Mission Statement: The primary purpose of Research in Career Development is to provide a broad look at the field of career development research including career counseling, career guidance, career education, and general career development programming, and to examine some of the field's major themes, approaches and assumptions. We will examine both knowledge from the past as well as what the future might bring. We will bring together a variety of experts/authors from the area of interest and try to provide readers with a framework for action based on the best available research information. This volume will examine the historical emergence of the concept of career including early ideas about the meaning and role of work and how it fit with life. The concept of career development is of relatively recent origin. It was not until the early 20th Century that serious attention was given to the role of work and career as it applied to the common man. While the concept of "vocation" has historical roots that date back centuries, vocation (or calling) was typically only applied to the professions of the clergy, law and medicine. These individuals had careers, while the common man had a job.
Perhaps the most significant event that changed both the labor market and the associated socio-cultural values about work was the 2nd World War. The technological advances that were brought about by the war were profound in terms of changing the nature of work, and the war brought about a significant change in the gender makeup of our labor force as millions of women entered the labor market to support the war effort. The combined effects of technology, a radical new value system, and a burgeoning economy changed everything. The first section of Volume I will deal with the historical antecedents of career development up to and including World War II. Section II of this first issue will focus on what we have learned about the nature of career development during the last 50 years by examining what we know and how we know it.