Allen A. Mori: Career Attitudes and Job Knowledge Among Junior High School Regular, Special, and Academically Talented Students

Abstract

The concept of career education, first identified as a major national educational priority in 1971 by the then U.S. Commissioner of Education, Sidney P. Marland, has in just 10 years experienced remarkable national attention. Brolin and Kokaska noted that during a short period of time, career education has: made accomplishments such as legislation, funding, and a federal office of its own; a flurry of activity at the state and local levels, resulting in definitions, guides, policy statements, and curriculum modifications; endorsements from prestigious national leaders and organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the creation of career-oriented divisions in several professional organizations; feature issues in professional publications on career education ; and national workshops and conferences on career education for (the) handicapped. (1979, pp. 87-88) The reason for this dramatic growth is clearly rooted in the definitions of career education. These various definitions view career education as a lifelong developmental process that permits individuals to acquire the appropriate skills and attitudes to prepare for a successful and satisfying work life. Career education holds the promise of bringing relevance to the entire public education experience, allowing schools to produce graduates with marketable job skills, positive work attitudes, career decisionmaking skills, basic academic skills, and the capability of responding to the rapidly changing demands of adult mainstream society.Career education has particular relevance for handicapped individuals. Abundant data are available that document the significant numbers of handicapped persons who are unemployed and underemployed. As Brolin and Kokaska noted, there is &dquo;no doubt that handicapped individuals need career education and...they need it immediately. Our educational system is failing these students even more drastically than those who are not handicapped&dquo; (1979, p. 80).With all this interest in career education for the handicapped, there remains a dearth of research in career choice attitudes and job knowledge among exceptional youth. Since part of the school's mission is to develop appropriate career attitudes and knowledge of the world of work among all students, it would be of great interest to determine the actual level of proficiency acquired in these areas by junior high school age students.