2023.01 66-2 A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Career Development and Reentering College Experience of Youths from a Juvenile Correctional School
According to previous research, almost all youths in juvenile correctional school drop out before committing crimes. However, some youths in the school study for attending university. This career change invoked the researcher's curiosity. The researcher aims to explore the experience of career development and return to school of youths from juvenile correctional schools, understand how these youths constructed different career paths compared with their past, and put forward the results as a reference for practitioners. The researcher interviewed three youths who left juvenile correctional school and attended university, asking them to tell their stories and describe their experiences of returning to school. The researcher used a phenomenological approach to analyze the self-expression of these youths and their interaction with the environment in the course of their career, leading to the revelation of the existing structure of the youths' career development. The result showed that the youths' career development contained the following four tendencies: (1) leaving the lifeworld of rules of law to make a living through relationships; (2) developing their self-esteem, interests, and career styles in the wild lifeworld; (3) considering others' expectations for them to study and reconstructing new successful experiences in the lifeworld of rules of law; and (4) integrating different lifeworld experiences while falling in the gap among various lifeworld and being pushing around, and developing their unique career projection. Considering these findings along with relevant literature, this study proposed that "making a living" and "seeking a sense of belonging" were two core links of youths' from juvenile correctional school interacting with others in their situations. The situational structure of the passing in and out school system in their career development showed the following: (1) The need of "seeking a sense of belonging" was an opportunity for them to invest in various lifeworld; (2) The need of "making a living" was the reason to leave their previous lifeworld; (3) "Making a living" (career development) developed via relationships (how they interacted with others in their situations); (4) The relationship developed via interweaving of "making a living" and "seeking a sense of belonging"; and (5) Self was constituted via interweaving of "seeking a sense of belonging" and "making a living." Then, the researcher responded to the research questions and constructed the career development situation structure of the youths from juvenile correctional school who attended university. Finally, this study turned around the ideology that had not been noticed at the beginning of this inquiry and escaped from the bondage resulted from advocating diploma. It was
found that, for these youth, in their career development experience, the meaning of attending university was as a means to connect to the lifeworld of the rules of law. Accordingly, it is suggested that corrective treatment should focus on assisting them to find an appropriate means of connection. The focus of juvenile delinquency prevention is to strengthen the youths' "seeking a sense of belonging" and "making a living" in the lifeworld of rules of law, and weaken these in the wild lifeworld. To enable practitioners to have a more detailed understanding of the career development of youths from juvenile correctional school, come closer to the lifeworld of these youths, and think about how to help these youths settle down in the world and live their life with meaning, as suggestions and strategies for living on their own.
Keywords
Career development, lifeworld, phenomenological inquiry, self, youth in juvenile correctional school
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