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Turki Alotaibi - Differentiating Cultural, Social, and Psychological Attitudes Towards School Counselling in Saudi Arabia
1. Differentiating Cultural, Social, and Psychological
Attitudes Towards School Counselling in Saudi Arabia
Turki Aziz M Al Otaibi
PhD Candidate, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, (United Kingdom)
Director of Student Counselling, Department of Education, Afif (Saudi Arabia)
Oral Presentation
InPACT
International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends
4 – 6 April 2014 (Porto, Portugal)
Differentiating Cultural, Social, and Psychological
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Attitudes Towards School Counselling in Saudi Arabia
2. • What is a counsellor?
Introduction
“A counsellor is someone who does his or her best to listen to you and work
with you to find the best ways to understand and resolve your problem.
Counsellors do not diagnose or label people, but instead do their best work
within whatever framework of under-standing makes sense for each client”
(Mcleod 2013, p.3).
• Research has demonstrated the effectiveness and benefits of different types
of psychotherapies to clients (Smith, Glass, and Miller, 1980).
• Counselling as a form of psychotherapy within schools:
– Helps to improve the overall attendance, attainment, and behaviour of students
(Pybis, Hill, Cooper, Cromarty, 2012);
– Positively impacts students’ learning and studying (Rupani, Haughey, and Cooper,
2012)
– Reduces psychological distress (McArthur, Cooper, and Berdondini, 2012);
– Is a prevalent form of psychological therapy for young people (around 70,000-
90,000 students seek school counselling per year) (BACP, 2013).
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3. • Aim:
Research Aim and Objectives
The main aim of the research study was to investigate and
explore the challenges and problems encountered by School
Counsellors (SCs) in secondary schools located in Afif (a city in
the Najd region of Saudi Arabia).
• Objectives:
– To explore the roles of the SC and school counselling from the point of
view of head teachers (HTs), teachers, parents, students, the Saudi
Ministry of Education (MoE), and SCs themselves.
– To examine the different cultural, social, and psychological (CSP)
attitudes towards school counselling that could be identified within the
context of school counselling.
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4. Research Design and Methods
Research Design:
• Flexible, exploratory, descriptive study (from 2008-2009).
• Reflects a lack of existing information and literature on school counselling in Saudi
Arabia, i.e. insufficient for pre-existing hypotheses or theory-driven research design.
Research Methods:
• MIXED METHODS used which involved the collection of both QUALITATIVE (open-ended)
and QUANTITATIVE (closed-ended) data in response to research questions or
hypotheses (Creswell 2013, p.217).
• The research used a total population of 44 (21 HTs and 23 school counsellors) based
in Afif secondary schools for boys (the Participants).
Qualitative Research Stage:
• Semi-structured interviews - five Participants drawn from secondary schools in Afif.
Quantitative Research Stage:
• Questionnaire distributed to a random sample of 12 HTs and 18 SCs.
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5. Discussion: Cultural attitudes towards school counselling
• Negative cultural attitudes towards school counselling and SCs.
• Less open and closed Saudi culture and society.
• Close tribal and familial bonds – privacy is respected and upheld.
• Dominant patriarchal and collectivist Saudi society and conservatism.
• HTs, teachers, parents, may see SCs as something new and ‘untested’.
• Lack of trust between students and SCs – seen as a ‘sign of weakness’.
• Saudi culture and tradition may make it difficult for SCs to be accepted.
• Hierarchical Saudi society means SCs need more support by MoE and HTs.
• Parents disapproved and not trusting of SCs.
• Interviewee C5: “we only see parents when their sons have a problem or
are in trouble”.
• Interviewee C4: “because of the culture and society in Saudi Arabia it is
common for parents to be uncomfortable with the involvement of the
counsellor in their son’s life because they are considered private for the
family” .
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6. Discussion: Social attitudes towards school counselling
• Mixed social attitudes towards school counselling and SCs.
• Some evidence of positive social attitudes of students towards SCs.
• Some evidence that HTs and teachers:
– Saw SCs as not professional, unqualified, lacking sufficient training;
– Misunderstood the role of SCs;
– Saw school counselling jobs as easy or undemanding.
• General lack of social, administrative, and financial support from:
– Saudi MoE;
– Schools, HTs, teachers, parents;
– Interviewee C1: “teachers think that the counsellor has an easy job with a comfortable office”;
– Interviewee C2: “the teachers consider that the role of the counsellors is to simply give out
punishments, if the student misbehaves or neglects their homework, they are referred to the
counsellor by the teacher”;
– Interviewee C3: “there is difficulty in the job because there are too many students to deal with
in the school”;
– Interviewee C4: “the budget allocated for counselling is not sufficient”.
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7. Discussion: Psychological attitudes towards school counselling
• Negative psychological attitudes towards school counselling and SCs.
• General lack of professional respect, communication, and support.
• Some evidence that SCs:
– Feel they are not taken seriously by HTs, teachers and parents;
– Feel unqualified and therefore not able to prepare adequately enough;
– Feel they have heavy workloads and a general lack of administrative support;
– May be viewed as not working hard or not achieving much by people in schools;
– Are not referred students by other teachers.
