Exploring Careers with Ethnography
Image Credit: iStock. Image Description: Red space and white lines form a topographical map. Superimposed on that is a blue dotted line, as if marking a path on a map.
The connection between college and a future career is not always clear. Ethnographic methods can provide students with tools to learn about workplaces and envision career paths.
College students are bombarded with articles, news clips, and opinions about the relationship between college and work. As they begin their time at college, many wonder how this can translate into a career, when they are unsure what college even means to them. Many talk about feeling paralyzed with options as they move from high school to college. As one student put it, “The craziest part is people expect you to decide about what you want to do for the rest of your life and get so deep into debt at the same age you still must ask permission to leave the room to go to the bathroom.” Colleges and universities recognize that degrees are important for work and future careers, but it can be difficult to articulate to students that their degree has value beyond their first job. The goal for many colleges has been to build this into coursework, but in the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH), previous efforts had been mixed, as had the results.