The School Counselor in Israel: An Agent of Social Justice?

Abstract

In recent years, leaders in the school counseling profession worldwide have been calling on their colleagues to re-examine their role as "agents of social justice" in schools, with a view to promoting equal educational opportunities for all students. This research examines counselors' perceptions of the role, role behaviors, personal justice sensitivity, the school's justice sensitivity and the interrelations among these variables. Two hundred and six Israeli school counselors responded to a questionnaire. Findings show that the majority of counselors perceived their role as promoting social justice, and indeed engaged in activities meant to increase disadvantaged students' chances of success. The variable of role perception was found to mediate between personal sensitivity to justice (justice sensitivity) and counselors' actual behaviors. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the professional socialization of counselors as agents of social justice.

Educational counselors and psychologists roles in interactions with parents in a diverse, polarized and changing society: Early childhood education interns perceptions

“…In the beginning, the educational counseling profession focused on individual therapy for few, according to the pathogenic medical approach (Erhard & Sinai, 2012). However, since the 1990s, educational counseling positions the systemic paradigm of cultivating comprehensive wellbeing in the center, in the spirit of the salutogenic perception and the proactive approach to advancement of health (Antonovsky, 1998).…”

“…The work of the educational counselor with the parents is expressed, first and foremost, in helping the educator develop the relationship between the school and the students' parents through individual counseling or group guidance of parents (Erhard, 2014;Tatar & Bekerman, 2009). The counselor can also assimilate mechanisms and processes that improve communication between members of the educational team and students' families (for example a monthly report, dialog circles), instruct teachers on the principles of positive dialog with students' parents, and promote processes of social justice in order to contribute to transparent, open and trust-building communication between the educational institution and parents from diverse social and cultural groups (Erhard & Sinai, 2012).…”

“…The role of educational counseling for early childhood evolved over the years into four main aspects: prevention; advice and consultation; guidance; coordination (Bacon & Dougherty, 1992). In recent years, the Ministry of Education has been promoting the role perception of the educational counselor as an educational leader (Wingfield et al, 2010), in particular in contexts of advancing processes of social justice (Anderson, 2009;Erhard & Sinai, 2012).…”

“…However, in practice they use individual intervention methods more than systemic work directed toward a change in policies and processes that pose obstacles to the learning success of students from minority groups and their social mobility. For example, Erhard and Sinai (2012) found that educational counselors tend to express a "social" role perception, but focus on individual work with disadvantaged students, while doing little social-systemic work.…”

“…Analysis of the data indicated that the educational counselors and psychologists were perceived by the ECE interns first and foremost in their traditional function of experts in the field of mental health and as having an individual counseling-psychological orientation (Erhard & Sinai, 2012). In most cases they asked for help in coping with parents, on a background of developmental disabilities or prominent problems of students, a field of difficulty at the focus of interns' work with parents .…”