Toward a Theory of Action: Opportunities Embedded in Counseling Theory for School Counselors to Improve Their Perceptions of and Approaches toward Their Relationship with Their School Principals

<p>This study employed perceptions of school counselors relative to their relationships with their principals in order to investigate a theory of action that employs the skills and strategies embedded in counseling theory to identify courses of action that counselors can use to improve the principal-counselor relationship. School counselors attending national and state counselor conferences (N=31) responded to a prompt asking for the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their principal-counselor relationship, and the barriers they perceived to improving the relationship. Responses were analyzed using a close reading process that applied a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) framework to the responses and identified emergent themes across the 245 response statements. The analyses revealed that the participating counselors attributed the responsibility for the strengths and weakness of their principal-counselor relationship to their principals rather than to themselves. In nearly half of the responses (47%) counselors attributed ownership of issues to principals while only 8.9% of the statements were attributed to counselor ownership. To gauge the utility of the theory of action the study also applied counseling theory to the responses from four counselor participants to highlight courses of action with a high potential for improving the principal counselor relationship. The study suggests that the application of counseling theory and the skills and strategies embedded in the theories may hold promise for helping counselors take ownership of their relationships with their principals through increased self-efficacy for relationship building and improvement.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

EdD

Level thesis:degree_level

Worldwide Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Professional Doctorate in Educational Leadership (ProDEL)

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• McHugh, Stephanie A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Connie Moss
• Rick McCown
• John Wilkinson

• Collaboration
• Culture and Climate
• Perceptions
• Principals
• School Counselors
• Theory/theories

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/139

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-1138