DOI: 10.17689/psy-2015.1.9
УДК 159.9.072
© 2015 Zhuina Diana Valerievna,
Candidate of Psychological Sciences, assistant professor at the «Special and Applied Psychology», a branch of Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evsevev, Saransk dianazhuina@yandex.ru
Annotation. The article deals with studying the career orientation of the personality of pedagogy students as a key element of the structure of the personality of a competitive specialist who is in demand on the labor market. The author analyzed the main research trends in this problematic area. The article describes in detail the procedure and the results of empirical study targeting identification of career orientation of the pedagogy students’ personality, formulates the conclusion on the necessity of carrying out goal-oriented and scheduled work on creation of adequate conditions for development of the career orientation of the students’ personality.
Keywords: career, personality orientation, career orientation of students’ personality, elements of the personality career orientation.
Эмпирическое исследование карьерных ориентаций выпускников педагогического вуза
© 2015 Жуина Диана Валериевна,
Кандидат психологических наук, доцент кафедры специальной и прикладной психологииМордовского государственного педагогического института имени М. Е. Евсевьева, г. Саранск dianazhuina@yandex.ru
Аннотация. Статья посвящена изучению карьерных ориентаций студентов-выпускников педагогического вуза, как ключевого элемента структуры личности конкурентоспособного специалиста, который пользуется спросом на рынке труда. Автор проанализировал основные направления исследований по этой проблеме. В статье подробно описывается процедура и результаты эмпирического исследования карьерных ориентаций студентов, сформулирован вывод о необходимости проведения целенаправленной работы по созданию адекватных условий для развития карьерных ориентаций личности учащихся.
Ключевые слова: карьера, карьерные ориентации, карьерные ориентации личности студентов, элементы карьерной ориентации личности.
Introduction. The contemporary Russian youth currently more and more orients to the image of a successful person, which comes from the western culture and which is advocated by mass media, making them to wish to have a higher status without any intention to develop their respective professional competences. This conditions the revision of the whole system of education at a higher educational institution and application during the education and parenting process of new technology, which forms professional competences necessary for a highly skilled specialist who has strong competitive position in the labor market.
The analysis of domestic and foreign theoretical and methodological concepts carried out by A. K. Kanamatova showed that the problem of socialization of a professional is topical for various spheres of knowledge: politology (R. G. Grigoryan, A. V. Grishin, and others); economics (N. V. Volkova, V. V. Goncharov, I. A. Polents, and others); sociology (A. B. Alewxandrova, A. I. Kravchenko, A. A. Lobanov, D. Y. Chebotareva, F. R. Fillipov, and others); pedagogy (V. K. Shapovalov, B. Idzikovsky, and others); psychology of professional activity (A. A. Bodalev, A. A. Derkach, V. G. Zazykin, E. F. Zeer, E. A. Klimov, N. S. Pryazhnikov, and others) etc. [Kanamatova, 2010, p. 121].
Lately, the studies of psychological aspects of professional career were carried out, particularly, career orientations of students (Y. A. Burmakova, A. A. Zhdanovich, O. P. Ternovskaya), career readiness of higher educational institution graduates (A. S. Mironova-Tikhomirova), and interpretation of the psychological substance of career (S. T. Janeryan, E. A. Klimov, E. A. Mogilevkin, E. G. Moll) and of the study of factors of career development of a specialist (E. F. Zeer, A. K. Markova, E. G. Moll, N. S. Pryazhnikov, and others) was suggested. [Kanamatova, 2010, p. 128].
At the same time, the problem that remains topical and not solved is the problem of determination and diagnostics of career orientation of the students’ personality, organization of efficient activity on developing career orientation of the personality of the modern youth; formation of the readiness of graduates to implement in full their energetic and informational potential in the sphere of professional activity; and ability to achieve success in their career development activity competently.
The high demand of the practice combined with the absence of sufficient theoretical development has determined the timeliness of raising the problem of diagnostics of career orientation of the pedagogy students’ personality.
Body of the work. When considering the substance of the orientation concept, we come to the conclusion that while acting as the most important property of the personality, it expresses the dynamics of the person’s development as a social and spiritual creature and main trends of his behavior. Orientation is implemented in various forms: value-related orientations, sympathy and antipathy, tastes, proneness, and devotions, and is expressed in various spheres of human life activities — professional, family, political, and other activities [Zhuina, 2013, p.103].
