Running Head: GRADE 9 CAREER DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM REVIEW

Grade 9 Career Development Curriculum Review

Melanie Gamache

030060

04.710, Career Guidance

Dr. Cam Symons
August 2, 2016
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The Manitoba grade 9 curriculum for Career Development is the first of four courses

created to instruct and support student career planning at the secondary level. The grade 9

curriculum was implemented in 2007 and continues to be used in most Manitoba high schools to

facilitate the exploration of career paths for adolescent students. The curriculum was written

using career theory which recognizes that career development is a lifelong process of skill

acquisition and growth through a continuum of learning. (p.1) and the rationale behind the

curriculum aligns with 21st century career and life skills suggested by Partnership for 21st

Century Learning that those entering the world of work must be flexible, adaptable, and able to

access and use information (Life and Career Skills section, para 10).

This grade 9 curriculum requires the use of a team approach, with a lot of responsibility

falling to administrators and counselors to implement the program effectively. There is an

emphasis on personal introspection and career exploration (p. 11) as well as building self-

esteem, practicing self-assessment, locating information and selecting courses (p. 12) at this

early level. The curriculum, despite its relative newness, has deficits mostly based on the

assumptions of the writers, while it also contains strengths in order to foster 21st century and

essential skills. This review of the curriculum will evaluate the strengths and deficits of the

document and make recommendations based on implementation experience in a rural high

school setting.

Strengths

The grade 9 Career Development course has a large community integration approach.

The rationale is to help students get out in their community, build connections, and gain

experience in the work world while practicing the essential skills that employers value most.

The curriculums intention is to incorporate content, process, and structure for career
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development (pp. 4-8) through a framework that provides unbiased, differentiated delivery

methods rather and stand and teach strategy. A team, consisting of administration, teachers,

support staff, and coordinated by a trained, or professional, career counselor would work

together to plan and implement learning experiences within the school and community for

students to gain experience and develop their career mindedness for the future. The curriculum

details the roles and responsibilities of principals, students, teachers, parents, and community

members so all the members of the team have a clear description of how to support career

development in students.

The general and specific outcomes are written in a way that offers flexibility for cultural

and personal perception of success and effectiveness as several outcomes in Unit 3 (Learning and

Planning) focus on individual perception (p. 18) such as examining how academic and practical

skills are useful in work alternatives. The built in flexibility of Unit 5 (Career and Community)

allows facilitators to choose the outcomes that best meet the needs and interests of the students

they are teaching (p. 21).

Assessment is heavily emphasized in this curriculum including formative and summative

assessments. The document suggests assessment practices to be shared between teachers,

students, and community members and communicated with parents to elicit family support for

learning (p. 22). Each unit begins with the assessment plan and then suggests learning

experiences to achieve the assessment target. While these are not boxed lessons, there are

many recommendations to help a qualified teacher and counselor plan effective learning

experiences. Learning resources are supplemented through supporting websites to aid in

learning experiences throughout the document. As long as the links are updated regularly and
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continue to work well, this is a great resource for counselors and teachers in planning

programming.

The content of the course offers consideration of non-traditional work roles and there is

potential for challenging discussions about identity, gender, and self-expression in a class. This

certainly warrants the knowledge and sensitivity of a professional counselor, further emphasizing

the need for a counselor to coordinate the program with full administrative support.

Deficits

The majority of the deficits of this curriculum are likely based on assumptions of the

curriculum writers. The heavy involvement of the community is a great idea but this may not be

a realistic expectation for all communities. The specific outcomes that require grade 9 students

to find volunteer work and leisure activities related to occupational interests maybe particularly

difficult in small or remote communities that do not have a lot of diversification in terms of work

in the community. The expectations to involve and organize community work placements for

students to gain experience would require a coordinator who has personal connections in the

community, which is not always possible if the coordinator is new to the community or stretched

thin with other job-related obligations.

In small schools, where staffing is limited, one person may be the career department, the

student services department, as well as an entire subject area department. For one person to

coordinate and organize the community involvement requirements of this course may not

realistic in a small, remote, or rural school setting. Additionally, community placements and

interaction would require a positive relationship between the community and the school, which

doesnt always exist. Many students from reserves may wish to work in their home
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communities, but off-reserve schools may not have the relationship, cultural know-how, or

personal connections to arrange for placements. There is also the coordination of transporting

students from school to a work placement, which may be impossible or a logistical nightmare,

depending on the location of the school or community. To provide the opportunity to some, and

not others, if parents or divisions cannot support transporting students in and around the

community, also compromises the equity of the program.

Many of the outcomes in this curriculum are broad concepts that may only be achievable

through actual experience and/or a mature, reflective student. For example, outcomes 2.E.4 and

2.E.5 ask students to decide how work can satisfy personal needs and to determine the value

of work for self. (p. 50). Beyond regurgitation of a website or surface level interpretation of

Maslows Hierarchy of Human Needs, few students in grade 9 would have the life experience or

maturity to understand or reflect on these deeply personal expectations at a level that would have

any kind of impact. Other outcomes are just not realistic to practice in a single semester such as

3.I.4, which requires students to make decisions and take responsibility for them. (p. 19).

