The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Aaron Jordan

for the degree of Doctor of Education

July 7, 2017 at 11:00 am in 301 Browning Hall

Major Advisor: Jeff Wilson, PhD

A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY ON THE EXPERIENCES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION COUNSELORS

ABSTRACT: The counseling profession within the context of secondary education stands at a crossroads in terms of understand how the field is able to effectively prepare students for college and career readiness (Bain 2012). Research questions were developed for this study with the micro and macro perspectives of the school counselor and operational space of their job in mind. Respondents in this study were asked a series of in-depth, phenomenologically founded, interview questions focused on how they develop college readiness programming, their intrinsic understanding of how effective they feel they are in preparing students for college and ultimately how they find meaning within their own position. Additionally, there were multiple opportunities within to observe programming at each school site to conduct non-participant observations and take extensive field notes. From their responses and the acquired field notes – four major themes developed which describe the lived and shared experiences of the rural secondary education counselor. Keywords: college preparedness, time management, phenomenology, secondary education counseling, non-participant observation, in-depth interviews, secondary education counseling