Thus, the orientation of personality in psychology is determined as a system of stable needs, interests, and ideals, i. e. anything that a human wants. Orientation sets the main trends of his behavior. As orientation is a complex personal establishment, which determines the whole behavior of a personality, self-attitude, and attitude to the people around, it is divided into general orientation of a personality and professional orientation, which plays the decisive role in career development.
Considering the issues related to career development, the majority of foreign researchers [Bandura, 1989, p. 456], [Roe, 1956, p. 245], [Hall, 1993, p. 17], [Shein, 2010, p. 54], understanding of this term emphasize the importance of a person’s success in the professional sphere, studying the conditions and factors, which determine selection and development of the career.
The domestic scientific theories and concepts (E. F. Zeer, E. A. Klimov, T. V. Kudryavtseva, A. M. Kukharchuk, V. I. Lukyanenko, L. M. Mitina, Y. P. Povarenkov, N. S. Pryazhnikov, A. T. Rostunov, P. G. Shchedrovitsky, A. B. Zenziper, and others) determine career, on the one hand, as general sequence of stages of human development in the main spheres of life (labor, family, etc.). The units of periodization of the personality professional socialization that are used in these works are stages, periods, and phases. The stages mainly coincide with the stages of professional socialization: pre-professional personality development (preparation for professionalization); search and selection of a profession, educational institution; professional education; independent professional activity. Periods are the elements of stages and appear as a result of a concept particularization. On the other hand, consideration of career is more particularized: as the dynamics of status and activeness in professional activity [Zhuina, 2014, p. 540].
One of the conditions of successful career development is the formed career orientation of a personality (some of the researches call it career aspirations). Career orientation can be represented as systematic three-level education included in the more generalized system of personality orientation. On the metasystem level, orientation acts as the leading characteristic of personality: «dynamic tendency» (S. L. Rubinstein), «sense-making motive» (A. N. Leontyev), «prevailing attitude» (V. N. Myasishchev), «attitude to other people, to the society, and to oneself» (V. S. Merlin), «socially conditioned substructure of personality» (K. K. Platonov), «main life orientation» (B. G. Ananyev), «backbone property of personality, which determines its psychological structure» (B. F. Lomov) [Shchelokova, 2011, p. 86].
Thus, career orientation is understood as one of the main properties of personality, which determines both the leading representative system of perception and the prevailing feelings, motives (intentions, interests, proneness, and ideals), value-related and life sense orientations of a human (A. V. Karpov, E. F. Yashenko), as well as the personal and professional position: self-attitude, attitude to the activity (profession); to oneself as a subject of activity (to oneself in the profession) and life (including the professional and career) path [Shchelokova, 2011, p. 87].
Career aspirations of an individual are treated as motivators of his activity in the career sphere, which stimulate his activity towards career development, career promotion, and achievement of strong professional success. Having a value-related nature, career aspirations line up towards reference points mainly acknowledged by the society.
The following elements of career orientation of an individual are identified:
− career orientations: the values of career, the method of achievement of success during career development, the system of person’s evaluation of these methods of achievement of career success, the regulator of person’s behavior in social environment (N. A. Volkova, T. G. Gnedina, J. Kelly, N. L. Kirt, E. F. Rybalko, McAdams, E. G. Mall, Ch. Osgood, E. Shane, and others);
− attitude of a person to his career: inclusively integral psychological connection of a person with various sides of his career, which integrates the orientation to cognition, evaluation, and development of the career within itself (T. D. Sheret);
− career competence: the system of representations of career, opportunities and ways of career development, the ability to forecast one’s future career and overcome career crises, including «career self-efficiency» as an ability of career goal-setting, career planning, and solution of career problems (E. V. Sadon); a battery of meta-skills, which allows to operate knowledge and tools for solution of career tasks and achievement of career goals (E. A. Mogilevkin);
− career readiness: stable orientation to building effective actions with certain evaluation requiring the satisfaction situation (A. S. Mironova-Tikhomirova) [Zhuina, 2014, p. 541].
Taking into account the timeliness of the stated problem, we carried out empirical research of the personality career orientation, in which 200 graduate students of eight departments of the Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute took part. The research was being carried out in March and April 2013, and the following methods were applied: direct, indirect, and inclusive observance; testing; and quantitative and qualitative analysis of the obtained data. Selection of methods was determined by the nature of the research objectives. The research was based on the comprehensive approach and the comparative method of analysis of factual materials [Zhuina, 2014, p.541].
