Foster community in counsellor education through student organizations, common space, collegial feedback, and rewards for mutual support¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The Community component holds that developing counsellor skills within a supportive community can normalize and enhance the integration of new behaviours, attitudes, and perspectives. The article enumerates facilitation practices: active promotion of graduate student organizations, an informal common study and socialize area, informal faculty-student interaction on professional issues, close attention to feedback inside the classroom or clinic, increasing rewards for students who encourage and challenge one another while decreasing rewards for competitiveness, and mutual student/faculty advocacy against sexism, racism, and homophobia.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Program structures such as shared informal space, active student organizations, and feedback practices that reward encouragement rather than competitiveness.

Constraints¶

• The article notes clients may belong to communities that undermine their resources and abilities, so counsellors must also help clients access or foster new sources of community.

Target Learners¶

• graduate counselling students
• counsellor educators

Target Learning Goals¶

• professional identity integration
• mutual support and advocacy
• integration of the social activist role into professional identity

Related Strategies¶

• Learning Communities
• Common Ground Group Assignments
• Peer Coaching
• Encourage unstructured verbal communication between cooperating and student teachers during student teaching
• Use cooperative group work especially in areas requiring mutual trust, communication, and practice, and direct higher education students to cooperation often
• Provide extensive collegial support and professional development for technology integration to avoid maintaining the digital divide

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Ellen Hawley McWhirter. (1998). An Empowerment Model of Counsellor Education. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 32(1). https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/