Jordanian School Counselors' Leadership Behaviors - Springer Link

Int J Adv Counselling (2011) 33:161–171 DOI 10.1007/s10447-011-9119-3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Jordanian School Counselors’ Leadership Behaviors Rana Alsmadi & Randa Mahasneh

Published online: 27 May 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract The purpose of this study was to identify the degree to which Jordanian school counselors were seen by teachers and principals to possess and display leadership behaviors related to Bolman and Deal’s (1997) transformational ‘four framework approach’ to leadership. This was based on the view that such leadership would relate to counselors’ effectiveness in their roles. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of teachers and principals designed to assess counselor leadership on four key dimensions (i) structural leadership, (ii) human resources leadership, (iii) political leadership, and (iv) symbolic leadership. The results of the study suggest high levels of transformational leadership among Jordanian school counselors as perceived by both teachers and principals. Principals assessed the levels more highly than teachers, with a significant difference evident. The results also showed a significant difference based on geographic area of the participants, even though those from all areas rated counselor leadership quite highly. Keywords Transformational leadership . Counselors . Principals . Teachers . Jordan

Introduction In recent years, several studies (e.g., Amatea and Clark 2005; Dollarhide 2003; Dollarhide et al. 2008; Kaffenberger et al. 2006; Perusse and Goodnough 2001) have argued that school counselors need to adopt greater leadership roles in schools. The suggestion is that school counselors should aspire to transformational leadership (Bass 1990) because they make a notable contribution to students’ achievement and performance and, therefore, they should not be marginalized or absent from school educational discussions and reforms. Transformational leadership occurs when leaders set challenging expectations and inspire others to achieve a high level of performance and also set examples of what is expected in terms of ideal behaviors (Bass 1990). The call for applying transformational leadership behaviors among school counselors is consistent with the need to revise the R. Alsmadi (*) : R. Mahasneh The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan e-mail: [email protected]

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Int J Adv Counselling (2011) 33:161–171

nature and the structural culture of schools to generate higher commitment to teaching and learning (Al-Smadi et al. 2008). This call for changing the role of school counselors could be strongly justified with the challenges of schools today; among other things, helping students in their academic performance (Sears 1999), and helping to reduce the achievement gap between minority and poor students and those who are more advantaged. Counselors’ roles are also seen to be evolving (Dollarhide 2003; Humes and Hohenshil 1997; Keys et al. 1998; Mason and McMahon 2009) because of dramatic changes evident in student bodies, such as students with special needs, students who do not speak the dominant language, students from single-parent families, students who are from lowincome backgrounds, students who are from different backgrounds of religion, culture, and race. In this regard, Kaffenberger et al. (2006) asserted that “closing the achievement gap and helping all students be successful in the academic, personal, social, and career domains are the main reasons that school counseling leadership is needed” (p. 292). School counselors through transformational leadership could become visionaries who identify and utilize significant skills, capacities and behaviors to help to build and maintain a healthy and safe learning environment for all (Bemak 2000; Fein 2008, Mason and McMahon 2009), as well as one where learning is recognized as a lifelong process. Also, school counselors have the potential to have an effect on teachers’ professional development (Dollarhide 2003; Dollarhide et al. 2008; Fein 2008, Sears 1999) by helping to emphasize an appropriate vision for the school, and maintaining a collaborative professional culture that fosters development, builds commitment through motivation, and strengthens sound values and morals. Therefore, there are increasingly heavy demands placed on counselors to strengthen their abilities to be more effective leaders through behaviors and actions that could shape schools’ learning and emotional climates. In Jordan, despite being expected to assist students in their academic, social, emotional, personal, and career development, school counselors’ roles seem relatively limited and they often seem absent from school reforms and changes because of a lack of understanding of their role and functions (Ammari 2004; Dana 1994; Farah 1992) as well as a lack of opportunities to contribute. Research in Jordan has not yet started to investigate the practice of Jordanian school counselors in regard to leadership. Therefore, this study is an initial step towards exploring Jordanian school counselors’ leadership contributions in schools. The framework within which this exploration was pursued is that of Bolman and Deal’s (1997) four frames of leadership. These four interdependent frames encompass a comprehensive leadership-set composed of (i) structural leadership, (ii) human resources leadership, (iii) political leadership and (iv) symbolic leadership. This notion of leadership, which stresses interagency and interdisciplinary collaboration, provides a framework for determining school counselors’ leadership contributions.

