A Window on School Guidance Counselling.

Abstract

Following decentralisation of education, decisions about the distribution of resources for the provision of guidance counselling have been made within individual secondary schools. This situation has led to increasing disparity in the provision of guidance counselling, and in employment conditions. A School Guidance Counsellors' Advisory Group was established to assess the situation and provide directions for future action. This group initiated an online survey of school guidance counsellors. The survey's purpose was to contribute to an assessment of the overall situation in order to inform future directions for the group's activities, and thus for the profession of school guidance counselling. Results indicate that the school guidance counsellor workforce is an increasingly experienced one. Most school guidance counsellors have postgraduate qualifications in counselling, and all reported participating in supervision. Most respondents were teacher-qualified; 70% held management units. Most respondents (84%) were NZAC members, and 73% were PPTA members. However, such survey profiles paint only part of the picture of school guidance counselling. The authors suggest that a range of evidence of the contributions of school guidance counsellors to schools and to student wellbeing is a next step for research in this area. [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.)