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Essay on School Counseling Profession
In the 1950s, the profession of school counseling was becoming established and formalized. The fact that half of all articles published in that decade addressed issues of professional identity would be expected during the early development of a profession. By the 1960s, the profession was booming as funding increased and elementary school counseling programs were added.
The professional roots in vocational guidance are apparent in the attention to educational and career counseling, which comprised 25% of the articles in that decade. Declining school enrollments in the 1970s caused a reduction in school counselors, and by 1987, a task force examined school counseling as a profession at risk. The next year, comprehensive developmental guidance programs were promoted as an antidote for the profession's problems, and the 1990s saw increasing energy and attention devoted to this movement. This interest is reflected in the increasing percentage of articles on human growth and development, along with the gradual return to a focus on professional identity topics. A greater proportion of articles on research and program evaluation is also seen in the 2000s, which is consistent with the model's emphasis on this component. Beginning in the 1990s, attention to multiculturalism increased after the publication of a special issue, Multiculturalism as a Fourth Force in Counseling, of the Journal of Counseling and Development. Less than 2% of articles in the 1950s had multicultural content, whereas by the 2000s, that proportion had increased to 13%.
In the early 2000s, the profession worked to develop and promote a national model of school counseling, whereas the Education Trust initiative was directed toward transforming the education of school counselors. These important developments, coupled with the national attention to educational reform, may account for the resurgence of articles discussing professional issues and professional identity..............
