Integrating a Servant Leadership Framework: Preparing Teaching and School Counseling Students for Collaboration

Abstract

Culturally responsive servant leadership may serve as a model for school counselor and teacher graduate students to create collaborative partnerships in the K-12 setting. Currently, research about servant leadership in school counselor and teacher preparation programs is limited, and research regarding teacher-school counselor partnerships. Thus, the authors propose an interdisciplinary project in which graduate students in school counseling and teacher preparation programs work collaboratively to create culturally responsive professional development integrating the components of the servant leadership framework. The authors expect the outcome of the project to impact graduate students’ continued professional endeavors, and inform future quantitative and qualitative studies regarding teacher-school counselor collaborative partnerships.

School counselors’ leadership experiences in multi‐tiered systems of support: Prioritizing relationships and shaping school climate

“…They valued collaborating with stakeholders (e.g., students, teachers, and administrators) to gain their buy‐in and support, which included creating and implementing the MTSS framework together. Thus, participants’ collaborative leadership in MTSS parallels several types of school counseling leadership theories: transformational, distributed, servant, and transformative (Harris & Hockaday, 2018; Janson et al., 2009; Shields et al., 2018; Lowe et al., 2018; Young & Dollarhide, 2018), as well as school counselors’ roles implementing CSCPs (ASCA, 2019). Overall, in tandem with previous literature, the current findings highlight the importance of school counseling leadership as intentionally collaborative, yet new to the literature also underscores school counselor's role in MTSS leadership specifically.…”

“…To continue, aspects of servant leadership (Harris & Hockaday, 2018; were demonstrated in the present study through school counselors prioritiz-ing students' needs and perspectives and helping develop students' leadership skills. Servant leadership was also portrayed through the purposeful focus on gaining stakeholder buy-in, cultivating trusting relationships, and designing and implementing MTSS together across stakeholders, and thus flattening a more traditional leadership hierarchy.…”

“…Through the servant leadership lens, school counselors serve and prioritize the needs of their followers (e.g., students and teachers), demonstrating qualities such as empathy and empowerment (Harris & Hockaday, 2018; Young & Dollarhide, 2018). For instance, utilizing this approach could include school counselors empowering their students toward increased growth and development; focusing on relationships; assisting students, staff, and family depending on need and their culture; decreasing a traditional leadership hierarchy to instead a focus on community; and utilizing empathy, humility, and integrity (Harris & Hockaday, 2018; Young & Dollarhide, 2018). As such, through servant leadership, school counselors aim for their followers or stakeholders to eventually grow into servant leaders themselves.…”