Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2015
In Australia, compared to the United States and Britain, guidance officers havea relatively undeveloped and insecure professional identity. They are an emerging professional group with an uncertain allegiance to both teaching and psychology. While their role has many shared characteristics with that of their overseas counterparts (school psychologists and educational psychologists), compared to these groups, requirements for postgraduate training are limited and formal registration and certification vary from state to state. Moreover, until recently, there was neither a national professional organization, nor a journal to represent their interests. It is therefore not surprising that, despite considerable criticism of the guidance officer role, there has been little published about its future. While some of the broader issues affecting the profession have been raised recently by Haskell (1984) and Rice (1984), for the most part discussion has focussed on issues like training and certification (e.g., Keats, 1985), testing (e.g., de Lemos, 1985) and counselling (e.g., Frydenberg, Lee & Mckenzie, 1985; McMullen, 1984) in a relatively parochial and uncritical manner.