Empower Peers 4 Careers: Positive Peer Culture and Adolescent Career Choices

In Switzerland, young adults face major challenges when transitioning from school to the workplace—especially those with special educational needs. How can peer support help them navigate career choices and build resilience?

Professors Claudia Schellenberg and Annette Krauss explore this question through the Empower Peers 4 Careers project, and examine how structured peer discussions can foster social-emotional skills, strengthen community, and support students’ career development.

Read the original research: doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.806103

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Research Pod! Thank you for listening and joining us today.

In this episode, we look at a research project from Switzerland that aims to help young adults make positive career choices as they transition from school to the world of work. As its name suggests, the Empower Peers 4 Careers project is based on peer-counseling and supporting students’ mental health, particularly for those with special educational needs. The study is led by Claudia Schellenberg & Annette Krauss from the University of Teacher Education in Special Needs in Zurich.

Leaving school and entering the workplace is a key life change. What’s more, having to decide something so important, yet new and uncertain, can challenge the mental health of any adolescent. Not only are they just learning about themselves, many haven’t yet acquired the skills, competences and personal resources to navigate their career path and make realistic choices.

It’s even tougher for students with special needs, such as those with cognitive difficulties, behavioural or psychosocial problems. It’s therefore particularly important to help these students transition from school to work.

Schellenberg and Krauss are experts in special needs education. Their new study is based on social identity theory, popularised in the 1970s by the social psychologist Henri Tajfel. Born in Poland but working in Britain, Tajfel held that an individual’s social identity is influenced by the group – or groups – to which they belong, and that this affects how they think of themselves and other people.

Building on this theory, American educators Larry Brendtro and Harry Vorrath developed their Positive Peer Culture method, known as PPC for short, from the 1970s onwards. Intended to strengthen a sense of belonging and solidarity among young people, PPC uses peer group relationships to focus on youth behaviour and positive psychological development. Group discussions in which everyone works together to address specific problems provides the vehicle for development, and in this way it’s hoped that young people will learn how to explore their own difficulties and to empathise with others around them.

Brentro and Vorrath argue that four basic needs underlie this process of development and empowerment in a so-called ‘Circle of Courage’ model:

First, there’s the sense of belonging to a group that provides a supportive community. Then, there’s mastery and the development of competence in many different areas, including cognitive and social skills. Third, there’s independence – learning to make one’s own decisions and being responsible for the results, whatever the outcome. Finally, what is particularly important in the PPC approach is the exercise ofgenerosity – realising the need to give and to help others without expectation of return. The conviction of having made an important contribution to the success of the group promotes one's own sense of competence and self-efficacy.

The PPC approach has already been used in America and Germany and was originally developed to meet the personal growth needs of young, troublesome people. Schellenberg and Krauss break new ground by adapting the intervention to help adolescents in their transition from school to work.

Schellenberg and Krauss’s study took place over two years in 18 secondary schools in the canton of Zurich, Schwyz, and Schaffhausen. 13 schools were regular schools (secondary school classes, Type A/B/C), and five were special education schools for students with behavioral problems.

Eighteen classes were involved and a total of 229 students from the 8th and 9th grade took part. The groups met every two weeks during career orientation lessons. Ten additional classes participated as a control group that did not use the PPC approach. The classes were supervised by 21 teachers, special education teachers or school social workers who were first trained in the PPC method. This enabled them to act as facilitators, leaving students to take responsibility for the discussion sessions.

In the sessions students were asked to discuss problems relating to career orientation, using a defined framework, starting with everyone naming a challenge they personally faced at the moment. The group then had to choose one problem to debate in detail.

Students were required to talk about the positive and negative feelings and behaviours that might be associated with the problem, as well as potential solutions and scenarios. When additional information was needed, this was undertaken as homework and delivered to the next meeting.

At the end of each session, the facilitator gave feedback to the group to ensure that the success of the discussion is attributed to the group.

