Introduction
Collaborative consultation is an intricate process that involves parties in an organizational setting allowing them an opportunity to willingly work very closely through the setting of joint goals and directions, taking responsibility in ensuring the achievement of these goals, determining each party’s role in the team and utilizing the skill, knowledge and experience of each team member to achieve the set goals.
In the school context the need for collaborative consultation has been enhanced by the structural changes in the school system in many countries that favours the view that all children should receive education in regular schools despite their handicaps and not in special schools as has been the case in previous years. The fact that regular teachers have not been adequately trained to provide services to these broad needs has necessitated that they work closely with the support personnel in their schools and in the school districts to ensure that services delivery has not been compromised by the increased responsibility. As mentioned earlier, collaborative consultation is a complex process with several factors promoting the establishment and sustenance of collaborative links.
These include frequent communication by way of meetings, phone contacts and mail, efficient leadership, a focus on the key objectives and a method of ensuring that the plan is strictly adhered to.
On the other hand there are several factors that would impinge on the outcome of the process. These factors include lack of an appropriate internal structure within the given setting to support the process, lack of initial consensus by all the parties involved, lack of proper planning of time and other resources, communication barriers among others. This paper examines issues that pertain to school consultation process and identifies the problem areas as well as the role of consultants in the prevention and management of the problems arising.
Part A.
1. Understanding Consultation relationships
Consultation is generally defined as the self induced and non-hierarchical relationship between two professionals that is initiated by either of them for the purpose of solving or managing work related problems.
It is aimed at assisting the consultee to function more effectively in their designated positions (Schein, Edgar H. (1999). Educational consultation is triadic in nature and involves the consultant, consultee and the third parties who benefit indirectly from the relationship. Educational consultation in recent years has been necessitated by the structural changes that are seeing the extinction of schools for students with special needs.
Today teachers in regular schools are finding themselves with more responsibilities of providing services to students with a broader range of needs. This is done in the regular classroom setting. Children with special needs also are increasingly represented in general education classrooms. In the American educational system, Federal laws relating to children with disabilities, such as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), specify that all students who have disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate public education, regardless of skill levels or severity of disability, in the least-restrictive environment possible. [Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI)]. It is most challenging since this is a relatively new system in most countries and therefore most of the currently serving teachers do not have formal knowledge and skills to perform these additional tasks. This is because the new requirements are just being integrated into the teachers training curriculum. The majority of the teaching population are thus without the proper capacity to handle the changing duties. Consequently there is a need for a close working relationship between the support personnel and regular teachers so as to successfully provide all-inclusive services. Furthermore, the support personnel have traditionally been sidelined from the learning process and were left to only give specialized services such as counseling, giving of advice and other related services. However, times have changed and it becoming increasingly clear that teachers need closely to work together with the support personnel to be able to deliver effective services that meet the broad needs of their clients. The nature of this relationship requires high level of cooperation from the involved parties. This can only be achieved if both parties understand the nature of this relationship
Problems that arise from failures to understand the consultation relationships are varied. In some instances the consultees have developed a feeling of competition towards the consultant. The feeling of competitiveness arises when the teacher feels like the consultant has come to show them how to do their work. This may be due to the fact that now the consultant has a role to play in assisting the teacher handle the additional responsibilities cast upon them. The feeling of competition will hinder the teacher from gaining from this relationship because of the illness of their motives. They will not get involved with the attitude to learn and at worst may come to resent the consultant and by extension the duties that have necessitated the relationship.
Another potentially distractive problem situation is when the consultees feels monitored and supervised by an outsider. This feeling is mainly because the consultants are usually removed from the normal school of hierarchy. The teachers can therefore feel offended by the perceived supervision and may become rebellious and uncooperative. The results are the same as above and should be taken seriously especially by the consultant and the principals to ensure such negative tendencies are detected earlier so that they may be dealt with before developing into major concerns. The third problem that is caused by lack of understanding is lack of commitment on the part of school leadership and other key stakeholders. If not understood, the consultation relationship can heighten suspicion among teachers and parents that is usually associated with the change process. These kinds of problems make it difficult for the objectives of the consulting relationship to be realized.
