Critique Paper 1

Article Review

            The chosen article entitled “A Study of Counselors’ Legal Challenges and their Perceptions of their Ability to Respond” by Mary Hermann, Debra Gail Legget, and Theodore Remley, Jr. discusses the results of a specific study that assessed the frequency and types of legal challenges and issues typically encountered by school counselors. The study also explores the ability of counselors to respond to such legal issues, including the factors that influence their perceptions regarding the identified issues. The study mainly focused on whether the perceptions of participants, concerning the legal challenges they encounter, are influenced by their years of practice, completion of a higher educational degree, exposure to other ethical challenges and issues, state licensure status, or their own practice setting. As concluded in the journal study, the majority of school counselors are not prepared to face the many ethical and legal challenges they encounter.

How is this work useful to me as an aspiring counselor?

            This work is particularly useful to me as an aspiring counselor as it discusses the numerous legal issues that are typically encountered by school counselors. Since this study delves into the actual perceptions of school counselors regarding their ability to respond to legal issues, it provides useful insights that would enable me to be better prepared when faced with legal challenges in a work setting. Based on the study conducted in the article, there has been an increasing prevalence of malpractice lawsuits in recent years due to the failure of school counselors to perform their job functions adequately. Apparently, quite a number of school counselors experience failures in preventing cases of client suicide and violence threats, resulting in malpractice lawsuits. The study discovered that when faced with malpractice lawsuits and other forms of legal challenges, the majority of school counselors lack adequate confidence and knowledge about what they must do. This is a critical insight that I need to know as an aspiring counselor since later on, when I enter this profession, I will inevitably encounter various legal challenges.

How does the author contribute to the field of counseling by writing this article?

            By writing this article about the perceptions of school counselors regarding their ability to respond to legal issues, aspiring counselors like myself will gain knowledge about what really goes on inside the minds and hearts of school counselors whenever they face various legal challenges and issues as a result of malpractice. As an aspiring counselor, I believe that the information shared in this article will equip me with ideas and possibly preventative solutions to avoid facing legal issues of any kind. I strongly believe that the authors contributed to the field of counseling by writing this article as it divulged useful information on the school counselors’ level of confidence in their ethical beliefs and their ability to overcome the tough challenges that come with facing legal issues. Moreover, the authors also contributed to the growth of the field of counseling by presenting the significant relationship between the school counselors’ ethical standard knowledge and the variables/factors that influence this knowledge, including the school counselors’ practice setting, the degree they obtained, and the amount of ethical instructions they received.

What new research do the authors generate by writing this article?

            I believe that this article generated new useful knowledge in the field of counseling, specifically concerning the relationship between the school counselors’ ethical standard knowledge and the factors that include their practice setting, the degree they obtained, and the amount of ethical instructions they acquired. In addition to this, the article also delved deeply into the school counselors’ perceptions concerning their ability to respond to legal issues, which is a topic that is not usually tackled in most studies. This article, therefore, is very practical in terms of the knowledge and insights that it shares with the readers, especially aspiring school counselors.

My Reaction to the Article

            There is no doubt that I liked the article in the sense that the goals and purpose of the study have been clearly identified. The study delved into the school counselors’ perceptions regarding their ability to respond to legal issues, which is a rare topic discussed in most counseling studies. Aside from this, the article also tackled the relationship between the school counselors’ ethical standard knowledge and the specific factors that influence this knowledge. I found the article to be useful as a whole because it presented new knowledge and practical insights regarding what school counselors think about when they face legal challenges and issues. However, I felt that the article somehow lacked sufficient information and discussion on the types of legal challenges and ethical issues that school counselors face. Although the article mentioned a few examples, the focus of the study was more on the reactions or responses of the school counselors and not on the actual legal dilemmas that they face. If the study had given more examples of legal challenges and ethical issues, then the study may have been whole and complete. Other than this, I believe that the article is a must-read for all aspiring counselors since the study contained knowledge and fact-based information filled with practical insights on the legal and ethical aspects of the counseling field.

Reference

Hermann, M., Legget, D., & Remley, T. (2008). A Study of Counselors’ Legal Challnges and their Perceptions of their Ability to Respond. International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, 3(5), 1-11.