Building the Plane as You Fly It: Researching Guidelines for Counselling in the Unique Context of Primary and Intermediate Schools

Abstract

This research project explored counsellors' experiences in primary and intermediate schools in Aotearoa. The intention was to share examples of best practices from the discipline of primary and intermediate school counselling that would be used as a foundation for both a proposed framework of school counselling in these specific contexts and a guide for how to do this. The perspectives of six counsellors from different settings with experience in the field were gathered via semi-structured interviews, and the data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four key themes emerged: (1) Participants share a desire to change the narrative of primary and intermediate school counselling, which has developed sporadically without any guidelines; (2) Participants sit at the crossroads of educational and health philosophies, and they possess a certainty and depth of vision for what a school counsellor’s role entails; (3) Insider knowledge revealed participants are already embedding ‘best’ practice through whanaungatanga, and they have a much deeper understanding of relationality because of their embracing of te ao Māori (holistic worldview) approaches; (4) At the core of any school counselling model to be developed for this young profession must sit an experienced and multi-relational practitioner who can work in a multidisciplinary way. The findings revealed that policies for school counselling in primary and intermediate schools need to be developed in partnership with key stakeholders and support the contention that the keys to partnership lie within te Tiriti o Waitangi. To guide a working party to develop such policies, which should include school counsellors, teachers, policymakers, whānau (families) and rangatahi (young people), a draft guide for school counselling practice is provided and other implications are discussed.