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Article Excerpt
The authors summarize the special section in the journal of Counselor Education and Supervision (Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006) on school counseling supervision and present implications to guide the practice of school counselor supervision. The implications for practice, training, research, and professional standards for school counselors are discussed.
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The articles in this special section of the journal of Counselor Education and Supervision (Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006) provide valuable perspectives that can facilitate the supervision of school counselors. Luke and Bernard (2006) provide the School Counselor Supervision Model (SCSM) that is based on the merger of the Discrimination Model (Bernard, 1997) with the Delivery System of the ASCA National Model (American School Counselor Association, 2003). The authors of the SCSM recognize that school counselor supervision needs to be contextualized in the practice model for the profession and have designed their model accordingly. This model provides specific supervision strategies for each of the main tasks of school counselors as defined in the Delivery System, resulting in a 3 x 3 x 4 grid that outlines strategies for supervision for the focus of supervision, the supervisor's role, and each activity of the school counselor.
In the Goals, Roles, Functions, and Systems Model (GRFS), Wood and Rayle (2006) address the unique considerations of school counselor supervision by highlighting the systemic considerations that characterize the work of the school counselor. Within a school, the systems of parents, students, teachers, and administration, although ubiquitous, are often overlooked in the supervisory discussion yet can have a profound effect on the efficacy of counselor efforts. The use of this model for supervision can sensitize both practitioners and supervisors to systemic issues, thereby enhancing the potential for leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change, the four themes of the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2003).
In exploring the unique needs of nonteachers entering the school counseling profession, Peterson and Deuschle (2006) further enhance the potential for successful delivery of the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2003). Although research indicates that school counselors who come to the profession without a teaching background are as effective as those with a teaching background (Olson & Allen, 1993; Quarto, 1999), nonteachers' lack of classroom experience does demand significant contextual learning during supervision of their field experiences. The contextual learning during supervision involves requisite skills for school counselors (ASCA, 2003), as addressed in the SCSM proposed by Luke and Bernard (2006) and awareness of systems, as conceptualized in the GRFS of Wood and Rayle (2006). Peterson and Deuschle (2006) contend that when counselors without teaching experience are educated in the nuances of the school context, using the five components of their model, and are supervised according to the structure component of their model, the potential for success as a school counselor is enhanced.
All the articles in this special section highlight strategies that can enhance supervision for professional school counselors and school counselors-in-training, because each has been specifically designed to be sensitive to school counseling work realities. This expansion of supervision to include all the work roles and tasks of school counselors represents significant contributions to the field of school counseling. Because ASCA...
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