Cooperation Between Head Teachers And Professional School Counsellors In Slovenian Schools

Abstract

The characteristics of cooperationbetween head teachers and school counsellorsare presented theoretically and empirically.Distributed leadership means that head teachersdo not lead schools through school-based educatorsbut rather together with them, with schoolcounsellors playing an important role. Numerousresearch studies demonstrate that a strong headteacher–school counsellor relationship is a crucialcomponent of meeting the vision, goals andwell-being of the school. The findings of our researchstudy, conducted among head teachersand school counsellors, show positive attitudesof both groups towards mutual cooperation. Bothconsidered the cooperation to be good or verygood, the head teachers rated it even better. Itis interesting to observe that the head teachersfound more support in school counsellors thanvice versa. Also, more of the head teachers saidthey saw school counsellors as partners thandid the school counsellors. It thus remains to beseen how school counsellors’ perception of theschool leadership’s support in their work couldbe strengthened and how head teachers couldbe encouraged to support the work of the schoolcounselling service even more, so that this relationshipbecomes reciprocal and that each party’sability to perform their work will be enhanced by the strong relationship.