Abstract:

Although progress has been gradual, there continues to be a movement within the school counseling profession to develop and maintain comprehensive, developmental school counseling and guidance programs and standards that address the academic, psychosocial, and career development needs of the students they serve. Discrepancies between best practices and actual implementation of the school counselor's role and function have been found to mediate the development of professional school counselor identity and have significant impacts on school counselor effectiveness related to desired student outcomes.

The purpose of this dissertation was to: (a) to understand how secondary school counselors perceived themselves and the effectiveness of their role and function; (b) explore how school counselors navigated the systemic structure of multiple influences that shape the demands and expectations of their role and function; and, (c) create an emerging model grounded in the data that explained how those demands and expectations impacted school counselors' perceptions of their effectiveness on desired student outcomes. Grounded theory, human ecology, and organizational theory were utilized to organize, analyze, triangulate, and interpret the findings of both the qualitative and quantitative data for this study. A model emerged of the school counselor-in-context that was grounded in the data.

Findings suggested that school counselors function as cultural nets that influence and are influenced by the nested environments that make up their educational ecosystem. This bi-directional influence results in consequences that directly and indirectly impact the role and function of school counselors and their perceived effectiveness regarding student outcomes. Adopting a balance between school-as-organizations and school-as-nested community organizational structures and implementing district-wide coordination for school counseling programs and services were suggested to enhance school counselor effectiveness on positive student outcomes. Implications for school counselors and school administrators included: (a) increased communication and partnerships between and among school counselors and school administrators; (b) more consistent advocacy and leadership for school counselors; (c) more appropriate use of school counselor role and function; and, (d) increased likelihood of meeting the needs of all students. Future research directions focused on ways to comprehensively examine perceptions, conceptualizations, and implementation of the school counselor role and function and their impact on desired student outcomes.