A Call for School Counseling Practitioner Research

Despite the repeated call to increase the number of practitioner research manuscripts being published in counseling publications, practitioner research accounts for less than five percent of all manuscripts published. This article describes the challenges faced by practitioners seeking to publish their research, defines practitioner research, and renews the call for research conducted and reported by school counseling practitioners. It also offers resources to support practitioner research. ********** School counseling leaders have called for school counselors to be involved in practitioner research--research conducted by school counselors for school counselors--throughout the history of the profession (Bauman, 2002, 2004; Dimmitt, Carey & Hatch, 2007; Falco, Bauman, Sumnicht, & Engelstad, 2011; Gysbers, 2010; Pine, 1981; Sink, 2012; Whiston, 1996). To date, those calls have met with resistance. Falco et al. (2011) found that in the first 10 years of Professional School Counseling only 13.8% of first or second authors identified themselves as school counseling practitioners; and only four percent of 91 articles (n =23) written by practitioners reported research about practice. School counseling practitioners have said that they do not see the value of research because it does not address issues that are relevant to practice (Guiffrida, Douthit, Lynch, & Mackie, 2011; Whiston, 1996), nor do they have the training or time to conduct their own research or even read the research of others (Bauman, 2002; Whiston, 1996). And school counselors reported on a recent survey that while they understand the importance of using data, they lack the skills to design inquiries that require data collection and apply data to decision making at their sites (Young & Kaffenberger, 2011). School counselors also understand that data-driven decision making is no longer a choice. As a result, district and state leaders and national associations, such as the American School Counseling Association (ASCA), expect that all school counselors will use data to monitor student achievement, evaluate interventions, and demonstrate school counselor impact on students, and therefore provide professional development training and support to help them gain needed skills. In fact, the recently published third edition of the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2012) calls for school counselors to use data during the development, implementation, and evaluation phases of delivering a comprehensive school counseling program. In reality, school counselors are using practitioner research strategies as they apply data practices to understanding educational issues and evaluating interventions. The Professional School Counseling (PSC) journal established a practitioner-focused research category in 2009. The current editorial board is interested in re-energizing the call for practitioner research by providing support for school counselors as they conduct practitioner research, and writing assistance throughout the publication process. Definition of Practitioner Research Practitioner research is research conducted by school counselors to inform the practice of school counseling. It is a form of action research that has been described as a bridge linking practice and research (Rowell, 2005) and has been defined as, "solving problems through the application of the scientific method" (Whiston, 1996, p. 616). The process of conducting practitioner research involves collecting data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention, or to understand an issue and make recommendations (Gillies, 1993; McLeod, 1999; Rowell, 2005, 2006; Schon, 1995). Practitioner research provides evidence of effective school counseling practices and answers the question, "What works?" or, "What doesn't work?" Its ultimate goal is to identify interventions or programs that help students achieve. Practitioner research has the potential to identify effective counseling strategies and contribute to a body of evidence-based practices. …