




































Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice


Volume 3, Issue 1 

2020 

Allies for Education 2020, 3, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 

Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a 

Different Voice 

 
Devon Almond 
 

 

“It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation.”– Eleanor Roosevelt (Zur, 2010) 

 

Curricula for meaningful work is becoming increasingly important in today’s societies and cultures. As 

we enter into the third decade of the 21st century, it is no longer acceptable for education to ignore the 

critical dimensions of meaningful work. This is especially important because right-brain dimensions, such 

as meaning, empathy, and the creative capacity to synthesize divergent perspectives are essential for 

success in education, life, and work in the 21st century (Pink, 2011). Despite the fact that most students 

desire meaningful work, there are few indications that curricular practices to facilitate meaningful work 

are being widely implemented at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. While the purposes of 

education are certainly more comprehensive than mere preparation for work, it is problematic that 

many college graduates never experience meaning in their work (Bates-Gallup, 2019). This problem in 

education, which impacts human flourishing and well-being, might be addressed by implementing 

curricular practices that facilitate students to listen in a different voice—that is, to listen for vocational 

callings.  

The quest for meaningful work is an age-old phenomenon that necessitates imminent attention in 

today’s K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. For many people, working to pay the rent or to satisfy 

one’s ego simply is not enough; rather, we seek vocational callings that are tied to a sense of life 

purpose and meaning (Zur, 2010). To demonstrate, a recent Gallup report indicates that while 80% of 

American undergraduate students seek purpose and meaning in their work, less than half of these 

students actually fulfill this desire after graduation (Bates-Gallup, 2019). The same report identifies that 

only 28% of undergraduate students participated in a college class or program that helped them think 

about meaningful work. Notably, college graduates who experience meaningful work are nearly 10 

times more likely than college graduates with low levels of meaningful work to report overall well-being 

(Bates-Gallup, 2019).  



Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice 
Devon Almond 

Allies for Education 2020, 3, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

This connection between life purpose, meaningful work, human flourishing, and well-being is of 

particular interest to positive psychologists. For instance, Martin Seligman and his former student, 

Angela Duckworth (2016) offer abundant evidence of the benefits of meaningful work infused with a 

sense of purpose. Defining purpose as the intention to contribute to the well-being of others, 

Duckworth goes to great length to articulate a curricular lexicon that weaves together passion, 

persistence, and purpose in service of meaningful work. Clearly, the benefits of a life-affirming curricula 

for meaningful work are not only personal, but also extend well beyond the self. 

Human flourishing and well-being are increasingly coming to the forefront of education, life, and work. 

As such, it is beneficial for students, parents, educators, and administrators in K-12 schools, colleges, 

and universities to recognize how the nature of work is evolving well beyond industrial-age manual 

work, past information-age knowledge work, to post-information age conceptual work. Best-selling 

author Daniel Pink (2011) explains: “We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, 

linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the 

inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age” (p.1-2). 

These changes mean that reliance on externally-defined jobs and careers is lessening. Coming to the 

cultural forefront is work that people are called to do. Educational activist Parker Palmer (2000) voices 

this vocational calling in the form of a poignant question: “Is the life I am living the same as the life that 

wants to live in me?” (p. 6) 

Thanks to increasing societal and cultural affluence, these more personal, expansive, and integrative 

possibilities for education, life, and work are becoming increasingly available. For instance, the scarcity-

based survival drive that actively declares “I need to take a job to get by right now” (e.g. working to pay 

the rent) is increasingly growing into the future-oriented strive drive that actively declares “I want to 

plan a career to achieve my personal and professional goals” (e.g. working to satisfy one’s ego). As this 

affluence continues, a thrive drive tied to a sense of life purpose and meaning emerges to reflectively 

ask and listen in a different voice. More than actively declaring, this voice first reflectively inquires: 

“What is it that I am here to offer the world? How do I uniquely connect with and through the world? 

