Special Section:

Career Development in Childhood

TntroHnction to the Special Section

Children's Career Development:

Status Quo and Future Directions
Mary McMahon, Guest Editor
Mark Watson, Guest Editor
For decades, writers bave criticized tbe limited researcb focus (e.g.,
Borow, 1964) and lack of tbeoretical depth (e.g., Vbndracek & Kircbner, 1974) on cbildren's career development. Indeed, Borow urged
vocational researcb and tbeory to focus increasing attention on the
formative years of childhood. Little has changed over the ensuing decades, even though career development is now recognized as a life span
process. For example, a decade ago, Gysbers (1996) outlined several
major challenges facing career counselors, educators, and researchers
in tbe field of children's career development. Among these challenges
were the need for a comprehensive, cohesive approach to career theory,
practice, and research and the need for action rather than reaction in
the career literature.
These challenges remain largely unmet, and Schultheiss, Palma, and
Manzi (2005) have more recently called for a greater integration of
theory, practice, and research in children's career development literature.
This call has been endorsed by Watson and McMahon (2007), who
recommended strengthening the provision of intentional, career
development learning experiences for children. This consistent schism
between career theory, practice, and research, although reflective of the
career psychology discipline in general, limits an in-depth understanding
of the dynamic nature of children's career development. Furthermore, it
limits understanding of how best to provide practical interventions that will
build a firm foundation for children's life span career development.
There have been two more recent substantive reviews of the research
literature on the career development of children (Hrtung, Porfeli, &
Vondracek, 2005; Watson & McMahon, 2005), botb of wbicb bave
endorsed Gysbers's (1996) challenges to the field. In particular, these
reviews highlighted the critical importance of understanding career
development in this early, life span phase and the limited nature of this
Mary McMahon, School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia; Mark Watson, Department ofPsychology, Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Correspondence concerning
this article should be addressed to Mary McMahon, School of Education, The University of Queensland, Room 617, Social Sciences Building, Brisbane, Queensland
4072, Australia (e-mail: marylmcmahon@uq.edu.au).
2008 by the National Career Development Association. All rights reserved.

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September 2008 Volume 57

understanding to date. Two central themes have emerged from these

research reviews: the need for a more holistic understanding of children's
career development and the need for a greater focus on the process of
children's career development. Both reviews call for a more integrative,
holistic understanding of children's career development by embedding
children's career development within life span career development and
by exploring the how and what of children's career development.
The career development of children has been acknowledged as providing foundational and precursory parameters that have an impact on later
adolescent educational and career development. In this regard, Hrtung
et al. (2005) called for the linking rather than the isolation of career
developmental periods in order to gain a more holistic understanding
of how antecedents and dimensions in one career developmental period
may affect other life span developmental periods. Similarly, Watson and
McMahon (2005) called for a more holistic understanding of children's
career development by focusing on the process of career development
learning in children.
The disparate nature of children's career development literature at
present (Watson & McMahon, 2004) reinforces the need to revisit
Gysbers's (1996) challenges in order to create a more comprehensive
understanding of the career development of children, both intra- and
interdevelopmentally. Specifically, there is a need to review the status
quo of the theory and practice of children's career development and
how these might be integrated with research agendas outlined in the
recent reviews (Hrtung et al., 2005; Schultheiss et al., 2005; Watson
& McMahon, 2005). This need provides the rationale for this special
section of The Career Development Quarterly focusing on children's
career development.
The special section features contributions from major authors in the
field of children's career development. Authors were invited to contribute
an article in which they would outline children's career development
in relation to theory and practice and their integration with a research
agenda. Authors were asked to consider the status quo of children's
career development, issues facing the field, what the future direction
should be, and what is needed to get there.

Content of the Special Sertinn

Following this introduction to this special section are five articles written
by invited authors. Our summative article concludes this special section.
It is not surprising, given the theme of this special issue, that there was
general agreement throughout the articles that the issues facing the field
of children's career development today are similar to those identified
decades ago. A recurring dieme evident in the articles is the value of
systematic programmatic research that investigates children's career
development in the context of their lives and in relationship to the life
stages of adolescence and adulthood.
The first two articles, those of Schultheiss and of Porfeli, Hrtung,
and Vondracek, outline a range of issues and make recommendations for
future research in the field of children's career development. These are
followed by Helwig's and Tracey and Sodano's articles, which provide
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September 2008 Volume 57

examples and illustrate the value of programmatic research that is much

needed in the field of children's career development. The final invited
article, by Hrtung, Porfeli, and Vondracek, provides an example of a
future program of research emanating out of their prior work, which
was also discussed in Porfeli et al.
In our summative article, at the end of this special section, we examine
the invited contributions in terms of emergent themes, divergent views,
and evident gaps. This final article concludes with a proposed agenda
for the way forward for theory, practice, and research in the field of
children's career development.

Reference.;
Borow, H. (1964). An integral view of occupational theory and research. In H. Borow
(Ed.), Man in a world at work (pp. 364-388). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Gysbers, N. C. (1996). Meeting the career needs of children and adolescents. Journal of
Vocational Education Research, 21, 87-98.
Hrtung, P. J., Porfeli, E. J., & Vondracek, F. W. (2005). Child vocational development:
A review and reconsideration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66, 385-419.
Schultheiss, D. E. P., Palma, T. V., & Manzi, A. J. (2005). Career development in middle
childhood: A qualitative inquiry. The Career Development Quarterly, 53, 246-262.
Vondracek, S. I., & Kirchner, E. P. (1974). Vocational development in early childhood:
An examination of young children's expressions of vocational aspirations. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 5, 251260.

Watson, M. B., & McMahon, M. (2004). Children's career development: A metatheoretical

perspective. Australian Journal of Career Development, 13, 7-11.
Watson, M. B., & McMahon, M. (2005). Children's career development: A research review
from a learning perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67, 119-132.
Watson, M., & McMahon, M. (2007). Children's career development learning: A foundation
for lifelong career development. In V. Skorikov & W. Patton (Eds.), Career development
in childhood and adolescence (pp. 29-46). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.

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September 2008 Volume 57