EP 222: GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

STELLA MARIS MTWARA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (STEMMUCO)
(A Constituent College of Saint Augustine University of Tanzania)
Faculty of Education
Department of Educational Foundations

•      EP 222: GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING 

1.1 Origin of Guidance and Counseling Practice in Pre-Colonial Era

Counseling in Tanzania occurred  in different forms and with different interpretations, has existed in societies for a long time before colonial era.

Guidance and counseling is not a new phenomenon in African societies. Traditional counseling has been there for from time immemorial, but professional guidance and counseling is fairly new everywhere compared with other professions (Biswalo, 1996).

•      Guidance existed in traditional African societies although it was not provided in a formal manner. In the traditional context, guidance involved educating the youth about the traditions and culture of the community(Mutie and kyungu, ).

There are no sufficient written sources about the origin of guidance and counseling practice in Tanzania. However, in each culture, there have been well established ways and methods of helping individuals with their problems.

But like other places before colonial era there were outstanding unique elements which held the societies together in their livelihood.

•      The elements included the village, the extended family system, the clan and the tribe, taboos, various forms of initiation and close links with ancestors and elders.

Basically, traditional chiefs had multiple roles which included serving as a symbol of authority and as a regulator. Since these roles were accepted and

respected by all, there was a clear direction in the day-to-day affairs of the society.

•      The elders and the chiefs were valuable source of guidance and counseling for boys and girls.

In most cases, the chiefs were regarded as a vital link between ancestors and the present generation. This link was strengthened by the rituals, ceremonies and taboos attached to them.

It was easy to guide and counsel the young, since the rituals or ceremonies were also aimed at preparing youth for adult roles in the society. The extended family, the clan, and the village made society supportive.

No individual who was regarded him/herself as alien. Counseling was readily sought and provided.

The forms of guidance and counseling involved were advice and sharing wisdom.

•      The development of Guidance and Counseling Practices in Tanzanian Schools during pre-colonial era

•      Guidance and counseling practices development in Tanzanian schools can be traced back from the time when vocational education was emerging right at the colonial period.

•      In the process of establishing counseling services in Tanzania, there was a need, first to understand the underlying factors that influence people's beliefs and perceptions about such practices.

•      However, this is thought that was not taken into consideration at the time and it may be up to recent time.

•      It is important to understand the economic, socio-political, religious beliefs, customs and traditions and cultural changes that are present in different regions of the country.

•      Young people should be understood within this context, but also within the contradictory situations of having the traditional and the modern world, but this is a big challenge to Tanzania and many developing African countries.

•      During colonial period

•      There were some forms of vocational guidance under the career guidance and it was administered by career masters. But the career masters who were selected by the head of schools had no professional training in vocational guidance.

•      In fact the duty was limited to help students to fill in employment forms and writing letters for application.

•      In the missionary schools vocational guidance was limited to religious services.

•      The teachers who were usually 'fathers', pastors, or reverends guided and trained spiritually motivated youths to become sisters, brothers, fathers and pastors upon their completion of formal education.

•      1.2 Guidance and Counseling practices in Tanzanian schools in Post-colonial era
(Development of Professional Counseling in Tanzania)

•      What we call professional guidance and counseling in Tanzania schools started in 1984 following the National October 1984 Arusha Conference, where guidance and counseling services were recognized by the government as integral part of the country’s education system (Biswalo, 1996).

•      The aim of the conference was to establish systematic criteria for secondary schools students’ guidance and counseling. Students were then advised, guided and counseled on matters concerning their job selection and student placement for further education.

•      This job was assigned to career masters and mistresses; still there were no sufficient guidance and counseling personnel not only in the responsible ministry but also in the schools.

•      Guidance and Counseling was becoming slowly institutionalized and spread in educational institutions. Schools for example, to a large extent have taken over the task of providing psychological support to boys and girls.

•      Biswalo (1996) commented that in Tanzania policies related to guidance and counseling are still lacking.

•      The ministry of Education, has somehow tried to institutionalize the service within the education system by appointing career masters and mistresses.

