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Within School Walls School counselors often engage in functions that are only remotely related to either their training or their professionally determined roles or activities. Scheduling, participating in disciplinary functions, and conducting clerical duties absorb much of a school counselors time. However, those duties are not considered core elements of a counselors role. The time that the school counselor spends performing non counseling-related tasks compromises his or her ability to complete tasks that are associated with the training the individual received and with state. Individual counseling, group counseling, classroom guidance, program coordination, and consultation have often been neglected in many schools because counselors must perform non-counseling tasks. In Florida for instance, unlike in some other states, it is required that school counselors should perform only counseling tasks.
The Professional Development School without Walls is a partnership between the Departments of Special Education and Elementary Education at the University of South Florida and two large school districts. (Remedial and Special Education) The goals of the partnership are to simultaneously improve teacher education and K- 12 classroom practice and to study the effectiveness and sustainability of the developed model for partnering over time. (Remedial and Special Education) School without Walls is a partnership between the Departments of Special Education and Elementary Education at the University of South Florida (USF) and the Pasco County schools and Hillsborough County schools in Florida. (Remedial and Special Education) With the goal of simultaneously improving teacher education and K- 12 classroom practice, the partnership is working to reform the elementary and special education pre-service teacher education curricula, to clarify the current and emerging roles and responsibilities of special educators in inclusive schools, and to institute a model for professional development that actively involves general and special education teachers in researching their own teaching. (Remedial and Special Education) A secondary goal of this partnership is to study the effectiveness and sustainability of the partnering model over time. (Remedial and Special Education) Florida is a unionized state, and we were advised that the union would not support any model that limited the opportunity of all teachers to be involved. (Remedial and Special Education) By focusing on specific schools or specific regions of the school district, we understood that we would have been likely to incur the union's opposition. (Remedial and Special Education) Central to the operation of the PDSWOW partnership is the consideration of teacher candidates needs. (Remedial and Special Education) We see their needs as coinciding with the needs of both the district and the university -- to be prepared as competent, caring, ethical, and resilient teachers. To accomplish this goal, we first asked ourselves, what do we know about how people learn to teach? And, based on that knowledge, what should teacher preparation programs look like and be like? (Remedial and Special Education) We know that many teacher educators have observed the phenomenon of students mastering content in their classes but not being able to generalize or apply that content to practice. Shulman (1992) offered an interesting explanation -- that learning to teach involves two types of knowledge: the scientific, formal theories that have traditionally been included in university coursework, as well as a type of knowledge that differs from traditional, scientific ways of knowing. (Remedial and Special Education) Unlike scientific knowledge and principles, which are applied in a consistent manner across settings and problems, craft knowledge is contextualized and local. (Remedial and Special Education) Each time a teacher individualizes instruction, her or his methods vary because of the local context, even though the principles or the concept of individualization remain constant. (Remedial and Special Education) Thus, teacher candidates need guided supported practice in the application of craft knowledge. (Remedial and Special Education) We also know that teacher candidates have at least a 14 -year apprenticeship of observation (Brook hart & Freeman, 1992; Lortie, 1975) that has prepared them to think they know a lot about teaching. (Remedial and Special Education) To change teacher candidates conception of teaching from what they experienced and observed as students, programs need powerful pedagogical strategies that will engage teacher candidates in the study of teaching and in the examination of values and biases embedded in conceptions of teaching. (Remedial and Special Education) Deconstructing the concepts of teacher, learner, and schooling can enable teacher candidates to develop new insights into teaching and schooling and enable them to construct their own personal understandings of the concept of teaching. (Remedial and Special Education) School administrators have expanded their knowledge of school counseling programs; some continue to base their knowledge on their own experience with counselors when they were in school. Graduate programs for educational administration do not always mandate courses in school counseling nor do they necessarily focus on the role of the school counselor in a comprehensive school counseling program. The lack of focus on school counseling in an educational administrators training suggests to school counselors that their supervisors might lack knowledge of appropriate counselor roles.
