THESIS PROJECT: EMBRACING FORMS OF SELF-NARRATION IN A CANCER-SENSITIVE SKILLS ASSESSMENT CENTER

Cancer can have effects of professional disorientation. Our project, part of a broader initiative to create a pilot cancer-sensitive skills assessment center, explores the specific challenges faced by individuals returning to work after cancer. By examining modes of self-narration in skills assessment centers, it aims to provide practical recommendations to support individuals in their return to work after a period of battling cancer.

The thesis, co-directed by Cynthia Fleury, Professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) and holder of the Chair in Humanities and Health, along with Karine Gros and Catherine Tourette-Turgis, is part of the project “Creation of a pilot skills assessment center sensitive to the challenge of cancer to reduce the rate of professional abandonment after cancer,” led by Catherine Tourette-Turgis, Emeritus Professor at Sorbonne University and holder of the Chair in Skills and Vulnerabilities.

The thesis proposes a national experimentation aiming to develop a cancer-sensitive skills assessment, including:

• Overhauling tools,
• Creating protocols for professional development counseling,
• Developing a toolkit for skills assessment practitioners.

Self-narration is examined to understand the forms of storytelling generated by career counseling related to cancer. Unlike someone in good health, those returning to work after cancer face these challenges, with negative effects such as stigma and severed ties.

The thesis aims to explore modes of self-narration in skills assessment centers, providing practical insights to assist providers in addressing narratives of career trajectories involving cancer. It seeks to answer questions such as how to solicit self-narratives during a career counseling session with someone who has had cancer, how to welcome a return to work after a cancer-related absence, the risks of self-disclosure at work, how to frame biographical exploration in connection with career guidance, and how to help someone reintegrate cancer into their professional biography.

The adopted methodology is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which is a qualitative discourse method focused on understanding lived experience. Emphasis is placed on conducting interviews to explore the experience of self-narration related to cancer during skills assessments or return to work.

The research will involve 30 participants who have produced self-narratives about their cancer experience in connection with the theme of their professional journey through a skills assessment, during a return to work after cancer.

The deliverables of the thesis include specific recommendations for professional interviews, guides to support return to work, fact sheets on methods for collecting self-narratives related to cancer in the workplace and during skills assessments, as well as fact sheets on the uses of self-narration in the workplace, taking into account the different forms of narratives generated.