Critical consciousness of school counselors in Turkey

Year 2021, Volume: 7 Issue: 3, 253 - 260, 31.07.2021

Dilara Özel

https://doi.org/10.24289/ijsser.947570

Abstract

Critical consciousness defines as the process of continuously reflecting upon and questioning how biases, assumptions, and cultural worldviews affect the ways of perceiving the difference and power dynamics between individuals (Pitner & Sakamoto, 2005, p.4). Counselors should provide objective counseling practices to clients, students, and families to have an ethical stand. ASCA (2016) stated that school counselors should examine their own biases and prejudices, and if they have their perceptions interfering with the counseling process, they should refer the clients. Thus, school counselors should develop critical consciousness to reflect upon these issues. Furthermore, they should understand the privilege and power dynamics inside society to evaluate their students and clients by considering the socio-political context to help them effectively. This study aims to understand how school counselors in Turkey use critical consciousness in their professional practices. In this study, 12 school counselors from different regions in Turkey are conducted semi-structured interviews about the issues and the needs they encounter inside the school in connection with the aim of the study. There are four main themes due to the interviews with school counselors titled as awareness, context, respect, praxis, empowerment, and transformation.

Keywords

critical consciousness, qualitative research, school counseling, content analysis

References

• American School Counsellor Association (2016). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Alexandria, VA: Author.
• Anderson, J. & Carter, R. (2003). Diversity perspectives for social work practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
• Baldwin, J. (2013). The fire next time. New York: Vintage.
• Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. (2007). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. USA: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). ‘Six theories of child development: Revised formulations and current issues’ in R. Vasta (eds.) Ecological systems theory. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley; 187- 249.
• Campbell, C., MacPhail, C. (2002) Peer education, gender, and the development of critical consciousness: Participatory HIV prevention by South African youth. Social Science and Medicine, 55, 331-345.
• Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. London: Sage Publications.
• Dalrymple, J. Burke, B. (1995). Anti- oppressive practice: social care and the law. Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Diller, J. (2004). Cultural diversity: A primer for the human services. Australia: Brooks/ Cole.
• Dominelli, L. (1997). Sociology for social work: Theory and practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Seabury.
• Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of oppressed, 2nd edition. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company
• Gay, G., Kirkland, K. (2003) Developing critical cultural consciousness and self-reflection in preservice teacher education. Theory into Practice, 42, 181-187.
• Goodman, R. D., West- Olatunji, C. A. (2008). Transgenerational trauma and resilience: Improving mental health counseling for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Mental Health Counselling, 30, 121- 136.
• Harden, J. (1996). Enlightenment, empowerment, and emancipation: The case for critical pedagogy in nurse education. Nurse Education Today, 16, 32-38.
• Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
• Latting, J. (1990). Identifying the ‘isms’: Enabling social work students to confront their biases. Journal of Social Work Education. 26(1).
• Leonard, P. (1997). Postmodern welfare: reconstructing and emancipatory project. London: Sage.
• Lewis, E. (1993). ‘Continuing the legacy: On the importance of praxis in the education of social work students and teachers’, in Schoem, D., Frankel, L., Zuniga, X. and Lewis, E. (eds.).Multicultural Teaching in the University. Westport: CT.
• Mayring, P. (2014). Qualitative Content Analysis: Theoretical Foundations, Basic Procedures and Software Solution.
• Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Publishers.
• Morgan, D.L. (1997). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984287.
• Mullaly, B. (2002). Challenging oppression: A critical social work approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Reed, B., Newman, P., Suarez, Z. & Lewis, E. (1997). ‘Interpersonal practices beyond diversity and toward social justice: The importance of critical consciousness’ in Garvin, C. & Seabury, B. (eds.), Interpersonal practice in social work: Promoting competence and social justice, 2nd edition. Needham Heights: MA, Allyn and Bacon, pp.44-78
• Sakamoto, I., & Pitner, R. (2005). Use of critical consciousness in anti- oppressive social work practice: Disentangling power dynamics at personal and structural levels. British Journal of Social Work,35, 435-452.
• Smith, L. (2017). Critical consciousness and School- based family counselling: "Seeing" the pathogen in order to dismantle the pump of oppression. International Journal for School- Based Family Counselling.
• Taylor, C. & White, S. (2000). Practicing reflexivity in health and welfare: Making knowledge. Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Yıldırım, A. Şimşek, H. (2016). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri. Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
• University of Michigan Program on Intergroup Relations, Conflict and Community. (2003). Retrieved from http://www.umich.edu/igrc/
• Watts, R. J., Diemer, M. A., & Voight, A. M. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. In Flanagan, C. A. & Christens, B. D. (eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 43-57.
• Zhang, Y. & Wildemuth, B. M. (2009). ‘Qualitative Analysis of Content’ in: Wildemuth, B. M. (ed.) Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science. Westport, CT:Libraries Unlimited.