School Guidance Counselors as Career and Technical Education Collaborators

• In Event: 33.048 - Career and Technical Education: Career Exploration and Pathways

Abstract

School guidance counselors have the potential to collaborate with career and technical education teachers to improve student access to programs of study designed to help them along a career pathway. However, there are barriers to effective collaborations between School Guidance Counselors (SGCs) and Career and Technical Education teachers. The purpose of this descriptive study was to create information regarding the preparedness of SGCs to collaborate with practicing CTE teachers. The findings indicate that SGCs didn’t perceive themselves to be knowledgeable regarding CTE programs of study or CTE curriculum. The findings also indicate that SGCs rarely, if ever, seek to collaborate with CTE teachers and that most SGCs view CTE programs as being primarily for students not bound for postsecondary education.

Author

• Matthew Kenneth Spindler, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University