Abstract:
School counselors play a vital role in the learners’ life. Students require guidance and
support in their development, not only on their academic achievement. These
developments include interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, emotion management,
conflict resolution, etc., especially during the elementary level (Hines et al., 2020).
Previous research studies have examined the school counselor’s services and teacher’s
perspectives for the counseling service instead of the impact and effectiveness of school
counselors in Lebanon (Ayyash- Abdo et al., 2010; Khansa, 2015).
The purpose of this study was to explore elementary teachers' and school counselors’
perspectives of the effectiveness of the school counseling program. In addition, the study
explored the nature of collaboration and communication between the school counselors
and teachers. The research design was qualitative research and the researcher applied
semi-structured interviews for data collection. The researcher analyzed the data by
applying Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis.
The sample size of the study was composed of three elementary teachers and one
elementary school counselor in an inclusive, private IB school case study. The rationale
for focusing on an IB school is that the IB system focuses on wellbeing and applies a
holistic approach in supporting the learners’ learning experience and development.
The results demonstrated that the participants perceived the school counseling program
as effective, and they provided recommendations on how the counseling program can
improve to enhance its effectiveness. Moreover, the findings revealed that
communication and collaboration play a crucial role between the teachers and counselor
to better support the student’s according to their individual needs and to set an effective
intervention action plan.
