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Early career development in the public sector: Lessons from a social constructionist perspective

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Date

2017

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Abstract

This article explores the contribution a social constructionist paradigm can make to the study of career, through a small-scale empirical study of recent graduates employed in New Zealand’s state sector. A social constructionist lens denies the possibility of an individualised, generalized understanding of “career”, highlighting instead its local, contingent character as the product of social interaction. Our respondents’ collective construction of career was heavily shaped by a range of context-specific interactions and influences, such as the perception of a distinctive national identity, as well as by their young age and state sector location. It was also shaped by the research process, with us as researchers implicated in these meaning-making processes. Social constructionism shines a light on aspects of the field that are underplayed by mainstream, scientific approaches to the study of career, and therefore has valuable implications for practitioners, as well as scholars.

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Keywords

Careers, social constructionism, young adults, public sector, national identity

Citation