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Supporting pupils: A study of guidance and pupil support in Scottish schools

2: Issues from the literature

2.1 Introduction

This chapter looks at existing research on guidance; the history of guidance in Scotland; and current issues which affect guidance in order to set the context for this current study. Perspectives gained from international literature are presented in Appendix A2.

2.2 Previous reviews of UK research

The most recent review of guidance in the UK was undertaken by Best (2002) for the British Educational Research Association. It should, however, be noted that this review is heavily biased towards articles which have appeared in the journal Pastoral Care in Education. As a result of this it tends to under-represent areas such as citizenship, health education, and careers guidance. The review tends merely to list articles which have covered topics and there is relatively little attempt at a synthesis of the findings. Best (2002) adopts a model of five 'pastoral tasks'. These are:

reactive pastoral casework

proactive, preventive pastoral care

developmental pastoral curricula

the promotion and maintenance of an orderly and supportive environment

the management and administration of pastoral care.

The available evidence is summarised by Best under five main headings (also included in Figure 2.1 below):

The clients' view

This section reports research on: pupil perspectives on transfer; pupil stress and anxiety; religious education; spiritual and moral development; general perspectives on schooling; group dynamics, interaction and self-esteem.

Pastoral casework

This section reports research on reactive responses to problems. These may include counselling, peer support etc. The review reports research on topics including: parental illness; bereavement; parental separation; examination-related stress; sexual abuse; children in care; bullying.

Pastoral curriculum

This section reports research on programmes of tutorial work; PSE; careers and vocational education; citizenship education; religious education and spirituality; sex education; health education; drugs education; death education; the relationship between pastoral care and academic support (but this amounts to little more than reports of study skills courses).

Control/Discipline

This section reports research on: rewards and punishments; suspension and exclusion.

Figure 2.1: Map of the field of research in pastoral care and PSE (Best, 2002)

Pastoral management

This section reports on 'research related to the pastoral organisation in schools' covering: 'vertical' versus 'horizontal' systems; the 'pastoral/academic split'; roles of pastoral staff (tutors etc); pupil perspectives on those roles and structures; training and support for pastoral roles (including its neglect within ITE, and the non-impact of the National Curriculum).

Elsewhere Lang (1994) has argued that there is a lack of a 'theoretical construct and an accepted definition of pastoral care', and that this has resulted in a lack of clarity about its relationship with personal and social education. Most of the work of pastoral care teachers is reactive rather than proactive, as they struggle to respond to events (Lang, 1994).

2.3 Guidance in Scotland

There have been several brief overviews of the history of guidance in Scotland (Ashton, 1986; GTC, 1998; McLaren, 1999, 2003). In 1986 Ashton listed the major milestones in the development of guidance in Scotland up to that time:

Ashton noted that there were two 'broad categories' of organisational structure for guidance systems:

vertical ('house') system in which guidance staff followed the same group of pupils as they progressed through the school

horizontal ('year') system in which guidance staff took responsibility for individual year groups.

Sometimes various combinations of these were found (eg by using upper, middle, and lower school divisions).

More Than Feelings of Concern (Scottish Central Committee on Guidance, 1986) is one of the key documents in the history of guidance in Scotland. This document outlined eight objectives for guidance in schools. These were:

'to ensure that each pupil knows and is known personally and in some depth by at least one member of staff'

'to consider the pupil's personal, social and intellectual development'

'to help the pupil to be aware of his [sic] own development and to accept responsibility for it'

'to identify and respond quickly and appropriately to the specific needs of the individual'

'to foster the development of good relations between teachers and pupils'

'to work well with the home in all aspects of pupil development'

'to liaise with support and welfare services'; and

'to systematise and make effective the recording and communication of information relevant to the welfare of individual pupils'.

More Than Feelings of Concern also established time allocations for guidance which have tended to be interpreted as the equivalent of 40 minutes per week for every 15 pupils of caseload. It also referred to guidance as a whole school responsibility.

In 1996 HMI reiterated the importance of these objectives. They also noted that the number of guidance posts in schools varied, as did expectations regarding the qualifications required by guidance staff, and the allocation of time for guidance duties. They reported on the existence of both 'horizontal' and 'vertical' guidance structures and counselled that 'in the light of recent and future developments in Scottish education, the advantages of a vertical structure have become more compelling' (HMIS, 1996). This HMI report also stressed that all teachers have a guidance role to play, and that there was a need for closer links between guidance and learning support services within schools. In the view of HMI, the basic elements of guidance were:

• personal guidance: pastoral care
• curricular guidance
• careers guidance
• personal guidance: individual support and counselling
• education for personal and social development
• promoting partnership (with parents, other agencies, employers, FE and HE; and
• management and quality assurance.

