The Calgary-Cambridge guide

I find the 'interdisciplinary' area so interesting. I keep thinking that this is synonymous with 'intersectionality' (see Saxe, 2017), like a Venn diagram, but not so. Interdisciplinarity is "a method or mindset that merges traditional educational concepts or methods in order to arrive at a new approaches or solutions" (Oregon State University, 2023). When we stand in one field, and learn a new one, we bring the knowledge of those different fields together. We get cross-over, cross-pollination, a Venn diagram in action.

And that cross-pollination is one of the fascinating things about teaching career practitioners. This group of learners tend to be coming to career development much later in life (Lowery-Kappes & Young, 2023), and are generally all professionals in an previous field. When then enter career practice they are coming from somewhere else, with professional knowledge. Last year I had a conversation with a student whose first career was as a physiotherapist. They wondered if there was an session protocol recommended by the Career Development Association, as - apparently - there is for physiotherapy (Kurtz & Silverman, 1996; Kurtz et al., 2003).

There is - to the best of my knowledge - no such construct used to guide career practice sessions. However, exploring something that already exists in another field is a great idea... to examine fit and utility, and to potentially modify where it does not quite work. This is interdisciplinarity in action: we use a framework from one field and use it to carefully and methodically inform another. 

One protocol used in physiotherapy is the Calgary-Cambridge guide, developed by Kurtz and Silverman (1996). The idea is that we use the guide as a rough protocol so we are "conceptualizing and recording information during the consultation", beginning our client sessions with an interview (Kurtz et al., 2003, p. 805). We begin, first working on building a relationship by gathering information, then we progress to examining the client physically, then we explain treatment methods and plan our next steps. Finally we close the session. So: begin session; gather information; examine; explain and plan; close. This five step progression helps our client to remain central to the process, to feel heard, to be clear about what comes next, and to have enough structure to anchor memory to (Kurtz et al., 2003; and diagram accompanying this post, p. 806). The authors note that the guides are not to be used "slavishly" (p. 805); they offer a 'serving suggestion only' :-)

I can see how this might translate for career development, though there is not a 'physical examination' step. Perhaps we might swap this out for "exploring client goals" or something similar, depending on what our client has come to see us for. So: begin session; gather information; goal exploration; explain and plan; close. That could work.

I will do some more thinking on this!

Sam

References:

Kurtz, S. M., & Silverman, J. D. (1996). The Calgary—Cambridge Referenced Observation Guides: an aid to defining the curriculum and organizing the teaching in communication training programmes. Medical Education, 30(2), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1996.tb00724.x

Kurtz, S., Silverman, J., Benson, J., & Draper, J. (2003). Marrying content and process in clinical method teaching: enhancing the Calgary–Cambridge guides. Academic Medicine, 78(8), 802-809. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200308000-00011

Lowery-Kappes, H., & Young, S., (2023). The Shape of Career Practice in Aotearoa NZ [slidedeck]. CANNEXUS23 Conference 23-25 January 2023. https://cannexus23.gtr.pathable.com/meetings/virtual/q32dbm9cxwNqDYAnd

Oregon State University. (2023). Graduate School: What is Interdisciplinarity?. https://gradschool.oregonstate.edu/master-arts-interdisciplinary-studies-mais/what-interdisciplinarity

Saxe, A. (2017). The theory of intersectionality: A new lens for understanding the barriers faced by autistic women. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 6(4), 153-178. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v6i4.386