Fostering evidence-based practice and applied research in career development [Editorial]

Abstract

The field of career development in Australia is populated by practitioners and theorists representative of different professions and academic disciplines: teachers, instructors, and guidance officers from education; employment and recruitment officers from human resources and management; organisational, counselling, and educational psychologists from psychology; and others from rehabilitation, social work, elite performance and sport, and public policy. The diversity of professions and disciplines is, without doubt, a virtue. In one way, this diversity manifests in the array of disciplinary perspectives published in the AJCD—truly it is the core strength of the journal that its remit is so broad and inclusive. The multidisciplinary reach of the journal similarly reflects the diverse composition of the peak body in the field in this country: the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA). Whilst the journal will always retain its intellectual independence—as a scholarly source of ideas and a platform for sharing evidence and practice—it may well prove strategic to align the journal with the CICA’s objectives and instruments of professionalisation, such as the Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners (CICA, 2006). In considering the dimensions of such a strategic alignment, here I briefly address two of the fundamental planks of the many disciplines and professions that make up the field of career development: evidence-based practice and applied research and development