The perception of Lebanese school principals of career education in Lebanese schools.

Abstract

Career education is an educational reform that aims at restructuring the whole k-12 educational system to be career focused. Schools are called to provide their students with academic knowledge, self-awareness, career exploration, and career decision-making skills that allow them to compete in a fast changing world economy. Career education has positive effects on students’ academic achievement, school engagement, graduation rates, and transition from school to work. It could be considered a strategy to address challenges in the Lebanese education system. The purpose of the research was to find out to what extent Lebanese schools are implementing career education programs or activities, the differences between public and private schools implementing these programs, and for what reasons and what may be hindering Lebanese schools from implementing career education programs. A questionnaire was designed for the purposes of the study and was administered to private school principals (26) and public school principals (15) responsible for elementary, middle, or secondary levels from 32 schools in the Greater Beirut area. Twelve principals were then interviewed. The study showed that Lebanese school principals are aware of the advantages of career education programs and the positive effects they have on students, but only 29percent of schools are implementing a full program. More private schools are implementing career education than public schools, and many of those schools have just started within the last three to five years. However, Lebanese schools are lagging behind in career counseling services that could be affecting career decision-making skills. Lebanese school principals attributed the lack of implementation of comprehensive programs to four main obstacles: lack of financial resources, expertise in the field of career education, governmental support, and awareness in Lebanese society of the importance of career education programs. Findings of this study will be of interest to the Ministry of Education a