The Changing Role of School Counselors: Past to Present

1. The Changing Role Of School Counselors: Past to Present – From Providing Isolated Services To Becoming A Valued Collaborator Norman C. Gysbers, Ph.D. Curators’ Professor Emeritus University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri West Virginia Department of Education School Counselor Conference June 21-23, 2016 Charleston, West Virginia

2. Why Should We Be Concerned About the History of School Counseling? “Every field has a history. Ideas and institutions which are now accepted as commonplace all had their origins in the past. Present identity results from innumerable historical antecedents. No one can succeed in being ahistorical …Modern guidance grew from the discoveries, inventions, and mistakes of yesterday. Out of the search for guidance's past it is possible to apply what is learned to the future – this is ultimate use of historical knowledge. History does not cheat us; indeed, if those in guidance do not think about its past, then surely guidance will have no future.” (Picchioni & Bank, 1983, p. 1)

3. School Counseling Did Not Evolve in a Vacuum • It evolved as a result of many different changing and challenging social, educational, and economic forces interacting over the past 100 years • It is a coat of many colors

4. What Were the Challenges Faced in The early 1900s? • Economic Concerns • Better prepare workers for the workplace • Educational Concerns • Help students find purpose for their education as well as their employment • Social Concerns • Change school methods and organization and exert more control over conditions of labor in child-employing industries

5. The Life-Career Motive • In 1910 Charles W. Eliot, president Emeritus of Harvard University, delivered an address to the national Education Association titled, “The Value During Education of the Life-Career Motive.” “… multitudes of American children, taking no interest in their school work, or see no connection between their studies and the means of later earning a good livelihood, drop out of school far too early of their own accord, or at least offer no effective resistance to the desire of unwise parents that they stop studying and go to work” (p.1). • Eliot felt that if students were to be successful they needed purpose and direction in their loves; they needed “…the motive of the life-career”. (p. 2) (Bloomfield, 1915, p.1-2)

6. Early Contributors • Lysander, Richards, 1881, Vocophy: The New Profession • Frank Parsons, 1909, Choosing a Vocation • Jessie B. Davis, 1914, Vocational and Moral Guidance

7. 1910-1920The Progressive Movement • Vocational Education (Career & Technical Education) and Vocational Guidance were seen as twin reform movements to change the nature and structure of education

8. The Organizational Framework for School Counseling: The Early Years 1910-1930s • A Position – A list of duties

9. Duties of a Vocational CounselorBoston, 1915 • To be the representative of the Department of Vocational Guidance in the district. • To attend all meetings of counselors called by the Director of Vocational Guidance. • To be responsible for all material sent out to the school by the Vocational Guidance Department. • To gather and keep on file occupational information. • To arrange with the local branch librarians about shelves of books bearing upon educational and vocational guidance.

10. Duties of a Vocational CounselorBoston, 1915 (cont.) • To arrange for some lessons in occupations in connection with classes in Oral English and Vocational Civics. Or wherever principal and counselor deem it wise. • To recommend that teachers show the relationship of their work to occupational problems. • To interview pupils in grades six and above who are failing, attempt to find the reason, and suggest a remedy. • To make use of cumulative record card when advising children. • To consult records of intelligence tests when advising children.

11. Duties of a Vocational CounselorBoston, 1915 (cont.) • To make careful study with grades seven and eight of the bulletin “A Guide to the Choice of a Secondary School.” • To urge children to remain in school. • To recommend conferences with parents of children who are failing school. • To interview and check cards of all children leaving school, making clear to them the requirements for obtaining working certificates. • To be responsible for the filling in of Blank 249, and communicate with recommendations to the Department of Vocational Guidance when children are in need of employment. (Ginn, 1924, p.3-7)

12. The 1920s • Vocational Guidance was taking on the new vocabulary present in the culture at large and in the educational subculture specifically • Mental hygiene • Progressive education • Child development • Psychometric movement

13. Early Concerns • “The first development to which I call attention is growing recognition of vocational guidance as an integral part of organized education, not as something different and apart from education that is being wished upon the schools by a group of enthusiasts because there is no other agency to handle it.” (Myers, G.E., 1923, p. 139-142)

14. Early concerns (cont.) • “This conception of vocational guidance as an integral part of organized education, not as something added on, is fundamental. Acceptance or rejection of it affects the budget, the plan of organization and administration, and the methods of carrying on the work. Orderly, systematic progress in vocational guidance commensurate with its importance is dependent in large measure upon the extent to which this fundamental conception prevails.” • “Second, vocational guidance is becoming recognized as a specialized educational function requiring special natural qualifications and special training.” (Myers, G.E., 1923, p. 139-142)

15. Early concerns (cont.) • “A third development that claims attention is an increasing appreciation that a centralized, unified program of vocational guidance for the entire school system of a city is essential to the most effective work. We are rapidly passing out of the stage when each high school and junior high school can be left to organize and conduct vocational guidance as it sees fit.” (Myers, G.E., 1923, p. 139-142)

16. Early concerns (cont.) • “Another tendency dangerous to the cause of vocational guidance is the tendency to load the vocational counselor with so many duties foreign to the office that little real counseling can be done. In order to prevent this tendency from crippling seriously the vocational guidance program it is important that the counselor shall be well trained, that the principal shall understand more clearly what counseling involves, and that there shall be efficient supervision from a central office.” (Myers, G.E., 1923, p. 139-142)

