Date of Award
Summer 8-22-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate of Education, Ed.D.
College
College of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Mark E. Jimenez, Ed.D.
Second Advisor
Catherine Beck, Ed.D.
Third Advisor
Deborah A. Nattress, Ph.D.
Abstract
School counselors are in a position to enforce bullying interventions and provide prompt and thorough investigation of student reported incidents. There are many causes and types of bullying creating challenges for school counselors when identifying the warning signs. This challenge is one obstacle middle school counselor’s encounter when approaching and addressing reported incidents of harassment. My purpose for completing this qualitative case study was to discover middle school counselor’s perceptions on resources, strategies used, and what additional training may be needed to provide prompt and thorough investigations of students adequately reporting bullying incidents. In this qualitative case study, I collected insights from middle school counselors from four local school districts in Southeast Texas regarding their perceptions of bullying and prevention procedures at middle schools. I focused on school counselors at these middle schools (grade levels sixth through eighth). I examined the experiences of middle school counselors in these school districts, as well as the resources and training provided to them. The underlying problem that led to this study was that current middle school counselors might not have up-to-date resources or training on school practices so that they can promptly and thoroughly investigate student reported incidents of bullying. These challenges are obstacles that middle school counselors encounter when approaching and addressing reported incidents of bullying. The findings of this study revealed that middle school counselors’ perceptions of bully preparedness need up to date resources, face challenges when addressing bullying, and identify gaps between what is being done to address bullying and what should be done. Counselors need resources that focus on bully awareness and conflict resolution skills.