2008 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 194-209
Since 2004, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been implementing the placement of “Counselors for Children and Parents” in elementary schools as government-commissioned research project to prefectures. This report is a practical case study by the authors who have worked as the Counselor in the project. Their activities in the past two years as the Counselor are able to be divided into six phases: “preparation”, “new entry”, “struggle”, “opening the counseling room”, “utilizing the counseling room”, and “establishment”. During the activities, three major features have been also determined. First of all, with the needs assessments of pupils, managements, and teachers, the activities of the Counselors had been developed to meet their changing needs. Secondly, the Counselors had played a role of partners for teachers to understand their pupils, as well as aid providers for pupils when they need assistance. Finally, as the third feature, the Counselors had collaborated with the school counselor and formed a “counselor group”. One factor that led their activity to have these features is that the school had groundwork for accepting new projects proactively with its small size and the active interaction culture the school had. Another factor is that the Counselors have worked on needs assessment and shared the information each other. Additionally, presence of the school counselor who have served as mediator between the teachers and the Counselors is one of the factors as well. Sharing information with teachers, however, left some issues because of the limited time of the activities.
