lack of contact-based workshops was not a hindrance to the intervention, the self-directed booklet was supplemented by various resources. the virtual resources included a project-specific career guidance website (https://careerguidanceproject.co.za) and a youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucn7womb9rarkdsviq4ta8ia) with career-related videos. the website included access to resources such as career, university, college, and bursary information, as well as a contact portal through which learners could ask questions related to their subject choices and future career. the website is regularly updated to provide learners with access to current news regarding bursaries, career guidance, subject choices, local and global opportunities, and inspirational stories. the project also created a youtube channel and developed video content to supplement activities in the self-directed booklet. videos were created to share information related to self-knowledge, subject choices, developing a career action plan, general career guidance, and the world of work in south africa. these videos also addressed the second major challenge amidst the pandemic, providing postgraduate students with community engagement opportunities. these students were trained on the content of the booklet and asked to develop videos facilitating various components of the intervention. the videos were developed using the video editing programme, powtoon (2021), which gave students volunteering on the project the creative freedom to develop interactive, visually stimulating video content using animated characters and voice-overs. in this way, students were provided opportunities to develop career resources for the partner schools. in total, the students developed 15 videos that are available on the project’s website and youtube channel. in addition to the website content, life orientation teachers at the participating schools were provided access to a hard copy and electronic resource kit that contains information regarding universities, colleges, service careers, and bursary opportunities. moreover, teachers can utilise the information in both the resource kits to help guide learners in their career development. all supplementary resources were referenced in the scgb (2020) to facilitate ease of access to and awareness of the materials for the participating learners. data collection data were collected upon completion of the intervention using a paper-and-pencil semi-quantitative evaluation form. this form was developed specifically for the purposes of this study to determine the efficacy of the adapted format and presentation of the intervention. the evaluation form consists of 10 questions regarding participants’ experience in completing the self-directed intervention. responses are given on a five-point likert scale with 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) rating categories, for example, ‘i found completing this booklet quite an interesting exercise’. the 10 items measuring user evaluation of the scgb were aggregated into a total score. the total score ranges between 10 and 50, and is interpreted on a continuum, with higher scores indicating more favourable experiences. in addition, participants were asked to rate four questions about the impact of the intervention on their career preparedness on a similar likert scale, for example, ‘i believe that i will be able to accomplish the career goals that i set for myself’. similarly, items measuring the impact on career preparedness were computed into a total score. the total score ranges between 4 and 20, and is interpreted on a continuum, with higher scores indicating greater impact on career preparedness. participants were also asked to complete five open-ended questions related to their evaluation of the intervention content and participating in the self-directed intervention, for example, ‘[w]hat was your favourite part of the booklet? please also shortly describe why’. as an additional data source, learners were asked to write a self-reflective essay on their experience in completing the scgb. at each school, a prize of south african rand (zar)200.00 was awarded for the best essay. data analysis for the quantitative component, the paper-and-pencil data were double entered into microsoft excel, a software programme used to organise numbers and data to perform formulas and functions. the data were imported into the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27, a software programme used for statistical analyses, for data cleaning. data cleaning involved reviewing each case of entered data to identify any data entry errors and/or inconsistencies and rectifying these errors prior to data analysis. once data cleaning was completed, each measure of the evaluation form was analysed by frequency analyses and descriptive statistics to ascertain participants’ systematic feedback on the intervention. moreover, these responses were collated into a total score to determine feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. for the qualitative component, the qualitative data (i.e. written responses to open-ended questions) were entered verbatim into microsoft word and imported into atlas.ti for analysis. atlas.ti is a software-based research management tool that can be used to code and analyse qualitative data. a deductive coding approach was applied to the data. this involved gaining familiarity with the dataset, using a combination of descriptive and values coding to gain an understanding of the nature of the data. thereafter, line-by-line coding was applied to recognise the nuances, commonalities, and peculiarities within the dataset. a thematic analytical approach was applied to the data to identify recurring themes and subthemes (braun & clarke, 2013). ethical considerations ethical clearance for the study was obtained from stellenbosch university’s research ethics committee (su/pn3072), from a public university in the western cape, as well as from the western cape department of education. permission was obtained from the eight secondary schools in the cape winelands district. all the school principals and departmental heads were involved in the planning and implementation of the intervention. prior to data collection, informed consent was obtained from the potential participants’ caregivers, and written informed assent was obtained from the participants. all participants were informed that their participation was completely voluntary, and that they could withdraw from the study at any time. all data were anonymised for analysis. results favourable feedback was received on participants’ experience completing the self-directed career guidance booklet. the mean scores on participants’ experience completing the booklet ranged between 38.92 and 44.64, across the eight schools. a composite mean score of 41.25 (out of 50) was reported, scoring at the 70th percentile, and signifying highly positive experiences in completing the self-directed booklet. these scores are summarised in table 1. table 1: participant feedback on booklet experience. similarly, participants reported positive feedback on the perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. the mean scores of the perceived impact on career preparedness were relatively high, ranging between 16.37 and 17.98 with a composite mean score of 17.12 (out of 20) reported across the eight schools, scoring at the 75th percentile, and demonstrating a positive impact on career preparedness. these scores are summarised in table 2. table 2: participant feedback on perceived impact on career preparedness. in addition to the quantitative feedback, participants’ qualitative feedback on the self-directed career guidance intervention was explored. in total, four themes were identified in the data: improved self-knowledge, career directionality, booklet-related challenges, and additional in-person support. the most notable theme identified in the data was participants’ improved self-knowledge. several participants emphasised on how the self-directed intervention enhanced their knowledge of personality type, career interests, and individual strengths and weaknesses. for instance, one participant shared that the booklet was: ‘[v]ery interesting for me to learn more about myself. [these activities were] very helpful and used my personality to point me to a possible career i might one day want to do.’ (l07, female, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) other participants shared that the self-assessment activities included in the booklet ‘helped me to get better insight about myself’ and that these activities ‘taught me more about myself and who and what i am’. this theme is best represented by the following quote: ‘[the booklet] helped me to know who i really want to be when i grow up and it even led to the subjects that i can choose for grade 10. this booklet strongly helped me to know what i want to be.’ (l12, female, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) crucially, the data identified the my career flower (naidoo, 2011) as a salient activity that facilitated exploration of participants’ self-knowledge. one of the participants (l17, female, 16 years, afrikaans, school1) shared that the my career flower activity enabled her to ‘set my own career goals and develop an action plan to realise my dream career’. similarly, another participant (l02, female, no age data, afrikaans, school8) shared ‘the career flower helped me a lot and what i like about it, it showed a lot of interest. i write my dream jobs, my strengths and others [etc.]’. the improved self-knowledge reported by participants appeared to contribute to the second major theme identified in the data, namely career directionality. a number of participants attributed the self-directed intervention and related improved self-knowledge to a better understanding of their future career path. one participant (l34, male, no age data, english, school7) asserted that he ‘learned of what type of person i am. i now know which career i belong to’, whilst another participant shared that booklet encouraged her to ‘talk about the things i find interesting, and i also feel quite confident about my subject choice and what i want to do after school’. another participant (l23, male, 15 years, isxhosa, school2) asserted that upon completion of the booklet, he ‘felt completely sure about my subject choices and what i want to do after school’. despite the reported benefits ascribed to the intervention, booklet-related challenges were identified as another pertinent theme. some participants shared that completing the booklet ‘took a lot of time’ and at some schools ‘there was too little time to complete everything’. a handful of participants also reported that ‘certain sections weren’t as easy to understand and some of the words were difficult to understand’. similarly, some participants had ‘to read some of the sections more than once’ to understand how to complete the exercises. however, despite these challenges, the majority of the feedback received indicated that the ‘booklet was very enjoyable’ and participants could ‘understand and read it clearly’. the final theme identified in the data was participants’ suggestions for additional in-person support. although most participants reported that the self-directed booklet was helpful in aiding their subject choice and career decision-making, a few participants expressed the need for additional contact-based support. for instance, one participant (l11, male, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) shared: ‘yes, although i got support from the booklet, i need someone with experience in the career that i want to pursue’. similarly, another participant shared that: ‘[i] found which career i like but i have to choose one because they are not in the same field. i think i need someone who would tell me this career would be best for me.’ (l20, female, 15 years, isixhosa, school7) a male participant indicated that he is ‘still unsure what i want to become’ and he would like someone ‘to explain which subjects i need to take if i’m unsure about what i want to do’ (l13, male, 15 years, afrikaans, school8). these excerpts may signify that for participants who are ambivalent or uncertain about their career path, individual counselling may be beneficial. the project received valuable data in the form of the self-reflective essays submitted by the learners. in total, 10 essay submissions were received from four of the participating schools and an essay winner was selected at each school. the overarching theme identified in these self-reflective essays related strongly to the qualitative feedback received – completing the booklet provided the learners with better knowledge of self. one learner (l78, male, no age nor language data, school6) wrote ‘i got to discover things i didn’t know about myself’ whilst another learner shared ‘as i worked through the booklet, i learned so much about myself and my ability to do things’ (l70, female, no age data, isixhosa, school5). another learner wrote that the booklet gave her ‘more clarity about which subjects to choose for my specific career’ which made her ‘life so much easier with all the decisions i need to make for my future’ (l108, female, no age data, afrikaans, school3). crucially, several participants wrote about how completing the self-directed booklet instilled a sense of hope for the future. one of the essay winners shared: ‘[i] learned that one can rise above your circumstances and situation you find yourself in. i am motivated to work hard and get good marks so that i can proceed in my life.’ (l44, female, no age, no language, school3) these sentiments are corroborated by the following essay excerpt: ‘[e]ach and every one of us have different abilities and interests, not all of us can be doctors, but all of us can do something we love. knowledge will forever be the key to our success.’ (l35, female, no age nor language data, school7) discussion in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, this study set out to establish the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention using a self-directed career guidance booklet to address career development needs of secondary school learners living in low-income communities. as such, the aim of the current study included the revisiting of the original format of the grade 9 career guidance booklet (used in workshop sessions) with the view to design a self-directed format of the booklet to support the learners to work independently with the content, and to assess a hybrid intervention incorporating self-directed and electronic (virtual) resources. learner quantitative survey data and qualitative responses to open-ended questions yielded valuable evaluative findings. the quantitative results showed the positive impact of the intervention on grade 9 learners’ career preparedness. the majority of participants reported that upon completion of the intervention, they were more confident in their abilities to achieve their goals and plans for their career after school. the qualitative findings shed light on the feasibility of the intervention by revealing that the intervention improved self-knowledge and career directionality. whilst the quantitative results confirm learners’ satisfaction that the self-directed booklet was a valuable and sufficient resource in aiding their subject choice and career decision-making, the qualitative findings revealed their need for additional interpersonal contact-based support (that was not permitted under the prevailing covid-19 restrictions). although this finding could indicate the need for assistance related to uncertainties about the learners’ career decisions and subject choice, we should not disregard the possible risks and deficits associated with restricted human contact. the need for interpersonal contact may be a cry for connection to engage with the heightened anxiety that was experienced because of the uncertainty of the pandemic (sahoo et al., 2020). with the major disruption to their lives, learners are finding it quite difficult to make sense of the current limbo, uncertainty and what is happening in the world (lombana-bemudez et al., 2020). they are exposed to a myriad false information being forwarded on social media platforms related to covid-19 transmission and precautionary measures. all these concerns can also lead to excessive worrying, fear and anxiety about contracting the infection and can create a sense of panic amongst teenagers who may be highly suggestible. in the broader scheme, career planning may seem an anachronism where more pressing family circumstances, concerns and uncertainty may be vying for their attention. overall, the findings clearly indicate that it is feasible and acceptable to implement a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst secondary school learners amidst a global pandemic. the booklet and the website may provide learners with a meaningful constructive way of investing their time and energy, and engaging with their lives. valuable insight was also obtained pointing towards participants’ need to engage with empathic adults in a safe space, especially in a time of social restrictions and heightened anxiety. this is particularly important as the participants of the current study cannot be viewed as ‘invulnerable children’ (see wong & wong, 2012). apart from the numerous challenges associated with the global pandemic, geinger, roets and vandenbroeck (2017) cautioned against the de-contextualising of youth development where adolescents are viewed as merely recipients or passive victims who are modelled by their parents and society, denying them their sense of autonomy. clearly, the role of context influencing learners’ career preparation and aspirations was of seminal importance (who, 2014) for this study conducted in 2020 amidst the coronavirus (covid-19) disease pandemic (who, 2020b). the findings support the need to conceptualise career development within the broader sense of the learners’ lives and their ecological context. the attention provided to contextualising the booklet, having it available in accessible language, adding local protagonists that the learners could identify with added to their receptivity of the booklet. appiah, wilson-fadiji, wissing and schutte (2021) posited that interventions produce better results when they are ‘…practicable, convenient and directly relate to participants’ circumstances’ (p. 9). despite the significant barriers that adolescents, especially from lower socio-economic backgrounds, face to achieve optimal life chances (bux, 2021; unicef, 2016) intensified by the numerous risks in such resource-restrained settings (luthar, lyman, & crossman, 2015), participants referred to their experience of a sense of direction, autonomy, connection and of hope for the future. this finding is significant, given the alarming youth unemployment rates in this country. efforts need to be redoubled to provide career guidance resourcing at all high schools. career guidance is crucial in preparing learners to make the best possible choices, thereby reducing the shortand long-term fallout that occurs with ill-considered decisions (pillay, 2020). conclusion the findings indicate that grade 9 learners confirmed that it is feasible and acceptable to implement a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst high school learners living in low-income communities amidst a global pandemic. the hybrid intervention was found to be sufficient to provide support to assist high school learners make educational, training and occupational choices. although these services were virtual rather than face-to-face, adolescents benefitted from the career information and self-assessment activities and tools. these findings have important implications for similar resource-constrained settings that may not have ready access to in-person career guidance and counselling. having functional school computer labs are imperative to give learners agency and access to internet-based resources to augment their self-directed career development initiatives. the current study has a few limitations. firstly, although all participants were recruited from low-income communities, we used convenience sampling with universal inclusion. therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility that the sample was under-representative, hence limiting the generalisability of the findings. coronavirus disease-2019 restrictions extant in the schools at the time of data collection meant that applying uninform data collection methods had to be adapted, given the different circumstances in each school context. incentives provided to learners to complete the evaluation survey may also have biased the data collected. notwithstanding, the covid pandemic circumstances provided a unique opportunity to adapt an existing career guidance intervention from a face-to-face format to a self-directed format, with learners being able to work independently with the exercises and content. the covid-19 pandemic also has provided a seminal reminder to consider career planning more holistically, as being integral to high school learners’ well-being, and their need for directionality and wanting to live a life of meaning and purpose (wong, 2020). from the insights gained from the qualitative findings, it is recommended that future research explores how the self-directed career guidance booklet can be effectively used as part of the life orientation curriculum. group discussion of the various component of the booklet may help to expose learners to broader career ideas and knowledge and the support of their peers (rabie et al., 2021). also, whilst the self-directed booklet was supplemented by various resources, including – electronic resources (a dedicated career website) to ensure access to information for secondary school learners, we suggest that future research considers methods to train life orientation teachers to implement the booklet as part of the life orientation curriculum. furthermore, the intervention should incorporate online contact with a career counsellor to provide direct online access to learners with their queries. using video consultation rather than telephonic, email or sms consulting is recommended to enhance the face-to-face or relating and interacting quality of the career guidance process, when direct contact is not possible. the findings of this study hold important implications for similar resource-constrained settings that may not have ready access to in-person career guidance and counselling services. self-directed resources and tools can play a valuable role in encouraging learner autonomy and agency. these resources are at best auxiliary enablers of the career exploration process but cannot replace the imperative of having access to adequate career guidance and face-to-face counselling services in place at all high schools in the country (pillay, 2020). self-directed career development resources cannot replace, substitute or fill the gap for this social justice imperative (naidoo et al., 2019). whilst the doors of learning have been opened to all learners, career guidance services at all schools should be part of that democratic education right and dispensation for all south african high school learners, more so in uncertain, unsettling times. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.j-v. led the conceptualisation, drafted the introduction and coordinated the writing process; a.v.n. drafted the theoretical section and edited the final draft; sr drafted the methodology and analysis section; i.v.s. and f.v.b. drafted the discussion section; c.s. conducted the literature review and assisted f.v.b. with the data collection. funding information this research work received funding from the rupert educational foundation and stellenbosch university for the implementation of the programme reported in this study. data availability data sharing is applicable to this article, and data can be accessed from the first author on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are 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(2020b, june 30). timeline of who’s response to covid-19. retrieved from https://www.who.int/ abstract introduction methodology results discussion limitations of the study conclusion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) anne t. otwine department of mental health, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda department of public health and biomedical sciences, faculty of nursing and health sciences, bishop stuart university, mbarara, uganda leonsio matagi department of organisational psychology, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda john m. kiweewa department of mental health, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda department of nursing, school of nursing, st. john fisher college, new york, united states of america herbert e. ainamaani department of public health and biomedical sciences, faculty of nursing and health sciences, bishop stuart university, mbarara, uganda department of mental health, school of medicine, kabale university, kabale, uganda citation otwine, a.t., matagi, l., kiweewa, j.m., & ainamaani, h.e. (2022). efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda. african journal of career development, 4(1), a55. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.55 original research efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda anne t. otwine, leonsio matagi, john m. kiweewa, herbert e. ainamaani received: 25 feb. 2022; accepted: 10 aug. 2022; published: 22 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in uganda, students face difficulty during career transition between different levels of education and employment despite government policies about implementation of career guidance and counselling services. little has been documented about students’ levels of awareness, utilisation and extent of implementation of career guidance and counselling services within secondary schools in uganda. objective: this study aims at documenting students’ level of awareness and utilisation career guidance and counselling services, and how these services were being implemented in secondary schools in uganda. method: cross-sectional survey was conducted using mixed methods in secondary schools in south western uganda. a total of 161 students in final year of secondary education (senior six) and 35 teachers across four schools met inclusion criteria and consented to participate in the study. standardised questionnaires as primary tools of data collection were used. quantitative data were analysed using spss (version 23) and content analysis for qualitative data. results: majority of students (98.8%) revealed high awareness about existence of career guidance and counselling services, while 87.0% reported utilising the services. implementation of career guidance and counselling in schools was demonstrated by type of programmes, information sources, models, timing and information structure by class level. however, challenges to implementation were sited, namely student, teachers, administrators, parents and policy factors. conclusion and recommendation: career guidance and counselling services were available and used in secondary schools. however, implementation was affected by functional and structural challenges that affected the quality of career counselling information and required alignment to national development goals. contribution: the efficacy of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda was documented in this article. keywords: uganda; students; secondary schools; career guidance; counselling services; awareness; utilisation; implementation; challenges. introduction in uganda, formal implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary school was established since 2008 through ministry of education and sports (moes). its goal was to oversee creation of guidance and counselling departments in schools, printing and distribution of materials, capacity building of career masters and monitoring and evaluation of the services (otwine, oonyu, & kiweewa, 2018). despite existing career guidance and services in secondary schools, documentary evidence shows that students’ transition from secondary to higher education and employment has not been smooth because of limited skills and knowledge gaps (wamajji et al., 2020; zerihun & sennoga, 2018). other factors identified included poor attitude to science subjects, teenage pregnancies, early marriages, lack of fees and gender disparities (uganda bureau of statistics [ubos], 2019; uganda national planning authority [unpa], 2020). therefore, examination of students’ behaviour about awareness of career guidance and counselling services in schools and patterns of implementation of these services were pertinent to this study. literature review students’ ability to transition from education cycle to employment has not been smooth in uganda. the main challenges the youth faced that are highlighted by wamajji et al. (2020) included limited training, inappropriate employment skills, lack of experience and limited information communication technological (ict) skills. vernon (2006) observed that students’ career guidance and counselling seeking behaviour was a cognitive response, which individuals developed towards work life. cook and maree (2016) concurred with vernon and argued that exposing students to career guidance and counselling interventions early in life had positive effect on their career life transition. in their study, otwine et al. (2018) found that most schools had put in place various programmes to address not only students’ educational needs but also career, physical, social and spiritual development. this study corroborated findings in similar studies which established that schools provided a medium from which students’ career needs were facilitated to promote occupational information knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant for their future work-life balance (staunton, 2019; wong & wing, 2017). despite this finding, secondary schools still face challenges during implementation of career guidance and counselling programmes. these include high student-to-teacher ratio estimated to be 3500:1 (otwine et al., 2018). in addition schools find it difficult to distinguish between roles about guidance and counselling and career guidance and counselling which brings confusion during implementation of career guidance and counselling. (nsubuga & kronholz, 2018). furthermore, teachers and counsellors who offer career guidance and counselling in schools have been found to have limited skills to provide authentic career counselling support, career assessment, test interpretation and feedback to students (kabunga, 2020). this phenomenon may be blamed on poor teacher training where student teachers were found to have limited skills for guidance and counselling (knettel et al., 2020). therefore, investigation of students’ awareness, utilisation and extent of implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary school was necessary in order to document this information for future reference. problem statement despite the existence of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda, documentary evidence shows that human capital development has remained low because of high youth unemployment, limited career information and lack of career resilience among employees (republic of uganda, 2019). whereas some students in uganda undergo 6 years of secondary education where they get exposed to career guidance and counselling services, they face difficulties when transitioning between different levels of education and employment. most university graduates opt for jobs within the informal sector that have limited relevance to their initial course of study (unpa, 2020). little has been documented about students’ awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services and much less is known about how such services are implemented in secondary schools across the country. this research is an attempt to bridge that information gap so as to inform policy and practice necessary to support students’ career transitions to match national development goals. objectives to establish the level of students’ awareness of career guidance and counselling services among secondary schools in uganda. to evaluate students’ level of utilisation of career guidance and counselling services. to assess the levels of implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda. to establish challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. research questions what are the levels of students’ awareness about the existence of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda? to what extent were students utilising career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools? how are secondary schools implementing career guidance and counselling services? what are the challenges experienced by secondary schools during implementation of career guidance and counselling services? methodology a cross sectional survey design was conducted, in which data was collected using a mixed methods approach. the survey took place among secondary schools in ankole sub-region of south western uganda. quantitative method was used to gather students’ views while qualitative method was used on teachers in order to capture their in-depth views about the study problem (creswell, 2014; creswell & creswell, 2018). senior six secondary school students between ages of 15 and 25 were targeted because they fit into what leung (2008) categorised as a prime state for career exploration. the sub-region had an estimated 310 schools with 123 547 enrolled students and 7193 teachers (republic of uganda, 2017). in total, 161 students in senior six and 35 teachers across four schools in the region met inclusion criteria to participate in the study. after obtaining ethical clearance from makerere university social sciences research ethics committee, the authors proceeded to uganda national council of science and technology for clearance. in addition, permission from the head teachers was obtained to allow researchers to conduct the study in the respective schools; and also seek assent to enroll students below 18 years into the study. however, individual consent was obtained from teachers and students above 18 years each of whom signed a consent form. the authors used questionnaires that were developed based on literature as primary tools of data collection. questionnaires were validated using test and retest procedures and triangulation of data. the main areas tested included students’ awareness about existence and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services, areas of implementation and challenges faced. student questionnaires were close ended and designed on likert scale whereby 3 was (agree), 2 (neutral) and 1 (disagree). however, open-ended questions were included at the end of each set of test items to capture students’ in-depth views that could not be captured in the questionnaire. the questionnaire administered to the teachers was open ended and focused on specific information about awareness, nature of information by class level and challenges faced. after cleaning, quantitative data were entered into spss (version 23.0) for analysis, while qualitative data were analysed manually to create themes. conclusion and recommendation were made based on study results. