According
to Dollarhide & Saginak (2012), a leader is “able to maintain a long-term
approach to problem solving, knowing that change is incremental and slow” (p.
190). As a public school employee,
I believe that this is true leadership, although I am waiting for this type of
leadership to filter into the typical district philosophy. It seems that schools are focused on
“fad” programs and professional development, often not allowing an intervention
to continue for more than a year or two.
I find that it is even worse in special education. When monitoring students’ progress on
IEP goals, we are told to implement a different intervention if progress is not
shown in 3 data points (typically 3 weeks worth of data). From my experience, a new intervention
often cause a dip in data before it shows progress, probably due to the concept
of a learning curve. Nothing is
going to be effective if it is not given time! I believe that, as leaders in schools, school counselors
need to promote long-standing interventions that are carefully planned out and
delivered. This fits in with the
leadership roles of visionary, designer, architect, risk taker, communicator,
collaborator, and on and on. It is
time to halt the pendulum from so frequently swinging the “other way.”
In
the article by Mason & McMahon (2009), the discussion on the perception of
leadership often falling on administrators reminds me of my interview with a
high school counselor. She was adamant that she was not viewed as a leader; however,
by the definition of Transformational leadership, she was a model leader. She has worked to establish a plethora
of programs and supports for both students and teachers within the school. She is a visible support in
classrooms. She constantly
utilizes community resources as indirect services for students. It was evident that she did not view
herself as a leader, but after reading this article, it is quite evident that
she is a true example of a leader.
Counselors
seem to be the “unsung heroes” of schools. Many stakeholders do not realize how much counselors do, and
that they have the potential to be the true “backbone” of the school. I found the citation of Amatea and Clark’s
(2005) study to be interesting:
The smallest
percentage of administrators in the study — only 12% (3 out of 26)
— viewed their school counselors in the innovative school leader role, meaning
they saw their school counselors as essential in implementing whole-school
or system-wide change (Mason & McMahon, 2009, p. 3).
This finding truly echoes the sentiments of my interviewee
in that administration does not view her as a leader. However, the findings of Mason & McMahon’s (2009)
study do not match up with this counselor’s perception of herself as a
leader. The study found that
school counselors with more experience were more likely to report a greater
sense of leadership. On the
contrary, the counselor whom I interviewed was in her 23rd year of
counseling, spending 11 years as a drug and alcohol counselor and 12 years as a
high school counselor. Perhaps
administrative perspective and actions play a greater role in counselors’ views
of themselves as leaders.
In
order for school counselors to successfully play a leadership role in schools,
I believe that strong collaboration, knowledge and utilization of resources,
and courage are essential.
References
Dollarhide,
C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs
(2nd
Ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.
Mason, E.C.M. & McMahon, H.G. (2009, December). Leadership practices of school counselors.
Professional School Counseling, 13(2),
107-115.
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