Counselling Curriculum Development Workshop - Eastern & Southern Africa
The Curriculum Development Workshop was held by the Eastern & Southern Africa Counselling Association (ECASA) September 7-8 2001 in Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop aimed to: explore standards of practice in the participating countries; develop a framework for a curriculum for training counsellors in the region; explore and evaluate the criteria for the selection of trainee counsellors; explore and establish the commonalties and differences in the existing training programmes; and, develop a set of minimum training guidelines, or the core, for the curriculum.
Communication Strategies
Participants were asked to reflect on the task at hand by going through the following question, which attempts to capture the essential elements of a curriculum in a simplified format. The same question would be used at the end of the workshop to get a general feel of the progress made in the process of developing the curriculum.
Working in two groups the participants shared their country positions on the following areas.
There are Country Reports for the following countries: Malawi, Zambia, Somalia, Somaliland, Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Kenya.
- HOW do we KNOW WHO was / is / will be
- TRAINING COUNSELLORS in WHAT, to
- WHAT STANDARD, WHERE, WHEN, with the
- HELP OF WHAT, and WHAT FOR?
Working in two groups the participants shared their country positions on the following areas.
- 1. The status of counselling training in the country, including the key issues and the scope.
- 2. The expected outcomes of the training in the proposed curriculum.
- 3. Suggested strategies for planning and implementing training in the proposed curriculum. This may be based on existing strategies, but may be borrowed from other member countries.
- 4. The core content of the proposed training.
- 5. Responsibility for developing and implementing the training programme.
- 6. Time frame[s] for developing and implementing the training programme.
- 7. Standards [indicators, qualifications, mechanisms of standardisation]
- 8. Evaluation of trainees, and evaluation of the training programme. This also involves the sharing of experiences across the membership.
- 9. Any other related matters.
There are Country Reports for the following countries: Malawi, Zambia, Somalia, Somaliland, Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Kenya.
Development Issues
Health
Key Points
Counselling is a relatively new discipline. It is in the process of establishing for itself a theoretical base and foundation. In Africa counselling is new, and there is a definite disadvantage in sub-Saharan Africa. There is hardly any university or department in the region, which is dedicated to counselling.
There has been a tendency for counselling to be placed in the departments of Psychology, a discipline that has also been late in coming to the African Universities. It has been suggested that there was a deliberate colonial scheme to avoid teaching Psychology to the colonised peoples.
In the last ten to fifteen years HIV/AIDS has made the difference in the growth of counselling on the continent. It has brought about the urgency for training in counselling, which may explain why the participants in this workshop and the just ended conference being predominantly workers in HIV/AIDS related contexts.
There has been a tendency for counselling to be placed in the departments of Psychology, a discipline that has also been late in coming to the African Universities. It has been suggested that there was a deliberate colonial scheme to avoid teaching Psychology to the colonised peoples.
In the last ten to fifteen years HIV/AIDS has made the difference in the growth of counselling on the continent. It has brought about the urgency for training in counselling, which may explain why the participants in this workshop and the just ended conference being predominantly workers in HIV/AIDS related contexts.
Sources
ECASA website
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