KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Nancy Arthur is currently appointed as Dean Research for UniSA Business, University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, and Professor Emerita, University of Calgary, Canada, where she was awarded a Canada Research Chair in professional education for diversity and social justice. Nancy’s recent program of research in the field of career development focuses on culture-infused career counselling and the work transition experiences of international students and migrants. Recent projects include a three-country study of immigrant and refugee youth that is funded by the Australian Research Council, a project examining the housing and social integration of temporary visa holders, and a workforce development project on the recruitment and retention of youth.

Nancy is an elected Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Career Development Association of Alberta and a former Vice-President of the International Association of Educational and Vocational Guidance. Nancy’s edited books includeCounseling in Context: Identities and Social Justice (Springer), Contemporary Theories of Career Development: International Perspectives (Routledge), and two projects, Career Theories and Models at Work: Ideas for Practice (CERIC) and Practice Principles: Career Theories and Models at Work (CERIC), aimed at strengthening theory-practice connections.

Navigating Local-Global Tensions: Disrupting and Rethinking Career Guidance

Abstract:
The interplay between local and global forces is reshaping the landscape of work, learning, and identity in profound and often paradoxical ways. In an increasingly interconnected yet fragmented world, career guidance practitioners face growing challenges as they navigate tensions between local realities and global forces. This keynote explores the dual nature of local-global tensions—the opportunities they create and the challenges they pose—for practitioners who support individuals as they navigate increasingly complex career pathways.  This keynote aims to provoke critical reflection about the role of career guidance practitioners as advocates for inclusive, just, and future-ready career development. Rather than viewing these local and global tensions as problems to be resolved, the keynote will invite participants to engage with these tensions as catalysts for critical reflection and innovative practice.

WEBSITE

https://people.unisa.edu.au/nancy.arthur

David Reimer is Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Iceland (School of Social Sciences & School of Education). His research focuses on questions related to inequalities in educational attainment. He is particularly interested how characteristics of students such as their race, class and gender shape educational transitions - such as the transition from upper secondary education to higher education or the transition from compulsory school to the subsequent schooling alternatives. In much of his research he has focussed on the influence of institutional factors in education – such as early vs. late selection into academic vs. more vocational types of schooling affect schooling outcomes. Currently he is principal investigator of a major research projects: "EDUCHANGE, Changing Inequality at Educational Transitions" (ERC consolidator grant) that tests how a combined role-model and guidance counselling intervention can help to reduce inequality in education according to students‘ social origin.

The Role of Career Guidance in Transforming (or Perpetuating) Educational Inequalities

Abstract
A substantial body of social science research has shown that students from less privileged backgrounds tend to perform less well in school and pursue less ambitious educational pathways than their more advantaged peers. While numerous theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain these disparities, there is still limited understanding of which practical interventions can effectively address them.

Recent studies using rigorous experimental designs have begun to identify the causal effects of career guidance in reducing educational inequality. However, it remains challenging to isolate which specific guidance tools are most effective and whether these approaches can be successfully adapted across different national and institutional contexts.

This keynote will explore the conceptual and methodological tensions between research on social inequality and the field of career guidance, review recent impactful studies that highlight the potential of guidance interventions to reduce disparities, and present new findings from the EDUCHANGE project. This project evaluates a combined role-model and student advising intervention aimed at reducing inequality in educational decision-making across four countries: Iceland, Denmark, Germany, and Hungary.