| Popis: |
The westernization of education, mistakenly called "globalization," has had an influence worldwide on all aspects of the preparation of school personnel and, in particular, the preparation of school counselors (Torres-Rivera & Krupski, 2005). In 2002, a program was developed in Singapore to train school counselors in a manner similar to the way that school counselors are prepared in the United States. A city-state of approximately 4 million people, Singapore became independent in 1965. Since then, it has directed its efforts to surviving and thriving as a nation (Tan, 2002). This is particularly evident in its commitment to provide a holistic education for its people, with an emphasis on cultivating unique student strengths and developing well-rounded, dynamic citizens. One major focus of Singapore's educational commitment can be seen in the nation's efforts to offer effective career guidance and the recent development of a school counseling program (Torres-Rivera & Krupski, 2005). Although a review of available literature seems to depict the school counseling profession as being well established in Singapore (e.g., Chong, 2005; Tan, 2002, 2004), a closer look at its current status tells a different story. For example, a quick visit to the Web site of the Ministry of Education in Singapore (http://www.moe.gov.sg/guidancebranch/counselling.htm/) indicates that school counseling is still emerging as an independent and recognized profession. Thus, in this article, we depart from the viewpoints of Chong (2005) and Tan (2002) in presenting these emergent developments in the school counseling profession in Singapore. * Article Reviews Two recent articles (Chong, 2005; Tan, 2002) about the school counseling profession in Singapore seem to be the most revealing pieces of literature available on this topic at the time our article was written. Although helpful in providing information on the historical and cultural context of school counseling in Singapore, the two articles, alone, offer an incomplete picture of the profession's current status, including the formidable challenges of training school counselors and establishing an independent professional identity. To establish a point of comparison and background information, the articles are briefly reviewed. Following the review, we (two school counselors from Singapore and two counselor educators from the United States) present our perspectives about the current developments of the Singaporean school counseling profession, using as an illustration a newly developed school counseling program in Singapore. Article 1: Career Guidance in Singapore Schools According to Tan (2002) in the article "Career Guidance in Singapore Schools," career guidance in Singaporean public schools has progressed in three stages. As Tan (2002) explained, Singapore's approach to career guidance and counseling in the schools has corresponded both with the nation's evolving educational policy and with its changing political and economic needs. For approximately 20 years following independence, which occurred in 1965, Singapore primarily focused on surviving its transition to sovereignty (Tan, 2002). Thus, education was a means to rapidly raise literacy rates and increase the available workforce. During this period, career guidance efforts were limited to disseminating occupational and world-of-work information to public school libraries with the assumption that students were interested in, and able and willing to access the information. This assumption was disproved in the mid-1980s, when observations of Western career development models and empirical studies of Singaporean students revealed that most students were graduating with a gross lack of skills to plan and develop a successful career path, and that without more direct guidance, the informational career approach could in fact be detrimental because it might mislead students about the reality of work. … |
