Professional Identity Development of Counselor Education Doctoral Students: A Qualitative Investigation

Abstract

Professional school counselors are largely responsible for developing and maintaining comprehensive school counseling programs. Comprehensive programming includes collaboration and consultation aimed at supporting teachers and influencing student achievement. The recently released third edition of the ASCA National Model further supports collaboration and consultation to help teachers influence student achievement (ASCA, 2012). Consultation has been defined by Caplan (1970) as "a process of interactions between two professional persons-the consultant, who is a specialist, and the consultee, who invokes a consultant's help in regard to a current work problem" (p. 19). More recently, Kampwirth and Powers (2012) noted that engaging in collaborative endeavors during the consultation process fosters egalitarian relationships and often yields the greatest degree of change. School counselors engaging in consultation with teachers from a collaborative perspective are typically successful in advancing educational opportunities and fostering student growth (

Career-Decision Making: School Counselors in Counselor Education Doctoral Programs

“…Increased attention has been given to the doctoral experiences of counselor education students (Dollarhide et al, 2013;Kuo et al, 2017;Lambie & Vaccaro, 2011;Limberg et al, 2013). For example, professional identity has been found to be an important aspect of doctoral programs (Dollarhide et al, 2013;Limberg et al, 2013). Dollarhide et al (2013) highlighted three stages of the professional identity transformation process.…”

“…Self-validation, which occurs in the third stage, encompasses a sense of independence in which doctoral students feel confident in their professional identities. Limberg et al (2013) also discussed the critical role of professional identity development for counselor education doctoral students since their identities can stem from multiple sources: counselors, students, or previous occupations. Professional iden-or educators with professional experience in school counseling.…”

“…A review of career theory (Hoskins & Goldberg, 2005;Sharf, 2016), current research on doctoral students' experiences (Dollarhide, Gibson & Moss, 2013;Kuo, Woo, & Bang, 2017;Lambie & Vaccaro, 2011;Limberg et al, 2013), and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs' (CACREP) position on faculty recruitment of diverse faculty (CACREP, 2016) are highlighted and discussed to provide an anchor for this research study.…”

Perceptions of Professional Identity Development From Counselor Educators in Leadership Positions

“…Although counselor educators have significant influence on the professional identity of developing counselors and the profession as a whole, professional identity development has predominantly centered on master's‐level counselors‐in‐training (Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, ; Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, ; Shores, ), master's‐level counseling practitioners (Mellin et al, ), and doctoral‐level counseling students (Dollarhide, Gibson, & Moss, ; Limberg et al, ). Only recently have topics such as who counselor educators are (e.g., training background, affiliation status with counseling organizations, and counseling theory orientation), and how they transmit their professional identity in teaching (e.g., modeling and discussing the professional identity of students) appeared in the counseling literature (e.g., Calley & Hawley, ).…”

A Phenomenological Investigation of Doctoral Students’ Gatekeeping Experiences

“…As counselor educators-in-training, doctoral students have opportunities to serve in evaluative roles as teaching assistants and supervisors of master's level students (Scarborough, Bernard, & Morse, 2006;Fernando, 2013). As part of these roles, doctoral students hold gatekeeping responsibilities (CACREP, 2016;Limberg et al, 2013). However, the literature has yet to thoroughly explore doctoral students' experiences as gatekeepers (Rapp, Moody, & Stewart, 2018).…”