Research on life design in (South) Africa: a qualitative analysis

Abstract

No country, including South Africa, has been left untouched by the global economic meltdown in 2008 and fears that another financial meltdown could be imminent. This article reports on the emergence of career construction and life design in response to changes in the world of work. It explains the essence of career construction and life design and discusses their value in 21st century (South) Africa. It also discusses the re-emergence of adaptability as a pivotal 'survival skill' in the 21st century and its importance in career counselling contexts. The second part of the article covers the analysis of six case studies on career construction and design counselling. Qualitative data analysis was used to identify common themes and subthemes in the case studies. It emerged that life design counselling enabled the participants to understand themselves better and construct new selves, broadened their perspectives on career-life issues, facilitated change in their lives, encouraged action, and imbued new hope in them. However, more research is needed on such counselling, especially in group contexts. Keywords Adaptability, career construction, life design in South Africa, meta' approach to data analysis, thematic data analysis Numerous changes have occurred in the workplace and are fast changing the theory and practice of career counselling worldwide. The changes precipitated by the fourth economic wave and the fifth information wave (Gurri, 2013) in particular have left 21st century youth with no choice but to become more adaptable and employable (instead of merely finding employment) and thereby prepare themselves for the inevitable restructuring and transformation of the workplace (Maree, 2013).Twenty-first century workers' perceptions of work-related issues such as the goals, values, and the meaning they attach to work have changed dramatically as they have attempted to respond to

Transforming Research Methods in the Social Sciences

“…The approach and strategy advocated here confirms Duarte and Cardoso's (2015) and Barclay's (2015) view that narrative career counselling enhances researcher reflection and promotes clients' self-reflection and reflexivity. Moreover, it corroborates Maree's (2015b) and Del Corso's (2015) finding that career counsellors can facilitate clients' self-and career construction by focusing on their deepest emotions and that meaning-making lies at the heart of narrative career counselling (Cochran, 1997(Cochran, , 2011. It also confirms Hartung and Cadaret's (2017, p. 16) contention that '[i]n an uncertain and unstable world, individuals must now turn inward through self-reflection'.…”

“…The essential tenets and framework of the career story (construction) interview have been elucidated in many publications (e.g. Maree 2013Maree , 2015bMaree , 2016Savickas, 2011aSavickas, , 2012Savickas, , 2015. Career counsellors construct their narrative based on five story-constructing questions pertaining to clients' role models; their favourite magazines, television programmes and websites; their favourite story (book or movie or book turned into a movie); their favourite quotations; and their earliest recollections.…”

The Challenges of Life Design Counseling in the Times of the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)

“…Savickas et al ( 2009 ) proposed that the intervention model of life design includes six steps: the first step is to determine the problem and counseling objectives by clients and counselors; the second step is for the clients to explore current subjective identity; the third step is to translate clients' narrative into clear content; the fourth step is to put the question into a new story; the fifth step is to ask the clients to develop an identity-related action plan; and the final step is short and long-term follow-up (Maree, 2015a , b ). Based on LDC, counselors help clients formulate career problems, explore role models, etc., then construct themes, reconstruct micro-narratives into macro-narratives, and rebuild narrative identity with greater coherence and continuity (Savickas, 2015 ; Taylor and Savickas, 2016 ).…”

Enhancing the sense of self of peer supporters using life design-related counselling

“…Life design counselling focuses on supporting clients in constructing a narrative of their own past, present, and future, by providing a sense of continuity and coherence in their lives, and by facilitating the development of re-authoring the narrative identity (Cardoso, Gonçalves, Duarte, Silva, & Alves, 2016; Maree, 2015). Narrative practices permeate life design counselling due to the counsellor’s emphasis on language, dialogue, and theme development.…”