Okul Yöneticilerinin Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik Hizmetlerine İlişkin Görüşleri: Betimsel Bir Çalışma

Introduction The role and importance of psychological counseling and guidance services (PCGS) in the educational system are increasing day by day. Parents, teachers, administrators and particularly students benefit from counselors and guidance services offered in schools. School counselors’ performance is critical for achieving the desired quality and quantity of these services, but the involvement of school administrators in the process is also an indispensable factor. Özer and Gökçakan (1999) indicate that the inability to get support from administrators and teachers takes first place (85%) among systemic problem perceived by school counselors. Counselors providing services in many areas, from suicide to abuse, within the framework of students' academic, professional and personal / social development, undertake tasks such as application of school PCGS programs, students’ individual educational planning, prevention and intervention activities through individual and group work, and provision of consulting services for parents, teachers and administrators (Page, Pietrzak & Sutton, 2001; Paisley & McMahon, 2001; ASCA, 2013). Developmental guidance applications can be said to require harmony between relevant stakeholders (administrators, teachers and parents) (Camadan & Kahveci, 2013). There is no doubt that not only the quality and quantity of counselors, but also opinions and attitudes of managers, will directly affect the atmosphere in a school; and, productivity of the organization is important for the efficiency and quality of PCGS in a school. According to Zalaquett and Chatters (2012), school administrators who play a key role in the school have an important contribution to the cooperative relationship counselors develop with the school. It is pleasing to find in the studies examined for the research those administrators' views on school counseling and guidance services are positive; however, the dissemination of this perception and handling it by different variables will also increase the effectiveness of PCGS studies. In this context, the aim of the study is to examine the administrators’ opinions about school PCGS according to variables including gender, branch, years of service, type of school, place of school, the numbers of counselors and students at the school, and in-service training taken about guidance. The findings will be able to provide information about perceptions regarding the PCGS and counselors’ performance in various fields and also contribute to researchers and practitioners in training of PCGS experts. Method General surveys used in this descriptive study. Research group consists of 203 school administrators, 172 of m whom are male (88,7%) while 31 are female (15,3%). Administrators’ ages vary between 25 and 51, and their service period of administration is between 1 and 20 years. The research data were obtained through a scale developed by researchers. Service areas in PCGS programs (counseling, educational-vocational guidance, consultation, etc.) implemented in schools were taken into account while preparing the questionnaire items. Scale items developed in the form of a Likert type rating were analyzed through factor analysis to ensure the validity of the study, and ultimately a single factor and two-component structures with a total of twenty item sex planning 58% of the variance were reached. The first sub-dimension evaluates the effectiveness of PCGS services in the education system, and its internal consistency coefficients are .94. The second sub-dimension assesses the necessity of PCGS, and its internal consistency coefficient is .85. That the scores obtained are high demonstrates that the perception regarding the effectiveness and necessity of PCGS is also high. A personal information form was used in order to collect information about variables such as administrators’ gender, service period of management, branch, school type, and location of school, the number of school counselors and ratio of students per counselor. T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test whether administrators’ views differed according to the independent variables. A Scheffe test was used in order to determine the source of the difference. Findings According to the findings obtained after the analysis of the data, it was seen that school administrators’ scores on the necessity and effectiveness of PCGS do not differ statistically according to the variables of gender, service period of management, school type or the number of counselors at school. In terms of the effectiveness of the PCGS, branchteacher administrators working at schools where the ratio of students per counselor is between 250-500 have a more positive perception. Administrators working at a town school were determined to have a higher perception than those of city schools in terms of necessity of PCGS. Discussion Considering the results, male and female administrators can be said to have similar perspectives and perceptions about PCGS. Female administrators may have tended to move together with men in administrative matters due to the very high number of male administrators in educational organizations. Although the administrators with experience of 6-10 years of administration have more positive views about PCGS than others according to the service period of administration, the differentiation is not significant. The obtained result seems to be in line with the findings of Erözkan (1997) and Peker & Kaygusuz (2009). In Turkey, the position of PCGS within the school system requires close co-operation with administrators. This academic cooperation, whether in the early periods of administration or later, can be considered a service area from which school administrators’ benefit? The fact that guidance services have emerged and become widespread, primarily in secondary educational organizations (Tan, 1992), may have an impact on secondary branchteacher administrators having a more positive opinion about effectiveness of PCGS than others. In addition to this, differentiation can be said to be observed in effectiveness of counseling and guidance services since many studies of primary school teachers are evaluated in the context of guidance. According to the variable of type of school, the results suggest that the notion that a guidance service is necessary and effective at every educational level is prevalent. The necessity and importance of counseling and guidance services in schools are emphasized in many studies (Özabacı, Sakarya & Doğan, 2008; Camadan & Sezgin, 2012). According to the settlements of schools at which the administrators work, the town administrators’ views on the necessity of PCGS were higher than the views of city administrators. This result can also be considered as an expected result. Employment of counselors in urban center schools seems to be more common than that of towns, but it is not at the desired level. This situation may be one cause of an increasing need for and expectation of counseling and guidance services in smaller settlements. That the views about PCGS did not differ despite the insufficient number of school counselors can be interpreted as meaning that counselors show high performances, and that there is not a significant differentiation in quality of work done in schools with relatively high number of counselors. According to the findings of the study, views of administrators who work with counselors serving 250-500 students are significantly more positive in terms of the effectiveness of counseling than those working with counselors serving 750 or more students. This obtained and expected result is also deemed compatible with the advisorstudent ratio ASCA suggests. According to ASCA (2013), a counselor is advised to serve 250 students, while the ratio is greater than about twice that in Mersin where the study was held (Akdeniz RAM, 2013). The number of students at ideal levels affects the workload of consultants and administrators, while it can also affect the quality of services provided. In conclusion, the opinions of school administrators examined this research about guidance services do not differentiate according to gender, length of service, type of school or number of counselors. However, branch-teacher administrators, town-school administrators and administrators working with counselors who serve 250-500 students were found to have more positive views on PCGS than others. Considering the results obtained from the study, the perception about the necessity of counseling and guidance services seems to be high. It is understood that administrators who work in towns and with no counselor feel a need for guidance services. The service-producing school administrators can be said to have high expectations about the effectiveness of the counseling and guidance activities. In particular, future studies should be considered within the framework of roles and tasks of psychological counseling services in our country, and even under international standards, to contribute further to the field work.