Children's career development: status quo and future directions.(Introduction to the Special Section)

For decades, writers have criticized the limited research focus (e.g., Borow, 1964) and lack of theoretical depth (e.g., Vondracek & Kirchner, 1974) on children's career development. Indeed, Borow urged vocational research and theory to focus increasing attention on the formative years of childhood. Little has changed over the ensuing decades, even though career development is now recognized as a life span process. For example, a decade ago, Gysbers (1996) outlined several major challenges facing career counselors, educators, and researchers in the field of children's career development. Among these challenges were the need for a comprehensive, cohesive approach to career theory, practice, and research and the need for action rather than reaction in the career literature.

These challenges remain largely unmet, and Schultheiss, Palma, and Manzi (2005) have more recently called for a greater integration of theory, practice, and research in children's career development literature. This call has been endorsed by Watson and McMahon (2007), who recommended strengthening the provision of intentional, career development learning experiences for children. This consistent schism between career theory, practice, and research, although reflective of the career psychology discipline in general, limits an in-depth understanding of the dynamic nature of children's career development. Furthermore, it limits understanding of how best to provide practical interventions that will build a firm foundation for children's life span career development.

There have been two more recent substantive reviews of the research literature on the career development of children (Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, 2005; Watson & McMahon, 2005), both of which have endorsed Gysbers's (1996) challenges to the field. In particular, these reviews highlighted the critical importance of understanding career development in this early, life span phase and the limited nature of this understanding to date. Two central themes have emerged from these research reviews: the need for a more holistic understanding of children's career development and the need for a greater focus on the process of children's career development. Both reviews call for a more integrative, holistic understanding of children's career development by embedding children's career development within life span career development and by exploring the how and what of children's career development.

The career development of children has been acknowledged as providing foundational and precursory parameters that have an impact on later adolescent educational and career development. In this regard, Hartung et al. (2005) called for the linking rather than the isolation of career developmental periods in order to gain a more holistic understanding of how antecedents and dimensions in one career developmental period may affect other life span development periods. Similarly, Watson and McMahon (2005) called for a more holistic understanding of children's career development by focusing on the process of career development learning in children.

The disparate nature of children's career development literature at present (Watson & McMahon, 2004) reinforces the need to revisit Gysbers's (1996) challenges in order to create a more comprehensive understanding of the career development of children, both intra- and interdevelopmentally. Specifically, there is a need to review the status quo of the theory and practice of children's career development and how these might be integrated with research agendas outlined in the recent reviews (Hartung et al., 2005; Schultheiss et al., 2005; Watson & McMahon, 2005). This need provides the rationale for this special section of The Career Development Quarterly focusing on children's career development.

The special section features contributions from major authors in the field of children's career development. Authors were invited to contribute an ...