Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-90) and index.

"A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Title from PDF of title page (Georgia Southern University, viewed on May 6, 2010). Leon Spencer, major professor; Sharon Brooks, Barbara Mallory, committee members. Electronic version approved: December 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p.199-215).

Despite efforts to reduce the occurrence of physical aggression in traditional school environments, some students persist in engaging in physical aggression and are assigned to alternative education programs as an alternative to expulsion. However, relatively little is known about the types of services that school counselors provide to help these students. This case study investigated the services that school counselors provide to the young children attending disciplinary alternative education programs in a public-school district in central Florida. The participants consist of two school counselors who provided services to the students assigned to the alternative disciplinary programs and two district-level administrators of the alternative programs. The school counselors provided responsive services to meet the immediate needs of the students in the alternative programs. These included individual counseling, multi-tiered systems of support and crisis intervention. The counselors also provided interventions to teach students appropriate social skills, decision-making skills, responsibility, and self-regulation. In addition, the school counselors provided indirect services to students by collaborating with parents and stakeholders which include teachers, social workers, administrators, and community agencies. This case study includes multiple sources of data: (a) face-to-face semi-structured interviews, (b) observations, (c), artifacts, (d) documents, (e) field notes, and (e) member checks. Nine descriptive categories emerged from the data analysis: (a) Reasons assigned, (b) Process of placement, (c) Counselors’ experience, (d) Services and interventions, (e) Assessments, (f) Theoretical orientation, (g) Barriers to providing services, (h) Counselors’ perceptions regarding outcomes, and (i) Counselors' recommendations for future practice. Surprisingly, the case study’s findings reveal that the school counselors believed that the services they provide do not meet the students’ needs. This case study contributes to the body of knowledge about this under-researched population of counselors and under-served population of students by examining the unique experience of school counselors providing services to students who engage in physical aggression. Implications for further research, policy, and practice are presented.

Hernandez (2013) claimed that the economic landscape in the United States of American (U.S.) has changed over the last decade, increasing the number of children of low social class standing. Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ; 2011) noted that an achievement gap exists between children of low social class standing and their middle and upper social class standing peers. School counselors and school counselor-in-training (SCITs) serve as advocates to address systemic barriers impeding academic, career, and personal/social success of all students (American School Counselor Association; ASCA, 2012; CSJ, 2011; Erford, 2011). Therefore, the need to understand school counselors’ and SCITs’ multicultural self-efficacy is imperative (Holcomb-McCoy, Harris, Hines, & Johnston, 2008). ASCA and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2016; 2009) provide standards and guidelines for training school counselors to address issues of social class and classism. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between SCITs multicultural competency training and their self-efficacy in social class and classism training regardless of race/ethnicity and gender. This quantitative study consisted of 169 SCITs from CACREP and non-CACREP school counselor programs across the five Association of Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) regions. The survey used in this study contained modified versions of the Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey-Revised (School Counselor Version) (MCCTS-R; Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004); the School Counselor Self-Efficacy Scale (SCSE; Bodenhorn & Skaggs, 2005); the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 1984); and a social class and classism training questionnaire and demographic questionnaire developed for the purposes of this study. Results from this study indicated program accreditation status (i.e., CACREP and non-CACREP) does not appear to influence multicultural competence or self-efficacy, but non-CACREP status did seem to increase perceived social class and classism training competence. In addition, results suggested low social class standing appeared to negatively influence perceived multicultural competency, self-efficacy, and social class and classism training more so than middle or upper social class groups. The number of multicultural competency courses and training level were consistent significant predictors in perceived multicultural competency, self-efficacy, and social class and classism training. However, region did not appear to influence perceived multicultural competency, self-efficacy, or social class and classism training. Finally, this study found a moderate, positive relationship between perceived multicultural competency and self-efficacy regarding social class and classism training. Implications from this study supported previous research (i.e., Constantine, 2001b; Constantine & Yeh, 2001; Holcomb-McCoy, 2005, 2001; Holcomb-McCoy, Gonzalez, & Johnston, 2009; Holcomb-McCoy & Myers, 1999; Larson, Suzuki, Gillespie, Potenza, Bechtel, & Toulouse, 1992) that the number of multicultural competency training courses, training level, and counseling experiences increased perceived multicultural competence and self-efficacy in social class and classism training. Therefore, SCITs should experience social class issues early and often in training through role-plays and modeling to improve the multicultural self-efficacy in social class and classism training (Cartwright, Daniels, & Zhang, 2008; Owen, Bodenhorn, & Bryant, 2010).

Secondary exposure to trauma has been found to be related to increased burnout and secondary traumatic stress among professionals who work with clients who have experienced trauma (Bride, 2007; Brady, 2008; Peltzer, Matseke, & Louw, 2014; Shoji et al., 2015). Interpersonal factors such as self-efficacy and empathy may support those who experience secondary exposure to trauma by reducing burnout and secondary traumatic stress, and increasing compassion satisfaction (Shakespeare-Finch, Rees, & Armstrong, 2015; Wagaman, Geiger, Shockley, & Segal, 2015). School counselors have not been included in previous studies related to secondary exposure to trauma; however, their professional role in providing support to students in schools places them in direct contact with children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events. This study investigated the relationships among secondary exposure to trauma, self-efficacy, empathy, and professional quality of life (i.e. burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction) for school counselors. A correlation analysis indicated that self-efficacy and empathy were both significantly correlated with burnout and compassion satisfaction. Self-efficacy and secondary exposure to trauma were both significantly correlated with secondary traumatic stress. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that self-efficacy and empathy were predictors of burnout and compassion satisfaction and self-efficacy and secondary exposure to trauma were predictors of secondary traumatic stress. Implications and recommendations for professional school counselors and school counselor educators are provided.

Barn blir varse tidigt att de ska vara del i ett sammanhang och passa in i mallen i skolmiljön. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur skolkuratorer arbetar med utanförskap bland barn i låg- och mellanstadieåldern samt få inblick i vilka utmaningar som förekommer i arbetet. Resultatet från vår intervjustudie visar att hur skolkuratorer ser på utanförskap i skolan, varierar stort. Inte bara definitionen av, utan också orsakerna till utanförskap är väldigt olika från barn till barn. I resultatet går det att se vissa mönster, som att de som är särskilt känsliga, har vuxit upp i en ”trasig” familj eller har beteendediagnoser i större utsträckning blir utanför i skolan. Däremot är det ingenting som säger att alla sådana barn automatiskt blir utsatta för att de passar in i det mönstret. Arbetet mot utanförskap bedömer kuratorerna som aktuellt och viktigt, insatser genomförs för att ge barnen en tryggare skolgång, men hur skolorna och kuratorerna genomför arbetet skiljer sig åt. / Children become aware early on that they should be part of a context, and fit into the template in the school environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate how school counselors work with exclusion among children of primary school age, as well as gain insight into the challenges that occur at work. The results of our interview show that the school counselors’ experience of exclusion in school varies widely. Not only the definition but also the causes of exclusion are very different from child to child. It is possible to see certain patterns, for example that those who are particularly sensitive, have grown up in a “broken” family or have behavioral disorders are more likely to be left out in school. However, this doesn’t mean that all such children automatically become vulnerable because they fit into the pattern. The school counselors assess efforts to counteract exclusion as valid and important, and actions are implemented to give the children a safer school, but the schools’ and school counselors’ way of conducting the work differs.

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of short-term child-centered play therapy training with school counselor and teachers in Israel. A short-term child-centered play therapy course is an intervention that focuses on changing trainees attitudes and beliefs towards children while teaching them child-centered play therapy theory and skills. The experimental group, consisting of 18 volunteer school counselors and teachers in Israel received a total of 15 hours of child-centered play therapy didactic training with a variety of learning experiences. The control group consisted of 15 volunteer school counselors and teachers in Israel. The control group did not receive any training. All participants completed the Play Therapy Attitude-Knowledge-Skill Survey (PTAKSS) before and after the training as a means of measuring change in attitude, knowledge and skill. A second purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of short-term child-centered play therapy training with a comparison group semester long child-centered play therapy training course at the University of North Texas. An analysis of covariance revealed statistically significant positive increase in Knowledge subscale as compared to the control group. However the differences between the experimental and the control group were not significant on the participant's total score on the PTAKSS, their attitudes and beliefs towards children or their skill level. A t-test revealed no significant difference between the experimental and comparison groups on the skill subscale of the PTKASS. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between the experimental and the comparison groups on the Total score, Attitude and Knowledge subscales of the PTAKSS. This study supports the use of short-term play therapy training as an effective training model for increasing the trainee's knowledge of child-centered play therapy. It does not support the use of short-term play therapy training as an effective training model for increasing the trainee's attitudes towards children or increasing their confidence in applying play therapy skills.

Co llege enrollment rates in the U.S. have increased over the last 40 years, yet students from undcrservcd communities remain underrepresented. Families in these communities aspire for their children to go to college, but often lack access to the necessary social capital to transform aspirations for their children into action. Federal 6 initiatives focused on increasing educational attainment for students in underserved comn1tmities emphasize the critically important role of the school counselor. The school counselor is ideally positioned to reduce barriers to family engagement in the college access process. Yet, there is a lack of focused support and professional development resources for school counselors. To gain more in sight into how professional development might improve counselors' abilities to support family engagement in college access, I employed an action-oriented qualitative case study to critically consider how urban school counselors took action to address local educational inequities and engage families as partners in the postsecondary process.

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