Also published in 1996 was the report of a major research study into guidance in Scottish secondary schools by Howieson and Semple (Howieson & Semple, 1996a, b, c, d). This was based on analysis of data from the Scottish Young People's Survey and on work in six schools. Howieson and Semple (1996a) reports that:

• None of the project schools carried out systematic, comprehensive evaluations of pupils' needs.
• There was a link between a better pupil:guidance teacher time allocation and the effectiveness of provision.
• None of the project schools had a comprehensive system for monitoring the everyday work of guidance teachers.
• There was some reluctance to accept the need to manage guidance and to recognise the value of management to the guidance process.
• First level guidance was limited.
• Staff acknowledged difficulties in the design and development of PSE.
• Parents wanted a better understanding of how to use the guidance system and the chance to build up a relationship with their child's guidance teacher.
• Parents wanted more regular and more detailed information about their child's personal and social development as well as their academic progress.
• Pupils' opinions and experiences of guidance depended heavily on their particular guidance teacher.
• In the view of most pupils, guidance is clearly associated with those in trouble or those with problems.
• There is a lack of integration in the curricular and vocational guidance provided to pupils by guidance and other teachers and by careers officers.
• Pupils and parents were not satisfied with the Careers Service interview system.
• Careers officers were not well integrated into the school and guidance system.
• Despite its aim of supporting every pupil, guidance provision concentrated on the problem pupils.

Howieson and Semple also found that pupils strongly support the guidance system, but found guidance teachers inaccessible because of limited time and large caseloads. They felt that guidance teachers concentrated on pupils in trouble or with problems. '... teachers tended to think that they had a better relationship with pupils than the pupils did.' Pupils agreed with the topics covered in PSE, but did not think they were taught in relevant or interesting ways. Pupils did not feel they got enough curricular help in fourth and fifth year (Howieson & Semple, 1996d). Howieson and Semple's later work has stressed the contribution which pupils can make to the evaluation of guidance procedures in their schools (Howieson & Semple, 2000).

In 1998 the GTC published Making the Difference: A GTC Report on the Professional Needs of Guidance Teachers which confirmed the need for 'a high degree of professional specialisation' in guidance, and supported the view that all teachers have a guidance role to play. The GTC affirmed that a basic course in guidance should be a minimum requirement for teachers appointed to promoted posts in guidance (GTC, 1998).

Other issues continue to have an influence on guidance. In 1999 McLaren noted that the introduction of Higher Still was having a impact on the balance of work of guidance staff, and that it had 'missed an opportunity' to group together guidance, PSE, and learning/behaviour support. Then in 2000, the McCrone Report, and the subsequent agreement, A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century, which arose from it, suggested a restructuring of promoted posts within schools which would involve the abolition of Assistant Principal Teacher (APT) posts (McCrone, 2000). Since many guidance staff were appointed as APTs this had implications for the delivery of guidance.

In 2001 the Scottish Executive published the report of its Discipline Task Group which made two recommendations which had a direct bearing on guidance:

(Recommendation 19) 'Schools should give consideration to integrating the work of learning support, behaviour support and guidance into a single overall framework of pupil support in order to achieve a more holistic approach to supporting the needs of all children and young people.'

(Recommendation 21) 'There should be a comprehensive review of the nature and purpose of guidance, both at primary and secondary school levels, and of the training of guidance staff.'

(Scottish Executive, 2001)

The Discipline Task Group explained recommendation 21 in paragraph 5.5 of their report:

… the demands on the nature of the work of guidance staff in supporting the pastoral needs of a wide range of pupils and families, particularly those with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, has increased significantly. Guidance staff increasingly carry a much greater caseload of pupils requiring intensive support. This can often have a detrimental effect on their wider responsibilities for curricular and vocational guidance. There must be a review of the role and purpose of guidance in secondary schools. Also, given our findings relating to the importance of early intervention at nursery and primary schools, consideration should be given to a level of guidance provision in primary schools.

(Scottish Executive, 2001)

The GTC had also been examining the role of guidance in the primary school and produced a report in the same year which included in its twenty-five recommendations the introduction of designated guidance posts in primary schools. They suggested that this might be linked to the new posts of principal teacher to be introduced in primary schools post-McCrone. In general they felt that there was a need for a more structured approach to guidance in the primary school (GTC, 2001).

