School Counsellors and the Key Competencies.

Abstract

Education leaders maintain that the contemporary New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) offers opportunities for lateral innovation as learning becomes a collective, whole-school endeavour. This article argues that school guidance counsellors are well positioned to weave themselves into possibilities for lateral innovation when the counselling room becomes a place where students explore, discover, develop, practise, and strengthen key competencies in the context of the concerns and difficulties that bring them to counselling. Indeed, the language of The New Zealand Curriculum, with its focus on values and key competencies alongside learning areas and learning for life, has much in common with the language of counselling. The structure of The New Zealand Curriculumin fact brings guidance counsellors to the heart of the core purpose of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)