“Sometimes I Really Need the School Counselling Service”: Some Aspects of School Counsellor–Teacher Collaboration

Barbara Šteh, Jasna Mažgon, Petra Gregorcic Mrvar

Abstract


The school counselling service in Slovenia is part of every school. Collaboration among all participants in the school community is particularly important for the quality of the work. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the collaboration between school counsellors and teachers in Slovenian primary and secondary schools. The frequency with which teachers take the initiative to cooperate with school counsellors in different areas of work will be presented, as well as the specific issues of classwork and teaching in which they believe they would most benefit from cooperation with school counsellors. A quantitative research design was used, and questionnaires were designed for school counsellors and teachers. These were sent to all school counsellors, of whom 315 (32.6%) responded. The questionnaires for teachers were sent to randomly selected schools; 501 teachers responded. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The results show that - according to both teachers and counsellors - teachers most often take the initiative to support individual students who need help. On the other hand, according to teachers' open-ended responses and the perception of the counsellors themselves, teachers also need support and collaboration in their work with the classroom community. However, if the focus of school counselling is solely on remedial and service tasks, it is difficult to speak of quality collaboration. This paper reveals the importance of strengthening mutual collaboration in co-creating supportive and inclusive learning environments and classroom communities. In the future, it would be useful to examine the obstacles to such collaboration.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.22.2.12


Keywords


collaboration; counselling services; school counsellors; teachers; teachers’ needs

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