Leadership in the Counseling Profession: A Qualitative Study of CACREP Counselor Education Programs
Leadership is a growing field of study across many disciplines. The shrinking fiscal pie, increased competition via globalization, and rapid technological advances create unique social issues that challenge all current societal structures and systems and place unique demands on professions. The counseling profession is no exception. Although, the counseling profession is in its relative infancy, the profession is an important part of the burgeoning mental health field. The increased demand requires the profession to take leadership development seriously. This is reflected in the CACREP (2009) standards, which calls for the inclusion of leadership in doctoral level Counselor Education and Supervision curricula. However, recent research suggested that leadership is not a priority in most training programs. The purpose of this research was to understand how leadership is defined and implemented in CACREP accredited counselor education and supervision programs. This research used grounded theory methodology with qualitative interviews as the primary data source. Eleven program coordinators participated. The results indicate that participants define leadership as the ability to cast a vision and generate movement. They upheld the value of communication and listening skills. They overwhelmingly agreed that the personal qualities of a leader are more important than any particular skill set. Furthermore they consistently reported developing leaders informally using mentoring and experiential curricula. From the results emerged a theory that states, program coordinators of doctoral level counselor education and supervision programs believe students who enter their programs already have the raw material needed to be successful leaders and thus only need an environment for it to emerge and develop. Because the consensus suggests that good leadership hinges largely upon the personal qualities of the leader and because current leaders attribute their rise to leadership to mentors and relationships, these programs continue to focus on mentoring and modeling as the primary pedagogical techniques for developing leaders as opposed to seeking more formal pedagogical applications.
Counseling Education, counselor education programs, leadership, counseling
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