• Psychologically SCs may feel:
– UNQUALIFIED (lack of adequate training and/or support;
– UNPREPARED (lack of adequate training materials and/or guidance);
– DEMOTIVATED/DEMORALISED (negative perceptions; little professional recognition/acceptance);
– Interviewee C3: “There are those counsellors who are not motivated which can be detrimental to
their performance as student counsellors”;
– Interviewee C1: “Although there are counselling courses provided they do not last for a sufficient
amount of time and the materials provided are not suitable for the actual problems and objectives
that the counsellors must deal with”;
– Interviewee C1: “if we had more training then we would be more able to overcome the problems
that we encounter”.
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8. Conclusion
• The research study showed SCs in secondary schools in Afif faced
numerous difficulties which potentially obstructed their work and
psychoeducational approaches to school counselling.
• These were differentiated into key themes relating to CSP
attitudes:
– CULTURAL (negative views of SCs; lack of trust, acceptance and co-operation
from teachers and parents).
– SOCIAL (general social lack of understanding of SCs role; unqualified
SCs).
– PSYCHOLOGICAL (understaffed schools; unqualified and unprepared
SCs; burdened and de-motivated SCs).
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10. References
BACP (2013). School-based counselling – what it is and why we need it. (May), British Association for
Counselling and Psychotherapy
Creswell, J.W. (2013). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th edn
(SAGE Publications, Inc)
McArthur, K., Cooper, M. and Berdondini, L. (2012). 'School-based humanistic counselling for psychological
distress in young people: Pilot randomized controlled trial', Psychotherapy Research
Mcleod, J. (2013). An Introduction to Counselling. Berkshire: Open University Press
Pybis, J., Hill, A., Cooper, M. and Cromarty, K. (2012). 'A comparative analysis of the attitudes of key
stakeholder groups to the Welsh Government's school-based counselling strategy', 40(5) British Journal of
Guidance & Counselling, pp.485-498
Rupani, P., Haughey, N. and Cooper, M. (2012). 'The impact of school-based counselling on young people's
capacity to study and learn', 40(5) British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, pp.499-514
Smith, M., Glass, G. and Miller, T. (1980). The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins
University Press
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11. Differentiating Cultural, Social, and Psychological
Attitudes Towards School Counselling in Saudi Arabia
Turki Aziz M Al Otaibi
PhD Candidate, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, (United Kingdom)
Director of Student Counselling, Department of Education, Afif (Saudi Arabia)
Oral Presentation
InPACT
International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends
4 – 6 April 2014 (Porto, Portugal)
Differentiating Cultural, Social, and Psychological
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Attitudes Towards School Counselling in Saudi Arabia
Editor's Notes
POTENTIAL QUESTION AREAS
Quantitative Questionnaire Research Instrument:
Covered a broad range of potential problems encountered by SCs and used a closed-questionnaire format with a five-point scale (always, often, sometimes, rarely, never) as responses to various issues which were represented as ‘statements’.
Statements divided over four dimensions relating to problems encountered by school counsellors relating to: (1) the MoE; (2) the School Administration and teachers; (3) counsellors themselves; and (4) students and parents.
Areas for Future research into School Counselling in the KSA:
How counselling in schools should operate (official guidelines, use of case notes, confidentiality notices, feedback systems, parental interest and involvement).
Setting up a counselling service in schools.
Support by HTs and other Teachers.
Support by the Government of the KSA and by the MoE.
Procedures for employing a counsellor in a school (minimum qualifications, personal qualities, record checks, insurance issues).
Research Limitations:
Study was not longitudinal and not enough time spent to obtain a larger sample.
Gender separation in KSA meant that interviews were only carried out with males.
The focus of the study was limited to school counsellors working in secondary schools in Afif.
Obstacles:
Lack of support by HTs, students, parents, MoE, and general public.
Lack of awareness by everybody – no one talks about it.
Financial restrictions – lack of financial budgets; no training; no facilities.
Culture:
Saudi culture/tradition may make it difficult for school counsellors to be accepted.
Less open and hierarchical society – need more support by the MoE and HTs.
Helping SCs:
School counsellors need more help, more training, more money.
They need help and advice from other experienced counsellors.
Increased co-operation from other education institutions.
More training for student counsellors.
More qualified student counsellors.
More professional and academic research.
More administrative support.
Increased financial support.
Increased authority and autonomy.
Increased collaboration between counsellors.
Changes made as Director of Student Counselling in Afif:
All student counsellors in Afif have minimum educational qualifications, i.e. they have graduated in relevant counselling, psychology, or social work subjects.
Established a trial Centre for Counselling Services in one school so students, teachers, or parents can attend to obtain confidential counselling or guidance.
Established and distributed to schools a confidential email address for (both male and female) students, teachers, parents, or student counsellors to deal with any counselling issues in a private and confidential manner.
Established regular 1 week training courses offered every school semester to inform student counsellors about counselling, to undertake workshops, or to inform them about new counselling news, or new journals or magazines relating to student counselling, or to talk about school counselling issues.
