TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 332 class . . . was really confusing for me because I don’t like numbers and I didn’t want to work with numbers and that was difficult along with the data entry. . . . I was taught the importance of [research] and somewhat understand what’s going on, but that’s probably it. Kelsi discussed the dislike of research among individuals with lower levels of RI. She stated, “I think a lot of people, I hate to say it, are . . . like myself, they aren’t the biggest fans of research.” Other internal facilitators of lower levels of RI were captured through participants describing a loyalty to their practitioner side. Dan stated, “I think from terms as a practitioner, . . . you could get caught up in spending too much time on research and not enough time working with clients or implementing the knowledge base that you have with clients.” Participants in the stagnation stage also discussed messages from others in the counseling profession, program elements and undergraduate major (i.e., external facilitators of lower levels of RI). Rocky shared that undergraduate major and program elements were components of lower levels of RI: [As an] undergrad, I had no clue what . . . the actual process of research . . . was. . . . I had no clue. . . . I don’t know if it can be required, but I think in the counseling program research should be required. Kelsi supported the idea of undergraduate education being a major external facilitator: “To tell the truth, I’m not the biggest fan on all of that, maybe because of my background. I don’t have a psych background.” Additionally, Bob indicated that messages from others were a part of lower levels of RI: I think the messages that I received were . . . important, but I don’t think it was ever clearly defined or expected, without looking for further professional development or working for a doctoral program . . . you want to research . . . the areas that you are not familiar with, but I don’t feel like that was ever clearly expressed. I know we are taught the research and research writing, but I just don’t think it ever transpired into once you are a professional in the field, this is what’s expected of you. Lastly, participants often described faculty members as major contributors to lower levels of RI. Participants with low RI consistently described faculty teaching styles, silence around research, lack of modeling research behaviors, and lack of invitations to co-research and mentor students in research. Jackie described how faculty influenced her RI: “We weren’t really ever invited to take part . . . we were never invited . . . and it was really never talked about.” Nicole further emphasized the impact of messages from others as either directly stated or implied through behaviors: I got the impression that they didn’t do research. . . . We didn’t really talk about [research] a lot. In internship when I went out into my school district, I don’t think anybody had been involved in research. I had two of them [faculty] that had been in the school counseling profession for about 20 years and I’m not sure if they did [research] at all. Stage Two: Negotiation The second and moderate level of RI was called the negotiation stage because participants described having to negotiate their love–hate relationship with research. This stage seemed to be a transition