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the uganda national council of science and technology (uncst). (no. ss-4734). results demographic characteristics a total of 161 students, and 35 teachers were enrolled into this study across the four schools. students were further distributed by schools as follows: 2 boys boarding schools n = 75; 1 girls boarding school n = 67; 1 mixed day and boarding under government arrangement of universal secondary education (use) (n = 19). there were more boys in the study at 59.0%, than girls who were 41.0%. participants average age was 18.5 years. awareness and utilisation students’ level of awareness about existence and utilisation of career guidance and counselling in schools was tested using two direct questions to which they responded either, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. findings revealed that 98.8% of students reported high levels of awareness about existence of career guidance and counselling services in their schools. students who had utilised career guidance and counselling services were 87.0%. all participating teachers confirmed the existence and use of counselling services by students. implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools students’ results the results from this study revealed the following as the most common career guidance and counselling programmes: general special career days 82.0%, regular class meetings 78.9%, career class days 74.5% and continuous individual and group counselling 57.1%. in addition, participants reported that the main sources of career guidance and counselling information were interaction with professionals 88.2%, academic progressive tests 75.8% media 65.2%, parents, teachers and peers 64.4%, occupational information materials 64.0% and industrial visits 47.8%. it was further established that group counselling was the main modality 64.6% relative to individual counselling 39.1%, while guidance and counselling services were mostly implemented at the beginning 63.4% and end school term 60.2%. table 1 presents the given results. table 1: career guidance and counselling programmes, sources of information, models and timing. results from teachers information about nature and category of information presented to students at different class levels was examined by capturing teachers’ views. in general, results revealed that students received guidance and counselling information at different class levels and justification was given for each category. table 2 presents a summary of the results. table 2: class category, nature of information and justification. challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools the authors also sought to capture participants’ perspectives on challenges experienced during the implementation of career guidance and counselling. students’ results in general, 82.6% identified students’ poor attitude and lack of cooperation as the main challenge, while 75.8% pointed to lack of time for related activities. furthermore, 63.4% identified limited information about training and school to work opportunities as a problem and 62.1% observed a lack of awareness about the relationship between career self-awareness and academic achievement. table 3 presents a summary of related findings from students. this information was further supported by views captured from teachers that are presented in table 4. table 3: students’ responses about challenges faced during the implementation of career guidance and counselling services. table 4: views from teachers about challenges faced by schools during implementation of career guidance and counselling. this voice was also captured from a student participant: ‘we lack career information materials … if our schools could provide us with electronic information installed on computers, we could read them during our free time to improve our knowledge of careers and their requirements.’ (participant 1, male, senior six) from results in table 4, it may be concluded that secondary schools were experiencing real time challenges that were both functional and structural in nature and require urgent attention to make career guidance and counselling more effective. discussion the primary purpose of this study was to document awareness, utilisation and implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. the results revealed high level of awareness among students about the existence of career guidance and counselling services in their schools. this finding means that at any one time, students get exposed to career guidance and counselling in their secondary school time. thus, fulfilling the country’s goal to implement guidance and counselling services in schools to aid students’ career and social development (government of uganda, 2007). available reports in uganda show that many students continue to find transition from school to employment very difficult, a phenomenon that was attributed to knowledge and skills gap found among graduates (ubos, 2017; unpa, 2020). this finding may point to a serious gap between what information and skills students receive in school and reality in institutions of higher education and employment that may require urgent redress. furthermore, high rates of utilisation of career guidance and counselling services were found among students, which implied that students were not only informed about the availability of career guidance and counselling services but utilised the services. this may include the number of students attending career guidance and counselling programmes organised by schools, groups and individuals seeking counselling to deal with anxiety related to career indecision, undertaking decisions related to subject combination and career path, course of study in higher education and nature of employment. dodd (2021) in their study observed that increased awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling among students improved their career decision making skills. savickas et al. (2002) also argued that by the end of adolescence, students who get sufficient career guidance and counselling were able to narrow down their career choices and attain stable career self-concept in life than their counterparts. therefore, results from this study provide useful information about the need to support students’ access to career guidance and counselling during their exploration stage of career development with a hope that it may ease complications related to career decisions. with regard to implementation of career guidance and counselling services in schools, findings revealed three main ways such information is shared with students, namely general special careers day, careers’ class day and class meetings. although these programmes were found to be implemented in the schools covered by this study, it shows that in between these programmes, students were engaged in other curricular and non-curricular programmes, which creates a disconnect between what is taught in school and how it may be translated into career information needed to facilitate students’ career decisions. therefore, this finding identified a gap between the nature of career guidance and counselling in schools and the requirements by education standards in uganda, which recommends continuous career guidance and counselling for all classes at all times to allow students make sound career choices by the end of their secondary education cycle (directorate of education standards, uganda, 2012). therefore teachers are encouraged to integrate career education into curriculum delivery to assist students naturalise career information into classroom learning so that by the time students embark on career decisions, they may do it with less difficulty both in and out of school. therefore, increasing career guidance and counselling space in school curriculum may empower students to make better career decisions in future. again it is established that timing of career guidance and counselling programmes was common during beginning and end of term. this finding was in agreement with previous finding where career guidance and counselling in schools lacked continuous frequency. this was attributed to pressure of competing roles on both teachers and students, which increased their workload. thus, irregular career guidance and counselling programmes in schools denied students benefits associated with timely and continuous career guidance and counselling such as increased self-awareness, self-confidence, career identity and career maturity as suggested by hooley and rice (2019) and bounds (2013). anghel and gati (2019) and maree and che (2020) observed that delayed career guidance and counselling contributed to career indecision among students, of which secondary schools in uganda may need to be mindful. it was again established that the main sources of career guidance and counselling information utilised in schools included the following: interaction with professionals from different backgrounds; students’ results from progressive tests; parents, teachers and peers; and other occupational information sources such as scholastic materials, media and industrial visits. however, this finding was contradicted by information in a study by kizza, damba and kasule (2019) where it was documented that students in uganda relied on social media as a main source of career information. post (2020) also observed that information given to students during career sessions was biased to general guidance and counselling than career guidance. this finding may partially explain why students in this study expressed high awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services, and yet after secondary school cycle most of them fail to make confident career decisions in life. according to nsubuga, youth unemployment estimated in uganda was estimated at 13.3%, with labour underutilisation at 38%, which was attributed to poor guidance and counselling services in schools. increased access to career information may improve students’ career decisions. with regard to modality, group counselling was found to be more popular than individual counselling, a finding that makes sense given the limited personnel, time and limited skills among career teachers. in addition, maree (2020) highlighted advantages of group counselling, including increased students’ career decision-making efficacy, peer support, reduced manpower gaps and time saving than individual counselling. chen et al. (2020) observed that group counselling benefitted not only students but also teachers because it helps them to reflect on personal career development. however, it is important to pay attention to argyropoulou (2018) who called for increased individual support to students who developed career indecision anxiety that required personal attention. therefore, balanced employment of both individual and group counselling may be more effective than group counselling alone. lastly, it was established that schools in this study provided career information to students at different levels of their secondary education. orientation information was specific to new students in both senior one and senior five to assist them to adjust to new school environment, curriculum and socialisation. this finding was supported in literature by jonck (2015) who observed that orientation of students had power to guide learners exploit their full physical, intellectual, personal and social potential. cook and maree (2016) also observed that career guidance and counselling orientation improved students’ adaptability during career and life transition. therefore, orientation was an important intervention in schools necessary to assist new students formulate educational plans and academic goals and therefore should be further promoted. continuing students in senior two and three received continuous psychosocial support messages that included social adjustment, physiological changes and life skills. this aspect of guidance and counselling was crucial because available reports in uganda have revealed low student completion rate of 38.4% at lower secondary because of poor outcomes in science subjects, early pregnancy and marriage among females students, delinquency and poverty (unpa, 2019; unpa, 2020). therefore, increased psychosocial support for students through self-awareness exercises such as music, dance, drama, school based clubs and interschool competitions may help to increase their self-confidence, sense of responsibility and team work to keep them in schools and achieve their career goals (government of uganda, 2007). in candidate classes, academic excellence and career planning were emphasised to assist students identify programmes within their career paths and devise study mechanisms to excel and pursue their career dreams at higher education. however, kizza et al. (2019) established that students in uganda lacked career planning skills while transitioning from secondary to higher education. this finding was affirmed by kazi and akhlaq (2017) and kim (2021) who added their voice that poor career planning negatively impacted students’ career self-efficacy. it is prudent that teachers in secondary schools in uganda should spend more time assisting students to develop skills of career planning alongside academic work to prepare them for future career roles. results of this study identified several challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in schools. both students and teachers agreed that students had negative attitude, and lacked cooperation during implementation of career guidance and counselling services either due little access to career information and congested school time table. this finding was in agreement with similar studies that highlighted several factors that contributed to poor attitude and lack of cooperation from students, namely low sensitisation, irregular programmes, inadequate information about careers and lack of career models in schools (chireshe, 2011). other factors included lack of support from stakeholders and education policymakers limited support from teachers because of teaching overload, lack of designated career counselling centres, poorly resourced career education in schools, poor quality career guidance and counselling services, gender inequality and social segregation (maree, 2018; moote & archer, 2018; schreuder & coetzee, 2012). therefore, investing in career guidance and counselling may improve students’ behavioural change towards uptake of its services in schools. results about challenges associated with teachers revealed that some teachers had limited skills to carry out effective career guidance and counselling among students. this was coupled with limited sources of updated career information and materials and demand on personal time. save for irregular capacity building for career teachers by moes, teachers hardly may afford personal career development in career counselling skills. kabunga (2020) advocated for increased capacity building of teachers in skills of career assessment and counselling. other challenges affecting teachers include lack of career guidance curriculum, poor teacher training background, high student teacher ratio and non-existent professional standards of school counsellors (knettel et al., 2020; otwine et al., 2018). therefore, increasing capacity building for teachers and access to relevant career guidance materials may have potential to improve implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. in addition, school-related factors were identified, which included limited support from head teachers and other school administrators, poor sensitisation of students, teachers, parents, employers and policymakers, limited time and funds allocated to career guidance and counselling services and poor policy implementation because of either delayed or no supervision by staff from moes. this has kept career guidance and counselling service delivery in schools very low: a phenomenon that could explain why career guidance and counselling remains ineffective on students’ career decisions during their career life transition. therefore, sensitisation of school administrators about the role of career guidance and counselling in learning is likely to increase its visibility of service delivery and utilisation in both education and employment world. besides, parental factors were also identified among the challenges affecting career guidance and counselling service delivery in secondary schools. it was established that parents were not well sensitised about the importance of career guidance and counselling. some parents forced their children into careers outside their interest and ability, while others lacked information about different occupations because of limited exposure to career information. poor financial background was also mentioned, which hindered some parents from financing children’s education into good schools and also lacked mentors and models in families to motivate students to pursue careers of their dreams. according to abe and chikoko (2020), it was established that parents were a negative force on students’ career decisions. however, xin, tang, li and zhou (2020) disagreed with this notion and instead opined that students who received parental support had potential to make confident career choices than their counterparts. therefore, parental involvement during career guidance and counselling programmes in schools is encouraged. lastly, government policy factors were identified among challenges secondary schools faced that limited effective implementation of career guidance and counselling. they included low-capacity building of teachers in career counselling skills, contradiction on compulsory science subjects and placement of students in science courses, and imbalance between career guidance and counselling coverage in rural and urban schools. limited supervision of career guidance and counselling programmes in schools was also mentioned among other factors. this finding was in agreement with past studies, which revealed that policy challenges in uganda were associated with inadequate technical expertise at moes, low sensitisation, poor funding, lack of full time and trained school counsellors and inadequate training manuals (kizza et al., 2019; knettle, 2020). existing reports have again highlighted the need to redesign career guidance and counselling interventions in schools appropriate to drive low income economies towards sustainable development goals (sdgs) (african economic outlook, 2017; international monetary fund [imf], 2020; republic of uganda, 2019). therefore, harmonising career guidance and counselling in schools to national human capital development strategies was likely to improve career guidance and counselling outcomes among students and also act as a mitigation factor against youth unemployment in uganda. limitations of the study the tools used to collect data were generated by the researchers and were tested on a small population of 20 students and 10 teachers. therefore, comprehensive testing of this study tools may yield better and generalisable results in future. conclusion it can be concluded that students had high awareness about availability and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services in their schools of study. and schools employed different strategies to implement career guidance and counselling, although they faced challenges that made its implementation ineffective. these included poor attitude and lack of cooperation from students, low of capacity among teachers and school administrators, poor parental involvement and lack of policy support. recommendations there is need to increase policy support from the department of guidance and counselling in the moes to all schools in order to improve capacity building of teachers, access to update career guidance and counselling materials, develop curriculum for career guidance and counselling and harmonise policy on compulsory science subjects and space to accommodate students’ career choices on science courses. lay strategy for schools to increase collaborations with educational stakeholders including parents, employers, researchers, civil society and development partners to close gaps in service delivery and implementation of existing career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda. future studies may investigate how such collaborations may be established to link school career guidance and counselling services to national development plans. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the following people for the support given to make this publication possible; milton tweheyo and monica ahabwe who edited the work, and emmanuel ahabwe our research assistant. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.t.o. is the corresponding author of the original manuscript and contributed to the original research idea, methodology, data collection and analysis, manuscript writing, review and met all the costs of research and publication. l.m. assisted in conceptualisation, methodology, data analysis, manuscript writing and editing. l.m. was also a supervisor on this study. j.m.k. was a supervisor on this study and participated in conceptualisation, methodology, validation, manuscript writing and editing. a.e.h. provided support towards conceptualisation, methodology, manuscript writing and editing. funding information this research received partial funding from bishop stuart university. data availability the raw data are available and can be accessed from the researcher on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abe, e.n., & chikoko, v. 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african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a20 | 11 january 2021 original research piloting career development: whole school interventions kamilla rawatlal african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a33 | 15 march 2021 original research higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti louise m. vital african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a30 | 29 march 2021 original research the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds indira pillay african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a36 | 18 may 2021 original research the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world gloria marsay, kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo, henry nsubuga, paboussoum pari, enyonam y. kossi, chong m. park, v. scott h. solberg african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a37 | 30 august 2021 1 13 23 33 42 56 63 vol 3, no 1 (2021) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a39 | 08 september 2021 original research psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes ingrid l. potgieter, melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a48 | 10 december 2021 original research developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions michelle jäckel-visser, stephan rabie, anthony v. naidoo, izanette van schalkwyk, francois j. van den berg, chantel streicher african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a40 | 10 december 2021 original research a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai pamela hawkswell, peter mcilveen, patricia n. hoare african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a46 | 15 december 2021 original research psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types melinde coetzee african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a47 | 17 december 2021 conference report establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose maria e. duarte african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a35 | 23 april 2021 reviewer acknowledgements african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a51 | 21 december 2021 74 83 91 99 108 116 121 abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) gloria marsay department of practical and missional theology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa kokou a. atitsogbe institute of psychology, university of lausanne, lausannes, switzerland abdoulaye ouedraogo department of sociology, university joseph ki-zerbo, ouagadougou, burkina faso henry nsubuga counselling and guidance centre, makerere university, kampala, uganda paboussoum pari department of applied psychology, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo enyonam y. kossi department of applied psychology, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo chong m. park wheelock college of education and human development, boston university, boston, united states v. scott h. solberg wheelock college of education and human development, boston university, boston, united states citation marsay, g., atitsogbe, k.a., ouedraogo, a., nsubuga, h., pari, p., kossi, e.y., … solberg, v.sh. (2021). the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world. african journal of career development, 3(1), a37. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.37 original research the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world gloria marsay, kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo, henry nsubuga, paboussoum pari, enyonam y. kossi, chong m. park, v. scott h. solberg received: 03 mar. 2021; accepted: 20 july 2021; published: 30 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article shares the results of research on educator perceptions of the nature and value of social emotional learning (sel) skills undertaken in four african countries: burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. social emotional learning skills make up a large component of the ‘deep human skills’, which are important academic and workforce development skills. objectives: using samples of 50 burkinabe, 68 south african and 32 togolese and 66 ugandan educators, this study describes the (1) sel skills educators should be using to effectively teach their students and the (2) sel skills the educators believe students should be using to be effective learners and successfully transition into the world of work. method: data collection methods include online and offline surveys, with the exception of uganda that complemented their survey data with interviews. thematic content analysis, using modified grounded theory, was used to analyse the data, as well as the qualitative data analysis software nvivo. results: the results indicated seven common sel themes shared across the four african countries. the sel themes identified were consistent with the existing framework of collaborative for academic, social and emotional learning (casel) to some extent, especially around interpersonal relationships and decision-making skills. conclusion: the findings indicate that the salience and importance of specific sel skills varied based on the unique history and context of each country. keywords: social emotional learning; career; future readiness; positive youth development; cross-cultural study. introduction internationally, ‘social emotional learning’ (sel) is considered a core element in k-12 education (collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning [casel], 2021). social emotional learning was initially launched conceptually as a framework by casel and is now widely adopted throughout the united states (casel, n.d.). the casel is an independent non-government or non-profit organisation that was originally part of the university of illinois, chicago, united states of america that continues to develop free-access resources to help education systems adopt and effectively engage in sel-related activities, establish learning standards and assessment for schools and allow researchers to have theoretical and methodological reflections (casel, n.d.). the casel framework involves five sel categories: self-awareness refers to one’s understanding of his or her emotions, thoughts, values and talent and one’s awareness that these may affect their interpersonal relationships. self-management refers to one’s ability to effectively manage his or her emotions, thoughts and values in ways that enable them to develop and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, pursue desired goals and experience positive outcomes. social awareness refers to one’s ability to understand the perspectives of others based on different cultural and life experiences and thereby express empathy and compassion. relationship skills refer to one’s ability to establish and maintain positive collaborations and engage in problem-solving to resolve differences. responsible decision-making skills refer to making effective decisions about one’s behaviour in social interactions, as well as consider future goals. for younger students, sel is an important foundation for creating positive classroom experiences that enable youth to develop emotionally and academically. meta-analysis of sel interventions has verified the positive impact of developing sel skills on a range of academic outcomes (durlak, weissberg, dymnicki, taylor, & schellinger, 2011). social emotional learning skills also serve as a foundation for positive mental health and well-being by helping youth learn how to navigate and negotiate their interpersonal activities in ways that help them achieve desirable outcomes (taylor, oberle, durlak, & weissberg, 2017). finally, sel skills also serve as ‘deeper human skills’ that are critical to becoming successful in the world of work (lim-lange & lim-lange, 2019; yoder, 2015). internationally, the european union and the organisation economic co-operation and development have identified sel skills as core to education (cefai, bartolo, cavioni, & downes, 2018; cefai, regester, & akoury-dirani, 2020; oecd, 2016). in the african context, sel has been discussed in relation to supporting mental health amongst nigerian youth experiencing trauma (kim, brown, & weiss-yagoda, 2017) and is integrated into a reading skills strategy as the foundation for healing and supports needed to improve both academic and mental health outcomes for congolese youth (aber et al., 2016). this study sought to understand educator perspectives from four african countries (burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda) about their perspectives on the nature and value of sel skills. the study design was informed by a growing awareness amongst researchers to include the voices and realities of those we study in order to more accurately reflect their lived experiences (santos, 2018). to address these social justice concerns, this cross-cultural study used qualitative research methods to allow the voice of educators from four african countries to shape a narrative regarding the nature and applicability of sel skills in helping to manage classroom functioning and prepare youth to enter the world of work. whilst the results of this study reflect research conducted by four countries from the global south, namely burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda, the programme of research was conducted as part of an sel international research network (sel irn) consisting of 18 countries from around the world and was formally recognised by the world educational research network in 2019 (wera, n.d.). operating as a collaborative community of researchers, the sel irn supported teams around qualitative research design and analysis, considering questions that would facilitate educator engagement. each research team maintained their autonomy by deciding on the final versions of their questions, format for engaging with educators (e.g. survey, interview, focus groups), selecting the sample of educators they wished to involve in the study and analysing their results. the contextual information of each of the four countries, especially the challenges students and educators experience in accessing quality education, including sel and career development is discussed next. the burkinabe context in burkina faso, there are many challenges that hinder students from accessing quality education regardless of their gender, income and/or place of residence (unesco, 2017). whilst 70% of the population was made up of youth and young adults under the age of 25 in 2015, the elementary school completion rate was 57% in 2013 and 2014. it was estimated that over 41% of school-age children are outside the school system. the burkina faso national education system status report (unesco, 2017) assessed gender disparities and indicated that the risk of dropping out of school is slightly higher amongst girls (54.7%) than in boys (51.8%). the risk of being out of school in rural areas is much higher at 50% than in urban areas (30.2%) (insd, 2018). basic education in burkina faso is compulsory and free for all children between the ages of 6 and 16 that cover preschool, primary and secondary levels (law no. 013-2007 / an; education orientation law). basic education aims to develop students’ physical, emotional, intellectual and artistic potential, promote the empowerment of learners and facilitate their social integration (burkina faso, 2007). however, the education orientation law lacks details and guidelines on the types of social and emotional skills that need to be taught. the topic is currently taken into account in counseling and guidance education for pre-service teachers (kaboré & nabaloum, 2014). considering the number of youth who are out of the school system or do not complete primary education, discussion on how to prepare youth for the world of work is a great concern of burkinabe educators, especially with the sel skills that would help them smoothly transition to the world of work. south african context the department of higher education and training (dhet) has identified three major challenges in south africa: poverty, inequality and unemployment (dhet, 2016). there is often a disconnect between skills development policies, economic policies, social protection and education policies (de lannoy, graham, patel, & leibbrandt, 2018; dhet, 2019; lund, 2016; eds. spaull & jansen, 2019). classroom environments in south africa are not always conducive to learning (leoschut & kafaar, 2017; makota & leoschut, 2016; mfidi, thuayagale-tsheneagae, & akpor, 2018; mncube & maphalala, 2014; romero, hall, & cluver, 2019; teeger, 2015). educators are often primary caregivers and role models of children, especially those children from child-headed households (cluver, orkin, gardner, & boyes, 2012; dass-brailsford, 2005; jansen, 2013, 2019; mohlakwana, 2013). research informs us that the mental health of both educators (moyo & perumal, 2019) and learners (mfidi, 2017; skinner, sharp, marais, serekoane, & lenka, 2019) interferes with students’ cognitive development and learning and teachers’ input. from this background, a strong case can be made for the importance of implementing social and emotional learning skills interventions for improving the learning environment and assisting young people to become more future-orientated. in the south african context, young people need to be more aware of looking for opportunities to earn a sustainable livelihood rather than making ‘career’ decisions (marsay, 2020a, 2020b). the traditional concept of ‘career’ is fragmenting at a rapid pace in the fourth industrial revolution and is not always relevant in the south african context of adversity, where unemployment is rated as one of the highest in the world. instead, youth need to be employable, self-empowered and confident enough to find opportunities to earn a sustainable livelihood. this means that they should be equipped with workplace and advanced human skills, such as self-awareness, social awareness, interpersonal relationships and effective communication skills. students are not just future workers, but future adults, parents, role models, citizens and decision makers. the implementation of sel programmes can provide the skills they need and empower and enable them to make a successful transition from school to adulthood and the world of work. togolese context the transition from education to work is of great challenge for both students and public authorities in togo as shown in its high youth unemployment and underemployment rates. it was reported that graduate students take their first job 35 months after completing their degree, on average, and one-quarter of them experience difficulties in making a satisfactory transition to work (oecd, 2016). problems also exist in school – only 12.3% of secondary school learners have access to higher education. in this constraining environment, students often seek the help of educators and their role becomes even more important when students make a career decision. given the important role of educators in the togolese context, the examination of their perceptions on social and emotional learning skills is timely and provides insights into the skills needed for togolese educators and learners. many studies suggest that the norms in the country are strongly rooted in tradition. for example, kazimna et al. (2020) reported that the respect of local norms was part of the conceptualisation of decent work by togolese adult workers. the awareness of adolescents regarding their cultural values also underlies their occupational preferences and choices (atitsogbe & bernaud, in preparation). research suggests that complying with social norms is particularly important in the sub-saharan africa context, requiring further examination when discussing sel education (nsamenang, 1992). ugandan context in uganda, there are many challenges that hinder youth from accessing educational opportunities, especially amongst girls, children with disabilities, minorities and the displaced. the inequality was found to increase as one departs from the capital city. the completion rate of primary 7, which is the last stage of basic education, was 9.6% and for rural areas, it was as low as 6.1%. according to the gender parity index (gpi) of the 2016 national census report, there were more boys than girls in school at both primary and secondary levels. the interviews conducted by the ugandan research team provide additional contextual information on the challenges when discussing sel education. as an additional outcome of this qualitative research, it was found that only a small number of university teacher trainers make an effort to teach how to acquire sel skills, and many do not consider it as their duty to teach sel skills. a limited number of the school administrators and government officials were aware of the legislative plans to teach sel skills whilst others were unaware of such plans. the school headmasters stated that the school system does not allow time for teachers to directly teach sel skills, mainly because they are not part of the academic assessments, although they believe that sel skills will help students later in life. the testimonies from ugandan educators show that there is an urgent need to create a system and programmes that would help youth and educators see the value of sel and its connection to helping youth transition to secondary education and the workplace. when combined with sel, it is possible to provide a brighter future to all of our students by increasing their chances of gaining access to decent work opportunities. method participants a total of 50 burkinabe educators from burkina faso participated in the survey (40 male and 10 female) from urban (16), rural areas (27) and suburban settings (7). a total of 26 educators worked in secondary school and 24 in primary school settings. a total of 37 participants (74%) were educators and 13 (26%) were classified as other educators that include headmasters, inspectors and supervisors. a total of 68 south african educators participated in the survey (gender information was not collected). all participants work in secondary school and teach grades 10–12. altogether 19 educators were working with children who were deaf or with learning disabilities, whilst the remaining 59 were general education educators. a total of 45 participants were located in urban areas and 23 participants were located in rural areas and collectively they represent a wide range of multicultural backgrounds and schools in gauteng, kwazulu-natal and western cape. a total of 32 togolese educators participated in the survey (27 male and five female). in all, 22 were teachers working in the primary and secondary schools and 10 were headmasters or career counsellors. a total of 19 educators worked in urban settings, nine in suburban settings and four in rural areas. a total of 48 ugandan educators participated (gender information was not collected). the participants included pre-service teacher trainees in their final year of study, in-service teachers in the primary level (grade 5) and university faculty who teach graduate-level courses. to have a deeper understanding of educator perceptions, the research team also conducted interviews with 10 teacher trainers or university faculty and eight school managers and government officials. all participants were located in the capital and attending or teaching at makerere university. procedure in order to collect and represent educator perceptions of the nature and potential value of sel, sel irn collaborated in designing a set of open-ended questions countries to consider when designing their final survey. the researchers in each country team maintained their autonomy in executing research by adapting the content of the questions, translating the survey and the choice of data collection strategies that suited their specific country and cultural context. whilst each country adapted their surveys to suit their unique context, all four countries collected information on the background of their educator participants and provided open-ended questions to establish perceptions of educators regarding sel skills in the learning environment. educators’ questions regarding the nature of sel were designed to answer two research questions: (1) what sel skills do educators believe they should be using to effectively teach their students and (2) what are educators’ perceptions of the sel skills young people need in order to successfully transition from education and training into the world of work. for the second research question regarding student sel skills, open-ended questions were developed using five sel categories offered by casel. here is the common set of survey questions: does your school or organisation offer sel programmes or activities? if yes, please describe the activities or programmes being implemented. in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: what sel skills do you believe educators should be using to effectively teach their students? how are these skills helpful as educators? in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: please describe a situation or example or episode in which sel skills can help educators work more effectively with students. in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: please describe how the following list of sel and other related skills are relevant in helping educators support youth specifically in making successful postsecondary transitions and/or preparing to enter the world of work: self-awareness: the ability to accurately recognise one’s emotions, thoughts and values and their influence on behaviour (e.g. recognising strengths and self-efficacy). self-management: the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviours effectively in different situations (e.g. stress management, self-motivation and goal setting). social awareness: the ability to understand the perspectives of others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures (e.g. empathy and respect for others). relationship and communication skills: the ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups (e.g. communication and teamwork). decision making: the ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behaviour and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences and the well-being of self and others. other skills (please specify). all four countries used an online survey to collect educator responses, with south africa providing an option of completing it on paper and uganda conducting additional interviews. after an initial round of the online survey in south africa, it was apparent that only a limited number of survey responses were valid and included in the analysis. the remaining surveys were completed using the paper and pencil method. the chosen language for the questionnaire was english. as a result of the multiple languages spoken in south africa, there was someone present to interpret questions for those participants whose first language was not english. all the answers received were in english. plan for analysis each country team received professional training on how to engage in modified grounded theory as a qualitative analytic strategy that helped to gain a richer understanding of the data collected. in conducting the modified grounded theory analyses, each country team performed its own independent analysis. in conducting the analysis, each team reviewed the educator responses without categorising them into specific questions, identified emerging themes or codes and refined the codes as they collected more data. whilst most country teams identified emerging themes or codes regardless of the survey questions asked, a few decided to separate the data focussed on educator perceptions of students’ sel skills from the data focussed on educators’ sel skills. the thematic analysis used in this study is a modified version of the steps described by braun and clarke (2006): (1) using a few sample responses, teams familiarised themselves with the data, (2) each research team member identified ideas that have meanings, created an initial list of codes and compared the codes with another coder/s (member check), (3) with the code list, teams expanded their analysis to a larger number of responses, (4) teams reviewed their codes and made modifications to refine or identify better code terms and organised them into general themes and (5) generated a final codebook by creating a definition and identifying a ‘best’ example for each theme. the research teams in burkina faso, south africa and togo used nvivo software to organise the data, which led us to produce higher-level themes by clustering the codes or themes that have similar responses (nvivo cluster analysis). qualitative cluster analysis allowed the researchers to construct the overall structure of the data (guest & mclellan, 2013). this was carried out by calculating correlations between codes using the pearson correlation coefficient, based on word similarities in educator responses (bazeley & jackson, 2013). the intention of the qualitative cluster analysis was to support the findings from the initial analysis using the modified grounded theory and gain a rich understanding of the data in the context of these four countries. the research team in uganda conducted a thematic analysis using the steps described here but did not have access to nvivo software to provide additional support to their findings. for this article, the research group consisted of four african country teams and the united states of america team as peer-reviewers. the research group used an inductive approach to compare and organise the commonalities and differences, which emerged from the findings of each country. ethical considerations boston university institutional review board determined that this research was exempt from irb guidelines for informed consent because responses from the adult age educators were anonymous and the data did not ask them to evaluate their own capacities but to serve as experts in identifying quality educational practices. results the results are described for each country team in the order of burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. using the modified grounded theory method, each country generated different sel categories grounded in the voice of their educator respondents. although the educator responses were often unclear whether they were referring to the sel skills educators should be using or students should learn to be effective learners, the findings were, when possible, labelled to differentiate the responses concerning different populations. burkina faso there were five sel categories identified from the burkinabe educators’ responses. self-awareness educators: self-knowledge was identified as an important skill for burkinabe educators. five themes were found related to self-awareness: confidence and self-esteem, knowing your role well, challenging yourself, being rigorous and disciplined and self-motivation. educators reported that it is important to feel comfortable and be aware of their own emotions in order to better teach their students. educators also reported that it is important to set a learning goal and stick to it despite difficulties they might encounter. students: the educators reported that self-awareness is important for students in developing their self-confidence, ‘they can make mistakes in their learning process, to accept their mistakes and … to make their self-criticism before making their way towards efficiency based on their strengths’. communication and interpersonal relationships educators: three themes emerged from the educator. responses regarding communication and interpersonal skills: consideration or fairness, cooperation and relational leadership. to facilitate and improve learning, educators reported that it is important to promote cooperation and mutual respect amongst students. relational leadership was identified as an important skill that enables educators to unite their students around a work goal that promotes acceptance of their authority. students: for students, educators reported that communication and interpersonal skills help them to work more effectively with their peers by, for example: ‘[c]ontributing to their open-mindedness so that they will not be arrogant, whimsical persons but will be able to build consensus on the important issues they will face in their professional/active life. in short, they will be builders and not destroyers’. (ibrahim, teacher, july 2020) social consciousness educators: educators reported that developing ‘social consciousness’ is important and refers to their knowledge of the environment and context. specific sel skills in this category that the educators believed are important for themselves include cultivating a group spirit whereby they and their students are able to ‘accept and integrate divergent opinions’, cultivate openness to others by ‘respecting others social values’, as well as establishing respect and tolerance for others by being able to express ‘forgiveness’. students: educators reported that social consciousness helps students appreciate differences by helping them: ‘[r]ealise individually that he or she is not the centre of the earth and that he or she lives in the midst of other children whom he or she must know, respect and consider their opinion’. (yasmine, teacher, july 2020) self-management educators: educators identified self-management as an important skill that helps them to promote participatory learning amongst students. students: for students, educators reported that self-management skills enable them to become committed to learning, empowered and able to build self-confidence and self-control: ‘it allows the student to be free and master of his learning. the child experiments, touches, smells, tastes, manipulates and achieves his results from a well-defined objective. this allows him to organise himself and plan his activities’. (mohamed, teacher, july 2020) decision making educators: educators reported that decision making is an important skill for creating collegiality when educators learn how to listen and take into account the diverse opinions of others. for example, one educator reported that it is important to ‘take others into account in decision making for a more effective achievement of one’s objectives’. educators observed that when decisions reflect the interests of the students, they strengthen the authority of the educators. to develop students’ decision-making skills, educators reported that it is important to encourage them to learn how to express their opinions in ways that consider weighing ideas both ‘for’ and ‘against’ a particular decision. south africa a total of seven themes were identified from the responses of south african educators. the themes most frequently reported were interpersonal relationship skills (32%), self-management (19%), social awareness (18%), positive impact on learning (16%), improved educator efficacy (7%), self-awareness (4%) and decision making (3%). responses from educators illustrated how sel skills would be of benefit to both educators and learners. the responses of south african educators also show their support for positive youth development, for example, one educator observed: ‘there are learners who have behavioural problems. if the sel skills are applied, the learners will understand and therefore learn to manage their emotions which will, in turn, result in a positive learning environment’. (kaya, teacher, may 2019) interpersonal relationship educators: the theme most frequently reported was interpersonal relationship skills. educators reported that the ability to achieve effective interpersonal relationships has a positive impact on their own well-being and the learning environment. educators reported that their ability to establish interpersonal relationships enables them to manage the classroom dynamics more effectively. students: educators reported that when students develop interpersonal skills there is less likelihood of classroom ‘friction and stressful situations’ to emerge, which then leads to ‘positive working outcomes’. self-management students: educators reported that self-management is the most important skill for students, especially when making the transition from education into the world of work. the responses grouped in this theme focussed on personal organisational skills and self-control, including the ability to set goals, manage time, be self-disciplined and regulate and manage one’s emotions. a sample response includes: ‘self-management promotes discipline. learners manage their behaviours in correspondence with their goals’. another educator expressed how: ‘[s]elf-management helps young people understand that they may be alone in the endeavours and that they need to rely on positive coping mechanisms, which can be developed in the classroom’. social awareness educators: given the many cultures represented in each class, educators reported that social awareness skills are paramount for creating a positive learning environment. educators felt that social awareness skills such as empathy and understanding how to improve their own efficacy and well-being are necessary to create an inclusive and supportive classroom. one educator stated that ‘social awareness reduces fear and discrimination. once you understand others and their background you are less likely to fear them, instead you will feel empathy and show respect’. educators’ responses highlighted the importance of being able to empathise with students who experience adversity and live within harsh environments as the foundation for facilitating forgiveness and restorative justice. positive learning environment educators or students: educators commented how sel skills would contribute to a more harmonious classroom atmosphere and positive learning environment. a sample educator response includes: ‘respect in a classroom between teachers and learners creates a peaceful working environment, which creates successful outcomes’. improved educator efficacy educators: the educators felt that sel skills would contribute to their own personal and professional well-being, because the difficulties within the present learning environment may be ameliorated. in addition, the educators believed that sel skills would enhance teachers’ ability to identify learners who were struggling with barriers to learning, especially the ones with learning and/or emotional difficulties that might have resulted from experiences of adversity. self-awareness educators: self-awareness and social awareness are inexorably intertwined in a multicultural context: ‘a teacher needs to be able to be sensitive to what the learner, in their community, deals with in order to lead them into self-awareness’. students: the educators believed that students with self-awareness can contribute to a more harmonious and positive learning environment and responsible decision making. sample responses include: ‘[self-awareness is] imperative if one wishes to integrate a learner into society and if they have no awareness of self, then they cannot be a contributing member of a team’ and ‘in order for one to be able to face the outside world and survive, they (learners) need to know who they are and what drives them as individuals’. decision making educators: the responses regarding decision making illustrated the need for making decisions regarding right or wrong behaviours towards others and the processing of possible outcomes of making the wrong decision. this is illustrated further by one of the educators’ remarks: ‘decision-making skills are important for everyday life, especially when it comes to safety concerns regarding our learners’. togo a total of five sel themes were derived from togolese educator responses. it is worth noting that togolese educators frequently made connections between sel skills and career development, partly because of the inclusion of career counsellors as participants. self-awareness educators: the central theme derived from educator responses was related to learning how to control their own emotions and temperaments as educators in order to maintain good relationships and create a climate of trust with the students. students: educators believed that with self-awareness students become more actively involved in their learning, develop self-efficacy, believe in their plans, achieve academic success and make better career choices. as one educator stated, ‘if the students know their strengths and weaknesses, they can easily succeed in their studies, guide themselves through the school curriculum, and make better career decisions’. self-management educators: the theme educator referred to the most was emotional self-control. they highlighted the need for teachers to be in control of their emotions and stress, which are crucial for classroom management (for teachers when dealing with difficult students). the second self-management theme identified for teachers to be using was autonomy and self-discipline in relation to the pursuit of their goals (e.g. planning, time management). students: the educators also highlighted the need for students to be in control of their emotions and stress, especially when they are going through difficult moments (e.g. failure). according to one educator, these skills will allow students ‘not [to] be distracted from the pursued objectives by endogenous factors and allow [students] to reach [their] goals and project [themselves] into the future’. social awareness students: social awareness was identified by the educators as an sel skill contributing