The results of the analysis by the «Career Anchors» questionnaire allowed studying the career orientation of pedagogy students. Analysis of the results allowed us to reveal the following value-related orientations at career development of students of various departments of a pedagogical higher educational institution, as represented on Figure 1.
Figure 1 — Career orientations of pedagogy students.
Thus, it was stated that for the majority of pedagogy students (41 persons — 20.5%), the leading career orientation was «autonomy (independence)», which evidenced their desire to free from organizational rules, prescription, and restrictions, their need to do everything in one’s own way and independently decide when, on what and how long to work. This desire is quite explainable, as during the 5 years of education, the students have to follow exact rules adopted by the higher educational institution’s articles. However, the fact is causing worries that if such orientation is strongly expressed, a person is ready to refuse from career development and from other opportunities to secure his independence.
The «professional competence» career orientation was shown by 32 students (16%) and evidenced their abilities and talents in a certain sphere (scientific research, sports achievement, etc.). People with such mindset often want to become experts in their field, and if they achieve success in their professional field, they become especially happy. At the same time, these people seek acknowledgement of their talents, which must be represented by the status relevant to their proficiency.
Such orientation as «service», the main values of which are «handling people», «service in favor of the humankind», «helping people», «desire to make the world better» was shown by 30 students (15%).
27 persons (13.5%) were oriented to the integration of versatile sides of their life style, to the balance between the family, the career, and the self-development (the «integration of life styles» career orientation).
The «stability of work» career orientation was observed with 19 students (9.5%), which is described by the desire to work at such an organization, which would ensure certain period of work, has a good reputation, cares about its retired employees and pays large pensions, and looks rather reliable in its branch.
The «challenge» orientation, which is described by overcoming obstacles, solution of difficult tasks, competence, victory over others, was typical of 15 students (7.5%).
13 students (6.5%) showed the «entrepreneurship» orientation. A person with such career orientation strives to create something new, wants to overcome obstacles, is ready for risks, and does not wish to work for others, but to have his own business and financial welfare.
12 students (6%) showed the «stability of residence» orientation, which indicates a person’s association with a geographic region, «growing into the soil» in a particular place, making investments in his house; such a person changes his job or his employer only when it is not accompanied with moving from the place he lives at.
The «management» career orientation was shown by 10 students (5%). For such people, personal orientation to integration of other people’s efforts and full responsibility for the final result are of primary importance. Such small percentage of students who have this career orientation is explained, to our opinion, with the fact that its understanding comes with age and with work experience, as it requires not only analytical skills, but also the skills of interindividual and group communication and emotional balance in order to carry the burden of power and responsibility.
Summary. The data provided in Figure 1 give reasons to say that the education system existing in a pedagogical higher educational institution forms certain elements of career orientation of a person (particularly, career orientations). Nevertheless, this process is of spontaneous nature, and the duration of education does not individually make the understanding of career more correct, and professional intentions — stable, and attitude to the profession — positive.
Thus, without special training, graduate students do not form integral attitude to their career, the system of understanding of career, opportunities and ways of career development, and they lack readiness for career development. Therefore, we need to notice that the mainly spontaneous process of development and formation of a competitive specialist requires being opposed to goal-oriented, harmonious in all its aspects education and parenting of a future professional.
References:
- Kanamatova, A.K., 2010. Interindividual Relations of Undergraduates as a Determinant of the Career Aspiration Development, thesis of a Candidate of Psychological Science, Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University, Pyatigorsk, pp: 216.
- Shchelokova, E.G., 2011. Peculiarities of Career Orientations of University Students. Herald of the University (the State University of Management), 22: 86-87.
- Zhuina, D.V., 2013. Activity of the Acmeological Center Related to Formation of Career Orientation of a Person. V Mire Nauchnykh Otkrytiy, 5.2 (41): 101-115.
- Zhuina, D. V., 2014. The acmeological center: the results of its activity of fostering competitive specialists. Journal: Life Sci J. # 11 (8): 539-541.
- Bandura, A., 1989. Regulation of cognitive processes through perceived self-efficacy: DP, 25: pp: 729
- Roe, A., 1956. The Psychology of Occupations. N.Y., pp: 324
- Hall, D.T., 1993. The new "career contract": Wrong on both counts. Boston: Executive Developmental Roundtable, Boston Universiting School of Management, pp: 17-28.
- Shein, E.H., 2010. Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass: pp: 67.