School principal perceptions of the school counsellor’s role: Traditional or transformed?

Abstract There is a continued emphasis on the importance of building collaborative working relationships between school principals and counsellors to address the growing academic, career and college readiness, and social-emotional needs of students in K-12 schools. This study explored and analysed 1466 school principals ‘perceptions around important school counselling priorities, perceptions, and activities that are carried out in Turkish public and private schools. The study additionally explored school principals’ expectations of school counsellors’ roles and responsibilities as aligned with traditional and transformed school counselling programmes and practices. This study may be of value to school leaders, policy makers and educators interested in revising and improving their school counselling services to meet the complex academic and counselling needs of students in contemporary schools.