•      He continued by saying that the personnel were charged with the responsibility of advising heads of secondary schools concerning students job selection and student placement for further education.

•      To help students to understand and develop interests in appropriate jobs or further education or training; to assess the students’ talents and capabilities.

Also, to encourage them to pursue career or further education best suited to them and to help students solve their personal problems which may affect their general progress in school.

•      This was impossible and realistic burden on these untrained personnel.

•       It reflected the apathy of policy and decision makers regarding the new field of guidance and counseling in schools;

•      the strength of the myth of planned manpower in which career guidance was incorrectly regarded as redundant and the gross lack of trained personnel who were required to provide effective guidance and counseling services in schools.

•      It was unfortunate that even after the National October 1984 Arusha Conference on the strengthening of education in Tanzania, where guidance and counseling services were recognized by the government as

integral part of the country’s education system. The services are to-date still irregular and ineffective in Tanzania’s educational institutions.

•      Guidance and counseling in this manner is discussed by different scholars.

•      1.3  Guidance and counseling

•      Literally guidance means ‘to direct’, to point out’, to show the path’. It is the assistance or help rendered by a more experienced person to a less experienced person to solve certain major problems of the individual (less experienced) i.e. educational vocational, personal etc.

Biswalo (1996) defines guidance as the process of helping an individual to gain self-understanding and self-direction, to adjust maximally to the environment.

•      Guidance is the process of helping an individual to  understand and use the information wisely to adjust into the environment and live satisfactorily. It involves helping individuals to find out solutions for their problem by advising and directing people towards success (Sima, (2006) in Mwenda, 2014:1-2) .

•      Guidance is an act of showing the way for some people, like adolescents, who cannot find the right path.

•      Shertzer and Stone (1976) in Ojo and Rotimi(2014) define guidance as “a process of helping individuals to understand themselves and their world”. When a person understands who he or she is and his or her environment, positive adjustment will take place.

•      Denga (1983) in Mallum (2000) defines Guidance as; “A cluster of services aimed at helping a person to understand “self” and to take appropriate steps in educational, occupational and life planning generally”.

•      Guidance is giving directions to the lonely, confused, unloved, the suffering, the sick and the lost. It is pointing to some possibilities of thinking, feeling and acting.

•      Guidance is a lifelong process of directing or assisting an individual to understand and accept himself or herself so as to discover and develop his or her potentialities.

•      It is the process of helping an individual to recognize and use his inner resources, to set goals, to make plans, to work out his own problems hence to develop.

•      Guidance is a process of providing information that can be of assistance in decision making.

•      Guidance is a term used to mean the process of helping an individual to gain self-understanding and self-direction (self-decision making) so that he/she can adjust maximally to his home, school and community environment.

The following are some of the principles of guidance:

• Guidance deals with the development of the whole person. The guidance teacher should not only focus on the learners’ academic achievement, but should also help the individual to evaluate his or her development of different aspects such as social and physical aspects.
• Guidance is a lifelong process. The individual needs a continuous guidance process from early childhood throughout adulthood. Therefore, Parents, teachers and the community have a role to play in guiding the individual to acquire the right behavior and values.

•      Or guidance is a continuous process: this means that it is needed right from childhood, adolescence, adulthood and even into old age (Mwenda, 2014:2) .

• Acceptance of individual needs: guidance is based upon individual needs i.e. freedom, respect and dignity.
• Guidance involves using skills to communicate love, regard, respect for others.

•      Counseling

•      Counseling is a professional advice about a problem.

•      Counseling is a process which takes place when a counselor sees a client in a private and confidential setting to explore a difficulty the client is having, distress he may be experiencing or perhaps his dissatisfaction with life, or loss of a sense or direction and purpose.

•      Counseling is professional relationship between a counselor and client (s) always  in a private and confidential environment (Mwenda, 2014:4).

•      Idown (1986) in Ojo and Rotimi(2014) define “counseling as the process, by which a person with problems is helped by a professional counselor to voluntarily change his/her behavior, clarify his/her attitude, ideas and goals so that his/her problems may be solved. 