According to the curriculum, students may achieve this outcome by completing a BLM about a

potential decision (p. 57). This unauthentic task and assessment not only makes a mockery of a

crucial life skill, but would disengage even the most motivated student. The curriculum should

encourage teachers and counselor coordinators to find opportunities where students might have

influence in making a decision that would have an impact on their lives.

It is unfortunate that the writers of this curriculum did not include outcomes or

experiences that would help students define their personal or cultural beliefs and values. Core

beliefs and values would provide the foundational information to build positive self-esteem,

self-assessment, (p.11) and selecting courses or programs for future development.

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Acknowledging a students set of core values and beliefs can help a counselor or trained teacher

support student self-actualization.

The writers of this curriculum appear to have a tendency to make assumptions about

students and their backgrounds. Outcomes 2.F.1 and 2.F.2 make the assumption that all students

enrolled in this course would have experienced families who work together or share

responsibility (p. 17). Similarly, outcome 4.K.4 asks students to re-examine ones life or work

experience (p. 72) to analyze abilities and attitudes. The writers must assume that grade 9

students would have work experience to examine, or re-examine, and/or life experience that they

would want to examine, or re-examine. Many at-risk students grow up in damaging or negative

homes and in order for the school to effectively support those students career development and

desire for achievement, course facilitators and program coordinators must look for ways to

empower students to achieve their own level of success. Assuming that all students come from

intact nuclear families or functional backgrounds is not the way to do this.

Assessment is a common area for critique among teachers, administrators and curriculum

writers. The assessment practices described in this curriculum may seem sound, but the methods

for actually assessing formatively and summatively are subjective and would likely be

inconsistent between classrooms and teachers. For example, the document encourages program

facilitators and teachers to support students creating a career portfolio. For such a complex and

personally reflective task as a portfolio, the curriculum provides no direction on how teachers

should assess the product or the process of assembling a portfolio. There may be mention of a

student continuing his or her portfolio in future Career Development courses, but there is no

mention of the longevity intended behind a portfolio or the necessary ground work to develop

one properly within this document. Additionally, no direction in terms of rubrics, exemplars, or
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standards for learning are included within the curriculum, which would leave teachers to

subjectively decide when an assessment target has been reached. Without this information, the

curriculum changes from an emphasis on learning essential skills to completion of a series of

tasks, which is not best practice.

Lastly, there appears to be some attempt at suggesting learning activities in more than one

modality, but there is still a heavy reliance on writing skills including essays and journals. While

these tools can be effective assessment tools and composing a coherent, written document is a

great skill to have, many employers may argue it is not the most essential skill. Communication

in other forms: speaking, listening, representing, and viewing information may be just as

valuable, or more so, than writing essays. Conversation strategies between facilitators, teachers,

and students to uncover deeper learning or understanding may be more effective in appropriately

assessing learning and practicing an essential skill.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The Grade 9 Career Development curriculum is a well-intended program to support

student career exploration in urban settings where the student population is relatively

homogeneous. A school successfully implementing this program would have a team who

understands the rationale and the program beyond just the Grade 9 curriculum, and prioritizes

career exploration in order to develop the program at the school level. A team of teachers,

counselors and community members, fully supported by administration, could implement the

curriculum in conjunction with regular subject programming through PLC work and examination

of formative assessment data.

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In my current school, this course is part of the regular grade 9 program, but it is not being

implemented according to the rationale in the front matter of the curriculum. This could explain

why its not as successful as it could be, especially for our most at-risk students. Teachers tend

to teach this course in isolation from other subjects and from the Student Services and Guidance

departments. The two teachers who teach this course have remarked that the course does not

have enough content to fill 110 hours of instruction.

Having examined the curriculum document more closely, it is clear that this is largely a

process course, with an emphasis on skill development instead of a strict focus on content. This

can be effective, but only if the teacher, and his or her support team, recognize this. A strong

teacher is needed to teach this course because the learning experiences need to be build based on

skill development and authentic experiences. This will require creativity and resources beyond

the control of a single teacher, which is why the team approach is so crucial. Additionally,

adequate training for the teacher and program coordinator must be provided to ensure

appropriate development of the series of life/work courses, given the community and available

resources.

At the provincial level, curriculum documents should be reviewed, updated, and revised

as research and feedback is provided. With the change in provincial government, it would be

nice, but nave, to assume this process will happen naturally. Teachers, administrators, and

divisional personnel instead must pressure the Curriculum and Instruction and Assessment

branches to develop curriculum and policies that align with best practice and research by

questioning, consulting, and demanding the best curriculum for all students.
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Resources

Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth. (2007). Grade 9 career development: Life/Work

exploration. Manitoba Curriculum Framework of Outcomes and A Foundation for

Implementation. Winnipeg, MB. Retrieved August 2, 2016 from

http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/cardev/gr9_found/isbn.pdf

Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (n.d.). Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved on

July 24, 2016 from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework