Transformative School Counseling: An Examination Of The Interaction Between Professional Identity And Leadership Skills

Abstract

School counselors have a responsibility to attend to the numerous social, psychological, and environmental factors in which students encounter on a daily basis. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) (2012) and the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) (2016) stated professional identify and leadership are encompassed into the roles and responsibilities of the school counselor. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the interaction between leadership skills and professional identity among school counselors in training, practicing school counselors, and counselor educators. An informed consent, a demographic survey, the Professional Identity Scale in Counseling (PISC), and the School Counselor Leadership Survey (SCLS) were administered to participants in the study. This study utilized purposive sampling technique. Participants were recruited via email from within four southeastern region school counseling associations and the Counselor Education and Supervision Network (CESNET). Instruments were administered using an online platform and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used as the statistical analysis test. Results of the study revealed there was no statistical difference between professional identity and leadership skills among school counselors in training, practicing school counselors, and counselor educators. In addition, no interaction effect was found between the two variables. Implications and possibilities for futures research are discussed. Keywords: school counselor, counselor educator, professional identity, leadership skills