School principals' and counselors' perspectives of the ideal profile, facilitators, and obstacles of the professional school counselor : a case study of the public and private schools in Lebanon

النوع : Mémoire

Professional school counselors should advocate and take action themselves regarding their role’s ambiguity and inconsistency and not play the passive witness role (Lambie and Williamson, 2004). This study adopted a qualitative research design to understand the contextual meaning behind working as a school counselor in Lebanon from the perspectives of the counselors and their school principals. The purpose of the study is three folded: First it aimed at exploring the responsibilities of Lebanese public and private school counselors. Second, it aims at understanding the characteristics of a successful professional school counselor. Third, the study explores the challenges that professional school counselors encounter, which hinder their performance, and the supporting conditions that help them succeed. Data were collected from the analysis of school documents, individual semistructured interviews with public and private school principals and counselors in the Greater Beirut’s district, and a focus group interview with the counselors. Data analysis adopted the constant comparative, interpretational and reflective analysis whereby constructs, themes, and patterns relating to the responsibilities, characteristics, and conditions that shape the counseling role were identified. The data, collected from both perspectives were examined against the available conceptual literature creating thereof a profile of the ideal school counselor that is rooted in those perspectives. The results revealed a relative agreement on the responsibilities and ideal characteristics of a school counselor across schools and participants. Nevertheless, the counselors expressed more concern regarding their role misconceptions and ambiguity, the devaluing of their role, the stigma associated to counseling in the Lebanese context. It is believed that active support from the administration in leaving space for the counselor’s lead and setting the organizational arrangements is essential at this developing stage of the counseling field. Finally, a number of implications for policy, practice, and research were proposed.