lack of it and his need for it) may have something to do with the ac-
ceptance of his ethnicity; being of mixed race may be particularly
problematic.
The lack of achievement and general lack of focus, despite rea-
sonably good aptitude scores and self-efficacy estimates, suggest that
the latter may serve K in achieving some goals that are not explicit
in the case, and about which he may be only somewhat aware.
This case provides a particularly strong illustration of the notion
of counseling as a joint counselor-client project. K has not clearly
identified why he is presenting himself for career counseling or what
he expects from it. Other than his interest in skateboarding, this
lack of clarity is reflective of other aspects of his life, particularly
why he is going to college and what he wants to accomplish there.
Relationships also represent a problematic domain for K. Thus the
joint project of counseling, with goals, functional steps, and behav-
ioral components, and based in the counselor-client relationship,
can become the basis for joint projects outside of counseling. For
example, as K and the counselor determine the goals for counsel-
ing, so K will learn to negotiate with others goals and steps for com-
mon projects.
As part of the negotiation of the goals of counseling, the coun-
selor may wish to explore with K whether he assumes that career
counseling is about determining a suitable occupation for himself.
This may be his implicit assumption and one he attributes to the
counselor as well. Because K is about to begin college, an additional
unstated agenda might be to pick a college major. As action theory
implies, career counseling is not about making a single occupational
choice taken in isolation from the social world in which the indi-
vidual participates. Rather it is about seeing how goals, steps, and
behavior inform and are informed by actions and projects that, over
time, will result in a long-term career.
The counselor needs to encourage K to talk more about his cur-
rent life, particularly in terms of what he does. The counselor can
help him develop this talk into narrative themes, which can be used
as the basis for them to identify the projects in which K is currently
A CONTEXTUALIST EXPLANATION OF CAREER 243