School Counselor and Administrator Perceptions of Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Collaborative efforts by school counselors and school administrators that are grounded in social capital principles have the potential to better support students’ educational success, health, and well-being in the wake of challenging and adverse events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to assess perceptions of school counselors and administrators to determine the extent to which they had a shared vision of the challenges and strengths in their school’s initial response to the pandemic. We also explored their sense of the anticipated future needs within the context of social capital theory and trauma-informed practices. Participants included 381 current pre-K–12 school administrators and school counselors throughout the United States who completed a mixed-methods survey in spring 2020. Use of these findings can help school stakeholders continue to foster students’ social/emotional, academic, and career and college readiness development during continued and future mass trauma events.

“In Spite of the Storm, I Saw Bright Spots”: School Counselors Experiences During COVID-19

“…The school counselors expressed several professional challenges during the pandemic. Due to remote learning and school closures, they missed their traditional interactions with students and felt their relationships and engagement weakened; similar findings were also discussed by scholars examining school counselors' roles during the initial phases of the pandemic (Kruczek et al, 2022;Limberg et al, 2022). Related to other school counseling research (Limberg et al, 2022;Savitz-Romer et al, 2021;Villares et al, 2022), the school counselors in our study engaged in a multitude of ancillary or non-school-counseling roles (e.g., contract tracing, distributing technology, and long-term special education substitute teaching).…”

“…Educational/Societal-level Experiences. According to the literature, individuals from historically marginalized identities, including those who are BIPOC, have experienced greater systemic inequities in education, resources, and opportunities as a result of the pandemic (Hamilton & Ercikan, 2022;Kruczek et al, 2022). The school counselors in our study perceived similar trends, that the pandemic magnified inequities toward some school families, such as immigrant and undocumented families, who have greater job, home, medical, and food instability and lack of access; this study also highlighted school counselors' desire to address these systemic inequities.…”

School counselors’ perceived school climate, leadership practice, psychological empowerment, and multicultural competence before and during COVID‐19

“…School counselors in the current COVID‐19 condition may have scored lower in multicultural competence than those in the pre‐COVID‐19 condition because the pandemic further exacerbated the lived experiences and challenges of low‐income families and students of Color (Huck & Zhang, 2021; Kruczek et al., 2022; Tillery et al., 2022). For example, Kruczek and colleagues (2022) found that school counselors’ reported challenges during the pandemic included effectively meeting the needs of historically marginalized students and students with special needs, as well as the limited help‐seeking behavior from the most vulnerable families. Other research also suggested that during the pandemic, school counselors have had limited access to students, traversed challenges with student engagement and motivation, and barriers to familial engagement such as technological issues and access to internet (Alexander et al., 2022; Huck & Zhang, 2021).…”

“…More specifically, our results indicated that participants in the pre‐COVID‐19 condition had higher scores on multicultural competence compared with their counterparts in the current COVID‐19 condition. School counselors in the current COVID‐19 condition may have scored lower in multicultural competence than those in the pre‐COVID‐19 condition because the pandemic further exacerbated the lived experiences and challenges of low‐income families and students of Color (Huck & Zhang, 2021; Kruczek et al., 2022; Tillery et al., 2022). For example, Kruczek and colleagues (2022) found that school counselors’ reported challenges during the pandemic included effectively meeting the needs of historically marginalized students and students with special needs, as well as the limited help‐seeking behavior from the most vulnerable families.…”

“…The results imply that COVID‐19 may have created difficulties for school counselors to engage in leadership and systemic advocacy activities, which may be related to the lack of support from administrators and opportunities to engage in small‐ and large‐group activities (e.g., Alexander et al., 2022; Savitz‐Romer et al., 2021). Given the barriers to service delivery, parental involvement, and availability of resources for students and families (Kruczek et al., 2022), school counselors can be intentional about locating and mobilizing community assets and forging SFC partnerships, especially with historically marginalized families (Kim et al., 2017). This is especially important since SFC partnerships are an effective strategy in facilitating trust and educational resilience among racially minoritized community members (Kim et al., 2017).…”