| The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the supervisor of counseling and guidance as perceived by practicing school counselors, superintendents of education, and supervisors of counseling and guidance in Alabama. In addition, a set of professional role expectations was developed to assist superintendents in establishing or modifying existing job duties and responsibilities of supervisors of counseling and guidance.The questionnaire, the Supervisory Role Perception Inventory, was submitted to 26 superintendents of education, 28 supervisors of counseling and guidance, and 458 guidance counselors in Alabama. Role expectations that received 50% or more responses as essential and desirable were included in the developed role expectations. The developed role expectations were submitted, in questionnaire form, to the superintendents participating in the study to determine their perceived practicability.As a result of the study, a composite list of 33 role expectations of a system-level supervisor of counseling and guidance was identified as both desirable and practical. Additionally, five criteria items for the selection of supervisors of counseling and guidance and six theoretical assumptions underlying human resources supervision were verified. The study provided the basis for recommending that: (a) the role expectations established should be implemented (b) further study should be pursued to include perceptions of school principals and (c) further study should be undertaken to determine the feasibility of combining general supervision of instruction and supervision of counseling and guidance.To achieve the purpose of the study, literature on supervision of guidance with emphasis on the role performed by supervisors of counseling and guidance on the system level was reviewed. Current supervisory assumptions and practices, human resources supervision, also were studied. A questionnaire was developed to contain professional role expectations and contemporary theoretical assumptions of supervision. |
