Collaboration of the School Counselling Service with Parents During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Katja Jeznik and Marjeta Šarić in Petra Gregorčič Mrvar

Summary:  This article focuses on certain aspects of collaboration between school counsellors and parents during the Covid-19 pandemic. In mid-March 2020, Slovenia declared the Covid-19 emergency, which led to the closure of schools and the transition to distance education. Life and work in educational institutions, including the work of the school counselling service, suddenly changed. The collaboration of the school counselling service with other actors in the school, including parents, was also transformed. This article presents the findings of a study conducted during the lockdown among 328 school counsellors in educational institutions in Slovenia. The main research questions were how frequently did school counsellors collaborate with parents during that period and how did they evaluate and experience this collaboration. The results show that the counsellors were aware of the importance of strong collaboration with parents during crisis education. The counsellors expressed awareness of the heterogeneity of parents and the different issues they were facing. Counsellors ought to prioritise collaboration with parents as a key task that needs to be carefully planned and evaluated every year, especially in situations such as school closures, distance education and other crises that have a major impact on the immediate environments and private lives of students and their parents.