Supervise me : strengthening school counselor professional identity through peer supervision

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Ashley Devon Smith (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Kelly Wester

Abstract: The concept of professional identity is deeply engrained into the beings of counselors-in-training, regardless of their specified track. Having a solid understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and the duties that bind us to our profession are tantamount to our actual skills practice and case conceptualization. Counselors-in-training learn the importance of positioning themselves with those in the profession, seeking supervision, and consultation ad nauseum during their graduate program and in practice. Although, clinical supervision is a crucial part of the training to-be-professionals in the counseling field, when professional school counselors enter the education system, they primarily experience on-the-job training under the direction of administrative supervisors (e.g., school administrators). In other words, when entering the work-force school counselors are tasked with addressing the academic, career, and social-emotional developmental concerns of all students, while also considering multiple stakeholders (i.e., faculty, parents, community members, district leadership). And yet, while they tackle these roles, they attempt to stay true to their counselor identity – all without clinical supervision. Early on, these “new professional school counselors learn they are personally responsible for the development of their professional identity" (Gibson, Dooley, Kelchner, Moss, & Vacchio, 2012, p. 19), and their identity fades over time. Realigning oneself with clinical supervision provided by a peer can empower the school counselor’s professional identity as a clinician. In essence, the lack of school counselor engagement with clinical supervision with each additional year in the system is a contributor to burn-out and diminished professional identity. The purpose of this study was to explore in more depth professional school counselors’ experiences of receiving clinical supervision through a peer supervision lens grounded by Luke and Bernard’s (2006) School Counseling Supervision Model. Specifically, the impact peer supervision plays in strengthening the school counselor’s professional identity and highlighting the school counselor’s experiences of the peer supervision intervention was explored. The researcher utilized a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design spanning two phases, the first utilizing an AB single case research design in which participants experienced a 4-week peer supervision intervention, and a qualitative semi-structured interview analyzed through thematic analysis to explore findings and gain depth of understanding of the results from the quantitative phase in order to answer the research questions. The following research questions were addressed in this study: (1) Is a 4-week peer supervision intervention effective at increasing school counselor professional identity? (2) Is a 4-week peer supervision intervention effective at increasing school counselor self-efficacy in the area of collaboration? and (3) How do school counselors describe their experiences with the school counselor peer supervision intervention? How have those experiences impacted their professional identity? Through the semi-structured interviews, the perspectives of professional school counselor’s experiences with peer supervision and its influence on their professional identity and self-efficacy were explored and three themes emerged from data analysis across all six interviews (1) peer connection, (2) professional identity, and (3) self-efficacy. Each of the three themes included subordinate themes that further described the ways in which peer supervision impacted the professional identity, and self-efficacy of professional school counselors. Implications for school counselors, and counselor educators, limitations, and future research are discussed based on the results.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2021
Keywords
Peer supervision, Professional identity, School counselors, Self-efficacy, Supervision
Subjects
Educational counseling $x Evaluation
Counselors $x Supervision of
Self-efficacy
Peer review

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