Paradigmatic Challenges in School Counselling: Correlates and Reflections on Practice

Abstract

We examined the paradigmatic position of school counsellors as it relates to their practice. A survey and interviews were conducted with counsellors, counsellor educators, and teachers. Findings demonstrated that counsellors lacked skills regarding theoretical orientation and applications, counselling practices remained arbitrary and less effective due to the confusion experienced in the adaptation and application of counselling approaches, and the confusion in paradigms stemmed from problems in the identification of local needs, direct transfer of Eurocentric paradigms, training, and professional roles.

Counselling Elementary School Students — Experiences of School Counsellors from Serbia

“…Also, it is necessary to appeal to government officials to recognise the importance of school counselling, to increase the number of counselling professionals employed in schools, and to provide systematic support for the professional development of school counsellors (e.g., through establishing supervision; DeKruyf et al, 2013;Zuković & Slijepčević, 2019). School counsellors can greatly contribute to this issue by advocating for their profession (McMahon et al, 2009;Sink, 2016) and through the results of evidence-based practice (Sakiz & Sariçali, 2019;Zyromski, Dimmitt, Mariani, & Griffith, 2018). They need to show how important they are for the advancement and development of students and for the effectiveness of the practice of school as a whole.…”

Collaborative counselling: influence on the teaching professionals’ conceptions as promoters of children’s communication and language

“…To conclude, the collaborative counselling implemented seems to have been useful to generate bidirectional relationships between counsellors and teaching professionals (Sakız & Sarıçalı, 2019;Yu, 2011). This process has led to the creation of spaces to allow educators to analyse their conceptions about communication and language development and teaching-learning processes, thus enabling them to progressively re-describe these with the help of self-critical skills (Schön, 1992).…”

The change over time of the perceptions of school counsellor candidates related to students with learning disabilities

“…Although education in universities to train school counsellors began in the 1960s, these programs did not see the interest expected until the beginning of the 2000s (Ültanır, 2005). On the other hand, it has been one of the most interesting programs in the last 15 years (Sakız & Sarıçalı, 2019). For example, while there were 20 universities to train school counsellor candidates in the early 2000s, today this number has exceeded 100 (see Council of Higher Education, 2021).…”