Critical Responses to Transforming Conditions that Disadvantage Workforce Development

By Dr. Germán A. Cadenas and Dr. Ellen Hawley McWhirter

This Labor Day in 2022 is finding workers, and young people who are navigating pathways to work, facing some very complex situations. Economic inequality widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is making it more difficult for people in low-income communities and in the middle class to cope with rising inflation, and to pursue higher education and other opportunities to acquire skills. The continuing murders of Black people at the hands of police has added urgency to the movement for racial justice and highlighted that racism continues to be widespread in the US. Reproductive rights are being challenged nationally, with multifaceted impacts on the ability of women to participate in the workforce. Education related to gender and sexuality is being banned in many states, which limits and inhibits the career development of women and the LGBTQ community. Immigration and labor policies have failed to protect immigrant workers, such that they were exposed to greater negative health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic even as they helped keep communities functioning. These challenging realities intersect or overlap, and therefore disadvantage large segments of the workforce. Specifically, young people of color, who represent the largest growing segment of the US workforce, may be at particular risk of precarity. How are educators, educational leaders and staff, mental health service providers (ex: counselors, social workers, psychologists) to support folks who are endeavoring to put together a career in this unfavorable landscape?

We believe that a significant part of the answer is to infuse critical consciousness in our practices to support workers and young people seeking work. Critical consciousness can be helpful to providers and workers alike because it engages them in analyzing the social systems, cultural dynamics, political issues, policies, and practices that keep groups of workers from advancing in their work and careers. Critical consciousness also involves supporting individuals toward social action, such as advocating for themselves within institutions, building community and social support with others who experience similar challenges, and directing some of their energy toward changing and improving the systems that disadvantage them. It is no easy task, and not one that may be accomplished by any individual alone. This is why we insist that it is key for those who provide educational, career, and mental health services to learn demonstrated approaches to support a positive systemic transformation. In a recent article we published in Journal of Career Assessment, titled “Critical Consciousness in Vocational Psychology: A Vision for the Next Decade and Beyond,” we expanded on this thought.

We acknowledge in our article that the field of vocational psychology and career counseling has struggled from the beginning to meet the needs of workers who are at the highest risk of marginalization. This is reflected in a bias in peer reviewed articles, which predominantly focus on approaches for supporting White middle class workers, minimally attending to the needs of low-income workers, people of color, women, individuals who are LGBTQ, or immigrants (among others). However, recent science is suggesting that critical consciousness can be beneficial among these communities, as it is linked to greater educational, career, and health outcomes.

Our article provides practical recommendations for increasing our critical consciousness as providers and/or scholars, and also for supporting the critical consciousness of those we serve. Educators, providers, and scholars who serve these communities may start by learning about applied vocational psychology frameworks that incorporate or can align with critical consciousness such as Psychology of Working Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory. We also recommend learning about broader frameworks, such as Freire’s pedagogical practices for fostering critical consciousness in education, and the many applications of Critical Race Theory (CRT). For instance, CRT is a useful lens through which to identify the ways in which race and racism shape individual’s options related to work and career, and how this may be connected to economic inequality, sexism, hetero-sexism, anti-immigrant hostility, among many others. We suggest that practitioners incorporate the development of critical consciousness into their work by explicitly discussing these systems and conditions in their practice, fostering agency among those they serve, and becoming familiar with strategies for collective action and systems level change (ex: community-based programs and advocacy). For scholars, our suggestions include engaging in Participatory Action Research that is centered on the experiences of individuals and groups who are in the most precarious contexts. We are hopeful that these strategies contribute to progress toward larger aims of racial and economic justice. Looking at the legacy of the Labor Movement, we are reminded that when groups come together to promote positive change, concrete progress is made for all of us.

To find our more, listen to an interview with Dr. Germán A. Cadenas on the SAGE Psychology and Psychiatry podcast here.

Read the Article

Article Details
Critical Consciousness in Vocational Psychology: A Vision for the Next Decade and Beyond
Germán A. Cadenas, PhD, Ellen H. McWhirter, PhD
First Published April 24, 2022
Journal of Career Assessment

About the Author

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Dr. Germán A. Cadenas (he/his/el) is a formerly undocumented immigrant of Latin American roots. He identifies as a scholar-activist who has been involved in the movement for immigrant rights for over a decade. His academic work is community-based and focuses on the psychology of immigration and on critical consciousness as a tool for social justice. He has published in outlets such as Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Latinx Psychology, and Educational Researcher. His work has been externally funded and has informed policy and advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. He completed a PhD in Counseling Psychology at Arizona State University, and a Doctoral Internship and Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California Berkeley. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at Lehigh University.

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Ellen Hawley McWhirter, Ph. D., is the Ann Swindells Professor in Counseling Psychology at the University of Oregon, and director of the Spanish Language Psychological Services and Research Specialization. Her research and scholarly interests include Latinx adolescent career development, critical consciousness, and adolescent risk and protective factors. In 2015 she received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Vocational Psychology. She has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile, 2004) and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior and the Journal of Career Development.