Leadership in career guidance at the upper elementary school level in the absence of professional guidance personnel

Abstract

Many school districts in Texas are not able to employ, nor do they all qualify for guidance personnel at both the elementary and secondary levels, under the Texas Minimum Foundation School Law. Therefore, it becomes important to determine, of the school personnel available in the upper elementary grades, the most effective person to give leadership in career guidance. The primary objective of the study was to determine the most effective person to provide leadership in career guidance programs at the upper elementary school level in the absence of professional guidance personnel. An opinionnaire designed for this study was administered to teachers and principals of grades six, seven, and eight in five school districts located in different geographic locations of Texas. The opinionnaire consisted of 26 career tasks; respondents were asked questions concerning their qualifications, the importance and feasibility of the tasks to their school situation, and the identification of the person primarily responsible for performing each program task. A comparison was made of the two responding groups and the schools on the issue of qualifications, importance, feasibility, and program responsibilities. In the opinions of the teacher and principal groups of the participating districts, the principals were better qualified overall than the teachers to perform the 26 career guidance tasks. The most important and the most feasible tasks were identified for each geographical region identified in this research. Responsibility of performance lay with both the teacher and principal. In the school districts studied, it was found that the principals were better qualified than the teachers on seven tasks. Teachers were equally qualified on many tasks, but they were not better qualified for performance of any task than was the principal..