School Counselors' Experiences During COVID-19: Implications for Future Practice

• In Event: The Inequitable Impact of COVID-19 on Education: A Crisis or an Opportunity?

Abstract

Schools are facing unprecedented mental health and behavioral issues as K-12 students are returning to school buildings after the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. As licensed professionals trained to support students’ emotional and academic wellbeing, school counselors are well positioned to help grapple with the pandemic. Yet counselors, too, have faced significant pandemic-related barriers in delivering the necessary supports and services to students. There is a scarcity of research exploring how school counselors have adapted to meet student needs, specific challenges they have faced associated with pandemic-related disruptions, the support they have received from a range of stakeholders, as well as resources they have applied during this time of transition.
This study seeks to examine how school counselors’ role adjustments were handled at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and during the 2020-2021 school year. More specifically, this study seeks to understand how school counselors’ roles and responsibilities can be best supported at their schools and/or districts for them to effectively address student-related disparities that exist during times of crisis.
Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the study will examine the lived experiences of practicing school counselors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic through qualitative phenomenological inquiry as the guiding research framework (Patton, 2015). Purposive and snowball sampling methods will be used to recruit participants (Creswell, 2018). Participants will participate in 60-90 semi-structured interviews that will be recorded using the recording function of the Zoom or Google Handout platforms.
Data analysis will be used to identify common themes among the experiences of professional school counselors during the pandemic.
Participants were recruited via email, and after gathering informed consent they completed a demographic data form about personal and professional work information. The data obtained was used to select participants who are: (1) Licensed Professional School Counselors with more than three years of experience; (2) currently employed in a K-12 school setting, (3) worked at the same school building three or more years before the time of the interview (Summer of 2021), and (4) agree to participate in an interview.
The data obtained in this study may provide useful information about school counselor experiences, practices, and perspectives during the coronavirus pandemic. This study will be useful to school counselors as it relates to services and interventions provided to students during times of crisis. The study seeks to understand how school counselors’ roles and responsibilities can be best supported at their schools and/or district level for them to appropriately address student-related disparities that exist during times of crisis.

Authors

• Diana Camilo, California State University - San Bernardino

• Tahani Dari, University of Detroit Mercy

• Hulya Ermis-Demirta, University of Wisconsin - Stout

• Emily Sallee, University of Montana

• Nkenji Kahmali Clarke , Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education