to students’ social integration and career development. the skills that contribute to their social integration include sociability, developing good relationships, open-mindedness, developing life skills, empathy, patience, tolerance, indulgence, avoiding racist behaviors and taking the best out of differences. the social awareness skills that contribute to career development include integrating into groups or networks, exchanging knowledge and experiences with others, improving their performance and making friends: ‘[social awareness] will enable the learner to know how-to live-in society and to avoid marginalist or racist behaviour’. relationship and communication skills educators: educators identified relationship and communication as two related sel skills that allow them to manage students and classrooms: ‘the way we communicate will reflect the degree of trust that may exist between us’. also, ‘each student has his or her own personality, so it is necessary to adapt to [individual students] to get the message across’. students: similar to social awareness, relationship and communication skills allow students to have good integration to groups, thus facilitating learning. decision making students: the educators emphasised the importance of students engaging in informed decision making, which helps them to be autonomous and make better career decisions. moreover, they argued that students need to learn how to make ‘judicious’ decisions and choices for themselves and also in relation to others. the choices students make should be in accordance with their desires and meet cultural and societal standards. educators highlighted the importance of complying with social norms, which is important in contexts like sub-saharan africa: ‘[decision-making skill] will help [students]make informed choices in conformity with their desires but also with environmental standards’. uganda a total of four sel categories were identified from the ugandan educators’ responses. self-awareness educators: the educators mentioned that ‘becoming aware of ourselves enables us to concentrate on what we can do better leading to efficiency’. students: recognising strengths, weaknesses and interests and knowing one’s identity belong to this category: ‘it is important for students to know who they are because it is important for decision making’. empathy also belongs to this category in the ugandan context where students become aware of and get concerned about the issues of their fellow students. educators believed that when students have self-awareness skills, they help and empathise with others, allowing them to have sound judgement about others. self-management educators: when students argue, educators reported that teachers should be ready to step in and discuss self-regulation and how to manage emotions. a sample educator response includes: ‘when two boys were fighting, i talked to them about self-discipline’. students: another educator mentioned that self-management related to improving one’s weaknesses can help students attain better life outcomes. relationship and communication skills teachers: educators reported that it is important for teachers to help students build communication skills in order to support them in developing good relationships. students: relationship and communication skills are the most frequently mentioned sel skills and responses related to this theme included conflict management, creating and maintaining relationships, teamwork and respect for others. a sample educator response includes: ‘through gaining relationship and communication skills young people get social connections in life’. they also believed that having respect for others helps reduce discrimination. decision making students: three themes emerged in relation to decision making, including thinking before acting, mature decision making and situation analysis. a sample educator response includes: ‘it is important [for students] to understand the situation before taking action’. the educators considered that understanding circumstances before acting is important, and the decisions that are well thought out can lead to mature decisions and actions amongst students. discussion this study examined educator perspectives amongst four african countries regarding the nature and value of sel skills in relation to teaching and working with students, as well as sel skills students need to successfully transition into adulthood and the world of work. despite cultural and contextual differences across the countries, seven common sel themes emerged across the four countries. these themes include self-knowledge, self-control and self-regulation, empathy and compassion, valuing and accepting cultural diversity, interpersonal relationships, decision making and respect. this article adds new information to the field by proposing an sel framework that aligns to the african socio-cultural contexts whilst acknowledging that there is a need for future studies to add more african countries. common social emotional learning themes there are seven sel themes shared amongst burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. similar to the thematic analysis process conducted within each country team, the four research teams compared the codes and negotiated what needs to be included in the common themes. the consensus was reached for each of the seven categories by having in-depth conversations on each theme, how it is defined in the context of each country or culture, and example responses. whilst some of the categories overlap with the existing framework of casel, such as interpersonal relationships, decision making and self-knowledge (self-awareness), it is our consensus that they are defined narrower or broader in the context of the four african countries and worth examining the differences in order to create quality sel programmes and activities. table 1 provides the summary statements of the seven common themes based on the consensus amongst the country teams, followed by detailed explanations on how they differ from the existing sel frameworks. table 1: summary statements of seven common social emotional learning themes. self-knowledge skills consisted of the following competencies: being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses knowing one’s own capacity being aware of one’s own identity seeking to improve their strengths and weaknesses. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflect the need to be aware of one’s identity, emotions, strengths and weaknesses and improve self-knowledge skills to contribute to society. the educators in the four countries used the term self-knowledge more often than self-awareness in responding to the survey. if self-awareness involves understanding ones’ thoughts, emotions and values, it is deemed that based on the educator responses, self-knowledge focusses on the awareness of strength and weakness areas that contributes to one’s capacity and identity building. self-control and self-regulation skills consisted of the following competencies: controlling one’s own emotions managing behaviours and providing a safer classroom environment (educators) coping with difficult situations in pursuit of one’s goals discussing self-discipline with students to help them better manage their emotions (educators). the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflect the need to be able to control one’s emotions and behaviours in pursuit of their goals. this allows educators to manage different classroom situations and create a safe learning environment. although the terms used to describe self-control and self-regulation seem similar to how self-management is defined, they are different because the educators in the study focussed on regulating internal feelings and behaviours and did not necessarily extend to the next levels of self-management skills, such as motivating and taking initiatives. it is understood that the focus on regulation skills is because of the many challenges the students in the four countries are facing in accessing quality education, which asks them to prioritise controlling their current situations. empathy and compassion skills consisted of the following competencies: expressing concern about and understanding others and their contexts, which allow them to become patient and tolerate differences dealing with possible adversity. the consensus amongst the country teams was that empathy and compassion enable educators to tolerate and appreciate individual differences by understanding others’ contexts and dealing with possible adversity. this is consistent with the results of our prior study that focussed on empathy skills across seven countries and suggested a broader definition of empathy (kounenou et al., in press). the ability to engage in empathy and compassion is felt by educators to enable them to effectively engage in other sel themes, such as valuing and accepting cultural diversity, respect and relationship skills. each of these themes was frequently mentioned by the educators, implying that they may be especially significant for educators from the four african countries. valuing and accepting cultural diversity skills consisted of the following competencies: teaching social virtues and values understanding others’ backgrounds, reducing fear and discrimination, forgiving and participating in restorative justice valuing diversity whilst complying with social norms cultivating group spirit and social cohesion making a sound judgement about others. the consensus amongst the country teams was that by understanding social values whilst respecting cultural diversity, educators are able to help reduce one’s fear and discrimination, forgive and repair the harms caused by conflicting behaviours. this helps to rebuild relationships, collaborate and cultivate group spirit, leading to social cohesion. this can ultimately contribute to building empathy and compassion skills. many sel skills in this category imply the conflicts that exist in these four countries that challenge students and educators. they suffer from discrimination and racism, and the process of reducing fear and repairing harm is considered one of the important goals that need to be addressed in sel education. valuing and accepting cultural diversity is deemed not only a skill one can possess but an important educational strategy that educators can use to address the tension in the classroom. interpersonal relationship skills were expressed as a prerequisite skill that contributes to creating a positive learning and work environment. some unique themes were identified in this category, including equity or fairness in the classroom, relational leadership and being role models for students. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflected the need to be able to create and maintain good relationships and work together towards common goals (teamwork). this helps educators to create a positive learning environment. although this is a common theme identified across different sel frameworks, including the casel’s, the interpersonal relationship skills in the present study are deemed unique because the educators highlight equity in the relationships and leadership development amongst individuals. this implies that the development of teamwork and collaboration can begin by recognising the skills within individuals, and when each student develops leadership in an equitable environment, they are able to create and maintain authentic relationships. decision-making skills consisted of the following competencies: taking into account students’ opinions (educators) knowing right and wrong, moral understanding making judicious choices for oneself and others having students engaged in decision making (educators). some unique themes also emerged in this category, including acceptance of the decision-making choices in accordance with one’s desire and social norms and maintaining personal safety. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educators reflected on taking into account the opinions of students and making wise decisions and judgement about others. whilst decision-making skills typically involve analysing the potential consequences and how they influence oneself, family and the community, many educators who participated in this study raised concern about the lack of involvement of their students in the decision-making process. according to the educator’s responses, student involvement is meaningful in three ways: it increases self-confidence, improves leadership and most importantly, helps them learn from the experience how to make ‘caring and constructive choices’ (casel, n.d.). it was also important for the educators that students are more likely to accept the decisions when they are involved in the process. respect is a theme that showed the most complexities across the four countries. each country considered respect within a different boundary or context. the educators in burkina faso placed respect under communication and interpersonal relationships and defined it as mutual respect amongst students. burkinabe educators discussed respect in terms of social consciousness defined as students learning how to respect and tolerate others, leading them to forgiveness. the educators in south africa considered respect as a skill that begins with the ability of being aware of one’s own identity (self-respect) within a multicultural context. whilst learning how self-respect starts at home, south african educators expressed that teachers are often the parents and role models to many students. similarly, the educators in togo considered respect a skill that starts from self-awareness. when the educators are aware that they can tolerate differences in opinions, they are able to show respect to others. similar to burkina faso, the educators in uganda placed respect under communication and interpersonal relationships, and its educators believed that they are able to reduce discrimination through respect. the consensus amongst the country team was that the educators reflected on respect in various learning and work situations. it starts from being aware of one’s own identity or self-respect and involves tolerating others’ points of view. this helps to reduce discrimination and leads to forgiveness. it is worth mentioning that many togolese educators discussed sel skills in relation to career development, partly because of the participation of career counsellors in the study. the findings show that social awareness, in particular, was important in the career development of togolese students. by exchanging knowledge with others and networking, the educators believed that the students are able to build skills towards their future careers. self-awareness, especially being aware of their strengths and weaknesses, also helps students make better career choices. in the decision-making process, the educators strongly believed that it is critical to have students engage in informed decision making so that they can be more autonomous, leading to better career decisions. conclusion the perspectives of the educators in burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda offer a culturally responsive sel model that reflects the african contexts as its students and educators face different challenges in school and at home, therefore requiring different sel skills. specifically, we focussed on the sel skills that educators should be using to effectively teach their students, as well as the sel skills the educators believe students should be using to be effective learners and to successfully transition into the world of work. the seven sel themes discussed in this article offer a starting point for creating an sel theory of action (see figure 1) that reflects the sociocultural contexts of the represented african countries. our plan for adding more african countries to our analysis enables us to strengthen our framework with more educator responses. the given theory of action lists the strategies to use when implementing sel education in africa based on the findings of the present study and the process includes three steps: action, outcome and impact. the seven sel skills identified in the study are either an action or outcome, with appreciating diversity and decision-making being outcomes that would come after building various foundational sel skills. as action items, these skills can be developed by focussing on building self-knowledge, self-regulation, empathy and compassion and respect. this in turn will result in the outcomes of increased skills in appreciating differences, informed decisions, cohesion or group spirit or unity and connectedness. ultimately, this leads to whole-child development and an increased impact on a broader society that can be described as thriving, community harmony and the future readiness (solberg, park, & marsay, 2020) amongst african youth. figure 1: social emotional learning skills theory of action. the present study aimed to carefully consider the nature and value of sel by focussing the conversation on the voices of their respective educators and situating the emerging themes within the context of each african country represented. given the complexities of culture and politics in africa, further studies are needed with more countries or cultures in africa to further refine and define the emerging sel theory of action and understand how it applies to different country contexts. the present study contributes to the efforts of translating research into practice by examining the perceptions of the educators in the field as a starting point and ultimately plans to use the findings to identify ways to infuse sel into educational 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(2015). social and emotional skills for life and career: policy levers that focus on the whole child. centre on great teachers and leaders. american institutes for research. retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed558022 abstract introduction background literature theoretical framework research methods and design findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) matimba g. nghonyama department of business studies, vhembe tvet college, sibasa, south africa lucky maluleke department of post-schooling, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa tshidiso seitshiro department of post-schooling, faculty of education, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation nghonyama, m.g., maluleke, l., & seitshiro, t. (2023). careership: the experiences of women in choosing career paths in tvet in south africa. african journal of career development, 5(1), a84. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.84 original research careership: the experiences of women in choosing career paths in tvet in south africa matimba g. nghonyama, lucky maluleke, tshidiso seitshiro received: 26 apr. 2023; accepted: 07 july 2023; published: 16 oct. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this study explored the potential role that gender and race play in influencing the career choices of technical and vocational education and training (tvet) college students. objectives: this research aimed to explore the possible role that gender and race play in influencing the career choice of students enrolled at one of the country’s public tvet colleges. method: an exploratory qualitative approach was adopted for this study. a total of 33 students were randomly selected to form part of the study sample. a convenient sampling method was used to select a total of 33 students who participated from three campuses. multiple data collection methods comprising semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to collect data. thematic content analysis was used to analyse the collected data. results: the findings reveal that gender and race continue to play a significant role in career decision-making and career destinations of students. in particular, the results show that it is important to pay special attention to women in tvet colleges. conclusion: the article concludes that career decision-making is an important topic in the public tvet college sector. it is important to look at the enablers and disablers of career decision-making, including gender and race. contribution: the study contributes towards guiding tvet colleges on how to support new entrants with their career choices. it brings further insight into the potential role of gender and race in influencing the career choices of students enrolling at tvet colleges. keywords: gender; career; career choices; students; technical vocational; education and training. introduction the influence of gender in determining one’s career choice is well documented (colley et al., 2007; matenda, 2017; mtemeri, 2017). literature on career choices and educational access tends to emphasise social structures such as race, gender and class. a case in point is the work of pierre bourdieu, which looks at how the habitus influences the actions of individuals, thereby pointing out the different career paths that women take (bourdieu & passeron, 1977, 1979). the study reveals that men and women experience the world differently, and their varying experiences lead them to different destinations. although the data were generated with men and women, this article focuses on women’s experiences. the challenges that women face in life are shown to play a huge role in how they navigate through life. in south africa, socio-cultural factors such as socialisation, cultural beliefs and social expectations, gender stereotypes and patriarchal expectations have, for years, played an influential role in shaping the career paths for both male and female students. statistics reveal that men continue to dominate engineering-related programmes. for example, the 2018 statistical report of the department of higher education and training shows that a total of 131 212 students enrolled for the national certificate vocational (ncv) programme nationally. of the 131 212 students, 27 695 enrolled for programmes such as office administration, 9050 enrolled for civil engineering and building construction, 8226 enrolled for tourism, 225 enrolled for process plant operations and 840 enrolled for mechatronics (republic of south africa, 2020). the statistics further show that men are concentrated in n1–n3 programmes, which are generally engineering-related qualifications. women are more concentrated in the n4–n6 programmes, a mixture of business and engineering studies. in short, the statistics show that although the number of women has increased in public technical and vocational education and training (tvet) colleges and engineering-related programmes, they continue to dominate in programmes such as office administration (republic of south africa, 2020). despite this, there is currently a shortage of information on the role that gender plays in influencing the career decision-making of students enrolled on the country’s public tvet colleges. there is, therefore, a need for studies of this nature to be carried out to determine whether the gender of students plays a role in influencing their career choices. it further looks at the education system and its influence on the career destinations of young people. the careership theory addresses gender and its influence on career choices, but this is mainly about the male-dominant versus female-dominant occupations (hodkinson et al., 1996). south africa is a unique country with diverse racial groups and inequalities formed along these racial lines. here, we narrow this down to ‘being a young black woman’ in south africa and how this influences one’s life experience, educational experience, career options and choices. by focusing on women’s experiences, we show that career decision-making is not a neutral act but is influenced by various factors, such as gender. given that we are writing in the south african context, we further show how being a black woman brings unique challenges that can affect career decision-making. background literature literature shows that career decision is one of the most important steps that young people must take at some point in their lives (booyens & crause, 2012; shumba & naong, 2012). these career decisions are a lifelong developmental process (ayiah-mensah et al., 2014). they are not neutral but are influenced by the environment in which social actors live, socialisation, and social and cultural position. for example, women continue to face challenges that hinder their academic and career progress. according to the report by the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) (2022), only 25% of women in somalia are literate. from the report, it was clear that most females in somalia are prevented from pursuing their studies because of religious and cultural norms. this is further supported by a study by ali farah (2020), who revealed that the low literacy rate in somalia is caused by cultural and societal norms that prioritise male education and undervalue female education. the ongoing conflict in somalia has also made it difficult for women to access education. other countries facing a low literacy rate for african women are sudan, ethiopia and chad (unesco, 2022). south africa has shown improvement in the high percentage of women accessing tvet colleges. according to a statistics report on post-schooling education and training in south africa, the total enrolments for ncv programmes were 142 373, with females 90 099 and males 52 274 in 2017 (dhet, 2020). in addition, the enrolment for national accredited technical education diploma (nated) programmes was 282 609 for females and 227 544 for males in 2017. the report shows a higher proportion of enrolled female students for tvet programmes compared with male students. even though female students are increasingly enrolled in commerce and humanities programmes, the country still faces the challenge of low female enrolment in science, technology, engineering, and mstem) subjects (dhet, 2020; unesco, 2022). there are also challenges that female tvet students face in the process of their academic journey, which affect their performance in class and are identified by several scholars in education, such as stereotyping, gender-based violence (gbv), financial stress, family and household responsibilities, and psychological health support (madara & cherotich, 2016). it is important to observe that while violence affects everyone, women suffer even more from gbv. gender-based violence is a global issue that has existed for a long time. it cuts across cultures and sectors of society. in the education sector, female students face various forms of gbv, such as sexual harassment, rape and physical assault (tikly vogel & kurves, 2020). these issues are faced in the communities where they stay and in the education environment. a study conducted by the south african human rights commission (sahrc) in 2017 found that 30% of female students had experienced sexual harassment, while 4% had experienced rape or attempted rape in the higher education sector (mojapelo & ngoepe, 2017). the study also revealed that only 4% of the victims had reported the incidents to college authorities. similarly, a study conducted by the higher education and training hiv/aids programme (heaids) in 2018 found that 27% of female tvet college students had experienced sexual harassment, while only 16% of the victims had reported the incidents (mbelle et al., 2018). the government has proposed several interventions, including awareness campaigns, training and policy implementation, to prevent gbv in tvet colleges. female students in tvet colleges in south africa may face several challenges, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. some challenges include managing family and household responsibilities, including caring for children or elderly family members, cooking, cleaning and other household chores (bukhosini, 2019). these responsibilities can limit their time and energy to focus on their academic work, leading to lower grades and decreased academic performance. in south africa, during the time of the national development plan, kariem and mbete (2012) painted a picture of the reality of young women in south africa. they showed that women from disadvantaged backgrounds are likely to have more responsibilities at home than their male counterparts. consequently, their education is likely to suffer (kariem & mbete, 2012). theoretical framework this study is framed within careership theory, a sociological theory examining the social, economic, cultural, political and other environmental factors influencing young people’s lives and career choices (hodkinson & sparkes, 1997; maluleke et al., 2022). the fundamental idea in careership theory is that young people make career decisions concerning their fields depending on available resources and their socialisation (lindblad & lundahl, 2020; maluleke, 2022). the field is simply a setting where people (social agents) operate. habitus refers to the embodiments of cultural capital, habits and skills people accumulate throughout their lives (reay, 2004). a horizon is associated with vision or the extent to which a person can see. in careership theory, the horizon is related to human knowledge and the ability to act. young people’s career choices are influenced by what they know, and their actions are influenced by their position and embodied dispositions. the careership theory regards the individual as a player among other players in career decisions. individuals are not always directly responsible for or in full control of their career choices (hodkinson, 2009). the careership theory considers social inequality to be important in career decision-making (hodkinson & sparkes, 1997). the theory points to gender inequalities and stereotypes in education and training. it shows how women were made to feel redundant in previously male-dominant occupations. also, the theory assumes that a social position, be it gender, race or social class, is central to career decision-making (hodkinson et al., 1996). however, these inequalities must be understood in relation to the context and historical period of the careership theory, the 1990s united kingdom. also, the theory must be read in conjunction with bourdieu’s social theory. concerning these inequalities, recent literature has shown that the careership theory remains powerful in explaining the south african situation of gender and racial inequality (maluleke, 2022; maluleke et al., 2022). to achieve such an understanding, the authors argue that the theory must be contextualised critically (maluleke et al., 2022). aim the study explored the experiences of female students in choosing career paths at a public tvet college. specific objectives to explore the role of gender as a possible influencer for career choice for female students enrolled at a public tvet college to establish possible challenges confronting female students registered at a public tvet college concerning making career choices research methods and design research design an exploratory, qualitative research design was adopted for this study. the study was exploratory because there has not been research in public tvet colleges that focuses on career decision-making, so the study sought to explore this area along with a potential theory – careership. also, the careership theory is neither popular nor dominant (maluleke et al., 2022; powell, 2014); hence, it was explored in this study. adopting the qualitative approach allowed researchers to gain an in-depth insight into the subject under investigation by allowing participants to express their lived experiences and viewpoints regarding the topic (babbie, 2021). in particular, using the qualitative approach allowed researchers to gain a subjective reflection of tvet college-registered female students’ experiences on the possible influences of gender in their career choices (bryman, 2008). study setting the study focused on three campuses of one of the country’s 50 public tvet colleges located in the eastern cape province. population and sampling the study participants were registered male and female students from three campuses of a public tvet college located in the eastern cape, south africa. although men and women were involved in data generation, only data from selected women are presented in this article. a convenient sampling method was used to select 33 participants. of the 33 participants, 16 were identified to participate individually and face to face with researchers (maluleke, 2022). only full-time students were considered as participants, while part-time students were excluded as potential participants. the 16 participants who were interviewed individually were chosen based on availability, especially because they lived in college residences. therefore, availability after college classes was not a huge problem. some students did not live in residence, so they had to leave college before it was late, as they mentioned that they were likely to be mugged. also, getting a recognisable presence of men and women in the individual interviews was important. most importantly, the 16 participants were chosen based on their willingness to be interviewed individually. table 1 displays the background information of the participants. table 1: background of participants. data collection semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to collect qualitative data for this study. researchers prepared pre-written questions that were used as interview guide. the interview guide was necessary to influence the direction of the interview. these questions were in line with specific objectives. the use of semi-structured interviews for individual interviews and focus groups allowed participants to ‘tell their story’ (conrad, 2001) regarding the influences and role, if any, of gender in the career choices of female tvet students. this approach allowed the researchers to obtain narrative data in participants’ own words while controlling the interview topic. individual interviews were conducted with 16 female students conveniently sampled from the three campuses. all interviews were conducted at the student’s respective campuses and took less than an hour. in addition to the individual interviews, one focus group meeting, each comprising 11 participants, was held on each of the three campuses. the focus group meetings were also conducted at students’ respective campuses. a digital audio recorder was used to record the proceeding of both interviews and focus groups with the permission of the participants. data analysis thematic content analysis is an interpretative application of content analysis in which the analysis focuses on thematic content that is identified, categorised and elaborated based on systematic scrutiny (babbie, 2021). the first stage of qualitative data analysis involved preparing the data for analysis, for example, transcription. this entailed using a computer to transcribe recorded interviews verbatim from isixhosa to english and saving the transcribed data as a microsoft word (ms) document. the second stage involved noting items of interest from the text. this was achieved by initially reading the text for the emergence of themes. this was followed closely by the third stage which involved reading the text to facilitate the micro-analysis of data for open coding. upon completing this stage, the researcher sorted items of interest from data into themes and organised them into categories containing similar topics. the fourth stage involved inspecting the proto-themes. this step involved examining each theme in order to determine their current meaning. the researcher then created a provincial name and flexible definition for each emerging theme. the fifth stage involved re-examining texts for relevant incidents of data for each theme. this was achieved by re-contextualising data in categories developed through the analysis. this process led to the sixth stage, which involved constructing the final form of each theme. this was carried out by re-examining names, definitions and supporting data for the final construction of each theme using all material relating to it. ethical considerations firstly, necessary permissions were secured from relevant stakeholders before the study could be carried out. ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the nelson mandela university research ethics committee (human) (no. h17-edu-ere-027). secondly, informed consent was secured from the 33 participants prior to the commencement of the data collection process. the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants were protected by replacing their real names from the interviews with pseudo names. participants were notified that their participation was voluntary and that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any time (babbie, 2021). furthermore, a commitment was made to all participants that counselling services would be made available to anyone who will require counselling as a consequence of participating in the study. findings and discussion the study explored the experiences of female students in choosing career paths while registering to study at tvet colleges in south africa. the following are the main findings of this study. determinants of career choices for female technical and vocational education and training registered students the results of this study reveal that gender stereotypes had no bearing in influencing the career choices of most participants. instead, most participants indicated that their career choices were influenced solely by personal interests, not gender and societal expectations. these views were shared by both engineering studies-registered and business studies-registered students. these findings differ from those of the prior research studies, which revealed that gender stereotypes play a pivotal role in influencing the career choices of students registering at institutions of higher learning (andrew & flashman, 2017; ayiah-mensah et al., 2014; hilal & mcgrath, 2016; ledman, nylund, rönnlund, & rosvall, 2021). many of these studies reveal that women are most likely to enrol in what is perceived as ‘feminine’ programmes, for example, business management, hospitality and clothing. on the contrary, male students are most likely to enrol in what is perceived to be ‘masculine’ programmes such as civil and electrical engineering. in one of the interviews, one participant mentioned that: ‘i don’t really weigh myself down to that and say, “this is for males and this is for females”. i chose this because i wanted to, not because i’m a woman’. (licebo, individual interview, lives in booysens park) these findings are congruent with those of earlier results by valls (2020). in a study titled influence of gender stereotypes on career choice, valls found that gender stereotypes had no bearing on how women make decisions relating to their career choices. instead, women’s career choices are often influenced by expectations, abilities, interests and personal tastes (valls, 2020). this clearly indicates that women no longer base their academic choices on their gender but on their personal interests. this view was placed into perspective by one interviewee named sindiswa. according to sindiswa, women should not allow gender stereotypes to hinder them from pursuing so-called male occupations. she argued that with self-belief and determination, women could excel even in professions requiring physical endurance, such as construction, regardless of gender. she dismissed the idea that women are not physically strong enough to execute physical duties related to construction work as a product of patriarchal thinking. this view was supported by many of the interviewees who participated in the study. these findings seem to dismiss earlier findings that portray women as active participants in perpetuating patriarchal thinking because of the internalisation of their own inferior identity compared with that of men (fawole, 2018; lerner, 1986; perez, 2019). therefore, it is reasonable to assume that women are slowly emerging from living under the shadows and are ready to rise above the societal limits set for them through long-held gender stereotypes and compete with men on an equal footing. there is also general congruency among participants that women are equally capable of executing duties and responsibilities of previously male-dominated professions. these findings are a clear indications of a change in the trajectory of how women used to view themselves in comparison to men. women seem determined to change the popular and mostly misguided narrative that women belong in the kitchen. the following excerpt is representative of the views of most participants on the issue: ‘you would get those people that [sic] think that women cannot do … like for example, engineering and stuff. yes, you would find women there but before, that was not the case, they were mostly male dominated. most women think that they ought to do softer jobs, an office you see, not hard labour. but now things have changed, you get women doing hard labour, building houses, all of that.’ (sindiwa, individual interview, lives in matatiele) the role of male lecturers and male employers in influencing female students’ career choices the findings further reveal that while female students believe that personal interests and not gender stereotypes influenced their career choices, the behaviours of some male lecturers and male employers make them question their ability to succeed in their chosen careers. the majority of participants revealed that some male lecturers and employers demonstrate behaviours aimed at discouraging female students from pursuing engineering-related programmes because of their gender. the following excerpt from sindiwa demonstrates such behaviour: ‘it shouldn’t be like that, because most of the time we can do what you [men] can do. i can do the installation normally but if we can go to submit our cvs at [name of electricity company], always they prefer the guys because they think he can step on the ladder [sic] … he can carry… you see! it’s always the case. even the lecturers here do that. when we do practicals they tell you that ‘you know what, don’t carry that’. who’s gonna carry it for me if i don’t?’ (sindiswa, individual interview, lives in matatiele) these responses demonstrate how employers and lecturers continue to perpetuate gender stereotypes actively. this is despite the determination of female students to break the barriers resulting from the perpetuation of these stereotypes. the findings of this study demonstrate how some lecturers within the tvet sector continue to hold patriarchal and gender-stereotypical views that consider female students as unsuitable candidates for vocational programmes such as engineering studies. these lecturers use ‘subtle bullying’ tactics to discourage female students from pursuing engineering and science-related qualifications (makarova et al., 2016). these findings are congruent with that of an earlier study by matenda (2020). in studying the experiences of female students at a tvet college, matenda (2020) found that lecturers within the engineering field would make undesirable comments about female students registered for engineering programmes to discourage them from pursuing engineering. this behaviour often damages the students’ academic performance, who often feel that their ability to succeed academically is being questioned solely because of their gender (matenda, 2020). one of the main themes emerging from this study is the acknowledgement that being a woman comes with challenges, highlighting that women often face heavier burdens than men. the findings of the study further reveal that gender stereotypes further extend to the workplace. as with lecturers, certain employers, particularly in engineering, continue to view female graduates as unsuitable candidates for engineering-related jobs. the findings of this study and that of matenda demonstrate that gender stereotypes remain prevalent within academic institutions and workplaces. despite all the efforts that women make in challenging stereotypes both at school and at work, it seems that their ability to freely participate in what is considered a ‘men’s professions’ environment will always be hindered by a few men with patriarchal attitudes who will always remind them that they did not belong. their situation is further exacerbated by motherhood, which often throws a spanner in their academic endeavours. of all the female participants who partook in this study, only three did not have children at the time of the interview. those with children had to pause their educational pursuits at some point to care for their children. licebo and nolubabalo, for example, had to work to support their children. this is a common phenomenon, particularly among young mothers. their situation is further exacerbated by a lack of support from family members and fathers of their children, who are often absent fathers. nomhle expressed this during the individual interview, stating that children slow down one’s advancement. this is primarily because women typically take on the responsibility of caring for and looking after the children, especially in cases where the father is absent. based on the findings of this study, it is safe to say that to truly comprehend the dynamics of career choices for women truly, it is essential to understand the internal and external forces influencing individuals making those decisions. the careership theory emphasises that life is a holistic experience and should not be fragmented or segmented. career decisions are intertwined with the overall life journey of the decision-makers (hodkinson, 2008). although the career choices of women who participated in this study were influenced by personal interests (internal forces), the discouraging behaviours of male lecturers and employers and motherhood issues (external forces) played a role in their academic success. for instance, licebo and nomhle could not freely choose an educational programme because of the limitations imposed by their prior life experiences. conclusion society is changing, with an increasing number of women entering fields traditionally dominated by men, albeit with lingering traces of gender stereotypes in various areas. gender still holds significance in individuals’ life choices. while it may not always be accurate to say, ‘i chose a or b because i am a woman’ or ‘i did this or that because i am a man’, the experiences of men and women differ, and these experiences shape their actions and choices in distinct ways. while enrolling for the course of their choice in a post-school education and training institution was seen as a miraculous achievement for most participants considering their poor backgrounds, academic success requires exceptional determination. in addition to dealing with discouraging comments from male lecturers, students still face the daunting task of convincing male employers that they are worthy employees. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the project supervisors, dr lesley powell and prof. shervani pillay, who supervised the doctoral study but are not part of writing this article. data were collected during 2018 and 2019 for a doctoral thesis titled ‘rethinking our understanding of career decision making: the views of students at a selected south african tvet college on what influences their career decisions’. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.g.n. is responsible for putting together the article, correspondence, writing and editing, and finalising everything. l.m. is responsible for the original research project, editing and writing, and data analysis. t.s. is responsible for the literature review, initiating drafts and proofreading. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability although the data are not made publicly available, and there is no unique identifier or accession code or number, the thesis contains some parts of the data. the data are available in terms of transcripts that are kept private and can be requested from the corresponding author l.m. upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not 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(2020). influence of gender stereotypes on career choices: a cross-sectional study on catalan adolescents. unpublished dissertation. university of pompeo fabra. abstract introduction the juniortukkie initiative the juniortukkie empowerment programme theoretical overview and conceptual framework rationale of the study aims of the study research methodology participants and context data collection instruments rigour of the study results discussion interpretation of results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) petrus lombard department of student enrolment, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation lombard, p. (2020). factors that influence transition from high school to higher education: a case of the juniortukkie programme. african journal of career development, 2(1), a5. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.5 review article factors that influence transition from high school to higher education: a case of the juniortukkie programme petrus lombard received: 23 oct. 2019; accepted: 18 dec. 2019; published: 26 feb. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article reports on the academic and non-academic factors that influence new students’ successful transition from high school to higher education. the study was inspired by the universal concern about the low retention rates among students in higher education in general, and the high annual dropout rate of students from south african institutions in particular. in 2013, the dropout rate stood at 35%. objective: the objective of the study was to find out which factors. academically as well as non-academic factors influenced the juniortukkie group in their successful transition from high school to higher education. method: my research involved a case study of members of the juniortukkie (jt) empowerment initiative (between 2009 and 2013), and both quantitative (online questionnaires) and qualitative (focus group interviews) data was collected. results: the findings revealed that combinations of academic factors such as personal skills, academic skills, academic support, career counselling intervention, hard work, and perseverance to a large extent account for the successful transition from high school to higher education. similarly, non-academic factors such as interpersonal relationship skills, positive emotions, religion, and peer acceptance contributed to students’ successful transition. financial affairs – from a student’s financial status to various sources of financial backing – are other vital determinants in the transitioning endeavour. conclusion: the study illustrated that the specific challenges associated with new students’ transitional experiences demand the strategic intervention of initiatives (such as juniortukkie), which assume responsibility for the implementation of programmes to address all academic and non-academic transitional factors. keywords: access; transition; academic factors; non-academic factors; high school; higher education; qualitative assessment; quantitative assessment; combined approach. introduction the matter of low retention rates amongst students in higher education is a universal concern (crosling, heagney, & thomas, 2009). in south africa, the annual dropout rate of students from local institutions was 35% in 2012 (department of higher education and training [dhet], 2013). ndebele (2013, cited in maree, 2015) highlights students’ inadequate achievement in higher education in south africa and reports that only approximately 25% of students at residential universities graduate within the minimum time allowed, and only 35% of the total number of students enrolling in any given year obtain their degrees within 5 years. the department of higher education and training lists in its 2013 white paper (based on figures from 2012) a number of possible reasons for this inadequate success rate and states that insufficient student support, inadequate facilities and deficient student accommodation currently do not meet the high demands of higher education. other factors that contribute to poor performances by students include inequalities in the schooling system, inadequate funding, high student–staff ratios and insufficient support for both academic and social adjustments to university life. school-leavers generally tend to be unprepared for the demands of tertiary studies because of poor academic standards prevailing at the school level. although local universities provide several kinds of intervention, the high dropout rate remains a major concern for south african government and higher education sector (maree, 2015). financial constraints often result in excluding students – even when they have obtained good marks – from further academic pursuits, exacerbating this dire situation (steyn, harris, & hartell, 2014; strydom, kuh, & mentz, 2010). unfortunately, most learning institutions attempt to address the poor schooling background only after students have entered higher education. only a handful of institutions intervene proactively by attending to this problem already at high school level (bangser, 2008). the problem of poor preparation of secondary school graduates who enter higher education is exacerbated in south africa by the inheritance of apartheid education, which expressly underfunded the education of black people. this resulted in inequalities in educational provision and outcomes across various racial groups, with white students faring far better than black students. with the advent of democracy in 1994, the newly elected democratic government implemented reforms to address the legacy of apartheid. these included reforms with regard to education finance, curriculum content and the teacher rationalisation process. after the first democratic elections in 1994, several policy changes were implemented. this required universities to introduce innovative ways of helping students to successfully transition from high school to higher education (dhet, 2013). numerous reasons have been advanced to explain why a relatively low grade 12 pass rate of 74%, against a graduation rate of only 15% in higher education, was achieved in 2011 (dhet, 2013). although the annual grade 12 pass rate has since increased to exceed 82% in 2016, a corresponding increase in the retention rate (and thus a decrease in the dropout rate) of higher education students has yet to manifest itself. the concerns of the south african government and educational institutions about this matter have emphasised the importance of looking into ways of ensuring the effective and successful retention of students whilst enrolled in higher education. jansen (2008) states that there is considerable evidence that current preparation at schools is inadequate in securing a successful transition from high school to higher education. most of the students find the transition difficult or simply lack the necessary skills and motivation to succeed in higher education. coaching (intervention) programmes should target learners early on in their high school careers and inform them about the requirements of higher education enrolment (klasik, 2012). despite the high dropout rate in the first year and the lack of sufficient information provided to learners in high school, some high school students nevertheless manage to make a successful transition to higher education. this study therefore aimed to analyse the factors that account for such a successful transition. it used the juniortukkie (jt) initiative as a case study to study this phenomenon of transition from high school to university. the juniortukkie initiative the jt initiative was launched in 2004 with the vision of developing academic achievers from disadvantaged backgrounds (regardless of whether they eventually applied for study at the university of pretoria) and generically increasing the number of new first-year applicants from previously disadvantaged communities. the name is derived from ‘tuks’, which is an informal moniker of the university of pretoria (up). the first formal jt initiative was when two school learners were sent to the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) agency in houston, texas, and accumulated a membership of 7 000 learners (grades 10–12) in southern africa by 2014. since the beginning of 2016, grade 9 learners have also been included in the jt initiative to assist them in their selection of career options for grade 10. on average, 65% of the jt learners become students at the up. learners who do not proceed to study at up do so owing to various factors, which include exclusion from selection for their chosen courses (even when they qualify for selection), a preference to study closer to home, financial considerations or being awarded attractive bursaries and scholarships for studying at other institutions. participants in the jt initiative were initially identified in grade 10, and from 2017 in grade 9. they have to maintain their academic standards to remain members of the programme, and they must re-register annually to update their personal information. in summary, the jt initiative adopts a holistic approach to empower and prepare prospective students for the academic, emotional and social challenges that may await them in the tertiary environment. for grade 9 learners, the focus is on assisting them to make sound subject choices for grade 10 as well as for their future career path. grades 10–12 learners benefit from several empowerment projects that aim to equip them for a smooth transition to higher education life. these projects involve courses that provide guidance regarding career options, emotional intelligence (clarke, 2005; norton, 2010; zepke & leach, 2010), mathematical reasoning (pasensie, 2012), computer skills, and reading and comprehension skills (including a free eye test and prescription glasses). accordingly, the jt initiative incorporated the following interpersonal skills as focal points in its approach: verbal communication, listening, problem-solving, decision-making and assertiveness. one of the benefits of jt is that qualifying learners become eligible for bursaries once they register at up. the bursaries are funded by up, as well as by outside companies as part of their corporate social responsibility for education. the benefits also include sponsorships by external companies for selected black (equity) learners and the provision of social activities designed to foster networking and relationship building (carter, swedeen, & kurkowski, 2008). the juniortukkie empowerment programme as part of a up initiative to recruit black learners from disadvantaged communities, jt developed an empowerment programme for students in grade 11 who are already part of the jt club – within south africa, as well as from countries in the southern african development community (sadc). for participation in the juniortukkie empowerment programme, learners must obtain a minimum mark of 60% in english, mathematics and physical science in their grade 10 final examination. their enrichment is extended to grade 12 by allowing them to participate in the grade 12 preparation conference. the participants are part of a specific intervention programme over 2 years, which includes 2 weeks of intensive training, online reading, psychometric testing, visits to faculties, mathematics and physical science enrichment classes and motivational sessions. the jt programme also assists those students who register at up in their first year (and who want to participate) in extra classes in calculus maths, statistics, chemistry and statistics. juniortukkie also offers support to those students who need help. to align the jt programme with the university’s strategic vision, the following specific objectives and expectations were formulated: generically increase the number of new first-year applicants from previously disadvantaged communities for studies in 2008 and beyond give hope to learners from previously disadvantaged communities for a successful study and career future ensure that quality students are empowered and attracted according to the university’s strategic objectives increase the reading speed of new first-year applicants based on the high correlation between reading speed and academic success fulfil the need to disseminate general and specialised information on the university to all attendees use the juniortukkie empowerment programme for grade 11 learners as an opportunity to establish a long-term, client-centred approach as part of the recruitment process embark on a holistic approach to develop and prepare prospective students for the challenges that await them in a tertiary environment – on an academic, emotional and social level (wood & olivier, 2004). as a research focus, the various interventions that were implemented to support these learners in their transition from high school to higher education were all investigated. from 2009 to 2013, certain factors that influenced successful transition were researched and incorporated into the jt initiative for grades 10–12 learners. as the programmes were developed over 5 years, the project led to a higher number of learners from the disadvantage community who applied at up, whilst more registrations were also received for first-year students. during this period, more than 73% of participants in the juniortukkie empowerment programme and those who took part in the research managed to successfully move over from their high schools to up and also completed their first academic year successfully within 1 year. as project manager of the jt programme, my experience has convinced me that the traditional methods of student recruitment, when the university only engages with students’ transition from high school once they start their first academic year, should be reviewed. for many students, it might be a case of ‘too little too late’, considering the amount of attention and support that new first-year students really need. theoretical overview and conceptual framework tinto’s (1993) longitudinal model of student departure provides a conceptual framework for this research. the information above serves as background of my use of tinto’s (1975) student integration model in this research project. the model suggests that a match between the academic abilities and motivations of students on the one hand, and the social and academic qualities of an institution on the other hand, will strengthen the academic and social integration of students into the university system. the model was adapted and has been used in the case of jt students who have made successful transitions from high school to higher education. whilst tinto’s model is popular and many researchers have cited his studies, researchers like braxton, sullivan and johnson (1997) supplied evidence of its shortcomings. a high first-year dropout rate is a global phenomenon, and numerous studies have attempted to explain