The aim of the PPC approach was that the discussion framework would encourage students to take responsibility, care for each other, and realise their own strengths, including the value of helping others. In addition, and because discussions took place in a safe space and within a culture of respect, it was hoped the lessons would serve as group coaching sessions in which students learned how to take ownership of their lives.

For example, if discussion centred on how a group member might achieve a specific career aspiration, other group members would be asked to give feedback on their perceptions of that person’s skills and abilities. According to PPC theory, if the group supported the individual’s aspiration, their motivation and self-belief should have been strengthened, despite the challenges they faced.

If discussion centred on the disappointment someone felt following a rejected job application, however, group members would be asked to share their thoughts on rejection, as well as ideas about how to stay focused. By illustrating how common feelings of rejection can be, and talking about the compromises that a person may have to make, group members are encouraged to become more resilient on their career path. Finally, if discussion focused on the barriers group members experienced in seeking work, for example due to their background, disability, gender or low educational achievement, sharing ideas and experiences should allow students to see that problems can be overcome, and in some cases even prove to be opportunities.

So, how did Schellenberg and Krauss gather evidence for their research, and what do the results show? Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data and assess the PPC approach, including its impact on student outcomes. Facilitators completed an online questionnaire about their experience, and students were asked to complete written surveys before and after their experience of the group discussions. Standard tests were also used to measure the impact of the intervention on students’ social and emotional competence and career readiness.

Initial results suggest that the facilitators consider the project to be largely successful. They believe that the PPC approach empowers students and gives them the opportunity to demonstrate and develop their strengths, including social and emotional competence.

Facilitators felt comfortable in their role, and in managing the process of handing over responsibility for problem-solving to the students. However, they said that it was often a challenge to bring the group back to the discussion topic, and to restrain from stepping in. They also acknowledged that implementing the project can be challenging, for example when working with large classes and having to make room for the sessions in the school timetable.

Students themselves reported that, overall, the implementation had been successful. Although two-thirds said they appreciated the discussions, one-third disliked the process. Those who particulally liked the intervention were students who said they had learned from the process, as well as students whose problems had been discussed, and students who appreciated helping other people.

Preliminary comparisons between the intervention and control groups show that the intervention has significant positive effects on the sense of community – one aspect of the class climate – as well as fair social behaviour – as a facet of social and emotional skills). However, it did not appear to help students’ career readiness. When it comes to clarifying one's career aspirations and using social resources – such as parents or teachers – for one's career decision, other forms of support probably play a greater role, such as career education and career counselling. However, strengthening socio-emotional skills through PPC is likely to have a positive impact on the school-to-work transition in the longer term.

The Swiss study is the first to successfully adapt the PPC approach tocareer orientation at school. Schellenberg and Krauss argue that this kind of cooperative learning can also be helpful in other secondary school classes. As a result, they are now developing a practical guide to help educators to implement PPC groups in schools. Training courses will also be held to provide educators with the necessary skills to deliver the courses.

Questions remain, however, about whether the method should be offered to students on a voluntary basis, and whether they should be involved in the planning of the intervention. There are also concerns about how the method can be sustainably implemented in school settings; for example, how the groups can be well implemented in the context of large classes and within which lessons.

Despite this, the study demonstrates that peer group support is a valuable learning resource. Discussion helps to develop students’ interpersonal and communication skills, as well as to build confidence and resilience.  At their best, the sessions become ‘practice spaces’ in which group members discover their own competences and future potential.

Schellenberg and Krauss conclude that the ‘preliminary results of the Empower Peers 4 Careers project show that peer approaches at upper secondary school level have the potential to strengthen young people in their development. This helps to improve the classroom climate and to ensure a successful transition from school to work.’

That’s all for this episode – thanks for listening. Links to the original research can be found in the shownotes for this episode. And don’t forget to stay subscribed to ResearchPod for more of the latest science.

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