School Counselor Leadership Transformational leadership suggests that leaders encourage people to reflect on their different perspectives, knowledge, and beliefs about their context, within an atmosphere of trust to foster changing ways of thinking and performing (Bass 1990; Burns 1978). By this intellectual and reflective process, members learn to critique their knowledge and assumptions and, as required, construct new knowledge, skills and understandings. Leaders within transformational leadership unite individuals to achieve a common goal by motivating and inspiring them.


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According to Senge (1990) transformational leadership in education occurs when leaders inspire shaping of an appropriate vision for the school, and help motivate others towards achieving it. The vision typically demands a high level of commitment to achieve goals and objectives, inspires school personnel to achieve them, and promotes participation and motivation toward implementing desired changes. During the last three decades, most research on school counselors stresses a lack of clarity concerning roles and function (e.g., Dollarhide 2003; Dollarhide et al. 2008; Fein 2008, Hobbs and Collison 1995; Sears 1999). School counselors often do not seem to readily work collaboratively with other school personnel, both inside and outside the school setting. Moreover, research concerning school counselors emphasizes that often they are expected to undertake a number of non-counseling activities, with most of these being administrative and clerical in nature (Amatea and Clark 2005; Bemak 2000; Dollarhide 2003). Such lack of clarity of the role and function of school counselors could be attributed largely to principals who carry leadership responsibility within schools (Bemak 2000; Kaffenberger et al. 2006) for determining “staffing needs and programming…..as they struggle to achieve successful and improved report card ratings that meet mandated objectives for academic achievement” (Bemak 2000, p. 2). In Jordan, school principals often do not seem to support school counselors in their efforts, and rarely promote any sense of partnership with them for making changes inside the school (Ammari 2004; Dana 1994). This lack of principals’ support then often effects school counselors’ collaboration and communication potentials with other school personnel (Ammari 2004; Hobbs and Collison 1995), such as teachers, principals, psychologists, social workers, special education, and support services like families, mental health services, juvenile services, and community social services. This situation tends to limit their potential contributions to school effectiveness. Research findings into school counseling (Ammari 2004; Bemak 2000; Fein 2008) suggest school counselors who demonstrate leadership behaviors can help “the school…[in regard to addressing] barriers to academic success for all students” (Sears 1999, p. 47). This contribution can come by motivating, inspiring, collaborating, advocating, coordinating, and leading others in school and community settings, as well as through direct counseling. Changing school counselors’ roles to extend to working across disciplines and collaboratively with the multifaceted perspectives of many professionals is the core value of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership in school counseling involves changing, as needed, the core of the system, which includes structure, methods and content (Coppieters 2005). Transforming school counselors into leadership roles demands changes in their job description, responsibilities, functions, and core practices, to open the door for being able to challenge issues related to students’ academic, social and personal development. School counselors’ involvement in leadership is desirable to increase their commitment and contributions to their organization’s vision, mission and practices, to connect them more to school operations so as to help enhance an emotionally safe environment and effective schooling for all students. School counselors adoption of leadership roles is considered important for promoting and implementing appropriate school reforms. In order to provide the leadership needed to enhance educational attainment and to meet societal expectations of educational organizations, school counselors must develop knowledge and skills in several crucial dimensions. Counselors need to support positive interactions with students to improve the prospect of students regarding learning and development as a lifelong process. This would

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involve transforming conventional schools and classrooms into dynamic creative environments that enhance the chances for learning through constructive interpersonal communications, problem-solving, and consensual decision-making. Bemak (2000) states that developing school counselors’ leadership requires enhancing their knowledge and skills to help transform them into adopting a new vision of their role. They should have multi-connected relationships with other personnel and organizations to help reduce the achievement gap, and to address effectively students’ emotional, social and psychological needs. School counselors should work closely with principals and provide them with relevant data and challenges about such matters. Also, they have to collaborate effectively with teachers as part of team work to overcome issues and help meet both academic and personal needs of students. School counselors should also be in constructive relationships with any and all external organizations that contribute to helping students.

