Professional School Counseling

Best Practices for Working in the Schools, Third Edition

Rosemary A Thompson, Dr. Rosemary Thompson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781135839451
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Today's children and adolescents are constantly facing new and unique challenges, and school counselors must respond to this by expanding their role and function within the schools. This revised and expanded edition of Thompson's important text explores these issues, as well as the necessary steps school counselors need to take in order to adapt and effectively deal with them. Thompson advocates for the need for standards-based school counseling, outlining the framework and benefits of the ASCA National Model® and comprehensive guidance and counseling programs. She addresses the newest research in implementing evidence-based practices; the mental health issues that may be faced by children and adolescents; consulting with teachers, parents, administrators, and the community; and crisis intervention and management. New to this edition are chapters that focus on minority and disenfracnshised students and emphasize the need for school counselors to be able to advocate, coordinate, and collaborate on services for these students and their families. This is an essential resource for every school counselor in a time when the profession is becoming increasingly important.

PART ONE

Background, Fundamentals, and Models

1

History of School Counseling From Guidance Worker to Professional School Counselor and a Standards-Based Program Model

The professional school counselor is a certified/licensed educator trained in school counseling with unique qualifications and skills to address all students’ academic, personal/social and career development needs. Professional school counselors implement a comprehensive school counseling program that promotes and enhances student achievement. Professional school counselors serve a vital role in maximizing student achievement. Incorporating leadership, advocacy and collaboration, professional school counselors promote equity and access to opportunities and rigorous educational experiences for all students. Professional school counselors support a safe learning environment and work to safeguard the human rights of all members of the school community. Collaborating with other stakeholders to promote student achievement, professional school counselors address the needs of all students through prevention and intervention programs that are a part of a comprehensive school counseling program.

American School Counselor Association (2004b)

Professional school counseling as a recognized specialty evolved as the result of educational, political, social, and economic trends that have emerged between the extraordinary demands of the Industrial Age and the exponential explosion of the Information Age. The early emphasis of guidance in schools centered on a narrow concept of selected services, rendered either by a few specialists or assumed as ancillary services by teachers, for a small population of problem students with school adjustment problems. This remains a threatening undercurrent in many professional school counseling programs across the nation, especially in programs that have failed to integrate the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2005a) National Model or to acknowledge the need to reflect the changing demographics and the growing diversity of today’s students in schools.

The first guidance programs of the late 1800s were closely connected to vocational education and classes to promote character or moral development; teach socially appropriate behaviors, such as proper etiquette and appropriate hygiene; and assist with vocational planning to match the student’s traits and personality characteristics to the requirements of a specific job. Fundamentally, professional school counseling evolved from social and humanitarian concerns toward improving the well-being of individuals adversely affected by the Industrial Revolution (Aubrey, 1983), the initiation of social welfare reform, and the growing influx of immigrants to the United States (Goodyear, 1984). Early proponents of professional school counseling identified themselves with social reform and educational initiatives to meet the specific needs of this particular population. An emphasis was placed on teaching children and adolescents self-awareness and understanding of others, along with the current career demands to fit individual traits to job compatibility in a more predictable economy. Specific information and classroom lessons at this juncture focused predominately on moral and character development, as well as interpersonal and intrapersonal skill development (Nugent & Jones, 2005).

The role and function of professional school counseling has evolved from such titles as “guidance worker” and “vocational guidance counselor” to “guidance teacher” and “guidance counselor.” School counselors have emerged as professionals primarily in response to societal needs and demands that have impacted their role, the new demands of the Information Age in an era of educational reform, and a commitment to a more distinct professional identity (Beesley, 2004; Burnham & Jackson, 2000; Gysbers & Henderson, 2001). Dahir (2004) aptly stated that “the history of school counseling has depicted a profession in search of an identity” (p. 345). Today, however, the profession has emerged with clear role statements, as well as an articulated foundation, a delivery system, and a true identity based on national standards, role statements, and a clearly defined accountability model to promote school improvement planning and to close the achievement gap between marginalized subgroups within the school setting such as children of poverty, children who are minorities, and children who are immigrants.

THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING

Frank Parsons is often considered the “father of guidance,” particularly regarding vocational or career features of school counseling programs (Baker, 2000; Gladding, 2004; Herr, 2001). Parsons was a Boston educator whose interest was on personal growth and vocational development from a trait and factor perspective or talent-matching approach—that is, looking at aptitude, interests, and personal abilities and knowledge of jobs and the labor market and matching all these variables for clients. In 1908, shortly before he died, Parsons founded the Boston Vocational Bureau, which was a major impetus for the promotion of the value of vocational guidance into the mainstream of public education, thought, and action. This was followed by his posthumous book Choosing a Vocation (1909), which provided a vocational/career model to match a person’s personal characteristics with an occupation as a way of maximizing one’s educational future and the exposure to career opportunities within respective communities.

Parsons is credited with providing a foundation on which vocational or career counseling was initially based and integrated into school counseling programs (Kiselica & Robinson, 2001). As early as 1900, Parsons had identified two major deficits in the U.S. educational system that are still evident over a century later: (1) not enough opportunities for all students, particularly those from low socioeconomic status, and (2) an inability to meet the needs of those who lack basic mathematics and language skills (Parsons, 1909). Because of his efforts, “vocational counselors” were established in elementary and secondary schools in Boston, and the model spread to other major cities in the United States (Nugent &

Jones, 2005).

Jesse B. Davis, an educator who was influenced by the progressive education movement, also had a significant influence on professional school counseling programs in the United States at this time. The progressive movement maintained that students should be respected for their own abilities, interests, ideas, individual differences, and cultural identity. Guidance activities were developed to assist youths in reaching their full potential. Davis was acknowledged as the first person to institute a systematic guidance program in public schools. In 1907, he recommended that English teachers teach guidance lessons such as improving self-esteem once a week in an effort to prevent interpersonal problems and to build character. The underlying assumption was that proper guidance would help cure the maladies of American society amid the burgeoning stress of the Industrial Age, which brought about the emergence of child labor laws and political initiatives for labor unions for abused workers.

School guidance then became preventive in nature, intended to help students deal more effectively with life stressors and life events during the most mechanistic, industrial lockstep period in our nation’s history. Teachers often assumed the role of guidance counselor, along with a list of other ancillary duties they fulfilled with no relief from their regular teaching responsibilities. Gysbers (1990) defines this organizational structure as the beginning of the “services model” (p. 3). That is, guidance activities were organized around six major services:

1. Orientation

2. Assessment

3. Information

4. Counseling

5. Placement

6. Follow-up

Problems existed with this model from the beginning because it primarily focuses on the secondary school setting and does not outline a specific, uniform role and function across all school systems and because of the nature of the delivery model, giving teachers this added responsibility in addition to their primary instructional roles.

The services model was viewed as a mechanism by which schools could better prepare students for the world of work based on aptitude, interest, and ability (Gysbers, 2001). A primary role of public education during this time was to prepare students to go to work, and vocational counselors could assist in the sorting and selecting students into the appropriate work paths (Gysbers, 2001). This initiative still exists as a priority today, and some school systems have designated specific career and technical counselors who work primarily with students to identify their career clusters and develop their career pathways. These individuals are generally on the secondary level and work with regular professional school counselors, but their primary role is to insure that students get further training for industry certifications in career and technical fields in their local communities.

A third figure who significantly influenced the professional school counseling movement in the United States was Clifford W. Beers, a former Yale student who went from a privileged life to being hospitalized for mental illness (bipolar disorder). He witnessed the depraved, deplorable conditions of mental institutions (or sanitariums, as they were called then). He emerged as a significant crusader for mental health awareness, which also influenced professional school counseling programs.

In 1908, Beers wrote his autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, exposing the inhumane conditions of mental health institutions. Beers (1908) hoped that:

I should one day prick the civic conscience into a compassionate activity and thus bring into a neglected field earnest men and women who should act as champion for those afflicted thousands least able to fight for themselves. (p. xxxii)

He advocated for better mental health facilities and more humane care. Beers’s work became the impetus for the mental health movement in the United States today. Advocacy groups such as the National Mental Health Association and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill carry on his work, as do two organizations that carry his name: the Clifford W. Beers Guidance...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One Background, Fundamentals, and Models
• Part Two Culture, Diversity, Ethics, and Legal Issues
• Part Three Applications
• Part Four Consultation, Accountability, and Self-Care
• References
• Index