THE IMPACT OF AN ONLINE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE ON SCHOOL COUNSELOR SELF-EFFICACY AND KNOWLEDGE FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER COUNSELING

The future of the United States workforce shows that over half of the population will need a postsecondary credential to access newly created jobs (Carnavale, Strohl, Ridley, & Gulish, 2018). Although progress has been observed in postsecondary degree attainment generally in the last ten years, Black, Hispanic, and low-income students are underrepresented in higher education. School counselors play a crucial role in ensuring students are provided with academic preparation as well as knowledge and information necessary to apply for and enroll in institutions of higher education. A needs assessment revealed that school counselors in urban settings have strong self-efficacy in some areas of college and career counseling but expressed lower self-efficacy in working with special populations and minority students and families. Based on these findings, the researcher created an intervention aimed at increasing self-efficacy and knowledge of urban school counselors as it relates to disseminating college and career information to minority students and families. An online community of practice, in which three school counselors participated sought to increase knowledge and self-efficacy for college and career counseling. Qualitative data suggested no increase in knowledge across all participants, however, some participant responses showed an awareness of new counseling strategies for future use in their schools. Individual participants demonstrated an increase in self-efficacy in the areas of working with special populations. Findings reinforce extant research that suggests that online communities of practice can be an effective mode of professional learning to impact self-efficacy and knowledge