17. Who Was Providing Vocational Guidance to Students from 1910 to 1930? • Administrators • Teachers • Social Workers • Counselors

18. The 1930s • One of the tasks of the profession in the early 1930s was to establish the preferred list of duties to be carried out by individuals filling the position of counselor. The task was to decide which duties would constitute a complete program or as Proctor (1930) stated, the “standard setup” for guidance and counseling. (Procter, 1930, p.58)

19. 37 Actual Counselor Duties • Myers (1931) prepared a list of actual counselor duties. There were 37 items on the list. After reviewing the list he stated: “Here is, indeed, a formidable list of things which counselors do. It is obvious that many of these are essential to an effective guidance program and may be properly expected of a counselor. It is equally obvious that some of them are routine administrative or clerical matters which have nothing whatever to do with counseling. Evidently, under the guise of setting up a counseling program, some junior and senior high school principals have unloaded a large number of their office duties upon the counselor.” (Myers, 1931, p. 344)

20. Personal-Social Guidance Emerges • Vocational and educational guidance remain • Personal-Social guidance emerges “Guidance workers in the high schools became aware of increasingly large numbers of students who were troubled by personal problems involving hostility to authority, sex relationships, unfortunate home situations, and financial stringencies.” (Rudy, 1965, p. ?)

21. The Organizational Frameworks for School Counseling: TheMiddle Years (1930s-1970s) • A Position within Guidance Services • Guidance Services are part of Pupil Personal Services

22. What Were the Guidance Services? • Assessment • Information • Counseling • Placement • Follow-up

23. Titles of Guidance Personnel in the 1930s • Principals • Vice Principals • Deans of Girls and Boys • Pupil Counselor • Student Counselor • Teacher Counselor • Visiting Counselor

24. The 1940s • The War Years 1941-1945 • The Terminology Tangle Continues • Vocational Guidance • Educational Guidance • Personal-Social Guidance • Counseling • Counselor • Vocational Counselor • Personnel Worker • 1946 – An Act to Provide for the Further Development of Vocational Education

25. The Selection and Training of Counselors • Teacher Certification and Experience Required • A Movement toward Standardization of Training Programs • More and More Universities offering Coursework

26. The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s • 1958 – The National Defense Education Act • The Impact of Carl Rogers and the Directive-Non-Directive debate • Physical Facilities • Elementary School Counseling • The American School Counselor Association • The Terminology Tangle Continues

27. An Organizational Framework for School Counseling Program: 1970s • A Need for a Unifying Language and Structure: “We were in need of a vocabulary and a frame of thinking that could unify school counseling across all grade levels and school buildings of a district. We needed the structure and framework of a comprehensive school counseling program.”

28. The 1980s & 1990s: The Challenges • Educational Reform – A Nation at Risk • Social Forces – Gender Equity, Multiculturalism, Diversity, Sexual orientation, Social Class • Social Problems – Substance Abuse, Violence, Mental Health, Changing Family Patterns • Economic Issues – Changing Labor Force, Globalization

29. The 1980s & 1990s: A Response • The Comprehensive Program approach became the major way to organize school counseling • The School Counseling Curriculum received attention – the types of school counseling became the labels for the content of the program • Debates about school counselor role • Human Development Specialist • Direct Services • Change Agent • Indirect Services • Coordinating, Consulting • Elementary school counselors

30. 2000-2010 • ASCA national model - 2003 • What should be the focus of comprehensive school counseling programs? • No Child Left Behind - 2001 • Academic Achievement • Mental Health • Career Development • The work of school counselors – the debate continues • Direct-Indirect • Standards for the preparation of school counselors • ASCA • CACREP

31. What About the Future? • The transformation of school counseling will continue • Social, economic, and academic forces will continue to impact the transformation process • The program concept will continue, at least in the near term

32. What is One Thing We Must Do Now? Close the Implementation Gap

33. Why Do School Counseling Program Implementation Gaps Exist? • The challenge and magnitude of change • The weight of tradition • The burden of non-counseling duties

34. What is the Magnitude of Change? • First Order Change • Changes consistent with the existing value and norms • Second Order Change • Changes that require individuals and groups to learn new approaches or that conflict with prevailing values and norms.

35. What is the Weight of Tradition? • The weight of tradition is the traditional way of structuring school counseling • A position – a list of duties • A service - five basic services

36. The Head: Your Mind-set • Often our head gets stuck in one way of seeing things • Our habits of thought are engrained • Reframing can melt what seems like a frozen, unworkable situation Adapted from material in Executive Insights, Volume 18, Number 4, 2001. KnoWorks, a division of RHR International.

37. The Heart: Your Emotion & Motivation • It takes emotion to change human behavior; nothing changes without it • Emotion can either fuel change or derail change • There is a need to vent feelings - you can visit the pity city, but remember, you can’t live there! • There is a need to share what is working using that as the foundation for change Adapted from material in Executive Insights, Volume 18, Number 4, 2001. KnoWorks, a division of RHR International.

38. The Hands: Your Transformation Tools • So, what are you going to do differently? • It is time to fully implement your program Adapted from material in Executive Insights, Volume 18, Number 4, 2001. KnoWorks, a division of RHR International.

39. It Is Time for Action! If you want some milk you don’t go out in the middle of the pasture and wait for a cow to back up to you.