its complexities and dilemmas in relation to major traditional theories and historical perspectives (bean, 1980; bean & metzner, 1985; murray, 2014; tinto, 1975, 1993). researchers in the field of student retention, such as demetriou and schmitz-scibarski (2011), have used tinto’s theory and acknowledged his contribution to current studies on student retention. theorists like rendón, jalomo and nora (2000) tested and validated tinto’s (1975, 1993) theory of students’ social and academic integration into the tertiary environment. other theorists (pascarella & terenzini, 2005; terenzini & reason, 2005) revisited and attempted to modify tinto’s model of students who drop out of higher education before the completion of their courses. demetriou and schmitz-scibarski (2011), edwards and minton (2009) and rendón et al. (2000) critiqued the traditional theories as too limited in addressing diversities and higher education differences, and advocated the use of different approaches that consider the complexities and range of challenges involved. jama (2010) argues that if institutions and key stakeholders could understand the nature of problems faced by non-traditional students, they could collaborate, communicate and work together as a team to provide an integrated and holistic programme of action to support and develop such students. in this way, they could increase the retention rate even before the students enter higher education. rationale of the study the research presented in this article was conducted in response to the challenges outlined above. it constitutes a response to the question of whether interventions that focus on combinations of factors (academic and non-academic) accounting for students’ successful transition from high school to higher education need to be implemented by higher education – already as from an early age in their school career. figure 1: a conceptual schema for dropout from college. previous research that employed tinto’s model focused exclusively on students who had already attended higher education institutions. certain mechanisms need to be developed and implemented to decrease the high failure and dropout rates in higher education, and to increase the number of successful participants – particularly in the equity groups (department of education [doe], 1997; dhet, 2012). these strategies embrace the view that intervention must happen at an early stage instead of delaying action until students arrive at university (jansen & suhre, 2010; nel, troskie-de bruin, & bitzer, 2009). researchers who come from a higher education background generally conduct their studies from a higher education perspective (bowles, fischer, mcphail, & rosentreich, 2013; goldrick-rab, carter, & wagner, 2007). they propose solutions designed to decrease the high dropout rates at university level. fewer researchers utilise any high school perspectives (bangser, 2008), and only a small number of researchers focus on a combination of factors. this is because of capacity constraints that result in a lack of evidence related to high school interventions, which may stimulate the successful transition of students from high school to higher education. aims of the study the aim of this article was to explore the factors that influence the successful transition of students from high school to higher education. in particular, it focuses on combinations of academic and non-academic factors that contribute to the successful transition from high school to higher education, as well as to the success rate of first-year jt students (both at up and other universities). research methodology an explanatory sequential mixed-method case study design was used. grounded in social constructivism, this design was utilised to collect, analyse and report on quantitative and qualitative data. firstly, quantitative data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire that focused on attributes that may account for students’ success (or lack thereof) in transitioning from high school to higher education. secondly, group interviews (qualitative research) were conducted to understand why, according to the survey questionnaire, some factors appeared to be more influential than others. participants and context in total, 642 students who were studying at up at the time of the research, and others who had formerly been included in the jt initiative, were invited to complete an online survey questionnaire (quantitative research). the participants were part of the juniortukkie empowerment initiative from 2009 to 2013. the research focused on those students who passed their first year in a single year without being failed in a subject. although they were in different study years or had already finished their studies, the emphasis was on first-year success and the possible influence of academic and non-academic factors on their success. seventy students (group sizes of 8–10) were invited to participate in the group interviews (qualitative research). the aim was to separate positive and negative influences on transitions from high school to higher education. the collected data were analysed to establish the level of success of the jt initiative and to measure the efficiency of the existing junior tukkie empowerment programme implemented by up in assisting new first-year students to transition from high school to higher education. data collection instruments online questionnaires (for collecting quantitative data), which could be completed within 15–20 min, were sent by e-mail to 642 participants (the study population). altogether 256 members (39.9%) of the 642 potential participants completed and submitted their questionnaires. i then analysed the resulting quantitative data and identified the significant factors that warranted further investigation. qualitative data were collected through focus group interviews that were conducted with respondents who had indicated their willingness to participate in the interviews. invitations were sent to all those who had responded to the online questionnaire to participate in the focus group interviews, and 70 respondents responded in the affirmative. eventually, only 47 participants pitched up for the interviews and they were divided into smaller groups of five to seven each. the qualitative data were used to supplement the quantitative data, and all the data were integrated. i opted to employ the likert scale in some questionnaire questions. likert (cited in mcleod, 2008) developed the principle of measuring attitudes by asking people to indicate the extent to which they agree with statements regarding a topic. the measuring instrument used in this research was a five-point bipolar likert scale. it allowed respondents to signify the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements and approved or disapproved suggestions. in this research, i employed a five-point likert scale but decided not to include a neutral point. the reason was that i expected some participants to give a higher proportion of neutral responses because they did not want to say one way or another, which might lead to response bias. the number of respondents who marked ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’ were grouped together, as well as those who marked ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’, so as to get a result on those who indicated a positive outcome and a negative outcome, respectively. the survey questionnaire was the instrument that measured participants’ self-reported attitudes and convictions regarding the factors that assisted them to pass all their first-year modules. as the online questionnaire (quantitative approach) was expected to only partially describe and explain the factors that contributed to successful transitions, i then conducted the group interviews (i.e. qualitative approach) to gather more data for analysis and interpretation. rigour of the study despite the large sample size, i was careful not to generalise any findings. i also understood the need for transparency and transferability during all stages of the research. thus, i strove to include detailed descriptions of the research context and to keep detailed records of each participant’s perceptions and experiences. the goal of the research was to determine why some variables prompt successful transition from high school to higher education, whilst others fail. my research strategy adhered to the principle of locating the study within a particular social, cultural and historical context. i therefore attempted to remain aware of the social constructs within these contexts, and of the particular identities of each participant. ethical consideration ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the research ethics committee of the department of education management and policy studies at the university of pretoria on 27 march 2015 (clearance number: em 14/01/01). the research purpose and ethical issues were explained to all participants via an e-mailed letter that clarified their rights with regard to participation. if they decided to participate, the participants had the option to open the survey through an attached e-mail link. they had to grant their permission for the anonymous publication of the findings. to overcome the potential problem of researcher bias, the market research office in the department of institutional planning at up oversaw the handling of the questionnaires. in order to prevent bias of the researcher’s personal views, reflections and conclusions, it was decided to use a professional moderator to conduct the focus group interviews. the author afterwards used all the feedback received with respect to the research. results academic factors as positive contributors academic factors are all factors related to classical studies, where a formal education determines a student’s academic prowess based on calculated test averages. specific factors are considered in the grading of students’ achievements or to illustrate their mastering of the course content (wormeli, 2006). in this section, the academic factors analysed are high school curriculum, poor selection of study fields, training of teachers, differences between grades 11 and 12 marks, study skills, the language of teaching and learning, and mathematics and physical science skills. in the quantitative research on academic factors, the data received were systematically linked in the online questionnaire that had been specifically designed for this research. the analysis presented here focuses primarily on the academic factors that influence the successful transition from high school to higher education, as well as on the interventions in which students participated to ease their transition. although numerous questions were asked in the survey, the focus here was on the factors that could influence their transition in a positive way. according to the survey results as shown in table 1, the participants indicated that the study methods training (96.48%), their teacher’s level of training (85.66%), the extra classes they received in grades 11 and 12 (71.49%) and their grade 12 end-of-year results (51.06%) all had a positive influence on their own successful transition. table 1: quantitative responses related to academic factors. in the qualitative research, participants had to compile a list of academic factors that they thought could have had an influence on their successful transition from high school to higher education. they were given the opportunity to make a selection out of the factors compiled in the quantitative research. according to the survey results, the interviewed participants believed that the three factors with the greatest influence on their transition from high school to higher education were study methods, the language of teaching and learning (including reading skills), and mathematics and physical science skills. of the 47 participants in the focus group interviews, 34 (72.43%) stated that the development of their study skills constituted a factor that influenced their transitioning experiences. four of these participants explained why they believed study skills to have a determining influence on new students’ transitioning from high school to higher education (quotes are cited verbatim): ‘it [developed study methods] helped learners realise that it is more about understanding key concepts of the work rather than just going through and applying methods in past papers.’ ‘[it] helped the learners to study smarter in order to get the required marks for admission into higher education.’ ‘it helped match the study methods suitable for different personality types and this helped improve learners’ marks.’ their remarks, as well as the percentage (72.43%) of participants, agreed with the research findings of jansen and suhre (2010), namely that successful study skills depend on advanced time management skills, regular tutorial attendance and satisfaction with a chosen degree. results obtained from the focus group interview revealed that 34 of the 47 participants (72.34%) indicated that the language of learning and teaching influenced their transition to higher education. when asked to explain why they selected this factor as influential, most of the participants mentioned the positive influence of lectorsa’s lab-on-line reading development programme on their own development in terms of the language used in teaching and learning. the reading development programme consists of 20 lessons, each lasting for 40–60 min, which jts completed over a period of 10 weeks. it assisted them to increase their reading speed and to improve their comprehension as well as their academic achievement. below is a selection of verbatim comments made in this regard: ‘learners were at the advantage because it [lectorsa] assisted with understanding the terminology used in most subjects and those who don’t necessarily have english as a home language were still able to understand what’s going on.’ ‘the lectorsa reading development programme helped improve our literacy level, helped us to use the allocated time in tests and examinations effectively and we learn to read and write faster.’ almost two-thirds of the participants (31 of 47; 65.96%) in the seven focus groups indicated that their mathematics and physical science skills (as an academic factor) could have influenced their transition from high school to higher education. this result correlates with arnold and straten’s (2012) research by acknowledging the importance of mathematical readiness in the pursuit of successful higher education studies. the following comments were recorded during the interviews: ‘it [mathematics and physical science skills] helped with the current curriculum because it is included in most foundational courses of various degrees.’ ‘it gave learners background information and gave learners an advantage because the learners could reason logically, not only in their respective study fields but also in the daily lives.’ most of the learners in the jt initiative attended extra classes over weekends and during holidays as part of their enrichment at specific centres all over south africa. during the interviews, the following comments were made concerning extra classes: ‘it [extra classes] not only improved our marks, but also assisted us to have a better understanding of the content in the subjects [mathematics, physical science and english].’ ‘the teachers who taught us [in extra classes] teaching style differ from our own teachers and contribute to the better understanding of the content.’ ‘in the extra classes, we had more time to grasp certain difficult concepts because in school there is limited time to do revision.’ other factors – such as high school curriculum, grade 12 marks as indicator of success, poor selection of study fields and teachers’ level of training – also influenced some of the participants’ transition, but at a lesser extent, study methods, language of learning and teaching and mathematics, as well as physical science skills as indicated in table 2. table 2: qualitative responses related to academic factors. non-academic factors as positive contributors social skills social skills constitute a set of competencies that allow an individual to initiate and maintain positive relationships, achieve peer acceptance and behave acceptably in the larger social environment (walker, 1988). the jt initiative promotes the role that advanced social skills can play in empowering learners and students in south africa’s multiracial and multicultural environment. the initiative primarily guides learners and new students to develop mutual respect, acknowledge diversity and work together towards a successful future, whilst maintaining the various cultural realms. during the quantitative research phase, the vast majority of survey respondents (95.58%) indicated that the jt initiative contributed to their social skills development, thereby positively influencing their transition from high school to higher education. during the qualitative research phase, 59.57% of respondents also indicated that the jt initiative contributed to the development of their social skills, and hence it positively influenced their transition from high school to higher education. a few verbatim remarks made by participants in the focus group interviews explain how the jt initiative helped them to develop their social skills: ‘it [social skills] exposed learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to various other learners and different culture groups.’ ‘the juniortukkie initiative focused on social skills and empowered us not only to developed social skills but also to use our social skills when we met other culture groups.’ the above comments regarding the influence of the development of social skills in the jt initiative correspond with hinkley and anderson’s (1996) arguments that human beings have a need for acceptance by social groups, and that individuals may benefit from exposure to other persons with healthy self-beliefs. during the development of social skills – as practised by the jt initiative – the participants become exposed to other cultural communities, which can assist in fostering healthy and productive interactions within diverse groups (tett, cree, & christie, 2016). the high percentages of participants in both the quantitative and qualitative research phases who selected social skills as an influential (non-academic) transitional factor mean that the participants largely acknowledged the role of the development of social skills in securing future success. it is important to develop a person’s social skills whilst he or she is still young to enable him or her to adapt quickly to new environments, and to interact productively with strangers of all personality types. financial support bourn (2002, p.16) (as cited in jones, coetzee, bailey, & wickham, 2008) suggests that a lack of funds can ‘easily lead to problems of achievement, by provoking anxiety and reducing the time available for study and socialising, which in turn might persuade a student to withdraw’. this view correlates with the jt student recruitment division’s policy of offering financial awards as incentives for prospective students. of the 47 participants in the focus groups interviews, 24 (88.43%) stated that financial factors could influence the transition from high school to higher education. whilst the percentage selecting financial status as a factor that may determine the success of transition to higher education is lower (51.06%) in the qualitative research population, the participants’ recorded comments strengthened the view of finances as a deciding factor. some interview participants highlighted positive as well as negative effects that bursaries may have on students: ‘getting a bursary can influence how you perform in your academics and you won’t have to stress or worry where you are going to get funds.’ ‘sometimes having a bursary may contribute to stress and thus affect a student negatively because of the pressure to perform well in order to maintain the bursary but on the other hand, however, it can motivate you to work harder in order to reward one.’ interestingly, the interviewees stressed that the receiving of adequate funding for studies may motivate the student to improve his or her academic results. such an achievement will place the student in a more advantageous position to be considered for further financial assistance, especially in the case of financially needy students. skilful financial advice and guidance become vital approaches in assisting students to manage their finances responsibly. >learners should know how to manage their finances and draw up a budget: some researchers – such as dunnett et al. (2011), jones et al. (2008), roble (2017) and thomas (2002) – focused on the effects of having low-income parents on students and the difficulties faced by these students when they lack sufficient funds. a high percentage of participants in the focus group interviews (88.43%) stated that financial support, as well as their families’ financial status, could influence their successful transition to higher education (roble, 2017). the comments recorded during the quantitative research phase covered both positive and negative aspects of received a study bursary. the comments related to the positive influence of bursaries correlate with the view published in the dhet green paper of 2012, which states that a bursary contributes significantly to a student’s effective transition and completion of his or her studies. judging by the manner in which participants shared their views on the influence that finances may have on academic prowess, it becomes clear that a lack of sufficient funding can negatively influence the transitioning phase from high school to higher education. interpersonal relationships researchers like stein and book (2011), (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015, p. 238) describe an interpersonal relationship as a strong or close association or acquaintance between two or more people, ranging in duration from being brief to enduring. interpersonal relationships, according to them, are established within the context of social, cultural and other influences. in this research, i focused on the building and development of interpersonal relationships amongst students who were affiliated with jt programmes. i encountered different opinions regarding the types of skills needed for maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships in the literature, but found the skills as determined by hinkley and anderson (1996) in their research as the most suitable combination of skills in terms of my research aims. hinkley and anderson (1996) believe that new students’ interpersonal skills need to be tended to whilst they transition to higher education. accordingly, the jt initiative incorporated the following skills as focal points in its approach: verbal communication, listening, problem-solving, decision-making and assertiveness. the only skill type that hinkley and anderson (1996) additionally focused on (but that was not included in this research and the jt initiative’s programmes) is the negotiation skill. as illustrated, almost all the quantitative survey respondents agreed that the jt initiative enhanced their personal skills (the types included in this research) in one way or another. problem-solving and listening skills were the most frequently improved sets of skills, followed by assertiveness, decisionmaking and verbal communication skills (hinkley & anderson, 1996). although only 28 of the 47 respondents (59.57%) who participated in the focus group interviews (qualitative research) regarded interpersonal relationship as an important transitional factor, the percentage still indicates that the jt initiative had been instrumental in their overall development of personal skills. various participants supported this statement as recorded below. some participants promoted the utilisation of a personality test to help learners understand themselves better and to establish a healthy self-esteem. the following participant commented that sound interpersonal skills and relationships can help to lay the foundation for a successful study career: ‘interpersonal relationships with other students of different culture groups, family members and teachers at school are very important for success.’ ‘good interpersonal relationships made the gap between matric and first year at higher education easier.’ ‘meeting new friends in the initiative and develop good interpersonal relations with other participants helped a lot because it exposed me, as a learner, to more friends, their ideas and thus made me to be more open-minded towards things.’ responses obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative research phases revealed that the participants valued interpersonal relationships as one of the (non-academic) factors that influence the transition from high school to higher education. productive interaction not only with peers and friends but also with other cultural groups exposed them to new ideas and nurtured respect for other communities. the views of participants on the positive influence of interpersonal skills correlate with the arguments found in the studies conducted by bar-on (2007), (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015), hinkley and anderson (1996) and tett et al. (2016). co-curricular activities whilst previous researchers – including andrews (2013), khan, jamil, khan and kareem (2012), prasad (2012) and streb (2009) – highly regarded the influence of co-curricular activities (extra-curricular activities), my research reveals that the jt participants valued the influence of co-curricular activities on the transitional process, but to a lesser extent. participants in the focus group interviews only commented on the extra-curricular activities that were instrumental in their transition. in the quantitative research phase, approximately half of the respondents agreed that both sports and cultural activities at university assisted them during their transition from high school to higher education. cultural activities, however, appeared to be more influential in transitioning than sports activities, according to the interviewees (55.51% vs. 42.29%). the contribution that extra classes in subjects such as mathematics and physical science could make to a successful transitioning from high school to higher education was an important focus point in the quantitative survey (prinsloo, 2008; santhi, 2011). almost three-quarters of respondents (73.45%) agreed or strongly agreed that extra classes could be a supporting factor during transition. during the qualitative research phase, 21 of the 47 participants (44.68%) stated that extra-curricular activities could have been influential transitioning factors. these were amongst the few comments recorded during the discussion of this factor: ‘it [extra-curricular activities] helped to keep a balance with social and academic life. participation in sports helped in keeping me sane.’ the lack of resources and opportunities to participate in sports and cultural activities could explain the low response rate of the focus group participants, with only 44.68% of participants having indicated that co-curricular activities could have contributed to their transitioning experiences. reasons that explain why many of the participants felt those activities had borne no influence on their transitioning are found in these recorded remarks: ‘i did not have the opportunity to participate in cultural activities as well as sports activities because i only focus on my academics.’ ‘higher education focuses on academic achievements to select learners for university and therefore i spend my time on focusing on my academic skills.’ in the qualitative research phase, participants considered the attendance of extra classes in mathematics and physical science as a co-curricular experience. comparatively, more quantitative (online) respondents than qualitative (focus group) participants felt that the extra classes they attended could have influenced their transition. more respondents selected cultural activities rather than sports as a possible co-curricular factor to influence the transition from high school to higher education. the low number of agreements in the qualitative phase can possibly be ascribed to the fact that many did not participate in sports or cultural activities as learners, and some prioritised academic achievements as the more vital endeavour in gaining admission to higher education. firstand second-generation students heyman and carolissen (2011) described a first-generation student as a student whose parents or guardians never earned a degree or diploma, whilst a second-generation student is a student whose parents or guardians have earned at least one tertiary qualification. several researchers found that parents’ expectations (gonida, kiosseoglou, & voulala, 2007), parents’ socio-economic status (alexander, entwistle, & horsey, 1997) and parents’ education (hornby, 2011) play elemental roles in learners’ development and their transition from high school to higher education. engle and tinto (2008) argued that first-generation students are significantly less likely to graduate because of a lack of family support. the jt initiative maintains a strong support system to assist such first-generation students. all jt participants receive academic and emotional support from jt staff members and jt student ambassadors (senior students). nearly half of the sample population in the quantitative research phase (48.61%) were students whose parents (father and mother) never studied at a tertiary institution; just over a quarter of students (25.90%) had parents who both studied at tertiary institutions, whilst almost the same number of students (25.49%) had either a mother or a father who studied at a tertiary institution. only nine of the 47 participants (19.50%) amongst the seven focus groups (qualitative research phase) indicated that differences between firstand second-generation students could constitute a non-academic transitional factor. those participants praised the positive contributions that their parent(s), who attended higher education institutions, had made to prepare them for the transition to the tertiary sphere: ‘it was easier for me because my parents were able to prepare financially for university because then you too attended a tertiary institution like one of your parents, so they knew what would be expected not only from them but from me too.’ ‘my parents understood the stress that comes with being at a tertiary institution, so they were able to prepare me for it.’ a first-generation participant, however, highlighted the intriguing possibility that having no parents with tertiary backgrounds may also have a positive effect on a new student’s transition from high school to tertiary education: ‘if you are the first one to go to university in your family, it motivates others and they look up to you as a role model.’ the interview sessions revealed that only a small number of participants perceived that differences between firstand second-generation students could influence the transition from high school to higher education. their statements indicated that those students who had parent(s) with tertiary backgrounds benefited in their efforts to transition successfully to higher education because of their parents’ knowledge regarding the demands of tertiary studies and the latter’s financial readiness to support them. at the same time, an argument can be presented that first-generation students could be motivated, as role models, to achieve and hence encourage other family members to aim for higher education studies. although many jts were first-generation students, the relationships they had built and the support they had received through the jt initiative helped them to offset the relatively strong connections that first-generation students generally have with their homes. the statements made by other participants in relation to the positive effects of being a second-generation student corroborate the findings of pascarella and terenzini (2005), who found that students whose parents had a bachelor’s degree or higher were five times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than the first-generation students. whilst the first-generation students could face certain disadvantages in comparison to other students, their parents may harbour higher expectations for their university-attending children, especially when these children had achieved high grades at school (hamrick & stage, 2004). culture shock (school vs. higher education) several researchers have investigated the culture shock that students can experience during their first year at a tertiary institution. mccoy, smyth, watson and darmody (2014) argue that high school learners are in need of a self-directing style of learning (especially with regard to time management), in contrast to the directive approach adopted by schools, in order to overcome the culture shock experience. diversity within the education system ranks amongst the greatest challenges facing higher education institutions and may exacerbate students’ transitional culture shock (kish, 2003). the jt initiative values all activities that assist prospective students to become comfortable with diversity, not only to help students to manage situations of diversity relating to cultural practices, gender and language barriers, but also for students to obtain social and interpersonal skills that will minimise the culture shock caused by exposure to a new environment. the jt initiative takes both positive and negative emotions or feelings of first-year students into account. discussion in this study i investigated a variety of academic and non-academic factors that could influence new students’ transitional experiences and determine their success. the results of both the online participants and the focus group interviews differ from those of the study of bangser (2008), who found that students’ high school experiences often do not prepare them well for a successful transition to higher education. he suggested that efforts should be made to increase the rigour, relevance and engagement of the high school curriculum for students who have traditionally faced barriers to the successful transition to higher education. the participants’ remarks are in contrast with the assumptions found in the literature (bangser, 2008; dlomo, jansen, moses, & yu, 2011), where researchers perceived the higher education curricula to differ from and present more strenuous challenges to students than high school curricula on account of increased workloads and higher volumes of learning material. interpretation of results several researchers, such as balduf (2009), damico and qucy (2009) and jansen and suhre (2010), have focused on the relationship between study skills and successful academic achievements. success in a study career is achievable when the student’s study and time management skills are functional (jansen & suhre, 2010). the quantitative data and participants’ comments in this research agree with the perception that inadequate study skills can have a negative impact. the results of this research concerning the question of whether the language of teaching and learning can act as a predictor of success in the transitioning from high school to higher education correlate with wedekind’s (2013) study of south african universities, in which he suggested that academic success in the language used for learning and teaching at a learner’s school is a reliable predictor of academic success – in the same language – at a higher education institution. the findings of the present research, namely that participants’ mathematical and physical science skills (as an academic factor) could have influenced their transition from high school to higher education, complement arnold and straten’s (2012) research by acknowledging the importance of mathematical readiness in the pursuit of successful higher education studies. naidoo, motala and joubert (2013) found in their research that a high correlation existed between matriculation scores and degree averages. this correlates with the findings of the present research, namely that nearly 50% of the participants indicated that their grade 12 marks were an indication of their success in higher education (first year). the other 50% correlates with the findings of müller (2013), who presents a case that the national senior certificate (nsc) grade 12 examinations are not a good indicator of success in higher education. when researching financial factors as part of the non-academic factors that can influence successful transition, i found that both the quantitative and qualitative results complemented the findings of researchers like dunnett et al. (2011), jones et al. (2008), roble (2017) and thomas (2002). all of them focused on the effects of having low-income parents and insufficient funds on these students. although engle and tinto (2008) argue that first-generation students are significantly less likely to graduate because of a lack of family support, the present research findings show that only a small percentage (19.5%) of participants indicated that the differences between firstand second-generation students could constitute a non-academic factor. on balance, some of the participants’ comments corresponded with the findings of billson and terry (1982), namely that there are no noticeable differences between the educational aspirations of firstand second-generation students. other participants’ statements regarding the positive effects of being a second-generation student agree with the findings of pascarella and terenzini (2005), who argued that students whose parents held a bachelor’s degree or higher were five times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than the first-generation students. the results of the questionnaire (quantitative research) show that the participants experienced positive and negative emotions or feelings in almost equal measures during their first study years. they confirm the perception that students may experience a culture shock whilst transitioning to a higher education institution (zhou, jindal-snape, topping, & todman, 2008). responses obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative research phases of the study reveal that the participants valued interpersonal relationships as one of the (non-academic) factors that influence the transition from high school to higher education. this finding correlates with the arguments found in the studies of bar-on (2007) (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015) and tett et al. (2016). the findings of this research complement those of moursound (1995) (cited in eisenberg & johnson, 2002), namely that the productive utilisation of computers and computerised content is either neglected or underdeveloped in many schools. it also correlates to the view of eisenberg and johnson (2002) who argued that programmes used to develop computer literacy will manage to develop skills that are best applied when meeting learning outcomes. the results regarding the influence of the development of social skills in the jt initiative as a non-academic factor support the arguments suggested by hinkley and anderson (1996), who believe that human beings have a need for acceptance by social groups. during the development of social skills as part of the jt initiative, the participants become exposed to other cultural communities, which can assist in fostering healthy and productive interactions within diverse groups (tett et al., 2016). according to bangser (2008), students’ high school experiences often do not prepare them well for a successful transition to higher education. he suggests that efforts should be made to increase the rigour, relevance and engagement of the high school curriculum for students who traditionally face barriers that hamper their successful transition to higher education. however, the remarks made in the focus group interviews of this study are in contrast to the assumptions found in the reviewed literature. in total, only 17 (36.17%) students who participated in the focus group interviews indicated a belief that a poor selection of study fields could influence the transitional process. this is in contrast to the findings of bourdabat and montmarquette (2007) who argue that expected economic return has a primary influence on the choice of a study field. although prasad (2012) found a positive correlation between sports participation and academic performance, and andrews (2013) and zia-ul-lslam, khan and khan (2016) argued that participants in sports and co-curricular activities generally achieve better grades than non-participants, a lower percentage of participants in the focus group interviews in the present study stated that those activities could have eased their transition to higher education. as most of the respondents in this study lacked the resources and opportunities to participate in sports and cultural activities, their response rate was low. in the reviewed literature, i found no evidence of other programmes designed to specifically address poor study skills prior to new students’ arrival at higher education institutions. the jt initiative, however, incorporates a study skills programme to assist participants in improving their study methods (skills). what emerged from the findings of this study was that most students who had successfully transitioned from high school to higher education were convinced that a variety of academic and non-academic factors could influence new students’ transitional experiences and determine their success. the respondents identified certain factors as highly influential, whilst others were not negligible but had less influence on transitions. lastly, in contrast to studies such as those conducted by bowles et al. (2013) and goldrick-rab et al. (2007), which largely focused on the types of assistance once students had arrived at a higher education institution, the current study focused on factors and experiences of students before they entered higher education. a reasonable assessment provided by this study is that a well-functioning support system, combined with programmes to aid the development of various skill sets (e.g. academic, social and personal), could greatly enhance new students’ successful transition from high school to higher education. possibilities for further research this study’s findings helped me to appreciate the importance of sufficiently preparing high school learners for their pending transitions to higher education (especially learners identified as prospective students in south africa’s public schools), and to keep supporting and encouraging them to complete their first academic year within one calendar year. as the scope of this study was limited to the factors that enable successful transitions (with a resultant focus on jt participants who achieved academic successes in their first years), a new area of wider research could be developed that will complement this study’s findings. a new study could, for instance, determine the factors that led to the success of those students who had transitioned well and completed not only their first years successfully, but also had graduated in the minimum amount of time. a second new area of investigation could involve participants who had attended the jt initiative’s programmes at their high schools in 2014 and 2015, and then completed their first years at universities in 2016 and 2017. this new study would establish if the changes and additions implemented by the jt initiative (as a consequence of this study) had any greater effects on new students’ transitional and academic successes at higher education. table 3: overview of the academic and non-academic factors that influence student success or failure. as a third suggestion, as the jt initiative incorporated extra e-learning programmes and escalated its focus on the development of personal skills, the degrees of influence that these specific programmes had on students’ transitioning and academic successes could be investigated in the near future. conclusion there is a general consensus about the fact that both academic and non-academic factors will influence prospective students’ transition from high school to higher education. as has been demonstrated in the findings of this research, certain academic factors played a bigger role in participants’ successful transition, whilst others had less influence. the same trend was found with respect to non-academic factors, which not only affected the successful transition of students from high school to higher education, but also contributed to their success in further studies. the academic benefit and competitive advantage gained by students who made a successful transition from high school to tertiary education cannot be underestimated. hence, it is vital to introduce a pre-arrival programme – already in high school – to address both the academic and non-academic factors that may affect transition. successful transition to higher education can reduce the dropout rate of first-year students and decrease their fear of failure. closing the successful transitioning from high school to higher education is paramount for learners and students in the south african context. school preparation is often inadequate for ensuring a successful transitional period, and many new students find it difficult to remain in control of their transition and studies without the necessary preparation, skills or motivation. academic and non-academic factors work together ‘as a unit’ to ensure (or ruin) the study success of a first-year student; 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(2024). understanding the relational well-being of primary school teachers in rural south africa. african journal of career development, 6(1), a115. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v6i1.115 original research understanding the relational well-being of primary school teachers in rural south africa sasabona maseko, shingairai chigeza received: 14 mar. 2024; accepted: 23 july 2024; published: 30 aug. 2024 copyright: © 2024. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the workplace can be a source of stress if relationships are strained, as these interactions significantly impact individual well-being. although numerous studies address the challenges and well-being of teachers, there is a scarcity of research on the relational experiences and relationships that are essential for teachers’ well-being. objectives: the study aimed to understand the relational experiences and relationships that contribute to the well-being of teachers in rural primary schools. methods: purposive sampling was employed to select 10 male and female teachers with five or more years of teaching experience from quintile 1–3 ordinary rural schools in south africa. the data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. results: the study’s findings revealed that schools can provide conducive spaces for experiencing and forming positive interactional relationships with learners, peers and the community. in addition, teachers thrive because of important relationships that give meaning, such as nurturing interpersonal collaboration, finding purpose in life, fulfilment and valued relationships. such relationships enable teachers to consistently strive for the best in their work performance. conclusion: positive interactional relationships not only enhance the well-being of teachers but also contribute to the overall success of education. contribution: our findings have implications for relational well-being interventions for teachers in the education sector. keywords: primary school; relationships; rural; teacher; well-being. introduction across the globe, education systems strive to provide high-quality education for their countries, requiring a supply of excellent teachers. however, attracting and retaining teachers, especially in remote schools, has become increasingly challenging (see et al., 2020). according to hanushek (2011) and sutcher et al. (2016), high-quality education and teachers are crucial for every country’s development, yet recruiting and keeping qualified teachers has long been a global educational policy concern. darling-hammond (2010) adds that teaching quality is influenced not only by the teacher’s abilities but also by the instructional context. this means that even highly skilled teachers may face difficulties if there is a mismatch between the demands of the situation and their expertise (darling-hammond, 2010). consequently, teacher shortages in under-resourced rural schools are a critical issue in some developed countries (miller et al., 2012) and even more prevalent in most developing countries (mcewan, 1999). du plessis and mestry (2019) state that teachers in these rural schools face numerous serious challenges and often lack adequate support services. in south africa, despite 25 years of democracy, there has been little progress in improving educational standards and student performance in rural schools (du plessis & mestry, 2019). since 1994, efforts have been made to address the impact of apartheid on the education system in south africa (levinson, 2019). with a population of approximately 59.6 million people, south africa has over 410 000 teachers and around 14.2 million learners in various types of schools (statistics south africa, 2019). the national schooling system in south africa is divided into public and independent schools. public schools are controlled by the state, and independent schools are privately governed. it is worth noting that most public schools are in rural areas (gardiner, 2008). the term ‘rural school’ refers to any public school located on government land, communal land or private land (particularly on farms and church land), and is characterised by isolation, remoteness and dispersed settlements (department of education, 2005). south african schools are classified based on the socio-economic conditions of the school using a categorisation system known as quintiles (department of basic education, 2015), which helps allocate resources and provide support to schools based on their socio-economic context. quintile 1 denotes poor schools, and quintile 5 represents wealthy or affluent schools. for this study, rural schools are defined as those located in areas characterised by social and economic deprivation, poverty and limited access to essential services, such as sanitation facilities, access to clean water, roads, transportation and electricity (department of basic education, 2017; wessels & wood, 2019). grenville-cleave and boniwell (2012) found that teachers in rural schools rate their well-being significantly lower compared to other professional occupations. wessels and wood (2019) argue that teachers working in under-resourced contexts typically face challenges that can negatively affect their well-being and hinder optimal performance and curriculum delivery. however, motivated and enthusiastic teachers are vital for providing quality education and improving their own well-being (keller et al., 2016). fredrickson (2013) also states that enhancing teachers’ well-being is important as they play a crucial role in the quality of education. roos and du toit (2014) believe that good relationships are key to fulfilling official roles and promoting mental health and well-being among teachers. when workplace relationships are characterised by cooperation, trust and fairness, they activate the brain’s reward centre (geue, 2017). this activation fosters future interactions that cultivate employee trust, respect and confidence, creating an environment where employees inspire each other’s performance. organisations with better employee engagement experience a range of advantages, including lower business costs, enhanced performance outcomes, decreased staff turnover rates, reduced absenteeism and fewer safety incidents (gallup, 2015). mccallum et al. (2017) suggest that positive relationships with students, parents, colleagues and leadership can have a significant positive influence on teachers’ sense of well-being, making this an area worthy of further research. the increased awareness of the importance of investigating relationships that influence the well-being of teachers (geue, 2017; grenville-cleave & boniwell, 2012; keller et al., 2016; mccallum et al., 2017; wessels & wood, 2019) has prompted this research. as much as previous studies emphasise the importance of relationships on teachers’ well-being, there is a gap in research on understanding the relational experiences and significant relationships that contribute to the overall well-being of teachers in rural primary schools. literature review relationships of teachers, students, peers and communities in rural schools the relationships among teachers, peers, students and the community in rural area schools play a crucial role in shaping the educational experience and outcomes. in a study conducted by nambiito and ngumenawe (2024) in uganda, on teacher-student relationships and their impact on educational quality, the findings revealed that strong, positive relationships between teachers and students are crucial for student engagement and retention. the reason being when teachers are approachable and supportive, it creates a better atmosphere and promotes positive interaction which can significantly influence students’ attitudes towards learning (michael et al., 2023). in addition, in rural settings, the close-knit nature fosters a supportive environment where students feel more connected and valued, thereby enhancing their learning experiences (elder & conger, 2014). the relationships among teachers, students and communities are often characterised by collaboration and mutual support, essential for overcoming the resource constraints and isolation commonly faced in rural settings (azano & stewart, 2015). moreover, according to epstein (2011), the relationship between the school and the broader community is vital for resource sharing and fostering a conducive learning environment. community involvement in school activities and decision-making processes can enhance the educational experience by ensuring that the school’s practices and policies align with local needs and values. sa’ad and sadiq (2014) also believe that schools with active community engagement and support experience higher student motivation and performance levels. therefore, understanding and nurturing these relationships is essential for improving educational outcomes in rural schools as well as teacher well-being (hascher & waber, 2021). challenges of teacher well-being and importance of relationships aelterman et al. (2018) define teacher well-being as a positive emotional state resulting from the harmony between environmental factors and the personal needs and expectations of teachers. acton and glasgow (2015) describe teacher well-being as an individual sense of personal and professional fulfilment, satisfaction, purposefulness and happiness constructed through collaborative processes with colleagues and students. according to mccallum et al. (2017), teacher well-being is also influenced by contextual characteristics such as gender, schooling level, career stage and subject specialisation. teacher well-being significantly impacts teaching styles, behaviour and the transmission of positive emotions, enthusiasm and motivation in the classroom (burić & frenzel, 2020). furthermore, the well-being of teachers directly influences the functioning and performance of schools, which in turn affects student performance (fouché, 2015). according to mwangi (2013), principals’ leadership behaviour significantly influences teachers’ professional well-being. however, despite extensive research on general well-being and principals’ leadership styles, there is a notable lack of focus on teachers’ professional well-being (yildirim, 2014). existing research primarily addresses teacher burnout rather than highlighting teachers’ strengths and well-being (hoy & tarter, 2011). in south africa, teachers’ well-being encompasses psychological, physical and emotional health (yildirim, 2014). the physical and social isolation inherent in rural settings can contribute to a sense of disconnection from broader educational communities, leaving teachers feeling unsupported and undervalued (graham et al., 2011). in addition, rural teachers frequently encounter socio-economic challenges within the communities they serve, including high levels of poverty and limited access to healthcare and social services. these conditions can create additional emotional and psychological burdens, as teachers strive to address their students’ diverse needs while managing their own well-being (beltman et al., 2018). according to pitsoe (2013), approximately 55% of south african teachers would leave the profession if given the opportunity, citing stress as one of the reasons caused by the aforementioned challenges. the importance of teachers’ professional well-being in educational organisations is increasingly recognised because of its direct impact on teacher retention rates (acton & glasgow, 2015). according to mccallum and price (2016), teachers need a well-being strategy to ensure their effectiveness in the classroom. however, implementing such strategies is challenging because of various factors affecting teachers’ well-being, including the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic between 2020 and 2022. many teachers experienced heightened stress and anxiety because of the sudden shift to remote teaching, lack of access to technology and insufficient training on digital platforms, particularly in south africa (mphahlele & mashau, 2020). the closure of schools disrupted not only the educational process but also the support systems that teachers relied on, exacerbating feelings of isolation and burnout (motala & menon, 2020). additionally, the pandemic highlighted existing inequalities, as rural schools often lacked the necessary resources to effectively transition to online learning, putting additional pressure on teachers to bridge these gaps (chigona, 2021). moreover, the covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted the relational well-being of teachers in rural areas. the enforced isolation measures and social distancing protocols hindered the ability of teachers to engage with colleagues, students and the broader community, leading to a sense of professional and personal disconnection. this relational strain not only affected their emotional well-being but also their motivation and job satisfaction. teachers in rural areas often rely on close-knit community relationships for support and collaboration and the disruption of these relationships because of the pandemic further intensified the challenges they faced (spaull & van der berg, 2020). the compounded challenges of adapting to new teaching methods, managing personal health concerns and supporting students in under-resourced environments have underscored the critical need for enhanced support and resources for rural teachers to maintain their well-being and effectiveness during such crises (spaull & van der berg, 2020). to enhance teachers’ well-being, reis and gable (2015) suggest relationships may be the most critical source of life satisfaction and well-being. donnell et al. (2014) emphasise that relationships are a cornerstone of well-being and have been linked to greater happiness, life satisfaction and physical health outcomes. roos and du toit (2014) also highlight that fostering good relationships promotes well-being and thriving. hargie (2011) in agreement states that relationships which involve ongoing, reciprocal verbal and non-verbal interactions between individuals enhance well-being. additionally, brownie and hortsmanshof (2012) suggest that individuals can achieve relative comfort, security and freedom from anxiety through reciprocal relationships characterised by caring, warmth, satisfaction and trust. according to donnell et al. (2014), relationships connect human beings, and the sentiment linked to relationships is fundamentally about connections. relationships are a consistent and compelling source of meaning, transcending cultural, gender or age differences, and people overwhelmingly regard relationships as crucial to their construction of meaning (delle fave et al., 2013). teachers internalise their experiences in representational models of relationships, which guide their emotional responses during daily interactions with students and co-workers, ultimately affecting their long-term well-being (spilt et al., 2011). well-being is enhanced in work environments where employees feel valued and respected and where interactions are trusting, collaborative and positive (mastroianni & storberg-walker, 2014). theoretical framework this study was embedded in relational work theory because it specifically sought to understand relational experiences and relationships of importance that give meaning and contribute to the well-being of primary school teachers in rural areas. relational working highlights the interplay between the working environment and the interactional relational dynamics within it (blustein, 2011). relationships at work play a crucial role in providing satisfaction and a sense of significance. the following are the seven relational propositions within a working environment (blustein, 2011). proposition 1 suggests that individuals’ thoughts and feelings about work influence their perceptions of and attitudes towards relationships. proposition 2 posits that individuals’ past and present relationships shape their approach to work-related issues and planning. proposition 3 highlights the intersection of work and relationships in both the workplace and caregiving settings. proposition 4 indicates that prior relationships can facilitate or impede individuals’ decision-making and their ability to engage in work and training. proposition 5 states that individuals’ decisions at work impact their relationships with others. proposition 6 asserts that individuals derive meaning from their work through their relationships with others, taking cultural influences into account. lastly, proposition 7 emphasises that cultural context provides a sense of security and belonging in relationships, helping individuals navigate work transitions and concerns. to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, there is a limited understanding of the relational experiences and relationships that contribute to the well-being of primary school teachers in rural south african communities. this study aimed to explore the relational experiences of teachers at a rural primary school and identify the significant relationships that enhance their well-being. in this context, understanding the relational experiences of teachers in rural schools can help the department of basic education develop interventions that enhance teachers’ relational well-being and contribute