2. Sensitivity to Multiculturalism
Culture constitutes of dominant beliefs, perspectives, core values of a given population. Sensitivity to multiculturalism is key to delivering effective educational consultation (Pickens, J. E. 1982). The consultant in the educational context can only be able to deliver relevant services if they are sensitive to the cultural factor.
Without appropriate cultural sensitivity on the part of the consultant and the consultee, it is not possible to decipher the beneficiary’s needs accurately. This is because cultural differences can be a source of confusion to the consultant and the students. Different words, actions and behavior can have one meaning in one culture and another in a different culture. For instance holding hands for persons of the same sex is viewed as lewd behavior that is associated with homosexuality in some cultures while in other cultures it is a sign of great friendship. Words and language also have different meanings to different people. Culture can therefore be a big barrier to effective communication in the collaborative consultation process. Effective communication largely determines the outcome of the services that are offered as well as impacting on the consultation relationship that develop thereafter.
The backbone of cultural competence is self identity. Unless the consultant comes to self knowledge, it becomes difficult to understand the background of the clients. It therefore becomes hard to meet their needs. This self-awareness is very helpful in overcoming biases that would rob the consultant of objectivity in their areas of concern. Additionally cultural sensitivity allows one to understand others’ perspectives, values and histories. This allows the consultant to make accurate judgements on present circumstances, actions and pattern of thought of the consultee or student. Similarly cultural sensitivity, recognizes a variety of cultural communication patterns, and allows for intervention in the natural course of teaching.
There are several problems associated with lack of multicultural sensitivity. When consultation services offered lack cultural sensitivity the students’ needs are not met. This is a significant problem since meeting the needs of the student is one of the main objectives of educational consultation. Thirdly, cultural insensitivity denies the consultant and consultee an important opportunity to create home-school linkage (Slavin, R.E. 1990). The new school system is designed to ensure that there is no discrimination or segregation in regards to natural handicaps or special needs. It is therefore imperative that children experience the same treatment in school at home. This includes parents of children with special needs as well as parents of normal children. They all need to understand the process and how to integrate those children with special needs into the mainstream society without treating them specially or in a manner to suggest they are not like everybody else. Additionally, this being a relatively new practice and a deviation from how things have been previously done, bringing everyone on board by way of teaching and imparting the importance of the process so that they can better understand the rationale behind it. A holistic approach is required that involves all the stakeholders and ensuring that none is left behind. This is because significant problems can arise that would negate the progress made.
Part B. Solutions
1. Understanding Consultation relationships
The consultant is the most apt person to take remedial actions by revisiting of his/ her training in taking the problems that arise from lack of proper understanding of the consulting relationship. The consultant has to take the lead role. Various problems call for varied approaches. For instance in cases when the consultant detects feelings of competition from the consul tee there options that are available would include lobbying for support from the school leadership. This would require the consultant to personally seek the principal or the deputy principal and explain the concept on a one basis making sure that hey are not only fully grasp the concept but also begin to clearly see the benefits. Usually the principles would not be ignorant of these matters but there is no harm in confirming it. This ensures that the consultant is certain of the leadership’s support as well as understanding. It also establishes one of the most of powerful partnership that is in it an example of collaborative consultation. The consultants goal in such case would be to make sure that the leadership namely parents and teachers. This strategy worked very well in a junior school I worked in. the teachers were reluctant to work with me as I was younger than rest of them and they felt I was a threat to them. My knowledge of collaborative consultation was very hardly and I was able to gain the principals support. Once that had been done I enlisted the support of another respected senior teacher with whom I shared my sentiments and concerns with the two of them I was able to neutralize the ill feelings of the rest of the teachers and in the end we all were able to happily work together.
Similarly, with the second problem of the teachers feels supervised by an outsider can be reduced by lobbying for support as well as careful communication of the concepts objectives. It is important that the consultant listens carefully to the consultees sentiments. It helps self a partnership with consultee with such feelings whereby the consultee requests for input on how the consultee thinks ought to be the way forward thus assures the consultees that these opinions are important. This has an effect of quelling the feelings of animosity. The strategy together with the aforementioned lobbying for support brings about favorable results.