•      Pepinsky and Pepinsky (1954) in Rao (2008) state that counseling is the interaction which (1) occurs between two individuals called counselor and client, (2) takes place in a professional setting and (3) is initiated and maintained to facilitate changes in the behavior of a client.

Smith (1955) in Rao (2008) defines counseling as “a process in which the counselor assists the counselee to make interpretations of facts relating to a choice, plan or adjustments which he/she needs to make”.

NB:

•      The key to counseling is communication and the nature of the relationship between client and counselor.

•       Counseling depends solely on communication, hence counseling is said to be  “talking cure”.

•      The counseling relationship begins with a counselor and client meeting to focus attention on the client’s concerns. Thus, the counseling relationship is unique from other relationships such as teacher/student relationship, doctor/patient relationship, father/child relationship due to this focus.

•      Counseling is a professional service rendered by a trained and competent counselor to another person who is normal but is faced by a problem that he or she is struggling to cope with(Thungu et.al, 2010).

•      It is a face-to-face interaction between the counselor and the counselee (s).

•      The counselor listens to the counselee’s problem and offers suggestions to enable the individual come up with solution(s).

•      Counseling is increasingly being recognized as an important component of a teacher’s responsibilities because children learn better when they are free from worries (Thungu et.al, 2010).

Some of the basic concepts in counseling include:

• The counselor, also known as the facilitator or the helper. The counselor has expertise to guide or control the counseling process.
• The counselee- who is also known as the client. The counselee is the individual who needs help.
• Behavior- This refers to what the counselee does or say and their moods.
• Feelings-These are strong emotions such as hat or love.
• Therapy-This is the process of treatment or healing.
• Psychotherapy- This is the process of treatment or healing without the use of drugs or surgery.

•      Characteristics and skills of a Counselor

A good counselor should be:

• A good listener and good communicator.
• Respect to other person’s feelings and point of view.
• Kind, caring and understanding,
• Trustworthy and respectful of people’s confidentiality.
• Relaxed and calm.
• Warm and approachable.
• The ability to motivate and inspire clients.

1.4 The need for counseling services in Tanzanian schools today

•      The need for counseling services in Tanzanian  secondary schools were due to the deterioration of student behaviors since the introduction of western education. Students became divorced from their traditional culture. Thus,  the provision guidance helped whenever they encountered problems.

This alienation from their cultural norms, values, and beliefs led to behavioral problems among many students.

•      The above reason, together with ever growing complexity of society in Tanzania, together with social problems like HIV/AIDS and the rapid development of science and technology, place heavy demands on education.

•      The school as an important social institution, was required to adapt quickly to change patterns, and help to prepare citizens for tomorrow's challenges.

•      Thus, guidance and counseling in the educational system should help boys and girls similarly, to develop their capacities and their interest. These include intellectual, social, physical and moral capacities.

•      This help is of the most important in Tanzania as long as the history, age of education provision and in its systems found today.

•      Guidance and counseling is a recent development in education that has been necessitated by the diverse global developments and changes.

•      In Kenya for example, guidance and counseling has become a more relevant and effective means of addressing learners’ needs and disciplinary problems after the banning of corporal punishment in schools (Thungu et.al, 2010).

Some of the major problems in Tanzanian schools requiring counseling services include:

1. Social problems include:

• Difficulties in associating with others, both at school and outside the school environment.
• Problem of relating to peers of opposite sex.
• Problems of finding intimate friends and acquaintances.
• Conflicts of all kinds among individuals and communities.
• Problems of losing loved ones leading to pain and bereavement.
• Problems of coping with being in an orphanage after loosing parents/guardians.

2. Educational problems such as:

•  Lack of study skills.
• Problems of choosing subjects and combinations.
• Poor skills in taking notes.
• Problems related to writing examinations.
• Problems related to poor performance.
• Problems of preparing study timetable.
• Poor time management.
• Problems in conducting group discussion.
• Problems in formulating study groups.
• Problems in choosing schools.

•      3. Vocational problems

• Problems of career choices.
• Problems of matching the subject of study with future careers.
• Problems of planning a career.

