Discovering the Perceptions Supervisors Have of School Counselor Trainees' Ability to Meet Needs of Diverse Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Unpacking the "Black Box" of Clinical Preparation of Educators: An Opportunity for Public Scholarship

Abstract

This study explores perceptions of site supervisors in school counselor preparation to determine strengths and areas in need of improvement. The study grew out of a school-wide research initiative to study clinical practice in preparation of educators. Counseling candidates are prepared in an interdisciplinary department that includes three program foci – clinical mental health, rehabilitation, and school counseling. Various aspects of the program offered on and off campus are part of the study to determine what is working in the two sites and areas in which major improvements can be made.
We posit from our deliberations and study that our preparation program has not been agile enough to prepare our candidates to address the diversity of needs found in today’s schools. Critiques are that school counselor preparation does not always match the requirement of the job and that actual and preferred tasks of the school counselor trainee do not always align in practice (Trolley, 2011). Thus the role of the school counselor should be fully explored. Investigation of how well school counselor interns are perceived as being able to address all of the challenges their students are facing is needed to assure better preparation and refinement of our programs. Better preparation must assure that our candidates gain confidence in their abilities to be successful in their counseling roles (Trolley, 2011). The specific research question that informed this study is:
What are site supervisor's perceptions of school counselor intern's level of preparedness to meet the academic, personal and social needs of their students/clients during the internship experience?
Our sample consisted of school-based site supervisors who completed an evaluation of their school counselor intern. Site supervisors are employees from various local school systems who host school counseling interns. The study included examining site supervisor evaluation ratings (N=26) which provided both quantitative and qualitative data. Through the preliminary examination of site supervisor data, it has become clear that the school based site supervisors perceive our students as being able to assess barriers that impede students’ academic, personal-social and career development, and have an accurate and developmentally appropriate understanding of student’s needs. These data also revealed that our student interns are less adequate at designing and implementing prevention and intervention plans related to the effects of various aspects of student needs such as a) atypical growth and development, b) health and wellness, c) language, d) ability level, e) multicultural issues and f) factors of resiliency on student learning and development.
We plan to examine additional content provided in site supervisor evaluations (e.g, open ended questions) to inform follow-up interview and focus group sessions. Interviews with site supervisors will provide more clarity on their perceptions of our students. We will compare these data with recent alum’s perceptions of their ability to meet the demands of their roles. Taking the results of this study to provide better preparation opportunities for candidates to learn design and intervention planning during clinical practice is paramount and demonstrates the program’s intent to better prepare candidates for the demands they will face.

Authors

• Samuel Steen, The George Washington University

• Maria Coyle, George Washington University