Among the many issues facing the school counseling profession are the following three: what the professional title should be, how counselors should be evaluated, and to what extent counselors should work on prevention instead of remediation.
Professional Title. Some professionals in the field prefer to be called guidance counselor, while an increasing number prefer the term school counselor. The growing trend is for counselors to be seen as professionals in a large system, working fluidly with all aspects within the system. The expected duties are more extensive than those practiced by vocational guidance counselors of the past, hence the feeling of many school counselors that the name of the profession should reflect its expanded roles.
Evaluation. A major trend in education is the demand for accountability and evaluation. School counselors have not been immune to this demand. Since the early 1970s there has been a growing concern with this issue and numerous criteria have been developed to help school counselors evaluate their specific intervention techniques.
The National Standards for Professional School Counselors was adopted by ASCA in 1997. Similar to the academic standards used nationally by state departments of education, the counseling standards provide a blueprint of the tasks of and goals for school counselors. The standards have not been adopted by every state. The average state student-counselor ratio varies from a high of about 1,250 to a low of about 400, so the evaluation of counselor performance with different workloads is a difficult undertaking.
Prevention versus Remediation. A growing trend in the field of counseling is the focus on prevention instead of remediation. In the past it was not uncommon for counselors to have interactions with students only after some crisis had occurred. There is now a shift for school counselors to intercede prior to any incidents and to become more proactive in developing and enacting school-wide prevention plans. The schools, community, and families are requesting assistance in preventing students from being involved with many difficulties, such as participating in gangs, dropping out of school, becoming a teenage parent, using drugs, and participating in or becoming victims of acts of violence.
Gangs. Students as early as third grade are being taught gang-type activities. Students are more likely to end up in a gang if family members and peers are already involved in gang activity. It is difficult for children to leave a gang once they have been actively involved. Anti-gang resources are often focused on fourth and fifth graders-an age before most students join a gang. Counselors are in a position to ascertain whether a child is "at risk" of gang-type activity. The counselor can also be influential in working with the family to help the child avoid gang activity.
Dropouts. In many large metropolitan school districts, over 25 percent of students do not complete their high school education. Premature school termination is becoming an increasingly more difficult problem as more careers require education well beyond the high school level. Counselors are in a unique position to assist students with career guidance and help them establish meaningful goals including the completion of a basic education.
Teen Pregnancy. Teen pregnancy continues to be a societal concern. Precipitating factors are visible prior to middle school. Counselors are often the liaison with community agencies that work to prevent student pregnancy and assist with students who do become pregnant.
Substance Abuse. Drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, continue to be a serious problem for youth. Despite national efforts to eradicate these problems, many students still find their way to these mind-altering chemicals. Counselors are trained to understand the effects of different drugs and can assist with interventions or community referrals. The counselor is also essential in developing substance abuse prevention programs in a school.
School Violence. School violence can range from bullying to gunfire. Counselors have training to assist teachers and students in cases of violence and to establish violence prevention programs. Counselor leadership in making teasing and bullying unacceptable school behaviors is a powerful way to provide a safer and more inclusive environment for students.
Diversity. Tolerance of diversity is an important goal in a multicultural society. School counselors help all students to be accepting of others regardless of sex, age, race, sexual orientation, culture, disability, or religious beliefs.
Child Abuse. Many states have mandatory reporting laws concerning child abuse. Students in all grades are susceptible to abuse by others, and the counselor is often the first person to discover these deplorable acts and then report them to the proper authorities.
Terrorism. Terrorism is becoming an increasingly difficult problem in the world of the early twenty-first century. Children are affected, directly and indirectly, by both massive and small-scale acts of terrorism. Counselors are able to ascertain the extent to which a student or teacher may be adversely affected by terrorist acts. In these cases the counselor can either intervene or direct the person to more intensive interventions.
SCHOOL COUNSELING AROUND THE WORLD
How are other countries providing counseling? It is clear that school counseling has made significant progress in the United States. Political, social, and cultural factors are deeply embedded in the way a given country addresses the educational needs of its populace. Following are brief examples of how school counseling is practiced in some other countries.
In Japan, the goal of high school counseling is to "help every student develop abilities of self-understanding, decision-making, life planning, and action-taking to be able to adjust in the career options he or she decides to pursue" (Watanabe-Muraoka, Senzaki, and Herr, p. 101). In France, secondary school counseling was started in 1922 and by the late 1930s was adopted by the educational system and seen as a necessary part of the institution. School counselors assist students with vocational guidance.
In Thailand, school counseling often incorporates advice-giving by teachers. In Israel, school counselors devote one-third of their time to classroom instruction and the rest to personal and social counseling. Career counseling is somewhat curtailed because students are required to enlist with the armed services after high school. In Hong Kong, school counseling and guidance is becoming more of a service that is incorporated into the whole school with an emphasis on prevention. Turkey has a fifty-year history of counseling development. There is a professional association that publishes a journal and sponsors conferences. Many secondary schools have counseling services and receive support from the Ministry of National Education.
