The new age generation is living in the most exciting times of human history, within increasingly diverse communities and cultures, newer and fast-evolving technologies and ever expanding horizons. Against this backdrop, the challenge confronting school managements is to ensure that their students evolve into sensitive, responsible citizens of the new world. Therefore, it is vital for schools to establish a robust team of counselors and teachers who can empathise with the young, and successfully provide guidance and support to students regardless of age and grades.
A high schooler is in the phase of transition from adolescence to adulthood. This is the time when teenagers begin to assert themselves, demanding greater freedom to make decisions as they explore newly-acquired privileges and define their independence. This is the time when they need guidance most, but will resist it utmost. It is therefore essential for school managements to provide competent and experienced teacher-counselors who can anticipate and intuitively understand adolescent turmoil, and caringly respond to the needs of students, especially teenagers.
Teacher-counselors’ responsibilities vary depending on institutional size, focus and unique requirements. Day schools — especially smaller ones — may not need coun-selors whereas it’s essential for residential schools to have a team of teacher-counselors because of the additional responsibility of providing personal and social guidance to boarders. However, the fundamental respons-ibilities of teacher-counselors are to build an environment of mutual trust and goodwill, establish strong personal rapport with students and discharge the role of catalysts, enhancing and complementing the academic and social progress of students. More specifically, teacher-counselors must assume the following responsibilities:
Counseling. It has been proven extensively that in times of crisis, the only person other than a parent that youth turn to are teachers whom they find worthy of their trust and confidence. Great mentors have the ability to recognise the need for timely intervention and guide their mentees through any kind of difficulty, especially emotional and behavioural. With their ability to empathise, counselors help improve students’ attitudes and motivation, encourage positive social behaviour, cultivate a sense of responsibility and set appropriate career goals.
Consultation. Trained counselors are patient, open-minded and flexible. Those with good interpersonal skills and instinctive understanding of the disposition of students are usually given the responsibility of providing consultative assistance to class teachers. Progressive schools encourage class teachers to collaborate with counselors and seek their support in resolving specific problem cases in classroom situations. Likewise, teacher-counselors also host student-parent-teacher meetings and initiate discussion of specific issues.
Document cases of problematic behaviour and devise solutions. Identifying, recording and reporting cases of misconduct and disruptive behaviour is an important responsibility of teacher-counselors in most schools. They work closely with school administrations to devise codes of conduct and implement policies to curb anti-social behaviour. Teacher-counselors play a key role in defining aberrant behaviour and drawing up guidelines for students.
Conflict resolution. Due to regular interaction with students, counselors are more aware of their individual traits and better positioned to provide timely intervention. They are usually called upon to resolve student conflicts inter se or between students and parents or teachers. They are trained to mediate and deal with such situations prudently and expeditiously.
Assessment. Evaluation is a continuous process and the counseling team keeps track of students’ socio-emotional crises and how they cope with them. Counselors are expected to provide comprehensive summative assessments which map the social and emotional progress of students.
Residences responsibility. In residential schools, teacher-counselors usually fulfill the responsibility of managing and overseeing the operations of dorms and assume the role of dorm parents. They develop the residence curriculum and implement it, supervise study halls and measure the academic progress of students under their care. Moreover, teacher-counselors in residences discharge the responsibility of initiating extra-curricular activities that yield cooperation and teamwork, reinforce values and promote harmonious living.
In essence, in the newly emergent, multi-cultural globalised world, teacher-counselors are beginning to play an increasingly important role in providing stability to young students during crucial emotional transitions, which is vital to the serenity, sanity and good health of education institutions.
(Atula Ahuja is the founder-director of Reading Rainbow, Ahmedabad and a teacher-counselor at the Woodstock School, Mussoorie)