Counseling and Reflection in Practical Teacher Training

Empirical Field-oriented Exploration of the Terminology Considering its Multiple Definitions

Abstract

In practical teacher training, types of conversation that can be summarized as consultation or counseling have been established. The reflective practitioner is considered gold standard (KMK 2004). Empirical studies suggest that consultation or counseling is constituted in relation to the respective fields of action, opening up room for this study’s approach to examine in how far consultation and reflection in the second phase of teacher training can be understood as field- and task-specific across Germany. The collected data contains a total of 30 documents that resulted from a survey of the education ministries of all federal states between May 2021 and May 2022. Following qualitative analysis (Schreier, 2014; Kuckartz, 2016), three main characteristics emerge. First, the terminology is related to optimization, whereby learning appears to be crucial. Second, due to being set in a context of training, and thus complex power relations, coercive dynamics take place. Third, the concept of counseling in teacher training is at best loosely based on theoretical and empirical findings.