STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES AND NEEDS ON SCHOOL COUNSELLORS THROUGH SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT

Abstract

School counselling has been a trending topic in Singapore for the past few years, with the Covid-19 pandemic and recent tragedies in schools that have deeply affected the mental health and well-being of students. School counselling in Singapore has been around for many years and has been available in all secondary schools since 2008. It is meant to be a support tool for students in school, especially when it comes to mental health or facing academic problems, as well as to lighten the load of teachers. However, questions have been raised as to whether they are serving students with the right intention and in the appropriate way. Despite its original intention, it has often been heard that counsellors are simply not doing the right thing and cause further disengagement for students from school. Furthermore, very little literature has been found on the effectiveness of school counselling, and especially little on understanding it from the perspective of the students themselves. This study was aimed at identifying the relationship between school counsellors and school engagement from the perspectives of students themselves as well as understanding what they require from a school counselling process in order to keep them engaged in the school. Additionally, the role of social services and what additional support can be provided for students and counsellors was also explored. In this study, school engagement is split into behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement according to Fredricks’ School Engagement Theory. It keeps them motivated in school and invested in their learning by creating positive affects within the school. As such, it has been proven that it supports students and lowers drop-out rates. The Phenomenological Research Method was employed in this research in order to uncover the subjective experiences of students who have been through school counselling as well as school counsellors. All participants went through semi structured interviews with the researcher. The findings suggest that a student’s feelings towards their school and how a counsellor relays the expectations during the session affects how a student remains engaged in school, with a surprising lack of focus on their behavioural engagement. Additionally, the students highlighted the need for confidentiality, the use of different methods and techniques during sessions, and building good rapport with the counsellor in the counselling sessions in order to have better engagement and motivation in school. The counsellors and students also recommended that social services could increase support for teachers in the school through counselling and create a multi-disciplinary team for the counsellors in order to provide more holistic support and better services for the students.