School counsellors beliefs about family-school relationships

What is it about?

This is a study centred in school counsellors. Participants were 110 Spanish school counsellors working in different locations and schools from preschool to high school.We measured participants beliefs about family-school relationships and their self-efficacy to relate to families; along with their perception of their role in relation to families. Our theoretical background was Amatea's paradigms about family-school separation, remediation or collaboration. We applied this theory to study school counsellors beliefs and tried to identify if they attached to beliefs about family-school separation (family and school should remain distant and school has the power), remediation (family and school should relate but the school has the power as it has the knowledge) or collaboration (family and school relate on a collaborative basis as family and school share knowledge and responsibility). As for their perception of their role, we identified different roles: contextual, personal, role knowledge and expectations. Participants had high self-efficacy to relate to families, and mostly believed in collaboration. But, the less years of professional practice they had, the lower their self-efficacy to relate to families. The more participants believed in family-school collaboration and the less they believed in family-school separation the more self-efficacious they perceived themselves and viceversa. They saw themselves as mediators between the family and the school and thought that they had to keep up with the high expectations that the school community hold about them. They identified personal characteristics that were needed to work with families such as empathy and active listening.

Featured Image

Photo by sean Kong on Unsplash

Photo by sean Kong on Unsplash

Why is it important?

School counsellors do have to relate with families. But their beliefs about family-school relationships and their perception of their role in relation to families have been underaddressed. This study tried to contribute to our knowledge about school counsellors beliefs and roles in relation to families. A clearer definition of school-counsellors' roles and the decrease of administrative work may result in a better service to the shool community as they may instruct teachers in their relationships with families, ease these relationships and support teachers and families.

Perspectives