Knowing the perceptions of future administrators regarding the role of the school counselor is important because it helps counselors anticipate areas of agreement and conflict when they attempt to gain administrative support for the counselors roles. For example, counselors need to be aware that administrators may expect them to be disciplinarians, and counselor educators need to teach counseling students how to address this situation. Students often experience tension and anxiety when they approach school counselors because students sometimes view them as disciplinarians. The roles of disciplinarian and counselor are mutually exclusive because counseling is based on trust and open communication. Lecturing and punishing are acts that undermine the counselors relationship with students and are incongruent with the counselors role. If administrators do not recognize this conflict, they will send students to counselors to be disciplined.
In Florida professional school counselors work closely with school administrators to develop school counseling programs. Individual state governments can influence the establishment of certification standards and the formulation of course and program related requirements at the college and departmental level through legislative actions. (Peabody Journal of Education) Federal constitutional law vests states with the authority to establish parameters for certification requirements. (Peabody Journal of Education) Under the auspices of the state department of education or its delegate, a common process is established and monitored to identify specific criteria, expectations, outcomes, and provide a measure of accountability for the process of obtaining licensure. (Peabody Journal of Education) The state of Florida has a two-tiered level certification process. (Peabody Journal of Education) Established by the State Department of Education, standards for principal certification in Florida are also governed by the Florida Educational Management Council. (Peabody Journal of Education) To become a principal, students must sustain two levels of preparation. To achieve level one certification, students are required to complete 8 to 10 courses and pass the Florida Educational Leadership Examination (FELE). (Peabody Journal of Education) For the purpose of this discussion, the area of administration was comprised of course titles that incorporated subject matter related phrases such as educational leadership, administration, organization, supervision, systems, personnel, or management, school law and finance, communications or community relations in education, contemporary issues in educational leadership, and administration of human resources or human resource development. (Peabody Journal of Education) The University of Central Florida requires eight courses in administration. (Peabody Journal of Education) All of the universities require at least one course in curriculum. (Peabody Journal of Education) A research course is required by 25 % of the universities, while 75 % of the universities require coursework in computers. (Peabody Journal of Education) The University of Western Florida requires a course in foundations and only two universities (Florida International University and the University of Western Florida) require a course in the principalship. (Peabody Journal of Education) The University of Central Florida has the only program in which students are required to participate in a field-based internship to obtain level one certification. (Peabody Journal of Education) Successful completion of level two obligates prospective principals to complete an on-the-job training component and demonstrate the 19 state adopted principal competencies. (Peabody Journal of Education) The competencies are associated with the domains of purpose and direction, cognitive skills, consensus management, quality enhancement, organization, and communication. (Peabody Journal of Education) Depending upon their current position and experience, aspiring principals may satisfy the on-the-job requirement in one of three ways. They may serve 2 years as an assistant principal, complete a half year internship with an assistant principal, or participate in a year-long internship under the supervision of a principal. (Peabody Journal of Education) In addition to completing a predefined core of courses, students must also take two elective foundations or research courses in either elementary, middle, secondary, or special education. (Peabody Journal of Education) Overall, students must complete an academic program comprised of 30 semester hours. (Peabody Journal of Education) With the exception of their elective courses, students are given no choice in selecting courses for level one certification. (Peabody Journal of Education) After students complete the required coursework and pass the FELE, they are eligible to enter their local school district administrative training pools. (Peabody Journal of Education) Under the authority of the Florida Council on Educational Management, local school districts are authorized to adopt and implement an objectives based process for the screening, selection, and appointment of principals (Florida State Department of Education, 1993). (Peabody Journal of Education) However, individual counties can establish their own admission process for aspiring principals. (Peabody Journal of Education) If a principal wants to take a position in another school that is located in a district other than the one that in which individual is currently employed, finding a position may be difficult. (Peabody Journal of Education) Currently there is no reciprocity clause that applies uniformly to all 67 school districts in Florida, although many districts are adding such a clause. (Peabody Journal of Education) In order to become a principal in Florida, an individual who holds a license in another state and subsequently relocates to Florida must pass the FELE, obtain the level one certification, and then complete the on the job training component required for level two certification. (Peabody Journal of Education) Floridas certification standards for the principal are governed by two legislative bodies, the state and the Florida Council for Educational Management, as well as local school districts. (Peabody Journal of Education) This two-tiered certification process reflects an adherence to a bureaucratic management...
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Research essay sample on Special Education School Counselors
