Abstract
This collection of reflections from the five former editors of the Australian Journal of Career Development demonstrates the efforts which have been undertaken over time to hold true to its original goals and to ensure that it has continued to develop to ensure its survival and growth within an everchanging career development research and practice landscape.
In reflecting on the beginning of the journal, Rob Ware, a key influencer in its instigation, noted that it began at a meeting of a small group of Victorian career practitioners in 1990. Representatives from all education sectors including from government challenged the field with the following questions: How could we promote best practice and capture new career development theory within an Australian context? What was an effective strategy for unifying the 15 or so career associations across the country? How could career practitioners best contribute to the ‘clever country’ debate and maximise our credibility? How could we share our successes with an international professional community? (Ware, 2002, p. 3)
During her time as Founding Editor, Shears cemented the relationships between the work of the Journal, its publisher, its financial base, and its intended audience, career practitioners, and researchers around the country. Its contributions grew, as did its subscription base. Professional associations were key in increasing the reach of the Journal.
Subsequent editors advanced the reach of the Journal and furthered its capacity to contribute to the career development field, nationally and internationally. Over time editors raised its research status and attracted a greater depth and diversity of research and theoretical contributions.
As incoming, and the first international editor, Professor Annamaria Di Fabio (2021) acknowledges the heritage of the Journal, and notes the task that I am going to carry out as the editor of the Journal is to continue on this path, enhancing the inclusive attention to research lines coming from different cultural realities as well as to the different targets of the career development research. (p. 165)
She concluded her vision for her tenure in the Journal as The hope is that the new course of the Australian Journal of Career Development will keep its roots, harvest the fruit and implement the trajectory traced, enriching it in the same valid spirit and collaboration all over the world. (p. 166)
This collection of reflections from the five former editors of the Australian Journal of Career Development demonstrates the efforts which have been undertaken over time to hold true to its original goals and to ensure that it has continued to develop to ensure its survival and growth within an everchanging career development research and practice landscape.