School counselors and research revisited

Professional School Counseling, Feb, 2004 by Sheri Bauman

This article presents the results of a questionnaire on various aspects of research completed by 763 school counselors. Three subscales were derived using factor analysis: Confidence in Research Ability, Perceived Relevance of Research, and Perceived Value of Research. Results round differences on the subscales and several individual items by demographics, highest degree earned, level, and school size. The discussion speculates about the origins of these differences and considers the implications for the school counseling profession.

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Issues related to the quantity and quality of school counseling research and its proper role in the profession have been a perennial concern. In 1967, several articles were published in Elementary School Guidance and Counseling that emphasized the importance of scientific research to the profession (e.g., Greising, 1967; Hoyt, 1967). Several years later, Cramer, Herr, Morris, and Frantz (1970) devoted a book to this topic and used strong terms to express their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs at that time:

   Too much effort is spent by counselors in
   evading the issue of validated knowledge, or in
   scoffing at research because the counselor is
   too incompetent to use the results. Incompetent
   is a harsh word, but it is justifiable when
   the counselor's helpfulness to important persons--his
   clients--is reduced by ignorance of
   research methods and analysis (p. viii).

The scarcity of sound empirical research in the school counseling field was again lamented by Wilson (1985), reiterating a recurring theme: while the survival of the profession is dependent on gathering and presenting empirical evidence of the effectiveness of their services, school counselors were not engaged in this endeavor. Furthermore, this author noted that the little research that had been conducted was of poor quality, saying, "the field is saturated with studies that are insufficiently rigorous from the perspective of the scientist or irrelevant from the perspective of the practitioner" (p. 112). Loesch (1988) concurred with the view that there was dearth of empirical research on school counseling and inferred that research bas not been "valued, emphasized, or endorsed" (p. 170) as an important function for school counselors.

A strong position was taken by Allen (1992), who stated, "School counselors have not effectively utilized research" (p. 1). Lee and Workman (1992) also noted the lack of research supporting the effectiveness of school counseling, which they conjectured is due to the lack of value placed on research by school counseling professionals. They also noted that research is not sufficiently stressed in training programs for school counselors. A random survey of school counselors in one southeastern state found that while the majority (77%) of the counselors surveyed reported taking a research course as part of their training, only 46% rated their ability to conduct research as good or excellent, although 79% considered their ability to read and understand research articles as good or excellent. Most participants (84%) indicated that conducting research was of at least some value to their career. Qualitative data yielded two themes that helped to explain the resistance of school counselors to school counseling research: time constraints and a dislike for, or negative attitude towards, research.

A recent study (Bauman et al., 2002) found that only 25% of articles in the first four volumes of Professional School Counseling reported empirical research, and of those articles, 19% listed the first author as affiliated with a school district, and 28% listed at least one author with a school district affiliation. Further, findings suggested that school counselors in this sample not only were not conducting research, they were not reading it. Twenty-two per cent of their participants did not read or consult any school counseling journal, and of the 19% who consulted only one journal, 46% said the only publication they consulted regularly was the newsletter of their state school counseling organization, which is not likely to publish empirical research.

Issues of accountability remain prominent in the school counseling profession. Empirical research is essential if accountability is to be demonstrated. The purpose of the present study was to investigate counselors' interest in research in an attempt to gain a further understanding of the dynamics that affect the research productivity of the profession.

METHOD

Procedure

A questionnaire was mailed to 2000 randomly selected members of the American School Counselor Association. A cover letter indicated the purpose of the study, and a self-addressed pre-paid return envelope for respondents' use in returning the questionnaire to the researcher was provided. The letter also directed those school counselors who would prefer to complete the questionnaire online to a website where this could be done. The mailing included a coupon, which could be returned separately to enter respondents in a drawing for two $50 gift certificates from Amazon.com. Two weeks following the initial mailing, a follow-up postcard was mailed to the same 2000 participants, requesting that those who had not yet done so complete and return the questionnaire. Surveys were completed anonymously.