Role of the educational counselor as an adviser: functions and strategies to support

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the advisory function of school counselors and their task of supporting teacher counseling. In other words, it looks into the characteristics of the role they carry out in their daily routine together with teachers, in order to identify the specific functions and activities, as well as the models and advising strategies used.  For this purpose, a qualitative investigation is developed, choosing case study among other possible designs, since it allows an approximation to the real context of the educational centers, in which school counselors play an important role. Three cases have been analyzed, each one with its own profile and distinctive features, by adopting criterion such as academic education, features of the center, seniority and model of work. By using semi-structured interviews (individual ones for counselors and group ones for the teaching staff), a content analysis is carried out. The results show that these professionals increasingly assume more counseling functions, although complementary to other functions of a more deep-rooted nature, such as psycho-pedagogical assessment. Other results reflect the existing heterogeneity of demands and performances in the studied cases and that the styles or intervention models are diverse. The conclusions affect the identity of the role of school counselors and, to a large extent, the contextual features determine the style or model of work, which may be interventionist, facilitator or collaborative.