Faculty Research Overview
>> Brown, Duane
One highlight of Duane Brown’s research was his work with the Gallup Organization to co-chair two national studies regarding the career development needs of various racial and ethnic groups. His current scholarship focuses on developing an approach to career counseling based on cultural values.
The values of Western Europe – independence, doing, future time orientation, personal control of thoughts and feelings and domination of nature – are central to most of the thought in this country. However, American Indians, Latinos, Asian Americans and many others do not typically share Eurocentric values. As a result, career counselors have alienated many members of minority groups. Brown is working on a theoretical approach to career counseling based on the assumption that counselors must discern the cultural values of their clients and craft an approach to counseling that is based on the client’s values, not the values of the counselor. For example, students with a collective social value, which is common in many groups in Asia, some Latino groups and among many American Indian tribes, defer to the group in the decision-making process. This collective process may involve parents’ choosing the child’s occupation or a more subtle social system that heavily influences individual behavior. Career counselors must learn to determine the client’s social values and then involve the appropriate people in the decision-making process. To do otherwise is to run the risk of harming the client’s relationship with her or his group and causing the parents to lose face.