Advancing Counselor Education: Fostering International Perspectives and Open Access Scholarship

Professional counselors and counselor educators have been active in the global mental health movement. This article overviews the history and growth of counselor education internationally and provides a rationale for establishing an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that fosters international counselor education and supervision

Slow Counseling: Promoting Wellness in a Fast World

Recent technological advances have spurred a fast-paced style of living that has become increasingly commonplace around the world. Professional counselors are therefore recognizing that many clients are seeking ways to reduce stress and cultivate a more balanced approach to life. Rooted in the Slow Movement, Slow Counseling offers counselors a wellness-focused foundation for addressing the time urgency and stress often reported by today’s clients

Attitudes of American School Counselor Association Members toward Utilizing Paraprofessionals in School Counseling

The principal investigator (PI) for this study surveyed 207 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) members on their attitudes toward utilizing trained counseling paraprofessionals in school counseling. The PI also examined the relationship between participants attitudes and their subjective reports of the counselor-student ratios in their schools, the amount of work time they spent providing direct counseling services to students, and the extent to which their districts experienced a school counselor shortage. The participants mean reported counselor-student ratio (1:464.63) significantly exceeded ASCA recommendations of 1:250. Elementary counselors reported the highest counselor-student ratios while high school counselors reported the lowest. Furthermore the PI found a significant linear trend for counselor-student ratios to decrease as school level increased. The participants reported mean percentage of time involved in direct counseling services (61.48%) fell significantly below the ASCA recommended 70%. Elementary counselors reported the highest amount of time involved in direct counseling services while high school counselors reported the lowest. The PI also found a significant linear trend for percentages of time involved in direct services to decrease as school level increased. Over one-fourth of the participants indicated school counselor shortages existed in their districts. A majority of participants supported utilizing counseling paraprofessionals in their schools. The PI found a significant negative correlation between support for counseling paraprofessionals and percentage of time involved in direct services. Participants reporting the lowest percentage of time providing direct services to students thus expressed the strongest endorsement for utilizing counseling paraprofessionals. Participants most strongly endorsed assigning clerical duties to counseling paraprofessionals. They likewise endorsed assigning some indirect helping duties to counseling paraprofessionals. However, participants strongly opposed assigning direct counseling duties to counseling paraprofessionals. Based on the results of the study the PI developed recommendations for school counselors, school administrators, state education agencies, and institutions of higher learning regarding the training, education, and job duties of counseling paraprofessionals

Advocating for scholarship through open access journals

Overview of Open Access publishing: Pro’s and Con’s Creating and managing an OA journal Additional thoughts on the value of OA Discussion and question

UNLV College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education

UNLV College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education

UNLV College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education

Attitudes of American School Counselor Association Members toward Utilizing Paraprofessionals in School Counseling. Doctor of Philosophy (Counselor Education)

The principal investigator (PI) for this study surveyed 207 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) members on their attitudes toward utilizing trained counseling paraprofessionals in school counseling. The PI also examined the relationship between participants' attitudes and their subjective reports of the counselor-student ratios in their schools, the amount of work time they spent providing direct counseling services to students, and the extent to which their districts experienced a school counselo