Intergroup differences in student counselling: how prepared are we to deal with it in South Africa?
✍ Scribed by W. A. Schoor
- Publisher
- Springer US
- Year
- 1989
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 587 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0165-0653
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Student Counsellors in South Africa have to deal with a multitude of groups by nature of the composition of the student population on the various campuses. The various groups represent many different world views and concern is expressed over the preparedness of student counsellors to deal effectively with these divergent world views in their counselling endeavours. The issue was discussed at a national conference of student counsellors. Intergroup problems (resulting from different world views) raised by the representative group, pertained to the strong group orientation of Black people, witchcraft as an explanation for severe psychological problems, different interpretations of interpersonal communication characteristics, the influence of authoritarian environments on therapeutic orientations, age, social class, language and political factors as influences in the counselling relationship. It was suggested that particular attention should be paid to the re-and ongoing training of student counsellors to enable them to deal effectively with problems resulting from these differences. More Black student counsellors and possibly paraprofessionals should be trained and employed and student counselling centres should reflect a more balanced staff composition representative of the student body.