The effects of creative, expressive, and reflective writing on career learning: An explorative study Reinekke Lengelle a, ⁎, Frans Meijers b , Rob Poell c , Mijke Post b a Athabasca University, Canada b The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands c Tilburg University, The Netherlands article info abstract Article history: Received 17 June 2013 Available online 29 June 2013 This study investigates whether creative, expressive, and reflective writing contributes to the formation of a work-life narrative that offers both meaning and direction among students in higher education. The content of writing done by students who participated in a two-day writing course at the start (or in preparation) of their work placements and of a control group who did not take part in the course were compared. Writing samples were analysed using the Linguistic Index Word Count program (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) and an instrument based on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Results show writing promotes the development of career narratives. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Creative writing Expressive writing Narrative career counselling LIWC Dialogical self theory Higher education 1. Introduction The labour market of the 21st century is characterised by increased complexity (Arthur, Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005), individualisation (Beck, 2000; Giddens, 1991) and insecurity (Pryor & Bright, 2011). In recent decades, narrative theories and approaches to career guidance have been developed in order to address the career challenges of our era and are intended to help individuals develop a career identity (Kuijpers, Meijers, & Gundy, 2011; Meijers, Kuijpers, & Gundy, 2013). Such an identity takes on the form of a well-structured story, based on life themes, that explains “how the self of yesterday became the self of today and will become the self of tomorrow” (Savickas, 2005, p. 58) and is “not factual truth but narrative truth; meaningful to the individual in terms of experience, understanding of the world and of future possibilities” (Reid & West, 2011, p. 4). It also takes into consideration the fragmented nature of self and society, whereby the self, as it relates to career, is defined as a dynamic multiplicity of positions or voices regarding work (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012). We propose that creative, expressive, and reflective writing can offer ways for students to construct work-life stories that provide both personal meaning and societal direction (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012). Here meaning refers to the necessity of exploring and constructing what is personally meaningful in relation to existing work roles (Wijers & Meijers, 1996) and highlights the importance of a dialogue with oneself and the role of emotions in work-life choices (Meijers & Wardekker, 2002). Direction refers to the ability to make a choice, articulate a preference, and take action based on what an individual deems to be his/her contribution to community and society. In short, the creation of a career narrative – whether this takes shape in a conversation with a career counsellor or is the result of career-writing activities – must allow an individual to contribute to society in ways that are personally meaningful. In this study, we hypothesise that a two-day creative, expressive, and reflective writing course can foster career learning (i.e., the construction of a work-life story that provides both meaning and direction). There are several reasons why writing might support the construction of a career identity, one which is focused on adaptation to a changing landscape (Savickas, 2013, p. 150) Journal of Vocational Behavior 83 (2013) 419–427 ⁎ Corresponding author at: 8711-42 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6K 1E8, Canada. E-mail addresses: soulwork@tic.ab.ca (R. Lengelle), fj.meijers@xmsnet.nl (F. Meijers), RR.Poell@uvt.nl (R. Poell), J.M.Post@hhs.nl (M. Post). 0001-8791/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.014 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Vocational Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb