Wentao Chao
Department of Psychology and Counseling, National Taipei University of Education
T.M.S Chan
Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University
The linkage between student’s issues and their systemic contexts has been evident, yet many teachers don’t work with systems. Experienced teachers and literature have been advocating the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration in student counseling. This study interviewed 28 student-counseling teachers in Taiwan to explore what challenges they have encountered in collaboration, with whom they have found it difficult to collaborate, what contextual factors hinder collaboration, and how those difficulties might be overcome.Through qualitative analysis, six challenges in collaboration were found: (1) information wasn’t shared and thus collaboration was not activated; (2) unresponsive counterparts, resulting in parallel practices; (3) withdrawal due to fear of disharmony; (4) ineffective collaboration; (5) direct conflict; (6) no support from authorities.Results further demonstrate that five factors hinder collaboration: (a) a lack of collaborative intent; (b) resistance; (c) limited competency; (d) discrepancies in positions/perspectives; (e) restrictions in culture.Strategies for overcoming challenges and further suggestions for training are provided.
Keywords: interdisciplinary collaboration, primary and secondary school systems, school guidance teacher, student counseling