Choosing a Vocation at 100: Time, Change, And Context (Articles‪)‬

The new millennium has brought to the counseling profession a surge of interest in social justice themes. Ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age, as these issues relate to political and economic power, have become common topics in counseling theory and practice. A social justice agenda is not new to the counseling profession, yet what may be new to many is that one of the earliest social justice agendas in 20th century America was originally found in the vocational guidance movement. One hundred years ago, in 1909, the slim blue volume Choosing a Vocation was published (posthumously) by Frank Parsons. The book is legend and has earned Parsons a place of distinction as the founder of vocational guidance in America. The decision by Mark Pope and Mark Savickas to devote a special section of The Career Development Quarterly to this anniversary is a welcome one. The 100th Anniversary of Vocational Guidance offers a number of opportunities. It provides a chance to recognize those who put vision into reality and animated the vocational guidance movement, it allows for consideration of the larger social factors that provided the soil from which the movement grew, and it offers perspectives on where the profession might be headed.