Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T03:01:37.147Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Teachers and Counselling Services in Victoria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2016

Alan Rice*
Affiliation:
Monash University
Get access

Extract

As I see it, the Counselling, Guidance and Clinical Services branch is ineffective, irrelevant and a vastly expensive enterprise.

Haskell, The Age, 6.7.1982

Haskell's public evaluation of the Victorian Education Department's Counselling, Guidance and Clinical Services branch (CGCS) was an unqualified indictment of the agency responsible for the social, emotional, and educational needs of students. He argued that CGCS's diagnostic services were largely irrelevant to the needs of students, parents, and teachers, and that professional officers had built barriers between themselves and the teaching force. As a matter of policy Haskell recommended reducing the state's establishment of psychologists to about 15, giving more autonomy to teachers, encouraging direct communication with parents and expanding the number of remedial teachers. Such attacks seldom pass unnoticed. One week later the Director General, Dr Curry, published a complete rebuttal of Haskell's analysis (Curry, 1982). He assured the public that CGCS staff were highly skilled and dedicated to meeting the needs of students, teachers and parents; that CGCS built bridges not barriers between itself and teachers and that if anything, CGCS required more not less staff.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

This paper is an abridged version of “Teachers and Counselling Services: A Case Study”, published in The Australian Journal of Education, 1983, 27, 187–199.

References

Bittner, E., The police on skid-row: A study of peace keeping. American Sociological Review, 1967, 32, 699715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, R., Adoption of educational innovations, Eugene: University of Oregon, Center for the Advanced Study of Educational Administration, 1965.Google Scholar
Commonwealth Dept of Education, Apparent guide retention rates and age participation rates. Canberra: Statistics Unit, September 1982.Google Scholar
Curry, N. Dedicated guidance for students. The Age, 13/7/82.Google Scholar
Delamont, S., Interaction in the classroom, London: Methuen, 1976.Google Scholar
Denscombe, M. Keeping ’em quiet: The significance of noise for the practical activity of teaching. In Woods, P. (ed.) Teacher Strategies, London: Croom Helm, 1980. (a)Google Scholar
Denscombe, M., The work context of teaching: An analytic framework for the study of teachers in classrooms. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1980, 1, 279292. (b)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haskell, S., Counselling service a costly failure. The Age, 6/7/82.Google Scholar
Johnson, T., Professions and power, London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. 1972.Google Scholar
Lapierre, R., Attitudes vs Action. Social Forces, 1934, 13, 230237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, A., A model of classroom coping strategies. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1982, 3, 1937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, G., The doctors dilemma: A tragedy, London: Longmans, Green, 1957.Google Scholar