Lived Stories: Participatory Leadership in School Counseling

The school counseling profession is engaged in a discourse that concentrates on the transformation of what school counselors do. Professional school counselors, counselor educators, and other stakeholders are in the process of revising the stories that guide the school counseling profession (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2003, 2004; Campbell & Dahir, 1997; Galassi & Akos, 2004; Gysbers & Henderson, 2000; House & Martin, 1998; Littrell & Peterson, 2004). This article concentrates on stories that point toward the need for a uniquely democratic form of leadership in school counseling. Before continuing the narrative, the format and authorship of the article deserve comment. Both authors worked together in a public high school as school counselors in California prior to becoming counselor educators at separate institutions. This article emerges from our conversations about what "worked" at the high school where we were counselors with caseloads ranging from 450-630:1. Our "workability" conversation is rooted in the personal and local analysis of the act-in-context and the recognition that narrative constructions illuminate professional actions (Bruner, 1986, 1990, 1996, 2002; Hayes, 1993; Kearney, 2002; Monk, Winslade, Crocket, & Epston, 1997; Reason & Hawkins, 1988; Rosaldo, 1993; Sarbin, 1993; White & Epston, 1990). As Sarbin put it, "We live in a story shaped world" (p. 63). Furthermore, an ecological perspective shapes our story (Benard, 2004; Bronfenbrermer, 1979; Capra, 2002; Conyne & Cook, 2004; Sterling, 2001). In addition, as counselors grounded in Paulo Freire's (1973, 1997, 1998) critical pedagogy, our efforts take into account the expressed needs and interests of the community rather than imposing externally defined needs. Nearly two decades ago, Alschuler (1986) explored the counseling applications of Freire's (1973, 1997, 1998) pedagogy and how counselors could take participatory and active roles in creating loving situations with problem-posing education. Freire continues to shed light on school counseling theory and practice. We take the time to share our story because we believe that school counselor educators and practitioners are in a position to construct what Dewey (1938) referred to over 60 years ago as something "new in the story of education" (p. 23). More recently, resilience research points to the need to develop schools where all students have a voice to tell their stories and where the school narrative focuses on helping students reach high expectations, find care and support, and discover opportunities for participation (Benard, 2004). Lewis (2000) linked structure to high expectations, relationships to care and support, and meaning to opportunities for meaningful participation. By balancing structure, relationship, and meaning, school counselors are in a position to help all students develop learning stories where they reach high expectations, encounter care and support, and experience opportunities for meaningful participation within a school community (Benard, 2004; Lewis, 2000). In order to fully benefit from the lived stories to be shared, it is important to frame our stories in a larger historical context. The school counselor's role and function have undergone various transformations in response to changing social forces and perceived student educational need. Commonly accepted landmarks in the history of school counseling illustrate that the role and function of school counseling is constantly evolving in a historical context. In the early 1900s, school-based counseling was informed by vocational guidance needs to provide youth job orientation and preparation (Aubrey, 1982). This was followed by the need for intellectual and personality trait measurement in which schools, industry, and military depended on results to optimize skills and aptitudes (Williamson, 1950). Then the space race of the late 1950s directed school counselor duties toward identifying youth (usually White males) gifted in math and science in order to encourage more to attend college and improve the United States' capacity to compete against world powers (Myrick, 2003). …