As I have been interviewing school counselors for the research project; I am beginning to understand more about the ASCA National Model and how it is related to comprehensive school counseling programs. I was able to make many connections between chapter five of Dollarhide and Saginak’s (2012) text and the one interview that I had with a school counselor. Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) explain the overall themes of the model in discussing leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change (p. 76). The one area that really stuck out to me during my interview was collaboration along with other fundamental areas at the core of the model. The counselor I interviewed discussed how important it was to meet with counselors and other school stakeholders not only within their school building, but from the entire district. This was a concept that was discussed in last week’s class as we were discussing the outcomes from various interventions involving academic, career, and social/emotional development. The idea of collaboration was also one of the biggest barriers that he discussed with me. The school district used to have a supervisor of the counseling department who would coordinate a monthly K-12 meeting of the entire counseling department. Unfortunately; due to budget cuts the position was eliminated; and the entire department has not met in quite some time. He claimed there is just not enough time to get everyone to meet. This part of our conversation led to another startling discovery. I was able to obtain a copy of the school counselors curriculum for this particular district. As I was looking over it I noticed that the last time it was revised was 2007. It left me wondering; how often should the curriculum be revised? Is the current comprehensive school counseling program effective at this time and is it serving the needs of the current students? I immediately thought about advocacy; Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) describe that “school counselors are advocates for students, families, teachers, and schools; they use their pivotal position to enhance the understanding of the issues involved in healthy development of both individuals and systems” (p. 77). I truly believe that this counselor and others within the district are attempting to advocate for their students; but the grim reality is there is not enough time and I am wondering if there is a voice in the back of their heads saying “don’t rock the boat, keep your job”. The themes of the ASCA National Model are extremely important in establishing a foundation and other elements of a school counseling program. I’m wondering if the themes are not adequately met; does the rest of the program start to crack and become a determinant to the students, families, community and overall school environment. These are areas that we may need to have a heightened awareness of as future school counselors.
On the other head, it was refreshing to read Galassi, Griffin, and Akos’s (2008) article about strengths-based counseling and how it can relate to the ASCA National Model. While reading this article, I was reminded of the discussion we had in class about the high volume of responsive services at the elementary school level. Promotion-oriented delivery may be the answer to lowering the number of responsive services. I have noticed in the elementary school that I currently work in; responsive services are typically targeted at students who are causing “problems” within the classroom and school environment. It would be interesting to see if the counselors could create what Galassi, Griffin, and Akos (2008) described as creating “positive emotional states as a precursor for positive change” (p. 178). I understand that quickly trying to react in a responsive manner to a particular issue may help. However, I feel that some of these services are only a bandaid because I have noticed that it is usually the same students who are screaming in the hallway or sitting in the principal’s office. If more focus was placed on positive and strength-based interventions; would the need for so many responsive services decrease? On a smaller scale, the idea of focusing on the positive is something I do everyday at work. Working in an Autistic Support classroom, we are constantly dealing with problem behaviors and try and brainstorm ways of finding replacement behaviors. One of the biggest things we do is focus on the positive behavior that our students exhibit. In turn we focus less on the negative and we often find that problem behavior often decreases when we focus more on the appropriate behaviors. I am not saying that this will work everytime, but it may be a start. I feel that it may be easy for some counselors to get stuck in this mode of trying to “fix” everything. However, it may be more effective to focus on strength-based counseling and how it can benefit an entire student population, their families, and the community as a whole.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.
Galassi, J. P., Griffin, D., & Akos, P. (2008). Strengths-based school counseling and the asca national model. Professional School Counseling, 12(2), 176-181.
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