Between Academia and the Field: The Case of School Counselling Effectiveness of School Counselling Training and Its Impact on Professional Identity

Abstract

Previous studies confirmed that training for master’s programs for school counseling is deficient. The present study differentiates between three types of academic institutions that train school counselors in Israel: Universities, education colleges and academic colleges, in terms of how professional counselors evaluate the efficiency of academic studies to the school fieldwork and their impact on personal and group professional identity. A total of 158 school counselors, divided into groups of educational institutions, participated in this study. Of whom 5 men and 153 women, aged 27 to 63 years (M = 43.63; SD = 8.11), while the seniority in counseling profession ranged from 1 to 32 years (M = 9.65, SD = 7.60). After factor analysis of the ‘School Counselling Training Efficiency’ questionnaire, a significant difference between the training institutions was found only in the training efficiency, but not in professional identities. Universities-trained counselors reported less training efficiency than counselors trained at education and academic colleges. The average of academic training efficiency was also low in two typical colleges. Training efficiency fully mediated the relationship between training institution and both professional identities. The research findings raised pointed questions about the efficiency of training for school counselors in academia, in all educational institutions. It is important to develop evaluation of school counseling students in their training to support personal and group professional identity.