How I am called to uniquely serve the world?” Consequently, the asker is oriented to listen to intuitive 

faculties, prior to actively declaring a professional direction.  

This trajectory, which draws on Abraham Maslow’s (1943) self-actualization theories, suggests that 

when students are coming from an inner and outer place of sufficiency, the scope of one’s world 

expands. As this happens, new and richer possibilities for education, life, and work are also revealed. 

Importantly, these more expansive possibilities involve genuinely connecting with and contributing to an 

ever-expanding world. Indeed, the earlier declarations of “I need to take a job to get by right now” and 

“I want to plan a career to achieve my personal and professional goals” point to an “I” independent of 

connecting with the world.  In contrast, the reflective inquires that are oriented towards inner listening 

tap into a deeper dimension to ask how this authentic self might serve the world. Such an inquiry is 

grounded in interdependence, intuition, and a contextual logic that necessitates attention, seeing, and 

listening in a different voice. Referring to this more authentic self in terms of soul, Parker Palmer (2000) 

elaborates in his book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, stating that: 

The soul speaks its truth only under quiet, inviting, and trustworthy conditions. The soul is like a wild 

animal—tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, 

the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out. 



Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice 
Devon Almond 

Allies for Education 2020, 3, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a 

tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a 

glimpse of the precious wildness we seek. (p.7-8)  

Like the traditions of indigenous vision quests that support walking quietly into the woods to catch a 

glimpse of one’s precious wildness, listening in this different voice can open people to a homecoming of 

profound belonging. This was certainly the case for Jane Goodall (1999) whose research with 

chimpanzees in the jungles of West Africa came from listening to a quiet inner voice that intuitively 

guided her actions. Responding to and outwardly materializing the intuitive impulses that emerge 

through this type of pilgrimage are inherently life-affirming. Management scholar Otto Scharmer (2008) 

describes this sojourning process using a U shape to facilitate questions, such as “Who is the self? What 

is my work?” Importantly, these inquires come after a “letting-go” process and prior to a “letting-come” 

process.  

Viewed through this life-affirming lens, the 20th century curricular practices that prematurely push 

students into “I” oriented jobs and careers omit an important dimension. Like Palmer’s (2000) thesis 

that prevailing education models prematurely close off alternatives from truly letting our authentic 

selves speak, Dania Quirola, a sustainability practitioner in Ecuador, critiques prevailing education 

models that “… prepare us for a diploma, but not for a life-affirming future. By ‘life-affirming,’ I mean 

that our learning and interactions should really contribute to better knowing ourselves, to cooperating 

in creating alternatives that benefit society, and to living in balance within ourselves and with our 

environment” (n.d.). 

A framework to deepen our understanding about how people orient to education, life, and work is 

offered by management scholar Amy Wrieznewski (1997), who, along with her colleagues, identify three 

different orientations to work: (1) jobs, (2) careers, and (3) vocations. These orientations range from the 

externally-held directive of the more left-brained socialized self to the internally-rooted nature of a 

more right-brained authentic self. Problematically, prevailing education models, which were initially 

effective to mold the socialized self into meeting the industrial needs of the 19th century, 

overwhelmingly support the job and career orientations at the expense of vocational callings. Indian 

philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (2008) succinctly states that “… (w)e are turning out, as if through a 

mold, a type of human being whose chief interest is to find security, to become somebody important, or 

to have a good time with as little thought as possible” (p. 9).  Beyond the concrete interest of security 

(i.e. survive drive of job orientations) and the subtle pursuit of becoming important (i.e. strive drive of 

career orientations) is the curricula for meaningful work. These curricula support the thrive drive of 

vocational callings.  

When it comes to curricular practices that inform, influence, and inspire meaningful work, we are wise 

to access, include, and then integrate a different voice into education, life, and work. This missing voice 

operates on a contextual logic that includes emotion, body, and relationships. This intuitive voice is 

attentive, sees new perspectives, and firstly listens to the more authentic self. This means noticing our 

noticing, seeing what is and is not seen, tapping into unconscious influences, and listening for the voice 

of vocation. This means slowing down, caring for all of humanity, and gently and patiently attuning to 

allow what wants to emerge to emerge. This relational, open, and receptive voice clearly reflects a more 

feminine voice.  



Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice 
Devon Almond 

Allies for Education 2020, 3, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

To learn more about this different voice, I briefly turn to psychologist Carol Gilligan (1993, 2011), who in 

her book, In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, addressed a problem in 

psychology: studies in human development were based on boys and men. In doing so, she contrasts the 

feminine logic of care with the masculine logic that operates on justice, principles, and rules. Gilligan 

notes that because the voices of girls and women were omitted, the very measure of humanity was 

equated with masculinity. A consequence was that the lives of males, like jobs and careers, appeared 

interesting, while the lives of females, like vocational callings, were subordinate, uninteresting, and 

different.  

In closing this article, I suggest that it is time that we as students, parents, educators, and administrators 

in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities give voice to this different voice. Curricula for meaningful work 

does not mean diminishing the masculine voice of job and career orientations, but instead this means 

including and integrating an important and missing voice: the voice of vocation. Indeed, it is this voice 

from which the very word, vocation, originates. It is also this voice that forms best-selling author Steven 

Covey’s (2005) 8th habit—finding your voice and inspiring others to find their voices. Let us all come 

together to facilitate students to listen in a different voice—that is, to listen for vocational callings! 

About the Author 
Devon Almond has worked with various rural and remote-serving colleges and universities across North 

America, spanning from the Yukon Territory to Hawaii Island. His guiding purpose—to evoke a sense of 

purpose in education, a sense of place in life, and a sense of meaning in work—is shaped by his 

professional and academic background in conventional and alternative higher education. He lives with 

his wife and daughter in the woods near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

References 
Bates-Gallup (2019). Forging pathways to purposeful work—The role of higher education. Retrieved 

October 1, 2019 from https://www.bates.edu/purposeful-

work/files/2019/05/Bates_PurposefulWork_FINAL_REPORT.pdf. 

Covey, S. (2005). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. New York, NY: Free Press. 

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 

Gilligan, C. (1993). In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Boston, MA: 

Harvard University Press.  

Gilligan, C. (2011). Looking back to look forward: Revisiting in a different voice." Classics@9. Center for 

Hellenic Studies. Retrieved January 12, 2020 from http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-

3:hlnc.essay:Gilligan.Looking_Back_to_Look_Forward. 

Goodall, J. (1999). Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey. New York, NY: Warner Books. 

Krishnamurti, J. (2008). Education and the Significance of Life. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins. 

Maslow, A. H. (July 1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. 

Palmer, P. (2000). Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

https://www.bates.edu/purposeful-work/files/2019/05/Bates_PurposefulWork_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
https://www.bates.edu/purposeful-work/files/2019/05/Bates_PurposefulWork_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Gilligan.Looking_Back_to_Look_Forward
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:Gilligan.Looking_Back_to_Look_Forward


Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice 
Devon Almond 

Allies for Education 2020, 3, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

Pink, D.H. (2011). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York, NY: Riverhead. 

Quirola, D. (n.d.), McDonaldization for all: Why are we still forgetting issues about fairness, access, 

content and education for sustainable living? Retrieved January 9, 2020 from 

http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/mceducationforall.htm. 

Scharmer, Otto. (2016) Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler. 

Wrzesniewski, A., McCauley, C., Rozin, P., and Schwartz, B. 1997. Jobs, careers, and callings: People’s 

relations to their work. Journal of Research in Personality, 31, 21-33. 

Zur, O. (2010). Explore your vocation... find your calling. Zur Institute. Retreived January 22, 2020 from 

https://www.zurinstitute.com/vocation/. 

 

http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/mceducationforall.htm
https://www.zurinstitute.com/vocation/

	Curricula for Meaningful Work through Listening in a Different Voice
	About the Author
	References