All countries benefit from professional dialogue and a continual exchange of information. In Europe the Transnational Network of National Resource Centers for Vocational Guidance was established to share information, include businesses and social agencies, and improve counseling methods and materials. The Internet is being used widely as a mechanism for disseminating information. Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, the Slovak Republic, and Norway are among many countries using the web to make career and counseling information available to guidance experts. As school counseling continues to define itself as a profession and to show its usefulness empirically, counseling services in schools are likely to expand worldwide in an effort to improve everyone's life satisfaction.
MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING. ERIC Digest
Don C. Locke
M |
ulticulturalism has been defined as the fourth force in psychology, one which complements the psychodynamic, behavioral and humanistic explanations of human behavior. Pedersen (1991) defined multiculturalism as "a wide range of multiple groups without grading, comparing, or ranking them as better or worse than one another and without denying the very distinct and complementary or even contradictory perspectives that each group brings with it" (p. 4). One of the most important debates within the field has to do with how this definition relates to specific groups within the context of a culture. Pedersen's definition leads to the inclusion of a large number of variables, e.g., age, sex, place of residence, education, socioeconomic factors, affiliations, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, making multiculturalism generic to all counseling relationships. Locke (1990), among others, advocates a narrower definition of multiculturalism, particularly as it relates to counseling. The narrower view is one where attention is directed toward "the racial/ethnic minority groups within that culture" (p. 24).
Regardless of how one defines the term or the degree to which the concept is restricted or broadened in a particular context, multiculturalism encompasses a world of complex detail. Hofstede (1984), identified four dimensions of cultures. These dimensions are:
1. Power distance--the extent to which a culture accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
2. Uncertainty avoidance—the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations.
3. Individualism—a social framework in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and of their immediate families only. Collectivism refers to a social framework in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups, expecting their in-group to look after them, and in exchange for that owe loyalty to it.
4. Masculinity/Femininity—the extent to which the dominant values within a culture are assertiveness, money and things, caring for others, quality of life, and people.
A number of generic counselor characteristics are necessary, but not sufficient, for those who engage in multicultural counseling. To be effective, a counselor must be able to:
1. Express respect for the client in a manner that is felt, understood, accepted, and appreciated by the client. Respect may be communicated either verbally or nonverbally with voice quality or eye contact.
2. Feel and express empathy for culturally different clients. This involves being able to place oneself in the place of the other, to understand the point of view of the other.
3. Personalize his/her observations. This means that the counselor recognizes that his/her observations, knowledge, or perceptions are "right" or "true" only for him/herself and that they do not generalize to the client.
4. Withhold judgment and remain objective until one has enough information and an understanding of the world of the client.
5. Tolerate ambiguity. This refers to the ability to react to new, different, and at times, unpredictable situations with little visible discomfort or irritation.
6. Have patience and perseverance when unable to get things done immediately.
Counselors bring with them their own degree of effectiveness with these generic characteristics. They also bring with them their cultural manifestations as well as their unique personal, social and psychological background. These factors interact with the cultural and personal factors brought by the client. The interaction of these two sets of factors must be explored along with other counseling-related considerations for each client who comes for counseling. The effective counselor is one who can adapt the counseling models, theories, or techniques to the unique individual needs of each client. This skill requires that the counselor be able to see the client as both an individual and as a member of a particular cultural group. Multicultural counseling requires the recognition of: (1) the importance of racial/ethnic group membership on the socialization of the client; (2) the importance of and the uniqueness of the individual; (3) the presence of and place of values in the counseling process; and (4) the uniqueness of learning styles, vocational goals, and life purposes of clients, within the context of principles of democratic social justice (Locke, 1986).
The Multicultural Awareness Continuum (Locke, 1986) was designed to illustrate the areas of awareness through which a counselor must go in the process of counseling a culturally different client. The continuum is linear and the process is developmental, best understood as a lifelong process.
Self-awareness. The first level through which counselors must pass is self-awareness. Self-understanding is a necessary condition before one begins the process of understanding others. Both intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics must be considered as important components in the projection of beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and values. The examination of one's own thoughts and feelings allows the counselor a better understanding of the cultural "baggage" he or she brings to the situation.
--Awareness of one's own culture. Counselors bring cultural baggage to the counseling situation; baggage that may cause certain things to be taken for granted or create expectations about behaviors and manners. For example, consider your own name and the meaning associated with it. Ask yourself the cultural significance of your name. Could your name have some historical significance to cultures other than the culture of your origin? There may be some relationship between your name and the order of your birth. There may have been a special ceremony conducted when you were named.