The Four Frames of Transformational Leadership Dollarhide (2003; Dollarhide et al. 2008) and other researchers have used Bolman and Deal’s (1997) four frames of leadership to provide a framework for thinking about the scope of leadership for counselors. Applying this leadership model addresses the necessary components of a comprehensive school counseling leadership approach. The model is composed of four interdependent components: (i) structural leadership, (ii) human resources leadership, (iii) political leadership, and (iv) symbolic leadership. In regard to structural leadership, school counselors need to be concerned with building effective structures for schools by helping to clarify school goals and lines of authority, and focusing on tasks, facts and logic, more than on personality and emotions (Dollarhide et al. 2008). Human resources leadership involves school counselors empowering, supporting, advocating, and inspiring all school personnel who could be involved in students’ achievements and development. This focuses on increasing people’s participation and their sharing of appropriate information, and involving them in decision-making processes through attitudes of trust and professionalism and using skills of listening and communication (Dollarhide 2003). The third component of transformational leadership, political leadership, concerns counselors having a role in school power and authority, accessing and using both formal and informal power. Counselors in this aspect work directly and strategically strive to overcome barriers and build support structures that benefit student progress. In this they will typically utilise skills of persuasion, collaboration and negotiation. The final dimension, symbolic leadership, involves inspiring and supporting other personnel to help achieve, discover and communicate the vision through modeling and using selective messages, impressions and symbols to focus attention onto what is important and valued in the school (Dollarhide 2003). If Jordanian school counselors want to become successful leaders in schools, as they should, they need to be educated in leadership behaviors and given opportunities to explore their own leadership styles. School counselors from this perspective need to be active participants in their schools, seeking to influence the behaviors of school personnel to foster a safe and effective learning environment. Transformational leadership in school counseling within this perspective emphasizes communicating a vision, facilitating shared goals and enhancing school personnel’s commitment in regard to student achievement, equity, increased self-esteem and lifelong learning competencies.


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Jordanian School Counseling The history of school counseling in Jordan began in 1969, and counseling currently exists in some high schools, but not all, and a little at the primary school level. For the year 2007/2008 there were 1,628 school counselors in schools, covering approximately 50% of the total number of public schools. Counseling in schools was formally established through Article 19 of the Temporary Act No. 66 of 2003 (Amended [Education] Act), which, among other things, stipulates that school counselors should hold at least a first degree in the specialization of pedagogic guidance, or pedagogical and psychological health guidance, or in psychology. The general objective of school counseling is to assist in the development of students’ personalities, drawing on psychosocial, cognitive, behavioral and professional competence. This is typically undertaken through (Code of school counseling, Jordanian Education Ministry 1997): 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

mentoring to explore students’ potentials and abilities; assisting students in understanding the environment and overcoming life problems; facilitating aspects of students’ natural growth and assisting them towards maximum psychosocial maturity; promoting compatibility between students and their environments; imparting personal and social skills that could help prevent students from developing problems; improving the educational process by raising achievement of educational attainment and being aware of student differences; developing positive behaviors and modifying negative behaviors; assisting and developing talents and creativity; imparting problem-solving and decision-making skills; assisting with students’ vocational choices and capacities in light of student needs and the labor market.

Various reasons may contribute to barriers that could interfere with identifying and establishing effective and developmental counseling programs. Despite the fact that current Jordanian school counselors have a clear code outlining job responsibilities and duties (Jordanian Education Ministry 1997), they have not been particularly well prepared through their training and education (Al-Ammoudi 1992). In a study by Ammari, conducted in 2004 and involving some 246 Jordanian male and female school counselors, some participants reported that they were recognizing pre-service training deficiencies in regard to knowledge and skills that were affecting their efforts to meet their professional duties and roles. The discrepancy between their preparation and training and their actual counseling practices was seen to be due to the approaches that colleges used, which focused more on theoretical than practical aspects, affecting their professional preparation through a lack of applied knowledge and skills. An additional concern is that there is a sense of ambiguity in regard to the notion of counseling, leading to Jordanian counselors not collaborating well with other school personnel such as teachers and parents, and with community agencies. Moreover, Dawoud (2002) suggested that a lot of school personnel have negative attitudes toward the potentialities of school counselors, and that they often hold distorted beliefs about the role and responsibilities of school counselors. To date, no local studies have examined leadership in regard to Jordanian school counselors. Given the need and the potential for counselors to have an impact on school environments, it seemed timely to investigate the extent to which they are currently viewed

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as undertaking leadership roles. Having such an understanding could assist in identifying what might be needed to help advance this aspect of counselors’ potential contributions in Jordanian schools.

Purpose of the Study This study aimed to explore the degree to which Jordanian school counselors were seen to demonstrate leadership within the four dimensions of leadership framework (Bolman and Deal 1997). Therefore, it addressed the following specific questions: 1. To what degree are Jordanian school counselors seen to possess and perform leadership behaviors in regard to the four dimensions framework, from the point of view of teachers and principals? 2. If there are differences in the views of teachers and principals in regard to their assessments, are they based on role, gender, years of experience, education level, geographic area and/or school stage?

