Abstract
School counselors play a significant role in the counselling profession. In particular, they screen for and address problems on a multi-systemic level (at home, in the community, and at school) to facilitate and optimise the personal and academic well-being of learners. In a special needs setting, their role is even more pertinent as they assist learners with a wide range of learning difficulties or disabilities to reach their academic potential while collaborating with teachers, parents, schools and communities to accommodate these difficulties. Therefore, school counselors contribute to maintaining the policy of inclusive education in South Africa. The training of student school counselors is thus a necessary area of research given the important role school counselors play in facilitating the growth of South Africa’s youth.
The main objective of this research study was to investigate and describe the lived experiences of student school counselors during their practicum training in special needs schools. From this study, the researcher intended to identify areas of intervention for training institutions to assist the learning and development of future student school counselors in a special needs context.
A qualitative, interpretative approach was used to frame this study as this approach considers the individual experiences of the participants in their specific contexts. A phenomenological design type was used. Four participants comprised the research sample, all of whom were registered with a tertiary institution recently and completed their practicum school counselor training in a special needs school. One individual in-depth semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant after consent was obtained and these were recorded and transcribed for analysis purposes. The researcher analysed the data (transcribed interviews) using content analysis procedures to capture the essence of each experience. Core themes and sub-themes emerged from this analysis which were categorised accordingly.
Overall, the findings presented suggest that student school counselors had a number of different experiences (intrapersonal, interpersonal and situational) during their practicum training in special needs schools. The category ‘Intrapersonal Experiences’ was themed according to the negative (not knowing, first-time experiences, lack of confidence, and novice status) and positive (personal growth and helping) experiences counselors commonly described. From the category ‘Interpersonal Experiences’ the following themes emerged: on-site professionals; supervision; teacher engagement; and peer support...
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)