Lack of understanding causes a non committal attitude in the school, leadership, the teachers as well as parents. This s is because these stakeholders do not understand the importance of the concept hence do not wish to commit their time in getting involved communication should be focused on the benefits of the collaboration in making the work of the consultee easier. The consultant points out how the consultee is gaining and how they can become more effective in their current duties through collaboration. The most important factor however is carefully educating all stakeholders so that they fully understand the consultation relationship.
2. Sensitivity to Multiculturalism
Since the consultant is not immune to the problem of cultural insensitivity, the first step should be for the consultant to seek to understand his/ her culture and background as well as ethnic and racial heritage. This allows them to be able to understand their perspective on biases and be able to put them in the appropriate cultural context. It is by understanding their own cultural content that consultants are able to interpret the other people (Clients and consultees) perspectives. One way of dealing with the issues of self awareness is by self exploration whereby the consultant takes time to carefully evaluating ones background and history and identify beliefs, values, ethnic/ stereotype behavior that form the pattern of ones thoughts. This is important since is helps in identifying potential biases and prejudices and finding means to avoid them. Once the consultant is in touch with their cultural background, the other thing is to learn about social, political and cultural histories of the client and consultee. This goes a long way into helping the consultant to better understand their values, beliefs and perspectives. The consultant to better understand their values, beliefs and perspectives. The consultant should commit time and energy to learning all there is to learn about the cultural histories of the consultee and clients so as to be informed by the culture of the environment in which the consultation process takes place. This understanding of culture can be the medium through which one understands the content and process of consultation. The object is to be able to adopt a perspective that reflects the cultural context of consultee and consultants points of view (Ingram, 2000). I learnt a great deal in my teaching practice where the above strategies helped to integrate children’s individual goals into instruction by allowing me to intervene immediately in the cultural context of naturally occurring classroom activities. This timely intervention gave confidence to the children so much that some of the disabled children were quickly able to reach the developmental goal of asking for a snack at the right time.
The other competence that can reduce the problems that arise from lack of multicultural sensitivities is the use of the qualitative approach. Some of characteristics of qualitative information gathering include a naturalistic inquiry where real world situation are student openly, a holistic approach that puts emphasis on the importance of interrelationship and personal contact that allow the gathering of information that is rich and linguistically descriptive of the consultee or clients experiences[1]. Skills in qualitative research methodologies especially ethnography. is helpful since the information gathered will be rich in explaining much about the consultee and the client.
Conclusion
School collaborative consultation is clearly an area of study that has not yet been explored to great depths. However, available literature converge to the conclusion that the importance of this area of study cannot be undermined if the structural changes in the school systems are to provide an appropriate and all inclusive curriculum that effectively accommodate children with broad learning and social needs. This article has examined two issues that pertain to school consultation namely, understanding the consultation relationship and sensitivity to multiculturalism, This issue can be a source of several problems that can result in the children’s need not being met. Some of these problems are associated with general change process. For instance lack of understanding of the consulting relationship can result in suspicion in the part of the potential consultee. Being insensitive to multiculturalism takes a toll on the consultants and consultee’s capacity to interpret other people’s perspectives and values.
These issues among others have to be thoroughly understood by all stakeholders in order to ensure that the consultative collaborative process is successful and achieves the objectives for which it’s designed.
References
Ingram, C. L. (2000). Consultation through a multicultural lens. Multicultural and cross- cultural Consultations in Schools. Schools Psychology Review.
Pickens, J. E. (1982). Without Bias: A Guidebook for Nondiscriminatory Communication. 2d ed.
NewYork, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Schein, Edgar H. (1999). Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship.
Addison-Wesley
Slavin, R.E. (1990). ‘General education under the regular education initiative: How must it
change?’ Remedial and Special Education, 11, pp. 40–50. (370 P45)
Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI). http://www.udel.edu
[1] See Flick, U. (1998). An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London. Sage.
