NCJ Number
211072
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 34 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2005 Pages: 311-320
Date Published
August 2005
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study attempts to describe and understand how school counseling students perceive the influences of their own adolescence on their present views on adolescence and counseling.
Abstract
Various studies have stressed the importance and relevance of personal life experiences for professional behavior. Life narratives become important sources for understanding, among others, the real potential they have to become and develop as teachers or the extent to which they feel a diminishment in their authority vis-à-vis their students. This study analyzed personal narratives of school counseling students to better understand how they perceive the influence of their own adolescence on their present views regarding adolescence and counseling. Due to the pivotal role school counselors’ play in the Israeli educational system, this study focused on students of school counseling. Israeli school counselors are considerably involved in school life and expected to perform diverse tasks. The study sample included 34 female respondents with an age range of 25 to 47 years. Data were gathered from an assignment given to students in an MA Educational Counseling program at a leading university in Israel. Respondents were asked to write a short essay answering the questions: How your own experiences in adolescence influenced and shaped your present perspectives on educational counseling for adolescents? Many of the issues raised in the essays seem to point at the perceived need of the participants to radically change the school culture. In their essays/narratives they seem to imply the need to reshape school according to a code of informality well in line with previous research. Through the reflection of students’ of their own adolescence, it is possible to gain significant insights into adolescence and counseling. References