Handbook of School Counseling

Hardin L.K. Coleman, Christine Yeh, Hardin L.K. Coleman, Christine Yeh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781135283582
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Counseling in Career Development

The mission of this forty-eight chapter Handbook is to provide a comprehensive reference source that integrates counseling theory, research and practice into one volume. It is designed to meet the needs of entry-level practitioners from their initial placement in schools through their first three to five years of practice. It will also be of interest to experienced school counselors, counselor educators, school researchers, and counseling representatives within state and local governments.

1

Introduction to the Field of School Counseling

I

HISTORY OF SCHOOL COUNSELING

JOHN J. SCHMIDT EDD

East Carolina University

School counselors are members of an expanded profession of practitioners who work in a variety of settings, including mental-health centers, family clinics, military services, hospitals, businesses, schools, and colleges among others (Gladding, 2000; Nugent, 2000; Schmidt, 2008; Vacc & Loesch, 2000). Within this burgeoning field of professional counseling, school counseling is a specialty field that has its roots in the vocational guidance movement of the Industrial Revolution during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Gysbers & Henderson, 2000; Schmidt; Studer, 2005).

This first chapter of the Handbook of School Counseling provides an overview of the historical development of the school counseling profession, highlights the role that counselors have played in student development, and offers a brief synopsis of professional issues and trends that have had an impact on the practice of counseling in schools. By understanding historical influences and the emerging role of school counselors in American education over the past hundred years, a future school counselor or administrator can attain greater appreciation for the vital role that counselors will have in our 21st century schools.

In previous books and articles, Schmidt (2004, 2008) argued that, although school counselors serve students, parents, and teachers with seemingly dissimilar missions than their colleagues who practice in mental health, family clinics, or other arenas, all counselors are united professionally by criteria of preparation and standards of practice. These criteria and standards include a basic understanding and command of helping skills and techniques; a broad knowledge of psychological, sociological, and human development theories; an appropriate level of training in assessment, diagnosis, and intervention; and an appreciation of common goals and objectives that bring together counselors from a variety of specialty work settings as colleagues in the broader counseling profession. Before exploring the history of school counseling as a professional specialty, it is appropriate that we first take a brief glance at the counseling profession.

The Counseling Profession

The exact beginning of the counseling profession is unknown, but its roots may be found in a range of helping relationships that have spanned cultures and societies throughout the ages. In most instances, helping relationships that existed within early cultures and societies encouraged the development of young people and their acquisition of personal traits, social acceptance, and survival skills (Schmidt, 2008).

Numerous historical events, such as the U.S. Industrial Revolution, led to the emergence of professions to help people with social, personal, and vocational concerns. These professions include the fields of social work, psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling among others, and the theories of practice adopted and developed by the counseling profession have roots in the scholarly research and practical guidelines established during the 19th and 20th centuries.

As a result, the counseling profession relies on a broad knowledge of human development, psychology, sociology, and education. At the same time, it incorporates effective communication and leadership skills with the essential human qualities of caring, genuineness, regard, and respect for others. (Schmidt, 2008, p. 5)

The counseling profession evolved from traditions and practices to help people formally assess their needs, design interventions, and provide services to assist people in identifying issues, developing self-awareness, making life-altering decisions, solving problems, and establishing healthy personal and social relationships. As such, professional counselors in a variety of work settings provide a range of services to help clients maximize their development and human potential, examine ways to prevent barriers or obstacles to their development, and alter behaviors or life situations that cause problems. In summary, professional counselors form different types of helping relationships and provide other services to assist clients in preventing future difficulties, developing optimal human potential, and solving problem situations.

The counseling profession is primarily represented and promoted by the American Counseling Association (ACA) and its many divisions, including the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). These organizations have guided the development of the counseling profession, established standards of preparation, set criteria for certification and licensure, and developed ethical guidelines and standards of professional practice for counselors. At the same time, other helping professions also use counseling processes in their roles. Social workers, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses are among those who apply processes similar to those used by counselors in mental-health centers, family clinics, prisons, hospitals, and schools.

The growth of all of these helping professions in the United States is largely due to social and economic changes during the 18th and 19th centuries that raised concern about personal, social, career, and educational development among young people. In another book, Schmidt (2008) commented,

Because the U.S. prides itself on democratic principles, equal opportunity, and human service, it is understandable how so many related helping professions could emerge. In particular, it is especially clear why counselors have played such an important role in our schools, which themselves incorporate principles of democracy, equity, and opportunity for all students. (p. 6)

Within this framework of helping students develop their potential by accessing opportunities for personal, social, and education development, we introduce the school counseling profession and its attention to student development.

School Counseling and Student Development

School counselors work in elementary, middle, or high schools across the United States, and today the profession is expanding to many other countries throughout the globe. These counselors matriculate in counselor education programs that stress human development, helping skills, and professional practice in school environments. As noted earlier, this educational focus is what links school counselors and other counselors as colleagues in an expanded counseling profession.

Before the 20th century in American schools, classroom teachers provided guidance to students for their social, personal, vocational, and in many cases, spiritual development. Most historical summaries point to the U.S. Industrial Revolution as the significant event or period during which the school counseling profession emerged as the guidance movement at the beginning of the 20th century (Schmidt, 2008; Sciarra, 2004). Some unfortunate consequences of the industrial growth of this era were urban blight, challenges of city life, and creation of ethnic ghettos. At the same time, industrial growth contributed to a factory mentality that frequently neglected or overlooked individual rights, freedom, and human value. In response to these conditions, some educators and social activists proposed programs and services to help students with their development, in particular with vocational aspirations and choices brought about by the change from an agrarian to an industrial society (Schmidt, 2008).

Emphasis on vocational guidance was an important part of this early response to industrialization. As one example, George Merrill began experimental efforts in vocational guidance at the California School of Mechanical Arts in San Francisco in 1895 (Miller, 1968). He proposed vocational experiences for students to explore occupational trades taught at the school and, in addition, offered counseling and job placement services to complement vocational experiences. In addition to vocational exploration, the guidance movement of the early 20th century helped students with their moral development, social skills, and interpersonal relationships. Leaders of this early guidance movement included Jesse B. Davis in Michigan, Frank Goodwin in Ohio, Anna Reed in Washington, Frank Parsons in Massachusetts, and Eli Weaver in New York.

Although his work did not focus directly on students in schools, Frank Parsons, also known as the “Father of Guidance,” is considered to have started the guidance movement in the United States (D. Brown & Trusty, 2005; Gladding, 2000; Schmidt, 2008). In 1908, he established the Boston Vocational Bureau to assist young men in choosing their careers. Through his work with the bureau, Parsons focused on vocational development by helping young men make the career transition from high school to the world of work. Parsons (as cited in Schmidt) wrote a book, Choosing a Vocation, published after his death, in which he presented three essential factors for selecting a vocation: (a) clear self-understanding of one’s aptitudes, abilities, interests, resources, and limitations; (b) knowledge of the requirements, advantages, disadvantages, and compensation for different types of employment; and (c) an understanding of the relationship between these two groups of facts.

As previously noted, this early guidance movement spread to many other states and cities across the United States including New York City, Grand Rapids, Seattle, and Cincinnati. Within a few short years, city school systems across the country had developed guidance programs. As an example, in 1889, before Frank Parsons created the Vocation Bureau, Jesse B. Davis established a guidance program in the curriculum of the public schools of Michigan (Gladding, 2000; Schmidt, 2008; Wittmer, 2000). From 1898 to 1907, Davis was a class counselor at Central High School in Detroit, Michigan, and was responsible for educational and vocational counseling with 11th-grade boys and girls. Named as principal of a high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1907, he soon established a schoolwide guidance program by having English teachers integrate into their classes guidance lessons for helping students acquire positive traits, choose appropriate behaviors, and address their vocational interests (Schmidt). Davis’s work preceded other guidance programs established across the country. Anna Reed led the development of systematic vocational guidance in Seattle, Washington. Similarly, in 1908, Eli Weaver achieved national notoriety for his efforts at the Boys High School of Brooklyn to establish the first guidance services in New York City, and in 1911, Frank Goodwin organized a system-wide guidance program for the Cincinnati, Ohio, schools (Gibson & Mitchell, 1999; Miller, 1968; Schmidt). The focus of these guidance programs on student development formed the early years of what we know today as the school counseling profession. It is noteworthy that the school counseling profession throughout the years has continually addressed aspects of student development. The next several sections of this chapter chronicle that movement and emphasis.

Vocational Development

The early guidance movement of the 19th and 20th centuries gained strength from the founding of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) in 1913. One of the most significant activities of this organization was to publish the National Vocational Guidance Bulletin, which spread news and trends about the vocational guidance arena. Eventually, this publication would become the Career Development Quarterly, today published by the National Career Development Association (NCDA).

The early NVGA focused on vocational choice and career development, but its enduring legacy is the unification of counselors across a wide spectrum and the eventual identification of what today has become the counseling profession. During the next 3 decades and into the 1950s, many national and world events would give direction and momentum to the emerging counseling profession, particularly for counseling in schools. Related to this emphasis on vocational development was the country’s growing interest in measurement and assessment of human traits and aptitudes. This interest increased dramatically during World War I, when the military began using assessments to screen and classify recruits and draftees.

Assessment and Vocational Development

Intelligence testing, first developed in the beginning of the 20th century, sparked interest in measuring human potential and other traits, and using results to place people in vocational tracks. The U.S. army adapted the work of French psychologist, Alfred Binet, later expanded by Arthur Otis and Lewis Terman, to create assessment procedures. A group intelligence test, developed by Arthur Otis (Miller, 1968), led to the military’s Army Alpha Examination and the Army Beta Examination (Baker & Gerler, 2004). What followed was a proliferation of tests developed and marketed over the next decade, but many of these instruments were flawed due to inadequate design and inappropriate standardization processes (Schmidt, 2008):

Nevertheless, the military’s interest in using group measurement techniques was embraced by schools and the education profession when the war ended. The potential for applying testing and other measurement techniques to pupil assessment helped catapult the development and expansion of standardized testing in U.S. schools. (p. 9)

The testing movement contributed to the development of approaches to guidance and counseling that focused on measurement of students’ traits and characteristics in the process of selecting vocational goals and planning career directions. As one example, E. G. Williamson, a professor at the University of Minnesota, promoted the perspective of a directive or counselor-centered approach to school counseling. In 1939, Williamson wrote that a school counselor should state ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• School Counseling from a Multicultural and an Ecological Perspective: An Introduction
• 1. Introduction to the Field of School Counseling
• 2. Diversity and School Counseling
• 3. Student Development
• 4. School Counselor Competence
• 5. School-Based Interventions
• 6. Working with Socio-Emotional Challenges
• 7. Accountability and Professional Issues in School Counseling
• Author Index
• Subject Index