The naming process of a child is but one of the many examples of how cultural influences are evident and varied. Language is specific to one's cultural group whether formal, informal, verbal, or nonverbal. Language determines the cultural networks in which an individual participates and contributes specific values to the culture.
-Awareness of racism, sexism, and poverty. Racism, sexism, and poverty are all aspects of a culture that must be understood from the perspective of how one views their effect both upon oneself and upon others. The words themselves are obviously powerful terms and frequently evoke some defensiveness. Even when racism and sexism are denied as a part of one's personal belief system, one must recognize that he/she never-the-less exists as a part of the larger culture. Even when the anguish of poverty is not felt personally, the counselor must come to grips with his or her own beliefs regarding financially less fortunate people.
Exploration of the issues of racism, sexism, and poverty may be facilitated by a "systems" approach. Such an exploration may lead to examination of the differences between individual behaviors and organizational behaviors, or what might be called the difference between personal prejudice and institutional prejudice. The influence of organizational prejudice can be seen in the attitudes and beliefs of the system in which the counselor works. Similarly, the awareness that frequently church memberships exist along racial lines, or that some social organizations restrict their membership to one sex, should help counselors come to grips with the organizational prejudice which they may be supporting solely on the basis of participation in a particular organization.
-Awareness of individual differences. One of the greatest pitfalls of the novice counselor is to over generalize things learned about a specific culture as therefore applicable to all members of the culture. A single thread of commonality is often presumed to exist as interwoven among the group simply because it is observed in one or a few member(s) of the culture. On the contrary, cultural group membership does not require one to sacrifice individualism or uniqueness. In response to the counselor who feels all clients should be treated as "individuals," I say clients must be treated as both individuals and members of their particular cultural group.
Total belief in individualism fails to take into account the "collective family-community" relationship which exists in many cultural groups. A real danger lies in the possibility that counselors may unwittingly discount cultural influences and subconsciously believe they understand the culturally different when, in fact, they view others from their own culture's point of view. In practice, what is put forth as a belief in individualism can become a disregard for any culturally specific behaviors that influence client behaviors. In sum, counselors must be aware of individual differences and come to believe in the uniqueness of the individual before moving to the level of awareness of other cultures.
--Awareness of other cultures. The four previously discussed levels of the continuum provide the background and foundation necessary for counselors to explore the varied dynamics of other cultural groups. Most cross-cultural emphasis is currently placed upon African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans or Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Language is of great significance and uniqueness to each of these cultural groups, rendering standard English less than complete in communication of ideas. It is necessary for counselors to be sensitive to words which are unique to a particular culture as well as body language and other nonverbal behaviors to which cultural significance is attached.
-Awareness of diversity. The culture of the United States has often been referred to as a "melting pot." This characterization suggests that people came to the United States from many different countries and blended into one new culture. Thus, old world practices were altered, discarded, or maintained within the context of the new culture. For the most part, many cultural groups did not fully participate in the melting pot process. Thus, many African American, Native American, Mexican American, and Asian American cultural practices were not welcomed as the new culture formed.
Of more recent vintage is the term "salad bowl" which implies that the culture of the United States is capable of retaining aspects from all cultures (the various ingredients). Viewed in this manner, we are seen as capable of living, working, and growing together while maintaining a unique cultural identity. "Rainbow coalition" is another term used in a recent political campaign to represent the same idea. Such concepts reflect what many have come to refer to as a multicultural or pluralistic society, where certain features of each culture are encouraged and appreciated by other cultural groups.
-Skills/Techniques. The final level on the continuum is to implement what has been learned about working with culturally different groups and add specific techniques to the repertoire of counseling skills. Before a counselor can effectively work with clients of diverse cultural heritage, he or she must have developed general competence as a counselor. Passage through the awareness continuum constitutes professional growth and will contribute to an increase in overall counseling effectiveness, but goes much further than that. Counselors must be aware of learning theory and how theory relates to the development of psychological-cultural factors. Counselors must understand the relationship between theory and counselors' strategies or practices. Most importantly, counselors must have developed a sense of worth in their own cultures before attaining competence in counseling the culturally different.
REFERENCES
Hofstede, G. (1984) "Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values." Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Locke, D. C. (1986a). Cross-cultural counseling issues. In A. ]. Palmo & W. J. Weikel (Eds.). Foundations of mental health counseling (pp. 119-137). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Locke, D. C. (1990). A not so provincial view of multicultural counseling. "Counselor Education and Supervision," 30,18-25.
Locke, D. C. (1993). Multicultural counseling. ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services Ann Arbor MI. ED357316
Pedersen, P. B. (1991). Introduction to the special issue on multiculturalism as a fourth force in counseling. "Journal of Counseling and Development," 70, 4.
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