Country Case: Sweden Workshop 1. Multicultural counseling competences acquired through guidance counselor training

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Country Case Sweden Workshop 1. Multicultural
counseling competences acquired through
guidance counselor training

• Fredrik Hertzberg Åsa Sundelin, Department of
  education, Stockholm university
• Thessaloniki, Greece, September 29th, 2011

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The purpose of the presentation

• The purpose of this presentation is to give an
  overview of reserach in Sweden which focus on the
  professional considerations of career counselors
  in multiethnic, and deals with the ethical and
  political considerations that may have
  implications for prevailing guidance practices.

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Disposition

• A presentation of the ongoing project Counseling
  between recognition, justice and difference. A
  qualitative study of career counseling of youth
  with immigrant background, sponsored by the
  Swedish Research Council.
• Fredrik Hertzberg, Petra Roll Bennett Åsa
  Sundelin

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference

• In this project, our aim is to study the
  approaches of career counselers in Swedish
  primary and secondary education to youth of
  immigrant descent, with a focus on how they
  manage issues which are specific to them adn
  related to the transition from school to work (or
  further education).
• We also interested the scope given to the
  different orientations towards work, education
  and the future, which is expressed by those young
  persons.

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (2)

• The keywords in title relates to three different
  perspectives and theoretical orientations. It
  covers three different aspects of multicultural
  counseling, which always needs to be addressed.
• Recognition concerning the disposition or will
  recognize the different approaches to work, even
  if they deviate from the norm, i.e. the most
  common and acknowledged approaches. (Theories on
  justice and recognition in multiculturalism
  Kymlycka, Walzer, etc.)

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (3)

• Justice concerning the strategies to create
  equal opportunities for all, on the threshold to
  the labour market and life as an adult citizen
  (conceptions of justice, but also and the
  regulative use of fairness Callinicos
  Durkheim, Dewey, Foucault)
• Difference concerning the tendency to produce or
  reproduce ethnic or racial stereotypes or
  prejudices, and the propensity to over-emphasize
  the importance of cultural traits related to
  ethnicity and religion. (Theories of ethnicity
  and post-colonialism Eriksen, Jenkins, Gilroy,
  etc.)

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (4)

• In sum, the aim could be reformulated in the
  following phrasing we aim to study the ways in
  which the objectives of justice and recognition
  are balances to each other, during the process of
  educational and vocational choosing, and in which
  ways ethnic identity and migrantship is supposed
  to have significance for this process.

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (5)

• Three studies
• The institutional, economical and discursive
  frameworks of counseling for migrant youth
  (Hertzberg)
• The interaction between the counselor and the
  counselee (Sundelin)
• The relation between the parents and the
  counseling activities at school (and the parents
  apprehension of future career possibilities for
  their children in Sweden Roll Bennett)

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (6)

• Three studies
• Interviews with counselors, teachers headmasters,
  senior officers at the municipality, local
  politicians documents
• Recordings from counseling sessions, interviews
  with counselors
• Interviews with parents and children

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (7)

• The first study the institutional, economical
  and discursive frameworks of counseling for
  migrant youth
• Which professional considerations governs the
  counseling activities? Which experiences guides
  attention and practice? Which norms and values
  are influent? Which notions are central as
  interpretative tools?
• Target professional considerations at governing
  level and practice level

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (7)

• The second study The counseling process -
  Interaction in the counseling dialogue
• Develop knowledge and understanding about
  multicultural counseling
• Explore intercultural counseling dialogues
  through exposing, illustrating and explaining
  dialogue processes in relation to the context of
  the dialogue

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (8)

• Counselor and student with foreign background
  (upper secondary school and secondary school)
• What takes place in the dialogue What are the
  actions and reactions counselor and student
• Learning perspective on how and what in the
  dialogue
• The role of understanding
• Broadening perspectives
• Content

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (9)

• The third study - interviews with parents focus
  on following issues
• Parents own experiences of education/career, both
  in their native country of origin and in Sweden.
• Parents ideas about childrens possibilities/limit
  ations in future life.
• Parents views of their own influence on
  childrens education/future career.
• Parents views about their possibilities/limitation
  s to take part in/influence school and career
  counselling.

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (10)

• We know, from earlier research (Hertzberg 2003,
  2008 Sawyer 2006), that there is a tendency to
  focus on ethnic belonging and culturally derived
  values and norms, and downplaying the
  significance of individual deliberation, when
  describing the agency of youth of migrant descent
  (as the oversocialized individuals described by
  C Wright Mills and the ethnomethodologists
  respectively - in their critique of Parsonian
  sociology)

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (11)

• Still, those earlier studies have a tendency to
  overemphasize tropes employed in discursive
  expressions during interviews, and the ongoing
  language-play (for instance the contrasting of
  social categories), not fully regarding other
  conditions for the articulation of discourse,
  such as professional considerations (counseling
  competence) and institutional frameworks i.e.
  the social world to which discourses refers.
  Thus, a more exhaustive contextualization of
  empirical material from interviews is needed.

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Counseling between recognition, justice and
difference (12)

• Thus, we want to gain further knowledge of
• Opinions on the relevance of ethnicity and
  migration to counseling
• the frames of interpretations employed when
  considering the future possibilities (at school,
  work and elsewhere) of migrant youth
• Ways to balance the objectives of recognition and
  justice in a professional context
• In short the process of professional
  sense-making
• The negotiation between parents and school about
  the content and the direction in strategies for
  the future
• The possibility of recognition of perspectives to
  work and education which differs from
  taken-for-granted norms or ideals

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Interested in cooperation? Sharing ideas and
knowledge?

• Please contact us!
• Fredrik Hertzberg (fredrik.hertzberg_at_edu.su.se)
• Petra Roll Bennett (petra_at_edu.su.se).
• Åsa Sundelin (asa.sundelin_at_edu.su.se)