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Differences in the Actual and Ideal Roles of Secondary School Counselors in Region X Schools as Perceived by Counselors, Principals, and Counselor Educators

There has been extensive criticism of schools for allowing counselors to be used for duties that lie beyond defined counselor roles. The purpose of this study was to determine if counselors are still being misused today as they have allegedly been in the past. The problem was divided into nine questions in order to ascertain differences in actual and ideal roles of secondary school counselors as perceived by counselors, principals and counselor educators. The study was limited to secondary schools in the Region X Education Service Center in Texas. The study included brief definitions of roles and an extensive review of literature. Twenty-three schools from the Region X Education Service Center in Texas were chosen using a random, stratified selection process. A counselor and the principal from each of these schools were interviewed using a Q sort. Three counselor educators were randomly selected to participate from each of three universities in the area. The Q-sort technique was used in order to determine differences in actual and ideal perceptions of the counselor's role as held by counselors, principals, and counselor educators. Cohen's equation for Q sorts was used to establish correlations between the different perceptions. A t distribution for correlation was used to determine significance. There was a significant positive correlation for these groups concerning their perceptions of secondary school counselors' roles:
1. Counselors' actual and counselors' ideal.
2. Principals' actual and principals' ideal.
3. Counselor educators' actual and counselors* ideal.
4. Counselors' and principals' actual.
5. Principals' and counselor educators' actual.
6. Counselors' and counselor educators' actual.
7. Counselors' and principals' ideal.
8. Counselors' and counselor educators' ideal.
9. Principals' and counselor educators' ideal.
The Q-sort questions were also analyzed to determine which roles were ranked by these three groups to be most and least important.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc330590
Date05 1900
CreatorsDethlefsen, Anna K. (Anna Katheryn)
ContributorsSimms, Richard Lewis, Hipple, John L., Overton, Thomas D., Williamson, John A.
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formativ, 104 leaves, Text
CoverageUnited States - Texas
RightsPublic, Dethlefsen, Anna K. (Anna Katheryn), Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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