How school counselors perceive students' underachievement

Abstract

Although providing support to underachievers has always been an important domain of activities of school counselors in school, there are almost no studies in our country that focus on the opinion of school counselors on the problem of underachievement. The aim of our research was to get acquainted with the meanings that school counselors ascribe to underachievement. The points of our interest were how school counselors define this phenomenon, how they describe an underachiever and what their experiences in working with these students are. The research sample was convenient and included 34 school counselors from 24 secondary schools in Serbia. We used a semi-structured interview, and qualitative thematic analysis was performed on the collected material. Research findings indicate that the majority of school counselors define underachievement as the lack of ability or readiness of individuals to respond to the demands set by school. When describing an underachiever a number of school counselors speak only about his/her behaviour, while a small number also mention the mechanisms underlying such behaviour. When it comes to their experience in working with underachievers, a considerable number of school counselors pointed to the complexity and delicacy of their own role in the process of selection of adequate support strategies. The obtained findings, among other things, suggest that it is necessary that school counselors re-examine those personal beliefs about underachieve­ment which can be a serious impediment to solving this problem.

Premda je podrška neuspešnim učenicima uvek bila jedan od važnih domena angažovanja stručnih saradnika u školi, u našoj sredini gotovo da ne postoje istraživanja u kojima se o problemu školskog neuspeha izjašnjavaju stručni saradnici. Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je da se upoznamo sa značenjima koja stručni saradnici pripisuju školskom neuspehu. Zanimalo nas je kako stručni saradnici definišu ovaj fenomen, kako opisuju neuspešnog učenika i kakva su njihova iskustva u radu sa ovim učenicima. Uzorak istraživanja je prigodan i čine ga 34 stručna saradnika iz 24 srednje škole u Srbiji. U istraživanju je primenjen polustrukturisani intervju, a na prikupljenom materijalu urađena je kvalitativna tematska analiza. Nalazi istraživanja pokazuju da najveći broj stručnih saradnika definiše školski neuspeh kao nedostatak sposobnosti ili nespremnosti pojedinaca da odgovore na postavljene školske zahteve. Opisujući neuspešnog učenika, veliki broj stručnih saradnika govori samo o njegovom ponašanju, dok je manji broj onih koji pominju i mehanizme koji su u osnovi tih ponašanja. U vezi sa svojim iskustvom u radu sa neuspešnim učenicima, značajan broj stručnih saradnika ukazuje na složenost i delikatnost sopstvene uloge u procesu izbora adekvatnih strategija podrške. Dobijeni nalazi, između ostalog, sugerišu da je potrebno da stručni saradnici preispitaju ona lična uverenja o školskom neuspehu koja ih ozbiljno mogu ometati u rešavanju ovog problema.