Social Power In School Consultations

Author(s):

Tereza Vychopňová(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Poster

Session Information

ERG SES D 08, Poster Session

Poster Session

Time:

2015-09-07

13:30-15:00

Room:

326. [Main]

Chair:

Sabine Krause

Contribution

A number of consultations are held at schools, which are attended not only by students, but also other members of school. Many duties are given to teachers and schools today, as a result of diversity of pupils, demands for quality of teaching and innovations. This results in a fact that many teachers cannot do without cooperation with a specialist. To speak about consultations we can mention teacher-teacher relation, school management-teacher relation and a specialist (school psychologist) – teacher. Probably the most important aspect of counselling is that the specialist is the one to understand the problems of the teacher and tries to help the teacher so that his/her work becomes easier. Generally, counselling is taken as an effective and positive tool for providing counselling services

There are many concepts within school counselling which are applicable for all ‘helping’ professions, including the concept of social power. The concept of social power in connection with school counselling thus became a theoretical framework in this field. Foreign literature of last decades presents research initiatives focused on school counselling about gender, effectiveness and the use of social power. Although the counselling is described from many points of view, the role of social power within the context of school counselling represents an information gap. That is why it was an inspiration for my research.

Now a question arises: Why is the study of social power important? The importance of social power for counselling is unquestionable because it is a main construct of all interpersonal relations – including the ones happening during counselling. It is, therefore, interesting to see, how effective different types of social power within school psychologist counselling are.

Method

Primary aim of the study was to determine which types of social power were perceived as effective during consultation between psychologist and teacher, and then to compare them with data obtained from the already implemented research abroad. In the context of study’s goal, following research question was defined as “What types of social power are in consultation between a school psychologist and a teacher perceived as the most effective”. The research sample was drawn from a group of school psychologists and teachers in primary and secondary schools. There were 161 respondents, of which 36 were school psychologists and 125 teachers. For realization of the research, quantitative approach was chosen. The measurement of social power (better to say measurement of individual types of social power), a tool or questionnaire called Interpersonal Power Inventory (hereinafter IPI) (Raven, 1992), which was primarily used for the perception of the effectiveness of 11 forms of social power, was used. Subsequently, IPI was also used to assess the relationship between the teacher and school psychologist. The questionnaire IPI has undergone several modifications, which arose from the last two versions of the questionnaire. The first version of the IPI is for the Consultant (hereinafter IPI-Form CT; designated for school psychologist), which was created in order to determine the perception of social power by school psychologists during consultations with the teacher. In parallel, it was designed a second version IPI-Form Consultee (hereinafter IPI-Form CE, designed for teachers) to assess how teachers perceive the effectiveness of the use of social power which school psychologist apply during a joint consultation (Erchul, Raven & Whichard, 2001). IPI is formed by a total of 44 entries, which means that each four items refer to each of the 11 social powers. Each of these forms belongs to the specific type of power. This includes the following types: expert, reference, information, legitimate, reward, coercive power (Raven, 1992). The respondents use used seven-point Likert scale from "totally agree" to "strongly disagree" to complete the questionnaire.

Expected Outcomes

There are different opinions referring importance of social power in school consultation. To a certain extent, differences are based on dissimilar perception of cooperation during consultation. Some “actors” of consultation may perceive a school psychologist behavior during consultation as a part of it, other actors may perceive it vice versa. Counseling relation between a school psychologist and a teacher should be based on cooperation and mutual interaction. Social power bears upon it – social power is a keystone of every interpersonal relation (Getty & Erchul, 2009). The research outcomes say following findings. From a gender point of view, soft power predominated to women. Women perceive soft powers as a more effective. Women use praise and rational approach more often while informing other party of consultation (information power), empathy, kindness and need to reward is typical, what is mould of reward power (Getty & Erchul, 2009). Generally, women negatively perceive power. This results are similar to outcomes of foreign researches. For example, another finding was the existence of connection between profession and perception of soft strategies as effective strategies. The school psychologists and the teachers considered soft strategies more effective. There is more than one reason why school psychologists prefer soft strategies. First explanation could be, for example, preservation of positive relation with teacher, ethical questions etc. (Wilson, Erchul & Raven, 2008). Even those results answer to foreign researches findings.

References

Adamská, I. (2006). Školní psycholog na základní škole. Zpravodaj pedagogicko-psychologické poradenství, 45, 45-50. Erchul, W. P. (1999). Two steps forward, one step back: collaboration in school-based consultation. Journal of School Psychology, 37, 191-203. Erchul, W. P., & Martens, B. K. (2010). School consultation: conceptual and empirical bases of practice. New York: Springer. Erchul, W. P., & Raven, B. H. (1997). Social power in school consultation: a contemporary view of French and Raven´s bases of power model. Journal of School Psychology, 35(2), 137-171. Erchul, W. P., Raven, B. H., & Ray, A. G. (2001). School psychologists´ perceptions of social power bases in teacher consultation. Journal of educational and psychological consultation, 12(1), 1-23. Erchul, W. P., Raven, B. H., & Whichard, S. M. (2001). School psychologist and teacher perceptions of social power in consultation. Journal of School Psychology, 39(6), 483-497. Erchul, W. P., Raven, B. H., & Wilson, K. E. (2008). The relationship between gender of consultant and social power perceptions within school consultation. School Psychology Review, 33(4), 582-590. Getty, K. C., & Erchul, W. P. (2009). The influence of gender on the likelihood of using soft social power strategies in school consultation. Psychology in the Schools, 46(5), 447-458. Lazarová, B. (2008). Netradiční role učitele: o situacích pomoci, krize a poradenství, ve školní praxi. Brno: Paido. Medway, F. J. (197). How effective is school consultation? A review of recent research. Journal of School Psychology, 17, 275-282. Pol. M., & Lazarová, B. (1999). Spolupráce učitelů – podmínka rozvoje školy: řízení spolupráce, konkrétní formy a nástroje. Praha: Strom. Raven, B. H. (1992). A power/interaction model of interpersonal influence: French and Raven thirty years later. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7, 217-244. Štech, S., & Zapletalová, J. (2013) Úvod do školní psychologie. Praha: Portál. Štech, S. (1998). Profesní identita školního psychologa. Školský psychológ, 2(8), 26-32. Švaříček, R., & Šeďová, K. (2007). Kvalitativní výzkum v pedagogických vědách. Praha: Portál. Wilson, K, E., Erchul, W. P., & Raven, B. H. (2008). The likelihood of use of social power strategies by school psychologists when consulting with teachers. Journal Educational and Psychological Consultation, 18, 101-123. Zapletalová, J. (2001). Metodika práce školních psychologů na ZŠ a SŠ. Praha: Projekt MŠMT Institut pedagogicko-psychologického poradenství ČR. Zapletalová, J. (2011). Návrh koncepce poradenských služeb poskytovaných ve škole.

Author Information

Tereza Vychopňová (presenting / submitting)

Masaryk university

Faculty of Arts, Department of Educational Sciences

Brno

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