After reading chapter two of Dollarhide and Saginak’s (2012) text; I was able to make a substantial connection between the information presented in the book and the discussions we had about potential counseling issues last week in class. In addition, I was also somewhat surprised about the idea that counselors “are charged with a large task: the academic, social/emotional, and career development of students” (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p. 26). This large task compounded with ineffective counselor-teacher relationships, role confusion, and large counselor to student ratios can become overwhelming for counselors and lead to possible burnout. One of the most important aspects of our class discussions last week revolved around defining the counselors roles for teachers and other stakeholders in the school and community. Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) explain that not all teachers realize and appreciate the roles of counselors and it is important to define these roles and create effective partnerships with teachers (p. 26). Speaking from my own personal experiences; I feel that in today’s schools there is a disconnect between counselors and teachers. It appears that teachers have relied on counselors to be disciplinarians and remove “bad” students from interrupting classes. This is not why counseling was created. I work with some teachers who believe that all the counselors do is sit in their offices and “fix” students who get in trouble. With these types of attitudes and misunderstandings; it will be difficult to create developmentally appropriate schools. As this course continues, it is becoming more apparent to me that defining my own roles in a school someday will be extremely important in creating professional and effective relationships with the school community and outside community.
Switching gears to the Whiston and Sexton (1998) article; like many of my peers, it made me somewhat uneasy that there is not much substantial research done on guidance programs. When I first read the section on guidance programs in elementary schools; I found it interesting that many of the programs promoted academic achievement but did not do much in terms of social and personal development. However, this made me think back to the information I learned during my child development course. Since younger children are still developing, is it possible that the techniques used in these programs are not geared towards their developmental needs? I related the idea to the developmentally appropriate schools that were discussed in the Dollarhide and Saginak’s (2012) text. Should these programs be tweaked to meet the developmental needs that are particular to a certain schools environment? Or is the research that is conducted based on these programs done in a way that appears to be unreliable? Although Whiston and Sexton (1998) followed up many of their sections warning the reader to take caution in interpreting the results (p. 416); it was refreshing to see that some of the programs, especially those for multicultural students and those with learning disabilities showed positive results based on specific guidance programs. The section on responsive services also stuck out to me, this suggested “a high degree of interest in activities that are remedial rather than preventive or developmental in focus” (Whiston & Sexton, 1998, p. 417). The nature of both guidance programs and responsive services are both important. However, having more of a focus on responsive services might lead to more students who do not need responsive services to fall through the cracks which we often talk about in many of our counseling courses.
The idea of counselors and role confusion is also highlighted in the McGannon, Carey and Dimmitt (2005) article. The concept of the student services model was interesting to me. This was the type of model that was followed by my school counselors; especially in high school. There were really no guidance lessons on preventive issues which allowed for many students who weren’t in immediate need to slip through the cracks. When I was a senior in highschool I started having some personal and social issues. If it was not for one teacher who referred me to the counseling office I would have been one of the those students who slipped through the cracks. However, I feel that it is unrealistic to expect teachers to refer every student who they feel may be in need. This is why preventive services and guidance program lessons are essential in schools. I found the differences between research, evaluation and the role counselors play to be interesting because the concept is relatively new to me. As future school counselors it is important to know traditional roles; but it is equally important to redefine some of these roles to better assist the school and students as a whole.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.
McGannon, W., Carey, J., & Dimmit, C. (2005). The current status of school counseling outcome research. Center for School Counseling Outcome Research, 2.
Whiston, S. C., & Sexton, T. L. (1998). A review of school counseling outcome research: Implications for practice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 76, 412-426. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1998.tb02700.x.
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