Constructing School Counseling: A Comparative NLP and Discourse Analysis of Three National Frameworks

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 9:45am
  In Poster Session: Counseling Poster Session A

Abstract

The U.S. school counseling model developed by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) dominates global discourse on the profession’s roles, functions, and best practices, yet comparative studies on its purported translatability across diverse cultural and educational contexts, remain scarce. This study analyzes how school counseling is constructed in professional association texts from the United States, Australia, and Ireland—countries with shared language, political stability, decentralized education systems, and Master’s-level counselor training. Using a two-stage methodology, Natural Language Processing (NLP) followed by discourse analysis, we examined frameworks, mission statements, and ethical codes. Findings reveal that school counseling frameworks are highly endogenic, reflecting each nation’s historical, political, and sociocultural context rather than universally translatable professional norms.

Authors

• Chloe Lancaster, University of South Florida

• Sarah Putnam, University of South Florida