The influence of Teacher Counsellor characteristics on awareness of Ethics of Counselling in public secondary Schools of Bondo District, Kenya

Abstract

This study examined the influence of Teacher Counsellors' age, gender, professional qualification in teaching and training in counselling on awareness of ethics of counselling in public secondary schools of Bondo District. The study population targeted 91 teacher counsellors out of which 79 participated in the research. An ex post facto research design was used in the study. A close-ended selfcompleted questionnaire was used to gather information from respondents. Section A of the questionnaire considered personal characteristics of age, gender, professional qualification, and training in counselling. Part B focused on counselling ethics based on confidentiality, autonomy, non-exploitation, dual relationships, limits of practice and counsellor's personal care. Content validity was established through consultations and review between the researcher and experts in the department of Educational Psychology of Moi University. Test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and person product - moment correlation was computed, a reliability coefficient (r) of 0.83 was found. The collected data was then processed and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the SPSS package. The research found out that teacher counsellors' level of awareness of ethics of counselling is moderate and therefore improvement is needed. There was significant influence of Teacher counsellors' age, gender, professional qualification in teaching and training in counselling on awareness of ethics of counselling. The study therefore proposed training of teacher counsellors who are not trained, equity in gender training close monitoring of young teacher counsellors, encouragement of further education for teachers, appointment of only trained teachers as counsellors, more workshops and seminars on ethics of counselling and formation of professional association of secondary school teacher counsellors.