Career counselling in a highly constrained context: ethical reflections from a school-based pilot in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Career guidance is often framed around informed choice and individual agency, yet these principles are tested in contexts where opportunity structures are severely constrained. Drawing on routine documentation from a school-based counselling pilot in three secondary schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone, this article presents a practice based ethical analysis. Situating the pilot within small-state career guidance research, it examines how professional principles, including those of the IAEVG, require contextual interpretation. The article argues that ethical career counselling in low-resource settings depends on enacting universal standards through locally grounded practice.