School guidance focus: A Hong Kong study

Research in Education, May 1998 by Hui, Eadaoin K P

Schools around the world have been showing increased concern for the pastoral care and guidance of students. Guidance is a process of helping students in their self-understanding and self-development (Shertzer and Stone,1981), and of facilitating students in their educational, vocational, personal-social development (Young, 1994). Schools' organisation of guidance services may be remedial, preventive or developmental (Young, 1994; Lang, 1995). Remedial guidance is reactive, focusing on the 'cure' of problems, crisis handling, and support for students with educational, personal and social difficulties (Young,1994). Preventive guidance is more proactive, focusing on the anticipation of students' problems and providing them with coping strategies (Best, 199S; Hamblin, 1978; Young, 1994). Developmental guidance, on the other hand, is a form of affective education, enhancing the whole-person development of students (Best and Lang, 1994; Lang, 1995; Young, 1994). The distinction between remedial, preventive and developmental guidance is somewhat similar to Shaw's conceptual framework of guidance (1973), which distinguishes three levels in guidance approaches.

Background

As elsewhere, the initial stage of guidance services in Hong Kong focused more on remediation. But the introduction of compulsory education in the late 1970s brought teachers face to face with students with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Guidance came to be seen as a means of combating students' antisocial and delinquent behaviour and as a way of helping low-ability students in development and adjustment (Education Department, 1993). Government guidelines on school guidance work (Education Department, 1986) promoted a `case work' approach to guidance, whereby a school would establish a guidance team responsible for handling student cases referred by other teachers, offering individual guidance and handling crises. Such a reactive `case work' approach is somewhat similar to the `safety net' model of pastoral care (McGuiness, 1989) and has been criticised as producing a number of negative effects on students and teachers (Hui, 1994).

In its fourth report on education policy the Education Commission (1990) advocated a `whole school' approach to guidance, calling for a move from solely remedial to more proactive and preventive guidance. This approach has already had a significant impact on guidance practice in schools. Backed by government financial support, emphasis is now put on preventive and developmental guidance, with a focus on the early anticipation of students' problems and intervention and on equipping students with coping skills. This educational policy stresses both the role of all teachers in guidance and the role of school management in cultivating a positive response to students' problems. This `whole school' approach to guidance is in fact a combination of preventive and developmental guidance, with greater preventive than developmental overtones. Developmental guidance, as a form of affective education, is not yet officially endorsed as a guidance policy but is cited as a good model of guidance (Education Department, 1995). Hui and Lo (1997) describe one example of actual practice, where developmental guidance has been integrated into the whole school curriculum.

While guidance practice in Hong Kong schools has thus been undergoing considerable change over the last ten years, relatively little research has been conducted into the guidance approach adopted by schools. The study of a school's guidance focus should provide the school management with significant information on the organisation of guidance services.

In the absence of previous research into students' and teachers' perceptions of guidance Hui (1997) found it necessary to establish ways of investigating and defining the school guidance focus as a possible school factor. This was done in a preliminary study, the findings of which are presented here with a view to facilitating further investigation into the focus of school guidance as a school factor.

The study

In order to identify a school's guidance focus, it proved necessary to develop indicators to assess the guidance focus. As no indicators were yet available, and in the absence of a research instrument, a two-stage approach was employed in the study. Stage One aimed at identifying the constructs of guidance services. It was followed by Stage Two, a survey of guidance work in secondary schools.

Stage One: identifying the constructs of guidance services

Method

The first step was the identification of some of the constructs of school guidance services, using Kelly's Repertory Grid technique (Fransella and Bannister, 1977), which has been used in studies of teachers' beliefs and practices (Fang, 1996). Nine educational psychologists and educational counsellors, familiar with the delivery of guidance services, were interviewed individually by the researcher. The following list presents the guidance activities isolated as the elements in the grid.