The Scottish Executive, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, and the Association of Directors of Social Work also produced in 2001 a joint action plan in which they announced their intention to create a single support framework incorporating learning and behaviour support and guidance (Scottish Executive et al, 2001). The review of guidance suggested by the Discipline Task Group would inform this development. Meanwhile local authorities were beginning to respond to the McCrone Report, and its implications for guidance. So, for example, North Lanarkshire recommended establishing 'pupil support teams' which would cover pastoral, curricular, careers, behaviour, and learning support (Advisory Group on the Delivery of Guidance, 2002).

McLaren, reviewing the present situation of guidance, identified the major current issue facing guidance as 'the McCrone Report's failure to include guidance in its deliberations'. There had been no indication of how guidance was to be structured. APT posts were to disappear, and McLaren speculated that this might lead to the creation of full-time guidance posts, but stressed that this would require good 'first-level guidance' from other staff, and had implications for the training of guidance staff. He suggested links between guidance and learning and behaviour support to create a 'pupil support' role (McLaren, 2003). These issues have raised concerns that have spilled over into the press. So, for example, Cairney has expressed worries that guidance staff are not being appointed in senior positions and that, with the removal of APT posts, guidance will increasingly be undertaken by untrained staff (Cairney, 2003). Scott, on the other hand, has argued for all teachers to take more responsibility for guidance (Scott, 2003). Meanwhile Boyd and Lawson have reported some research with pupils in one local authority where the pupils say that they value the input of guidance staff but do not believe that all teachers have the personal qualities required to fulfil a guidance role (Boyd & Lawson, 2003). Such concerns will no doubt remain until the review of guidance is complete and there is a clearer picture of the future structure of guidance provision in Scottish schools.

2.4 'Fault lines' in guidance

We end as we began, with a brief look at an overview of guidance in the United Kingdom. In 2000, Watts and Kidd outlined a history of 'guidance' in the United Kingdom (although the emphasis was firmly on England and Wales) which traced the roots of guidance structures in schools to the house system in independent schools and identified a number of 'fault lines' which continue to influence the forms and functions of guidance in schools (Watts & Kidd, 2000). Guidance has developed from two quite separate traditions - that of career guidance, and that of 'counselling' - and the relationship between guidance and counselling remains problematic (and brings with it the problem of the relationship between guidance and discipline). The traditional three-part division of guidance into educational, vocational, and personal aspects remains, and continues to generate tensions. Similarly, the delivery of guidance may be a responsibility of all teachers, concentrated in the hands of a number of specialised teachers who also retain a 'normal' teaching function; or it may delegated to full-time specialists, who may be internal or external to the school. It may be reactive or proactive, remedial or preventative. Watts and Kidd summarise these challenges:

... a number of potential 'fault lines' ... can be identified, which have been the source of professional contestation within the guidance field and of lay confusion outside it. Five are particularly noteworthy: between personal, educational and vocational guidance; between directive and non-directive approaches; between separate and integrated approaches; between reactive and proactive approaches; and between guidance and placement.

(Watts & Kidd, 2000)

In one way or another, all these issues appear in the international literature which is reviewed in Appendix A2. They are not confined to any one national system.

In the context of careers guidance, Kann (1988) presented a model of 'four approaches to careers education' which derives from Watts and Herr (1976). This model is equally applicable to any form of guidance and locates the 'directive/non-directive' dilemma on two dimensions: whether the intervention is designed to foster change or maintain the status quo; and whether the intervention focuses on the individual or on society as a whole. Differing locations on these dimensions can lead to very different forms of intervention.

Figure 2.2: 'Four approaches to careers education' (Kann, 1988) (adapted from (Watts & Herr, 1976))

One can see that there would be a tendency for those approaches which are diagonally opposite to be most compatible (that is, there can be a focus on changing the individual to fit into an unchanging society, or a focus on changing society to suit the unchanging individual) though other combinations of approach are also possible. While this framework was devised for careers guidance, it could also be applied to other forms of intervention. One could argue that much 'guidance' in schools has been focused on changing the individual to fit the social status quo. Differences in basic assumptions about the most appropriate approach to take underlie much of the tension which is sometimes felt between 'guidance' and 'counselling'.

Closely allied to the 'guidance/counselling' division is the problem of the relationship between guidance and discipline. Best (1994) has examined the relationship between pastoral care and discipline from a symbolic interactionist perspective (Best, 1994). (Symbolic interactionism, in an educational context, implies that 'classroom interaction is to be understood in terms of the perspectives of the actors, the definitions they make of the situation, the presence and expected attitudes of "significant others", and the more or less shared meanings of significant gestures and significant symbols' (Best, 1994).) Best argues that schools need to be ordered and disciplined communities, but they also need to care for their members (in this case individual pupils). There has been, he argues, a recurring tendency for pastoral care to become a means of disciplining individuals:

There is nothing new in thinking of problems of discipline and control as somehow the province of pastoral care. It was a major feature of the critique of the late 1970s ... that the rhetoric of concern for children's personal, social and emotional well-being concealed a less palatable reality. In fact, what teachers in posts of 'pastoral' responsibility provided more than anything else was a hierarchy of progressively more powerful (and fearsome) authority figures to whom deviants might be referred for correction.

