Page 5 - insights-autumn-2019

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After your inaugural speech, you received
congratulation videos from more than 20
colleagues from 10 countries inside and
outside Europe. What has international
cooperation and research meant for your
career?
I have always worked internationally and found that
this was important, for two main reasons:
As a young person, I participated in youth work and
projects, including the European Youth Forum,
funded by the EU. It was here that I gained
inspiration and knowledge by collaborating with
young people from other countries – so when I
began my research work I already had international
experience and I had already found the importance
of how travelling the world can give you inspiration.
Later, my supervisor Peter Plant said: ‘You must
be part of this international career guidance
project’. The participants in the project included
Deirdre Hughes, Jenny Bimrose and Raimo
Vuorinen which meant that I had some really good
international colleagues right from the beginning,
almost before I started my PhD.
It has meant a lot for my own development that I
have been able to draw upon their expertise and
ask them all sorts of questions along the way – it
has been a great source of new knowledge and
has motivated me to share the information and
engage more internationally. Now, I have the
important task of acting as scientific manager of
the ECADOC European doctoral programme in
career guidance and counselling.
It is a great privilege to meet the new PhD students
each year and to allow them to experience that
research in career guidance is important and to
help them to realise that their contributions to the
field are appreciated. In addition, they themselves
form international relationships and networks. That
is particularly gratifying for me in my work.
ECADOC 2020 will be held at Jönköping University
in Sweden, from 7-12 June.
Career guidance is an international research field,
and it is important that we collaborate across
countries, especially if, like me, people are
interested in a particular form of research, namely
action research, which aims to bring researchers
and practitioners together to develop and create
knowledge about career guidance. The reason it is
so important is that not many people in the field of
guidance operate in this manner. It is therefore
very much within this area, and internationally, that
I see my special contribution. The ambition to work
with action research should also be seen in the
light of my position on the critical approaches to
knowledge creation, where the goal is to change
practice for the better for marginalised and
oppressed groups and to involve them in research
as well. After all, the knowledge that we scientists
create should, with the support of the career
guidance community, ultimately help people to live
the life they want to live.
1
Thomsen, R., Skovhus, R. B. and Buhl, R. (2013). At Vejlede
i Fællesskaber og Grupper [Guidance Provision in
Communities and Groups]. Valby: Schultz Thomsen, R.
(2017). Career guidance in communities: a model for reflexive
practice. Derby: International Centre for Guidance Studies.
University of Derby http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621596
Birtha Theut
Euroguidance Denmark