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ABSTRACT
A new form of narrative counselling for adolescents at risk of exclusion was piloted in 3 schools with 11 students between the ages of 13–14 years over a 6–7-week period. The intervention took into consideration that compared to adults, adolescents are more susceptible to being influenced by their immediate surroundings of home and school. A measure of progress on a student engagement scale showed an improvement in educational engagement, particularly in students’ behavioural engagement in class. The process of narrative counselling adolescents at school is described and the issues addressed in the narrative counselling sessions are discussed. Finally, the inclusive ethos of the secondary schools that the counsellors worked in are considered, as they facilitated or hindered the counselling intervention.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Shaalan Farouk
Shaalan Farouk is a senior lecturer at New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He has been working with Simon Edwards in applying narrative counselling to support vulnerable adolescents at school. In the UAE, he is applying the narrative counselling approach to motivate adolescent boys attending state schools, who have become disengaged from their education.
Simon Edwards
Simon Edwards is a senior lecturer in the School of Education and Sociology at the University of Portsmouth, UK. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE at the UK Queen’s birthday honours for his contribution to youth work. He works with community members, excluded students and their families, and local schools and academic partners (locally and nationally) to research and develop innovative interventions that challenge social injustice and encourage inclusion both relationally with peers, families and communities, and academically.