TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 338 students. Participants believed that the lack of conversation about research indicated that faculty members were not engaged in research or that they did not want students to know about or to be a part of their research. Other tasks may include taking students through the steps of critically analyzing research articles. Additional activities include having students copresent at conferences and co-research with faculty, and mentoring students’ research processes. Ultimately, counselor educators may want to consider examining their own level of RI. This analysis may help break down barriers to effectively facilitating student RI development. Counselor educators’ transparency about their research may be enough to facilitate a higher level of RI in students and help them realize a need to build internal motivation to embrace research as a part of their professional identity as a counselor. Counselors-in-training. Other implications are directed toward counselors-in-training. Counselors’ ownership of their RI is essential in the process of reaching higher levels of RI. Participants indicated that their internal processes were critical in how they processed and applied information that could support and facilitate their RI. They further indicated that a strong internal RI allowed them, or could allow them, to take better advantage of research, better apply research to practice and ultimately be a better practitioner. Limitations The limitations of this study relate to inherent issues with qualitative methodology. One, this research cannot be generalized due to the nature of its methodology, small sample size and the geographic location of the participants. Two, errors may have occurred during the research process due to researcher bias. Likewise, the researchers may have been biased in labeling the levels of research. Although the stages were based on information conveyed by the participants, the participants did not specifically categorize themselves in the levels proposed by the researchers. Areas for Future Research Future researchers may consider developing a scale that would objectively measure the stages of RI. An RI development scale would assist counselor educators with objectively measuring learning outcomes and in evaluating the counseling program’s effectiveness in executing accreditation research standards. Rowan and Wulff (2007) wrote that using qualitative methods to inform scale development is perceived as appropriate and sufficient within the research community. Particularly, they suggested that “analyzing data generated through interviews informs the survey designed for larger samples” (p. 450). The current study serves as a platform to move from subjective to more objective ways of assessing RI in master’s-level counseling students. Additionally, RI within the context of other professions could be examined after establishing a valid and reliable scale. Conclusion The current findings contribute to the goal of constructing a universal understanding of professional counselor identity development—particularly the RI dimension. Previous literature has primarily focused on behaviors, beliefs and attitudes that relate mostly to the practitioner side of counselor professional identity (Auxier et al., 2003; Brott & Myers, 1999; Hanna & Bemak, 1997; McAuliffe & Eriksen, 2002; Mellin, Hunt, & Nichols, 2011; Woodside, Oberman, Cole, & Carruth, 2007). The current research contributes to what is already known about how to develop practitioner identity. Further, as the counseling profession seeks greater recognition within the medical and human services communities, professional counselors must connect their work to activities that are