Blog 13- Emerging Issues

Advocacy/ Respect

How do you normalize stigmatized and isolating issues such as mental health, multiculturalism, poverty and food insecurity in order to create an atmosphere of caring and still strive for higher-level need fulfillment.  How do you address all hierarchical needs at the same time be sensitive to culture and demographics. Quality comprehensive PreK-12 programs, parent classes and family/school bonding experiences can help reduce the poverty value system’s effect on marginalized children.  We can also empower children to question the status quo and teach children pro-social skills from the earliest experiences. If we model our diversity as a strength, our pupils will as well. Healthy dynamic relationships with social service agencies programs, collecting donations initiatives for families in need are also helpful measures and will reach a number of families.

Leadership/ Vision/Systemic Change

I am an advocate for real school reform; I hope to see many changes in the coming years. It will be an exciting venture to figure out how all the pieces fit together. The types of school reform that are being implemented such as charter schools, voucher programs, and public school choice do not really solve any critical problems. Many of these children are still not performing as well as their more well-to-do peers and instead of creating better schools it is just taking money away from already hard-pressed schools. Many charter schools don't seem to have much different academic rigor or performance standards than regular public school options. The concept of the flipped classroom and other ed reforms that actually approach the process of learning and educating interest me. Through inspection of these programs perhaps real reform can take place. 

Collaboration

As I have noted in a previous blog post, and it is echoed in the Amatea (2005) article, there seems to be a lack of academic communication between principal leadership/administrative, school counseling, and other student support services. If we are to work toward similar goals and generate a clear model for our roles, it would be beneficial for us to have classes together and asked to collaborate. Principals and administrators would benefit from attending webinars and conferences to keep up with trends. The article discusses how administrators view the role of the school counselor. It seems to me that if the school leaders have a perception of your job you will be doing what they ask and you are therefore in a role. To move out of that role could prove to be challenging. Depending on the range of other school support service people in the building our role would also change. For instance if we have no Vice Principal we may be acting as a vice principal in some occasions if our principal envisions us to be that figure.  Working with or without school social workers may change our roles further. It seems that our role is to be flexible, professional, and collaborative. Perhaps with the prevalence of schools that follow the ASCA national model we will move closer to the leadership and advocacy role described there.

Amatea, E. S., & Clark, M. A. (2005). Changing schools, changing counselors: A qualitative study on school administrators' conception of the school counselor role. Professional School Counseling, 9(1), 16-27.

Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.