School Counselors in International School: Critical Issues and Challenges

Abstract

This study sought to examine the views of school counselors in international school settings; international schools being those that enroll students from varying nationalities (both English speaking and non-English speaking countries) and follow an American/International college preparatory education curriculum. Results were pursued in regard to three important areas: (1) mental health needs of students (e.g., coping with cultural transitions, aggression, self-esteem), (2) their own professional development needs (e.g., multicultural development, networking), and (3) their interactions with teachers, administrators, and parents (e.g., lack of knowledge of the counselor's role, lack of trust in the counselor, lack of teamwork). Implications for supporting international school counselors are provided.

The international student sojourn, identity conflict and threats to well-being

“…However, in the research conducted by Yoon and Jepson, international Asian students were not confident about counsellors having the cultural sensitivity or expertise to help them and saw the service as a resource for US students only. Their research corroborates many other studies (Inman et al, 2009; 'need to develop proactive, innovative ways to reach this population' (Yoon & Jepson, 2008, p. 125).…”

Telesupervision: Building bridges in a digital era

“…In telesupervision, supervisors and supervisees meet asynchronously via e‐mail or webchat, or synchronously via videoconferencing (Kanz, ; Inman, Bashian, Pendse, & Luu, ). Not only does telesupervision remove time and space restrictions, important benefits of such an Internet‐based format include a cost‐effective outreach to supervisees in isolated, remote, rural, international, and underserved communities (Inman, Ngoubene, Ladany, & Mack, ). Moreover, telesupervision provides greater access to qualified supervisors (Hara, Bonk, & Angeli, ; Inman & Luu, ).…”

The Practice and Perceptions of School Counsellors: A View from Urban China

“…In addition, several findings in this study confirm others' (Corbin Dwyer and McNaughton 2004;Jiang 2005;Thomason and Qiong 2008) descriptions of challenges facing school counsellors in China. Further study of these issues, coupled with comparison with current and past challenges encountered by school counsellors around the world (Inman et al 2009;Gysbers 2001;Low 2009) may provide some direction and structure to the future of school counselling in China and inform counsellors outside of China about innovative practices developing there. Several of the themes will be familiar to many professional school counsellors, especially in countries where school counselling is in a preliminary development stage.…”

“…Given the relatively recent emergence of counselling in the country this will likely be a tremendous task. School counsellors around the world will likely understand the feelings of lack of respect articulated by participants (Inman et al 2009). Although sometimes slow to embrace this approach, counsellors are increasingly using data driven approaches to demonstrate how students are different as a result of the counsellor's intervention (Astramovich et al 2005).…”

“…Solution-focused brief counselling, which emphasizes the student as the source of the solutions in counselling and is well adapted to the time limits inherent in schools, may be a model that could be adapted for Chinese school counsellors. However, it is important to develop culturally and regionally specific school counselling models, rather than simply applying school counsellor practices and models from the U.S. or other countries (Inman et al 2009;Romano et al 2005).…”