4. Health problems

•      Problems of frequent illness.

• Problem of incurable diseases.
• Problems of handling the sick ones.

5.Adolescent’s Specific Problems.

6. Relationship problems:

Learners experience interpersonal relationships problems. These problems are linked to the relationship between learners and teachers, learners and parents and among the learners.

•      Learners require guidance on how to choose good friends. They should also be advised about how to deal with peer pressure. Teachers and parents should help the learners to identify and nurture their talents for individual fulfillment and actualization. 

•      One of the challenges facing learners during adolescent is relationships with the opposite sex. Parents and teachers should advise learners about how to create meaningful and healthy relationships.

•      Unhealthy relationships  result in emotional, psychosocial  and health problems that hamper effective learning.

•       

•      All these problems need proper counseling for students to cope in the school and home environment.

•      Several times parents do not manage to talk with their children at adolescents stage but they can be assisted by skilled counselors in schools and in the community.

•      Both parents and counselors need to learn to be good listeners for hidden feelings because, at times, students have difficulty saying exactly what they mean or are afraid to talk about certain things.

•      Counselors and parents must not be judgmental but let students express their feelings, as by so doing they avoid cutting off communication.

Guidance and counseling in schools may be affected by the following factors:

•      Lack of trained  teacher-counselors and appropriate counseling knowledge and skills.

•      Lack of convenient resources, such as an office for use.

•       

•      Lack of support from the school administration.

•      Lack of support from other teachers.

•      Conflict of roles.

•      Inadequacy of time.

•      Negative attitudes towards counseling.

   1.5   Abnormal behavior

Abnormal behaviors are those behaviors that one does which other people around him/her find not normal or not used to.

•      For example in most but not all African societies, a woman to wear trousers is regarded as abnormal, a girl to be close to her father meaning to talk and discuss issues.

For a University Lecturer who is not  able to use the computer, or   someone who do not have a mobile phone for contact/communication.

Sources of abnormal behaviors

1. Cultural customs and traditions.
2. Biological make-up (hormonal imbalance).
3. Societal beliefs.
4. Personal reasons.

6. Religious beliefs.

7. Science and technology era.

1.6  Expectations of different individuals regarding counseling
Expectations of different individuals vary significantly. These expectations may not always be in agreement with the goals and objectives of counseling.

•      Most of the individuals expect counseling to better their life patterns and help them to adjust and change situations. But in general counselees usually expect counseling to provide solutions to their problems.

•      However, problems of counselees could be of diverse in nature; personal, social, academic, vocational and so on.

•      The expectations naturally vary with the nature of the problems.

•      In some cases variations of expectations result from lack of adequate and proper understanding and appreciation of counseling goals.

•      But, what is most significant in practical all cases is that clients with their diverse expectations are impatient but they want immediate solutions to their problems.

•      Some of the factors that cause specific expectations of a client to counseling:

1. Clients seeking external assistance, to find solutions to their problems sometimes before any of their efforts to solve their problems.

2. Clients striving solving their problems primarily through self improvement.

3. Clients having expectations arising from their past experiences.

4. Clients having expectations that are simple and therefore easy to accomplish.

5. Clients having high expectations which are impossible to achieve.

Examples of expectations
1. Students with study problems expect counseling to help them to achieve better in academic performance that would satisfy their teachers and parents.

2. Individuals experiencing anxieties expect to be relieved of their stress and be helped in their uncertainties, hence they make correct choice through counseling.

3. Those seeking employment expect counseling to secure them quick placement and enable them to attain job satisfaction and rapid rise.

4. Parents believe that counseling has an influential function and expect it to help in the educational and vocational development of their children.

5. Also, parents expect counseling to remedy many of their children’s deficiencies.

6. It is also not common among teachers to assume that counseling identifies and fosters talent.

7. School and college administrators expect counseling services to help in the efficient functioning of their institutions by reducing conflicts and friction among the personnel.

•      They also expect counseling to remove inefficient learning practices among the pupils. Thus, they expect it to remedy each and every educational difficulty.

•      Failure to understand the basic nature of counseling has led to unrealistic demands, annoying and disappointments.