(Best, 1994)

There remains a debate about the extent to which guidance is separate from other forms of support, and from other activities which take place in schools. The US 'comprehensive' model is clearly an attempt to integrate guidance into the life of the school (Ellis, 1990; Gysbers, 1994). In Canada, Young has outlined the pros and cons of having separate specialist teachers of guidance (Young, 1994). Here in the UK, Booker has advocated the possibilities of an over-arching and inclusive model of integrated support services for children, which would bring together social work, education and health (Booker, 2003).

All of this leads to questions about the ways in which guidance is delivered. There is clearly a push towards guidance as a 'proactive' and 'preventative' programme, rather than a set of 'reactive' and 'remedial' activities (the move in this direction is also a feature of the US comprehensive model), yet there will clearly always be a need for such 'reactive' activities in response to the immediate needs of pupils. However, Lang has noted that such reactive services have tended to predominate and that there is a need to readjust the balance (Lang, 1994). Best sees a place for both 'reactive' and 'proactive' in his range of 'five pastoral tasks' (Best, 2002).

An issue which is now much less actively debated, and which is particularly pertinent to careers guidance, is the balance between 'guidance' and 'placement'. Here the move has been decidedly away from placement towards guidance (Pope, 2000; Sears & Coy, 1991), but one may question the extent to which the choice of the individual who is 'guided' is free. The danger is that covert pressures may corrupt apparently disinterested 'guidance' (Watts, 2001) thereby leading to a form of 'social-control approach' the primary aim of which is to maintain the social status quo at the expense of the individual's free choice (Kann, 1988).

'Guidance' remains subject to many competing demands and influences, and still shows the signs of the 'fault lines' which Watts identified. It is unlikely that these will be easily plastered over. Below (Figure 2.3) we attempt to show all these factors in diagrammatic form. It remains to be seen how they will be dealt with in the future.

Figure 2.3: 'Fault lines' in Guidance (Kann, 1988; Watts & Kidd, 2000)

2.5 Summary

• A review of 'pastoral care in education' for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) outlined 'five main pastoral tasks': reactive pastoral casework; proactive, preventive pastoral care; developmental pastoral curricula; the promotion and maintenance of an orderly and supportive environment; the management and administration of pastoral care (Best, 2002). However, that review concentrated its focus on pastoral functions and was limited in the extent to which it synthesised the findings of previous research.
• There has traditionally been a tri-partite division of guidance into educational, vocational, and personal guidance.
• In Scottish secondary schools 'guidance', in some form, can trace its origins back to the 1950s. It became formalised through the documents Guidance in Scottish Secondary Schools (SED, 1968), The Structure of Promoted Posts in Secondary Schools in Scotland (SED, 1971), and More Than Feelings of Concern (Scottish Central Committee on Guidance, 1986).
• From 1971, guidance staff were appointed at assistant principal teacher, principal teacher, and assistant headteacher levels. Their numbers depended on the size of the school roll.
• Current concerns with the provision of guidance arise from the agreement reached following the report A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century (McCrone, 2000). This abolished assistant principal teacher, senior teachers and assistant headteacher posts. Many guidance staff were appointed at assistant principal teacher level and overall responsibility for guidance often lay at assistant headteacher level. Therefore there is a need to look again at how guidance is organised and delivered.
• Other current concerns include: the relationship between guidance, discipline, and counselling; and between guidance and learning and behaviour support; management of guidance/pupil support and the place of guidance in the primary school.
• Watts and Kidd have identified five 'fault lines in the provision of guidance in schools. These are 'between personal, educational and vocational guidance; between directive and non-directive approaches; between separate and integrated approaches; between reactive and proactive approaches; and between guidance and placement' (Watts & Kidd, 2000). Their analysis mirrors the current concerns about the relationship between guidance, discipline and counselling; between guidance and other forms of learning and behaviour support, and between guidance as a remedial intervention or guidance as a preventative programme. The issues currently being addressed in Scotland are, therefore, not unique to it, but are found throughout the international literature.

In the next chapter, we consider in more detail how guidance is organised by Scottish local authorities.

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