Although choosing a high school major is often adolescents' first significant career decision, little is known about the factors that enable adolescents to choose a high school major autonomously (i.e., a major that reflects their values and preferences) or the familial and individual constellations that affect this decision. The current study…

In this article we introduce key concepts from critical psychology to explore their potential when operationalised in qualitative, empirically-based analyses of career guidance and counselling. Critical psychology is particularly concerned with understanding the concrete lines of action that can support generalised human agency -- a focus that is…

This paper explores the storylines of four student ballet dancers who attend a specialist performing arts secondary school and who, in differing ways, envisage futures which "look straight at ballet". When decisions about schooling intermingle with long-held imaginings of futures in ballet, thought is provoked about ways the young…

Michael is 15 and repeating the ninth grade. He habitually tilts his chair back and drums annoyingly on his desk with a pencil. This morning, he was doing it--again--while you were trying to teach. What will you do? Responsive teachers shift their reactions in important ways. They adopt a social emotional lens: What does Michael's tapping say…

This study developed and tested a new model of the forced choice dilemma (i.e., the belief held by some intellectually gifted students that they must choose between academic achievement and peer acceptance) that incorporates individual-level cultural orientation variables (i.e., vertical allocentrism and vertical idiocentrism). A survey that had…