Social Justice and Career Development: Views and Experiences of Australian Career Development Practitioners
Career development practice had its origins in social justice reform over 100 years ago. A social justice perspective requires practitioners to examine the environmental context of their work, including the social, economic and political systems that influence people's career development. Achieving socially just outcomes for clients may necessitate intervention in these systems. While social justice is receiving a resurgence of interest in the literature, little is known about career development practitioners' attitudes towards and knowledge of socially just practice. The present paper examines the views and experiences of Australian career development practitioners on social justice. Data was collected by means of an online survey. Participants offered descriptions of their understanding of social justice and also examples of critical incidents in which they had attempted social justice interventions. Findings related to how Australian career development practitioners describe and operationalise social justice in their work are presented, as well as recommendations for future research.