to the quality of education in south african rural schools. in addition, the research aimed to contribute to the literature on the relational well-being of rural primary school teachers, and to inform policies that promote effective communication strategies among teachers, students and the broader community in rural schools. research methods and design sampling and participants the study is a qualitative phenomenological research design. maxwell (2013) explained that the qualitative approach focusses on understanding the meaning participants ascribe to events, situations and lived experiences. in this study, the participants described the unique relational experiences and important, meaningful relationships that contributed to their well-being as teachers teaching in rural primary schools. the researchers used purposive sampling to select 10 male and female participants who were foundation and intermediate phase teachers. the selected teachers had been teaching for at least 5 years, with ages ranging from 30 to 56 years. their qualifications varied from teaching diplomas for the older teachers to master’s degrees for the younger ones. the participants were chosen based on their fulfilment of the inclusion criteria and their willingness to share their relational experiences and relationships that contribute to their well-being in the rural school context. the motivation behind these criteria was to gather diverse insights from experienced educators across different age groups and qualification levels to understand their relational well-being. sample description the study consisted of 10 south african teachers who work in rural schools in mpumalanga province. as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study, the participants were chosen based on: their willingness to participate; teaching experience of 5 years and more from quintile 1–3 ordinary rural schools; both male and female teachers; and teachers who use english as a medium of instruction were included. data collection data were collected through semi-structured online interviews. the data collection was carried out during the covid-19 pandemic, and therefore, it was performed on a virtual platform (microsoft teams). all interviews were conducted in english. each interview took 45 min to an hour. all the interviews were audio recorded with the consent of the participants using microsoft teams’ digital audio recorder. subsequently, all data were transcribed and presented as findings of this study. data analysis data from the semi-structured interviews were analysed using braun and clarke’s (2013) six-step thematic analysis process. this process entails familiarising oneself with the data by reading interview transcripts multiple times before doing any coding or analysis. because the researchers transcribed the interview transcripts, repeatedly listening to the interview recordings during the transcription process ensured familiarity with the data. subsequently, the researchers generated codes from the data, which were used to formulate themes and subthemes. the themes and subthemes derived from the codes were assigned names and were constantly reviewed until their finalisation. in this study, teachers are described using numbers, age and gender, for example, participant 1, age 65, female (p1, 65, female) to ensure credibility and trustworthiness, there was a prolonged engagement in the field and the researchers continuously checked with participants to ensure that their views had been accurately captured. two experienced coders independently analysed the data. the researchers kept reflexive notes throughout the study to reduce the possibility of biased findings (braun & clarke, 2022) ethical considerations this research study received approval from the faculty of humanities research ethics committee at the university of pretoria (reference no.: 28000367 (hum032/0521)) before the commencement of data collection. permission was also granted by the provincial department of education in mpumalanga to conduct the research in schools. informed consent forms and information sheets were provided to the participants to offer detailed information about the study and outline the nature of their involvement. participants expressed their consent in writing by completing the provided forms upon recruitment. confidentiality was assured to protect the participants, and pseudonyms were used in reporting research results so as to maintain participants’ anonymity. results the findings were classified under two main themes, namely relational experiences and important relationships, to provide a detailed account of the rural school teachers’ experiences. the first theme on relational experiences has the following subthemes: teacher and learner relationships, teacher and parent relationships, collegial relationships and community relationships. the second theme on important relationships has the subthemes: collaborative interpersonal relationships, purposeful relationships, supportive relationships, sense of fulfilment and valued relationships. theme 1: relational experiences according to reis and gable (2010), relational experiences are integral to our identity as human beings because relationships significantly contribute to our well-being. similarly, the teaching-learning process must involve teachers and learners to be successful and effective. in this study, relational experiences were described through how teachers relate with learners, parents, colleagues and the community. subtheme 1: teacher and learner relationships the participants expressed their sentiments regarding how they relate to their pupils as shown in the following excerpts: ‘my relationship with the learners is nurturing, and it gives me the joy to see them happy.’ (p1, 47, female) ‘the relationship is very good. we have a close and open relationship.’ (p2, 30, male) ‘i do enjoy it a lot with the learners because sometimes they make jokes, and they talk innocently. i enjoy teaching.’ (p4, 53, female). ‘these relationships are connected. as a teacher, it feels good.’ (p6, 50, male) this subtheme highlights the importance of the learner and teacher relationship in teachers enjoying their work and positively impacting their well-being. the findings showed that most teachers appear to experience positive, good and open relationships with their learners. the excerpts above align with da luz’s (2015) emphasis on the positive impact of good learner and teacher relations on learner performance and teacher satisfaction. additionally, coristine et al. (2022) affirm that positive relationships between teachers and students make the teachers become more successful in the classroom and make the classroom a safe and welcoming environment. sheldon and epstein (2013) echoed these sentiments, suggesting that positive relationships with learners benefit teachers by reducing their career changes and providing a greater sense of fulfilment in their careers. subtheme 2: teacher and parent relationships teacher and parent relationships were mainly described as challenging because parents are expected to contribute as active agents to foster the relationships between the school and learners to help shape learners’ education but the parents do not connect with the schools. the participants expressed their experiences as follows: ‘i feel that there is a lack of support for us as educators. the parents don’t show support even when you write a letter to them. it always leads to me, as a teacher, feeling like i failed the learners, like i’m helpless because i can see they have potential but alone i cannot do it.’ (p5, 33, female) ‘the parents are not concerned about their children’s education. it makes me feel bad because with these children, if their parents can be on board, we’re going to produce a lot of great kids, and that would help us in our community.’ (p4, 53, female) these comments show there is not really a relationship between parents and teachers. the lack of parental involvement presents numerous challenges for teachers to create good, reciprocal relationships with parents for the benefit of the children. zedan (2012) supports the notion that contact between parents and the school and parents’ participation in parent-teacher meetings play a crucial role in fostering teacher-parent relationships that can improve learners’ performance in school. similarly, stright and yeo (2014) believe that school-focussed parenting practices are significant predictors of children’s achievements. islam (2019) reinforces the idea that positive interactions between teachers and parents spill over to help improve student engagement and learning outcomes. subtheme 3: collegial relationships this subtheme addresses the experiences of teachers and their colleagues (other teachers, the principal, heads of departments, circuit managers and other staff in schools). their relationships were described in relation to the support and assistance they rendered each other. the following excerpts illustrate the teacher-colleague relational experiences: ‘it’s a healthy relationship because we have fun, and we help each other.’ (p2, 30, male) ‘i can walk to the principal’s office and ask a question about something i don’t understand and get support.’ (p5, 33, female) ‘with my colleagues, it is different to the extent that you sometimes come to work with baggage from home, and you speak to our colleagues and assist you with the problem. this shows how honest and trustworthy they are.’ (p10, 48, female) ‘i take them as my sisters because 90% of my life i spend here with them. our relationship means a lot because i’ve learned something from each one.’ (p5, 33, female) ‘it makes me feel good because i will become open and transparent about the child’s needs and learn from each other about the child.’ (p4, 53, female) these excerpts reveal the dedication of the teachers and the value they place on their relationships with each other. the findings also highlighted the supportive role of co-workers in strengthening relationships between teachers and higher management. spilt et al. (2011) point out that the well-being of teachers who experience representational models of relationships that guide emotional responses in daily interactions with learners and co-workers enables students to improve in the long run. the findings align with mccallum and price’s (2016) finding that teacher quality, retention, satisfaction and well-being are key elements for a sustained profession to maintain motivation and prepare teachers to fulfil aspirational outcomes as leaders. the findings also revealed that teachers have not only developed work relationships but have also connected and emotionally supported each other and become like a family. the following are some of the participants’ excerpts: ‘the most important one is the one with my peers because having a good relationship with peers makes the working environment and conditions much more enjoyable, and you’ll be able to perform very well. they can help and assist you where you have difficulties. so, it’s simple to talk to anyone and engage them for assistance.’ (p2, 30, male) ‘we are a community now ourselves, we are family. we are there for one another all the time. it makes me feel good because i know whenever i’m not feeling good, some people pick up the phones and check on me. when someone has lost a loved one, we are there for this person. they know my children. talk to them about my children even make, even if they have not met them, but they know them by name.’ (p9, 56, female) the preceding excerpts show that there is a sense of community and belonging among the participants that is expressed through their mutual assistance in both work obligations and personal problems. according to geue (2017), when relationships in the workplace are characterised by cooperation, trust and fairness, it encourages future interactions that promote respect and confidence and inspire each other in their performance. participants also indicated that they live in harmony and are always there for one another in times of need. in support of this, greenaway et al. (2018) describe social and professional relationships as vital in offering support, interpersonal emotional regulation, companionship, motivation and mentorship, ultimately enhancing social and emotional well-being. in all human relational interactions, there are bound to be disagreements (valente et al., 2020). the findings showed that although there are cordial relationships among colleagues, there are also at times disagreements. the participants described disagreements as follows: ‘we quarrel as human beings, but it is not that bad in such a way that we will fight not talking to each other. we disagree, but that does not mean we are fighting. the truth is that 90% of our relationships are good. it is a working relationship.’ (p3, 46, male) ‘like any human, i feel angry sometimes when other colleagues refuse to be team players.’ (p7, 53, male) these excerpts show that the conflicts seem to strengthen relationships and help the participants achieve goals for the benefit of their learners. kazimoto (2013) also believes that disagreements occur when the goals, interests or values of different individuals or groups are compatible. additionally, wong (2011, 2016) is also of the view that conflict management plays a role in thriving in any work situation. subtheme 4: community leaders’ relationships in this study, teachers expressed strong relationships with community leaders. these include political leaders, church leaders and municipality counsellors. the relational experiences were expressed as follows: ‘the political leaders of this place are so supportive of our school. even the church leaders from the presbyterian church have given to the school. we find that we would have problems, maybe the school has got no water and that there’s so much support … yes, so they are very good for us.’ (p10, 48, female) ‘one day we had a challenge with electricity, and we went to the house just nearby the school, and they managed to assist us for the sake of the learners without expecting payment.’ (p3, 46, male) ‘i feel that this is a type of community that you want as a teacher, and they respect the work of a teacher, and they embrace education.’ (p3, 46, male) the teachers appreciate the relationship, support and involvement of the community leaders in school activities, and the support makes them feel respected as teachers and appreciated for their work. henderson and mapp (2002) state that the relationship with the community is important as it plays a significant supporting role in the school’s communal motivation. crocker et al. (2017) also state that relationships are inherently interdependent, and communal motivation to care for others is essential to ensure the well-being of both parties, which is the teachers and community in this case. the iiep-unesco report (2018) states that the involvement of communities and families is a key pillar of education. theme 2: important relationships this theme describes important relationships that contribute to the teachers’ well-being. these relationships are described through the subthemes collaborative interpersonal relationships, purposeful relationships, supportive relationships, a sense of fulfilment and valued relationships. subtheme 1: collaborative interpersonal relationships this subtheme describes the experiences of the participants with collaborative relationships within the school context that are important to them. to illustrate the collaborative interpersonal experiences, the following excerpts are presented: ‘the importance of collaboration effort from learners, colleagues, and the community and that these relations need to be nurtured.’ (p4, 53, female) ‘so that’s why i’m saying that i make sure that i nurture the relations. i believe in everyone playing their part.’ (p1, 47, female) ‘the collaborative relationship has assisted me in developing more strategies to deal with young people and minds and in basically dealing with people.’ (p2, 30, male) the connectedness created by these relationships motivates the participants to explore better ways of interacting with others, which promotes positive emotions. this type of relationship is deemed important and gives meaning to the participants as they value relationships and see it as a channel to help improve the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. khan et al. (2020) found that employees report higher levels of motivation when interpersonal relationships with co-workers are good and when interactions are trusting, collaborative and positive. additionally, martin (2013) purports that positive interpersonal relationships have been proposed as a buffer against stress and risk and serve as a basis for social and emotional development. subtheme 2: purposeful relationships this subtheme focusses on purposeful relationships as experienced by teachers in a rural school context. the following excerpts are presented to illustrate purposeful relationship experiences: ‘they build my character, and they bring about change, even in my personal life.’ (p3, 46, male) ‘i’m not here for the money, but i’m here for my interest. i’m here for the kids. it makes me proud that i’ve done something in the community.’ (p5, 33, female) ‘i feel i should be a role model. i should be someone with whom i should be trusted, and they are indeed being entrusted as well.’ (p7, 53, male) ‘being a teacher is my calling.’ (p10, 48, female) ‘it made me feel proud, and it makes me want to do more good.’ (p8, 47, female) these excerpts show that purposeful relationships are important to the participants because they feel it allows them to embrace their work and make a difference in their learners’ performance. they also mentioned that good trusting relationships motivate them to want to do more for the learners and that investing in their learners’ performance contributes to them valuing their professions and motivates them to continue doing good for the community. this supports dzokoto et al.’s (2019) statement that work-related meaning is associated with doing significant work that contributes to the greater good. mason (2015) also found that work-related meaning contributes to a sense of connectedness, direction, relational dependency and the need to give back. ryff (2014) also asserts that humans experience meaningfulness through purposeful relationships that contribute to their well-being. the findings showed that participants expressed that their purpose is embedded in building community through the learners they teach with no expectations of any form of financial gain. this supports person et al.’s (2016) statement that meaning in life is linked to work-derived identity, experiences of self-worth, and people’s impact on others through service and social connections afforded by work to promote purposeful living (ryff, 2014; ryff & singer, 2013). subtheme 3: supportive relationships this subtheme revealed that good supportive relationships with colleagues and community members positively contribute to the performance of teachers in rural schools. the following excerpts are examples of this: ‘i need my peers, school management team (smt), and the community. we need each other, and i cannot do it on my own.’ (p1, 47, female) ‘working together is the most important key in an institution. so as teachers, we need to support each other.’ (p1, 47, female) ‘the political leaders of this place are so supportive of our school.’ (p10, 48, female) ‘we are so united, and the support that i get from them whenever i come across a challenge.’ (p5, 33, female) forming good, supportive relationships appears to have improved support structures among teachers. this supports chakraborty and ganguly’s (2019) statement that a positive work environment includes transparent and open communication, recognition, team spirit and appreciation. this social connectedness can be understood as the heart of care and support for african people (stavrova & luhmann, 2016). according to wang et al. (2018), the strong ties developed through social interactions assist innovators in the search for inspiration, sponsorship and support within the workplace. subtheme 4: sense of fulfilment in this study, the teachers expressed that they get a sense of fulfilment from good relationships, their hard work and the learners’ success in their education. the following are some of the participants’ sentiments: ‘in these relationships, i’m gaining a lot. it’s rewarding when graduates return to the school to thank you, and it reminds me to focus on why i am here. it makes me realise that i love being a teacher.’ (p1, 47, female) ‘when i see them doing something which they were not able to do before through my guidance. for me, it’s pure fulfilment.’ (p5, 33, female) ‘one day when the learners are grown and working, i will be happy that i helped my kids. i feel excellent and that i’ve made it.’ (p4, 53, male) ‘in my capacity, it brings a sense of fulfillment, especially when somebody would appreciate what i may have contributed.’ (p7, 53, male) the preceding excerpts reveal that teachers find it gratifying to see their learners perform well and become successful. these experiences contributed to teachers’ sense of fulfilment. keller et al. (2016) confirm that motivated and enthusiastic teachers are vital for the provision of quality education and the promotion of their own well-being. martin (2013) agrees that passionate teachers are distinguished by their commitment to the achievement of their learners. subtheme 5: valued relationships in this study, the participants expressed that being valued is important to them. the gratitude and encouraging comments they receive from learners and the community give meaning to their lives and enhance their work performance and relationships. the following are some of the participants’ sentiments: ‘it brings a sense of encouragement when somebody would appreciate what i may have contributed. i’m proud of this.’ (p7, 53, male) ‘it impacts your well-being psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. there’s a gift that we must fill in that gap.’ (p4, 53, female) ‘it gives you courage and even makes you feel well and good about it.’ (p10, 48, female) if someone values my profession, it tells me that i can do better and improve and makes me go the extra mile.’ (p3, 46, male) these excerpts illustrate how encouragement and affirmations make teachers feel valued, motivate them to be more effective at teaching, and directly have a positive impact on their holistic well-being. according to mastroianni and storberg-walker (2014), when employees feel valued and respected in their work, it enhances their well-being. the excerpts also appear to confirm that being valued promotes teachers’ psychological and emotional well-being, and encourages them to go the extra mile in their jobs. the comments they receive from learners and the community give them meaning and enhance their relationships and work performance. therefore, rewarding employees in the correct way makes them feel valued and engaged in their work (victor & hoole, 2017). discussion implications of the findings the study presents a positive perspective on relational experiences and emphasises the importance of relationships that provide meaning and contribute to the well-being of teachers in rural primary schools. positive interactional relationships are regarded as vital, particularly to teachers teaching in rural schools as they motivate and encourage them and bring meaning to their professional and personal lives, these findings corroborate with hascher and waber (2021)’s findings. in this study, participants see schools as conducive environments that enable them to form relationships that contribute to their well-being, regardless of the challenges of teaching in a rural primary school. the participants derive fulfilment from positive relational interactions, and it consistently motivates them to perform their best work. further research of this nature is needed to address issues surrounding the dynamics of teacher relations in rural schools because these relationships help teachers cope with the challenges of working in sad schools. wright et al. (2007) support the notion that a happy worker is more likely to be a productive worker. additionally, greenaway et al. (2018) state that both social and professional relationships are vital as they offer support, interpersonal emotional regulation, companionship, motivation and mentorship, which ultimately enhances social and emotional well-being. this was also revealed in this study as relational experiences with learners, parents, colleagues and the community appeared to sustain the well-being of teachers in rural primary schools. the findings showed that providing good resources is not enough to enable teachers to perform better or improve their well-being but that a conducive environment that fosters positive relationships is necessary to sustain teachers’ careers. in agreement with the findings of this study, nambiito and ngumenawe (2024) also state that positive interactional relationships enhance teacher performance and contribute to learner success. teachers thrive in environments where they experience important relationships that provide meaning, such as being valued, and where they can find purpose and a sense of fulfilment because it contributes to their personal growth and overall well-being. thus, nurturing positive reciprocal interactional relationships is important to retain and sustain the well-being of teachers in rural schools, and the success of education in south africa. limitations and recommendations the findings of this study may aid in better interpreting teachers’ relational experiences in rural primary schools in south africa. however, because of the qualitative nature of the study and the small sample size, the findings cannot be generalised as they are not fully representative of all teachers in rural south african primary schools. the method used leads to subjective results that may reflect the experiences and perspectives of the researcher. more studies need to be conducted with different methods, and teachers in other provinces of south africa to explore diverse contexts. this study contributes to increasing knowledge and closing the research gap related to the relational well-being of teachers in the south african context, particularly in rural areas. it is recommended that further research be conducted to cultivate positive interactional relationships among teachers, learners, parents and the community as a whole. such research helps inform policymakers about the importance of encouraging interactional relationships in the education sector, especially in rural primary school settings. additionally, policymakers should develop interventions that support the future development of schools. furthermore, it is recommended that school management is encouraged to provide ongoing support to teachers who aim to build positive interactional relationships in schools. engagement in ongoing professional development focussed on relational well-being and effective communication strategies in rural schools is also recommended. these efforts will help bridge the gap between management teams and teachers by creating open, transparent relationships. conclusion this study highlights the significance of fostering positive reciprocal relationships for primary school teachers in rural areas. the findings suggest that, in addition to providing adequate resources, it is vital to create an environment conducive to positive relationships, which are essential for teachers’ performance and well-being. these relationships improve job satisfaction, personal growth and overall well-being, ultimately enhancing learners’ success. despite forming positive interactions with students, colleagues and the broader community, teachers faced challenges in building relationships with parents. to address this, it is recommended that teachers provide regular updates to parents regarding their children’s progress, and actively encourage parental feedback and concerns. schools should also create opportunities for parents to volunteer in school events or extracurricular activities, thereby fostering strong relationships and empowering parents to take ownership of their children’s education. additionally, celebrating student achievements with both students and parents through awards at assemblies can strengthen these bonds. policies that promote and facilitate greater community involvement, such as parent-teacher associations and community volunteer programmes, are also encouraged to fortify the connection between the school and the broader community. these strategies are essential for nurturing relationships, creating a sense of belonging among teachers, parents and the community, and contributing to the success of education in south africa, particularly in rural schools. relationships, especially work relationships, are essential for individuals’ well-being, as they spend a significant amount of time at work. many interactions occur in workspaces, and these reciprocal interactions facilitate the formation of meaningful relationships. therefore, it is crucial to provide workspaces that enable employees to interact with one another and form relationships that enhance their well-being and work performance. this study found that teachers who experience positive relationships can more easily identify their purpose, resulting in favourable outcomes for both the school and its community. the participants emphasised the significance of feeling valued by their students and the community, as this serves as a source of encouragement and motivation. this recognition enhances their effectiveness in the classroom and promotes their overall well-being. having a sense of purpose not only allows teachers to find meaning in their work but also positively impacts their job performance, thereby contributing to their overall well-being. acknowledgements the authors would like to express their gratitude to the participants for their invaluable contribution to this research. we truly appreciate your involvement, as this study would not have been possible without you. the authors are grateful to karien hurter for the language editing of this article. this article is partially based on the author’s thesis entitled ‘relational well-being experiences of rural primary school teachers in south africa’, towards the degree of master of arts in psychology at the department of psychology, university of pretoria, south africa, in september 2023, with supervisor dr. shingairai chigeza. it is available here: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91467, https://doi.org/10.25403/upresearchdata.23685045.v1. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.m. is the master’s student who conducted the study and wrote the article. s.c. is the supervisor of the study who supported and assisted with the conceptualisation of the study, study design, article write-up and submission for publication. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data retrieved will remain in the researchers’ possession at the university of pretoria. the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, s.c. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. the article does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. the authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content. references acton, r., & glasgow, p. 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