School Counselor Preparation Programs: Innovative Recommendations for Pragmatic Transformations to Serve English Learners

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Current Trends in School Counseling

Abstract

This presentation focuses on the graduate-level educational experiences of four school counselors who revealed aspects of school counselor preparation and how they were equipped to serve English learners (ELs). Within the process, substantial particulars emerged regarding the urgency of understanding how to deliver services to linguistically and culturally diverse students. The objective of the presentation is to provide a critical qualitative analysis of the graduate-level counselor preparation programs with an emphasis on expanding linguistic and cultural competencies within the professional preparation of school counselors for working with ELs. Considerations ultimately result in innovative recommendations to counselor preparation programs. The presentation provides inventive ways for school counselor education programs to minimalize the notable gap between theory and practice while serving ELs.

Author

• Joan Lachance, University of North Carolina - Charlotte