One of the unsung but most potentially rewarding aspects of school counseling is effective coordination of support services to help students grow and change. The support we coordinate for any given student can easily include dozens of people as we liaise with mental health professionals, physicians, subject teachers, learning support teachers, child advocacy workers, police, parole officers, language support teachers, school administrators, health educators, coaches, friends, family members, among others. Ironically, for a position where one of the most important attributes centers on the maintenance of the therapeutic alliance with one person, we also need to be equally adept at facilitating maximum benefit for a sizable team of service providers.
As will be explored here, effective implementation of supportive relationships depends on the counselor’s ability to communicate effectively with all involved but more comprehensively and more accurately an exceptionally high level of institutional knowledge. Institutional knowledge arguably makes the difference between seamless support and a disjointed support attempt.
From the vantage-point of the “knowledge age” of the 21st century, the ideas of information sharing and collaboration seem somehow progressive, yet the construct of organizational intelligence, or the ability to act effectively within a complex situation, has roots back to the mid-1960’s (Wilensky, 1967).
Within the context of school counseling, Wilensky’s “ability to act effectively” is clarified by Scott’s (2001, 2008) “Three Pillars of Institutions” that include regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive aspects that further expand understanding with regard to the domains within which school counselors operate.
As the illustration below depicts:
Before examining these categories in the context of the institutional intelligence of school counseling. The separation of these elements into regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars is a useful but arbitrary distinction. In practice, there are no clear demarcations as all categories and elements listed below are mutually influential and result in complex unstable combinations.
A complete exploration of the three pillars of institutions as they influence support efforts within schools is beyond the scope of this article. In the above diagram, I have begun to fill out the various aspects of collaboration that I encounter as a school counselor according to the three pillars. While each sub-component could be expanded and clarified, I have started the above with the aim of raising awareness and spawning further inquiry.
Perhaps as a result of this initial effort, the demands of the complex systems school counselors manage to effectively coordinate services has become more apparent. As a tool for fostering deeper understanding about collaboration in school counseling, the three pillars of institutions make the various elements of this role more explicit. A second possible outcome may be that as intervention strategies stall within collaborative efforts a look to the three pillars and the specific examples I have written above may help identify which aspects of collaboration need further attention to once again create momentum to assist our clients. – AC
Adam Clark is a school counselor at Yokohama International School in Yokohama, Japan. Find out more at http://whoisadamclark.com/who-is
Scott, W. R. (2001) Institutions and organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Scott, W. R. (2008) Institutions and organizations: Ideas and interests, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Wilensky, H. (1967). Organizational intelligence: knowledge and policy in government and industry. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Posted On: Sunday, February 13th, 2011
Posted In: Counseling
Subscribe: RSS 2.0
Comments: No Responses
Recent Comments