TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 337 may help master’s-level counseling students stay at stage three include the following: involvement with faculty research projects, requiring a thesis, mentoring toward the overall goal of publication, creating student research groups, assigning projects that elicit knowledge of application of research, supervisors collaborating with supervisees on research projects, employment settings requiring data be gathered and research be conducted by counselors; and knowledge and skills in qualitative or quantitative research (or both), and presenting findings from research at conferences. Implications There are multiple implications from this research for counselor education programs, counselor educators and counseling students. The most profound and impactful aspects of the RI process were the external processes. The external components of program elements and faculty were foundational in how participants viewed themselves, others and the counseling profession. The outcome was manifested in levels of RI that were captured through three proposed stages. Counselor education programs . Participants often stressed how important it was to RI development to be exposed to research early in their studies, exposed to alternative research methodologies in order to find common ground with research (e.g., qualitative research), and exposed to flexibility to infuse student interests in meeting research assignments. Additionally, participants often talked about the format of research courses and used words such as confusing , irrelevant and rushed to describe their feelings toward research courses. This information may indicate a need for counseling programs to reestablish how these courses are assigned and taught. Participants in this study shared that research courses were taught by faculty in other departments. Students in the counseling field may benefit from learning research from counselor educators so that research and practice are connected in more meaningful and practical ways. Importantly, master’s-level counseling programs may want to consider offering a qualitative research course. Previous literature has demonstrated that exposure to qualitative methodology helps counseling students consider themselves researchers (Jorgensen & Duncan, 2015; Reisetter et al., 2004). Participants also discussed feeling connected to research that allowed them to interact with people. Often, barriers to higher levels of RI in participants related to the belief that research is only for scientists who know a lot about numbers and statistics. Lastly, it may be important for master’s-level programs to create a programmatic structure that supports the integration of research into each course. According to Lambie and Vaccaro (2011), the research training environment is a crucial element in the process of students becoming confident with their research abilities. An integrative approach also may allow students more of a platform for building a relationship with research and finding something of interest that is not fixed within the parameters of research courses. This approach also supports a process for moving students along their RI development by assisting them in starting to identify research interests, then looking at the literature to examine gaps, and integrating those interests and gaps into ideas for original research. Counselor educators . Consistent with previous research (Gelso, 2006; Jorgensen & Duncan, 2015), several participants talked about faculty playing a major role in how they came to know themselves as researchers. This theme surfaced at each stage of RI and was so frequently mentioned that it was considered an exclusive theme outside of other external facilitators. The findings from this study revealed concrete ways counselor educators can promote higher levels of RI in their students. Some simple tasks include faculty talking about their research processes in class or during meetings with