Collaboration is becoming an increasingly familiar term in the counselling and special education literatures. Notwithstanding this, collaboration still appears to be an infrequently used process despite the numerous articles that extol the virtues of consultation, team building and a team approach to educational problems. This paper identifies a number of blockages which inhibit the development of collaborative endeavours between counsellors, teachers and parents. These include the establishment of hierarchies and professional attitudes to other stakeholders in the education community which may not promote equality and reciprocity in collaborative problem-solving activities. The training of counsellors and teachers at both preservice and inservice levels are needed to ensure that participants have the communication and problem-solving skills that are essential for effective collaboration. In addition, parents must be encouraged to participate in school activities and be provided with the opportunity to learn how to work with school personnel.

The rise of managerialism in public administration over the last decade in Australia has had dramatic implications for schooling systems and for the school psychology profession. An overview of the character of managerialism and its impact upon public administration, and schooling in particular, is provided in this paper. The school psychology profession in Victoria provides the basis for exploring some dimensions of managerialism's impact. As part of a futures projection for the remainder of the decade, some broad suggestions are offered which argue the importance of both values analysis and strategy development for the school psychology profession.

Despite rapid growth in the number of counsellors, almost no data are available concerning labour market demand, and the expectations of employers. This study surveyed 6298 positions available to counsellors, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists in the state of New South Wales during the years 1984-1990. Over this period the demand for counsellors grew by 148%, a figure which far exceeded that of psychologists, social workers or occupational therapists. Only the demand for community mental health workers increased at a faster rate. The employment base for counsellors was concentrated in community health, hospital, welfare, corrective services and education. The main duties of counsellors were in counselling, community education and liaison, program development, drug and alcohol services, family case work, group work, assessment and testing, individual case work, and staff development and education. Counsellors were distinguished from psychologists and other health professionals by the emphasis placed on counselling, program development and the provision of drug and alcohol services. The number of advertised duties expected of counsellors increased by 29% over the six years, and there was an increased demand for the skills with which counsellors were identified. The demand for prior work experience and a postgraduate qualification also increased over time, whilst there was a decline in the proportion of senior positions. The results are discussed in terms of the need for the counselling profession to be more market oriented, and for certain critical employment-related skills to be incorporated into the education of counsellors.

This study aimed at determining the extent of traumatic incidents in schools in Queensland, the extent to which guidance counsellors and schools have been adequately trained to respond effectively to traumatic incidents, and if there were any differences in incidence and preparation on the basis of geographic region or school system. Of the 81 guidance counsellors (51 women, 30 men) who completed a questionnaire specifically designed for this study, only 14% reported having no experience with a traumatic incident. Group (urban, rural, private, and university) and experience in guidance also demonstrated significant effects on exposure to particular traumatic incidents. Respondents provided substantial qualitative information which may be used in establishing and/or reviewing a school's traumatic incident management plan including a guide to the training needs for guidance and other key personnel in a school.

The act of labelling is always wrought with uncertainties, as the mercurial history of Attention Deficit Disorder (now called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD) reveals. Controversy has raged for years over the recognition, classification, naming, etiology and intervention of this disorder, resulting in a hotchpotch of treatments by professionals from the medical, educational and psychological fields (Whalen & Henker, 1991). Research has been prolific but results have been conflicting and controversial, especially in terms of overlap that occurs between ADHD and other disorders.

This paper examines the processes of career development experienced by children and adolescents in the school age groups: preschool, infant, primary, secondary and post-compulsory. The data was gathered through focus group interviews and was analysed to determine the subjects' understanding and experience of career development. The findings established that career development is experienced and understood by subjects of all school age groups, and that it is affected by a complex array of influences. The study clearly establishes the processes of career development experienced by the children and adolescents in the study. As a result, it is recommended that career education be included in the school curriculum from preschool to the postcompulsory school years, and that career decision making and career education be set within the broader context of career development.

This paper is based on our study School subjects, tertiary education, career choice and occupational outcomes: A study of women with sensory and physical disabilities (van Kraayenoord & Bramley, 1993). First, we discuss the literature related to subject selection at high school. The second part of the article examines factors that assist or hinder career choice and development. These factors include specific career aspirations, parents, teachers, career counsellors and gender stereotyping. In the third section of the article we describe the continuum of career education, guidance and counselling that we believe would assist in career decision making if developed in schools. The fourth part of the article makes some specific suggestions related to the nature of assistance that young women with disabilities in secondary school need as part of the process of developing knowledge about work and careers. We argue that changes in practices and attitudes in high schools related to career information and support provided to young women with disabilities will lead to better planned and more effective career paths for these women in the long term.

Children diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactive disordered (ADHD) do not comprise a unitary homogeneous group. Despite considerable research attempting to establish the validity of ADHD as a diagnostic entity, a number of researchers question whether the distinction between ADHD and other child disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) can be clearly established (Prior & Sanson, 1986; Werry, Reeves & Elkind, 1987). Short attention span, poor concentration and poor memory may also occur in both ADHD and reading-disabled (RD) children. Academic underachievement is also reported in a substantial proportion of ADHD children (Carlson, Lahey & Neeper, 1986). August and Garfinkel (1990), for example, found that 39% of children diagnosed ADHD were also found to have a co-existing reading disorder. A study by McGee and Shore (1988) estimated that 80% of children with ADHD had a co-occurring learning disability in reading, writing and spelling. This conclusion is also supported by other studies which have found a higher than normal incidence of academic problems existing with significant attention problems (Barkley, 1990; Barkley, Fisher, Edelbrock & Smallish, 1990).

As the two disorders occur so frequently together it has consequently become very difficult to disentangle the degree to which ADHD and learning disorder contribute to each other or are in fact separate entities. The issue regarding comorbidity or causality remains perplexing - is the learning disability a secondary cause arising from inattention and hyperactivity, or is the child inattentive and hyperactive because they are frustrated at their inability to succeed academically (August & Garfinkel, 1990)?

“The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, focuses upon some of the issues which are on-going concerns for Chinese students from a variety of Chinese countries when living in Western societies. Amy Tan would probably agree with Hsien Rin (1975) that “the Chinese have a remarkable capacity to incorporate other cultural components into the self and to formulate a double identity, all the while maintaining a deep sense of being Chinese” (p.155). Her characters certainly incorporate many of the American values and take on its protective colouring. The novel traces the way four sets of daughters – all Western women, professionals, born in America – are forced to explore their Chineseness through their relationships with their mothers. Amy Tan's quartet of American-born women are glimpsed as teenagers reacting against the ‘otherness’ which their ethnic background has loaded them with, struggling to find an identity for themselves apart from their families' (and particularly their mothers') views of what being a good daughter involves. It is only later, as they face up to some of the insecurities of adulthood, that they appreciate the strengths of Chinese family life and explore what it means to be Chinese.

A Queensland statewide study of guidance officer stress was undertaken with the support of the Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association Inc. (QGCA). The results showed that guidance officers were under a high level of stress due to a multitude of situational and organisational stressors. The survey also showed that key factors helped to reduce the degree of guidance officer stress. These were peer support and debriefing, access to supervision, centrebased support, networks and professional associations. The challenge for guidance officers is to consolidate factors that reduce occupational stress and target factors that increase stress to minimise the consequences.