•      Counseling, if properly appreciated and understood, would help dispel most of the false expectations and foster healthy attitudes towards counseling in society, which in turn would help in the efficient functioning of counseling.

           

NOTE: We expect counseling to serve disciplinary purposes in schools and colleges.

•       It should be said that counseling can help those who are prepared to help themselves and those who want to be helped, but it cannot change human nature magically.

 

•       Counseling goals
Counseling to be meaningful has to be specific for each client, since it involves his/her unique problems and expectations.

•      A statement of goals is not only important but also necessary, because it provides a sense of direction and purpose. Additionally, it is necessary for a meaningful evaluation of the usefulness of it.

•      It is only in terms of the defined goals that it is possible to judge the meaningfulness or any activity, including counseling. It establishes a congruency between what is demanded or sought and what is possible or practical.

Three common categories of goals:

1. Immediate goals
2. Long-range goals
3. Process goals 

1. Immediate goals

These refer to the statement of problem for which the client is seeking solution, here and now. 

•      These are for the purpose of obtaining relief for the client. The client fails to utilize his/her capacities fully and effectively and therefore, is unable to function efficiently.

•      The counselee could be helped to gain full self- understanding through self- exploration and to appreciate his/her strengths and weaknesses.

•      The counselor should provide necessary information. However, comprehensive information may not be useful to the client unless he/she has an integrative understanding of himself, his personal resources and his environment.  

 2. Long range goals
The long range goals are those that reflect the philosophy of life and they  make a counselee a fully-functioning person.

•      The long range goals are: self-actualization, self-realization, self-enhancement etc. The client may have certain inhibiting and self-destructive patterns of behavior which are eliminated and overcome to enable the individual become a fully-functioning person.

3. Process goals

•      These have great significance. They shape the counselee and counselor's interrelations and behavior. The process goals comprise facilitating procedures for enhancing the effectiveness of counseling. These are the basic counseling dimensions which are essential conditions for counseling to take place.

•      They comprise empathic understanding, warmth and approachability which provide inter-personal exploration, which in turn, helps the client in his/her exploration and self-understanding and eventually lead to the long-rang goals.

NOTE:

Immediate goals and long-range goals; both depend on the process goals for their realization.

Distinguished counseling goals according to Parloff (1961):

1.      Immediate goals

•      These refer to the steps and stages in the counseling process which lead to the realization of the Ultimate goals.

•      They are referred to the present intentions of the counselee. These comprise the reduction of anxiety, feeling of hostility, undesirable habits etc.

•      The immediate goals of counseling are to motivate a potential counselee to make an appointment with a counselor and go through the counseling process till the goals are realized.

2. Intermediate goals

•      They explain the reasons of seeking counselor's service.

3. Ultimate goals

•      They refer to the broad and general long-term outcomes like positive mental health or psychological effectiveness.

Some examples of major goals of counseling

1. Achievement of Positive Mental health

•      The prevention of emotional tensions, anxieties, indecisions and the like, will make one to adjust and respond more positively to people and situations and gives one the positive feelings of warmth and of being liked. 

2.Resolution of Problems

•      This is an outcome of the former goal and it implies altering maladaptive behavior, learning how to involve in the decision making process and preventing problems.

3. Improving Personal Effectiveness

•      This is making a person able to commit himself to work, investing time and energy and willing to take appropriate risks. A person is able to reason, to think consistently and within his/her typical role situation. He is able to think critically and become creative. Thus, he/she will improve personal effectiveness.

4. It Helps to make Changes

•      This is to maximize individual freedom to choose and act within the conditions imposed by the environment. One focuses on the mechanism of change and lead to personal development.

5. Decision Making

•      This is to make an individual to learn what is needed in making choice as the decisions are counselee's own and he is responsible for himself. The counselee should know how and why he makes the concerned decision. The individual is to evaluate, make, accept and act upon the choice he/she has made.

6. Modification of Behavior

•      This implies removal of undesirable behavior or action or reduction of frustrating symptoms such that the individual attains satisfaction and effectiveness.