An overview of research into My Career Chapter — a dialogical autobiography

Abstract

The constructivist narrative approach to career development has matured considerably in recent decades, and is now a legitimate alternative to traditional schools of thought and practice (McIlveen & Patton, 2007). Australian scholars and practitioners have certainly made a significant contribution to the advancement of narrative theory and practice (e.g., McMahon, 2006, 2007). Notwithstanding the vigour within the field, there remains scope to improve the applied research basis of narrative career assessment and counselling (McIlveen & Patton), particularly in relation to how narrative procedures have been developed and tested in the field: to demonstrate not only that they are useful and effective, but how they work in terms of process and users’ experiences. This paper summarises a research project which investigated the development and testing of a new constructivist, narrative career assessment and counselling procedure: My Career Chapter—A Dialogical Autobiography (McIlveen, 2006).