Importance of the Study While there is a definite call for transforming the role and functions of school counselors in terms of greater leadership involvement, there is little evidence available to indicate the extent to which they are presently involved in such ways. Research and common sense support the notion that school counselor leadership holds great potential for helping schools establish and maintain constructive and emotionally healthy environments for improving students’ academic, social and personal skills, and career options. This study is expected to contribute to the current literature on school counselor leadership towards increasing school effectiveness and building learning communities.

Methodology Research Design The study was quantitative in nature and was conducted using a descriptive method. Bolman and Deal’s (1997) four frames of leadership were employed for assessing school counselors’ leadership and activities. Participants The population of the study was teachers and principals who worked in Jordanian public schools for the academic year 2008–2009. Given that Jordan is divided into three geographical regions—North, Middle and South—and to make sure that the sample was representative, counseling supervision departments, which are related to the Ministry of Education in all school districts of each region, were contacted and were given equal numbers of questionnaires to distribute among schools in their region, with consideration to the stage of school (primary, secondary) and whether they were for girls or boys. From each school that was selected, the principal and a number of teachers (fewer than 10 in each


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case) participated in the study. The final sample consisted of 657 participants who returned the questionnaires. Table 1 shows the numbers of participants according to the study variables. As an exploratory study, the researchers chose teachers and principals as the focus. This was because they are in direct contact with counselors, and, therefore, should be able to evaluate accurately counselors’ leadership behaviors, which are, in general, visible for people they work with. Instrument In order to measure the degree to which school counselors demonstrated the relevant leadership characteristics, the researchers built Bolman and Deal’s (1997) four frames of leadership into an instrument they developed for this particular study. The instrument consisted of three sections: the first included the instructions, the second asked teachers and principals to report their gender, years of experience, education level, and school stage, and the third included the leadership items. The leadership items addressed the four leadership dimensions using a Likert-type rating scale with a five-point range (regularly = 5, frequently = 4, occasionally = 3, seldom = 2, never = 1). There were specific questions in regard to each aspect of transformational leadership: structural (four items, e.g., build the foundation of an effective school counseling program), human resources (four items, e.g., believe in people), political (three items, e.g., build linkages with important stakeholders), and symbolic (three items, e.g., discover and communicate a vision). After translating the instrument into Arabic, it was presented to experts in the education field for face validity. They were asked to check whether the items were clear and linked appropriately with the leadership dimensions involved. Cronbach’s alphas were computed to test the reliability of the instrument and the four separate subscales. Alpha values were (total instrument=0.96, structural leadership=0.90, human resources leadership=0.89, political leadership=0.87, symbolic leadership=0.94). All alpha values were considered acceptable.

Data Analysis and Results Prior to data analysis, a check on accuracy of data entry and missing data was done through SPSS Frequencies. Two steps were taken to address the first question, which essentially asked teachers and principals: ‘To what degree are Jordanian school counselors seen to possess and perform leadership behaviors in regard to the four dimensions framework?’ Table 1 Numbers of participants Study variable

Numbers

Gender

Male (293)

Female (364)

Position

Principal (91)

Teacher (566)

Stage of school

Primary (297)

Secondary (360)

Area

North (215)

Middle (226)

South (216)

Education level

Bachelors (485)

High Diploma (101)

Masters & PhD (72)

Experience level

1–5 years (187)

6–10 years (195)

Above 10 years (275)

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First, scores on each one of the four leadership dimensions were calculated. Second, means and standard deviations for the four leadership dimensions were computed (see Table 2). The mean values on all leadership dimensions were fairly close. All mean values were between three, which reflect that the characteristics were occasionally performed, and four, which reflect that the characteristics were frequently performed. This demonstrates that counselors were seen to possess and perform the various leadership characteristics, and often to a comparatively high degree (e.g., 3.75 mean on the Political Leadership dimension). T-tests and one-way analyses of variance were performed to address the second research question: ‘If there are differences in the views of teachers and principals in regard to their assessments, are they based on their role, gender, years of experience, education level, geographic area and school stage’? Specifically, several independent t-tests were performed to find out whether there were significant differences due to the participants’ gender (males, females), position (principals, teachers), and stage of school (primary, secondary). Results revealed no significant differences due to gender and stage of school, but a significant difference due to the position of the participants. There was a significant difference (t=2.65, p