38-3 An Exploratory Examination of the Practices of Taiwan Elementary School Counselors: A Dialogue about Their Difficulties and Expectations
In view of the increasing need for student guidance and the recent policy of hiring full-time school counselors in the junior and the elementary school levels in Taiwan, the issue of professional development for school counselors has become a critical subject calling for more attention and exploration. Eighteen elementary school counselors, 6 males and 12 females, age 26-45, with an average of 7.9 years of professional experiences, were invited to participate in two focus groups. The groups focused on the difficulties the participants had encountered in their practices and their expectations of the larger school system and of their profession. The reliability of rating consistency of the meaning units and thematic categories by the raters was .89. Seven thematic categories emerged from the data analysis and were the basis of the present paper. The results showed participants' difficulties at two fronts: at the personal-professional front and at the system front. The reported difficulties included a lack of self confidence, professional role ambiguity, demand to offer responsive service of individual and group counseling, and critical need to engage in system-wide interventions involving parents and teachers. At the system level, the difficulties were reflected in the structure of the guidance and administrative systems, the profession role, duty and policy for school counselors, and the deficiency in supporting resources and infrastructure. On the other hand, the participants expressed expectations for professional development to include continuous training and supervision and enhancement in resources and team building from administration or the larger system. Based on the tertiary model of mental health intervention, the issues concerning multidisciplinary collaboration, implications of the identified difficulties and the expectations, the movement toward the practice of school guidance counseling, counselor professional development, training and instruction, enhancement of current guidance systems, and further research are proposed and discussed.
Keywords
counseling and guidance ； guidance teacher ； professional development ； school counseling ； school counselor
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