“I’m Just Jeff, Your Friend Who Cares”: The Pedagogical Representation and Construction of School Counselors

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: What Gets Talked About? Examining Curricular Inclusion and Exclusion

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the representations and contextualizations of school counselors within television media. Drawing on the concept of public pedagogy, we transcribed and analyzed eight television programs in which characterizations of school counselors were frequently employed. From this analysis, we developed four overarching themes that conscribed the roles and dispositions of counselors: the lack of basic counseling skills or practices, dubious ethical decisions, dysfunctional personality characteristics, and a generally negative reception by students. From these themes we theorize the possibility of television as a public pedagogy that can effectively produce problematic, erroneous notions of counselors and counseling within the perspectives of students, teachers, administrators, and parents, affecting counselors’ capacity and efficacy within school settings.

Authors

• Hannah Sasser, Purdue University

• Jake Burdick, Purdue University