As the main force in carrying out ideological and political education for college students, college counselors shoulder the mission of the times to cultivate moral integrity and cultivate people. In order to strengthen the construction of the counselor team, the "Regulations on the Construction of the Counselor Team of General Colleges and Universities" issued by the Ministry of Education (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") proposes that college counselors implement dual leadership of the school and the college (department). The revised "Regulations" further states: Implement the "dual-line" promotion requirements for full-time counselors' job ranks and promote the professionalization of the counselor team. The promulgation of the "Regulations" has effectively alleviated the difficulties of "not being able to promote" the professional title of college counselors and "not being able to retain" personnel. However, due to reasons such as vague professional roles, inconsistent assessment standards, and limited development platforms, counselors still face the problem of professional titles. The practical dilemma of difficulty in promotion.
Obstacles still exist in the evaluation of professional titles for counselors
First, professional roles are blurred. The promotion of counselors' professional titles is trapped in the identification of the dual identities of "teacher" and "manager", resulting in insufficient internal motivation and core competitiveness for their professional title promotion. Most counselors not only need to handle student work such as "ideological and theoretical education and value guidance", "study style construction" and "mental health education and consultation", but also undertake professional work such as daily teaching and scientific research. A national questionnaire survey conducted by the Counselor Work Research Association and Ideological and Political Training Center Office of Shandong University in 2020 showed: “With the Ministry of Education vigorously promoting the improvement of counselors’ academic degrees, nearly half of counselors are still at undergraduate or above. Below." This means that college counselors may not only be burdened with complicated student work, but may also lack the core competitiveness for professional title promotion such as teaching and scientific research capabilities due to low academic qualifications, thus losing their self-confidence and sense of efficacy for professional title promotion. reduce. It can be seen that although dual identities provide counselors with a two-track track, if treated improperly, it may also turn into a "roadblock" on their upward development path.
Secondly, the assessment standards are inconsistent. The promotion of counselors' professional titles is subject to the dual requirements of "soft power" and "hard targets", resulting in unclear focus of their work. Affected by the dual identity, counselors' promotion indicators also have "dual requirements": in addition to "soft strengths" such as years of student work, degree qualifications, and work performance, paper publication and project hosting are also important "hard indicators." Therefore, in order to enhance their core competitiveness, some college counselors pay more attention to the output of scientific research results with greater differentiation, which leads to counselors "emphasis on scientific research but not students, emphasis on project establishment but not project completion, emphasis on the quantity of results but not the quality of results" and other problems. series of questions. The "weightless" professional title promotion evaluation standards will not only increase the work pressure of counselors, but also cause many contradictions that do not match their main responsibilities, work characteristics, and professional backgrounds, leading to a realistic situation of "paying attention to one thing and losing the other."
Finally, the development platform is limited. The promotion of counselors' professional titles faces the embarrassing situation of "transferring at the best" and "stalling", which is not conducive to the formation of a dynamic and balanced flow mechanism for counselors in teaching, administrative, scientific research and other positions. As the selection and recruitment unit for counselors, colleges and universities are responsible for providing them with a career development platform. However, compared with the clear positioning of full-time teachers, the role of counselors is relatively vague, resulting in many obstacles to professional title promotion. Therefore, counselors who have the ability to meet promotion standards will be more inclined to transfer to full-time teachers in order to seek clearer career development prospects. A 2018 survey by the Education Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education showed: “When asked whether they would continue to work as counselors if they had the opportunity to change jobs, 32.6% said they would not continue to work as counselors, and only 22.1% thought they would still choose this career. "Only less than 9% of full-time counselors hope to engage in this work for a long time." The reality that counselors are regarded as a transition to career development or a springboard for job hunting has seriously affected the professional and continuous development of this group of people.
Seek breakthroughs by improving competitiveness and refining rules and regulations
How to break through the practical dilemma of counselor professional title promotion?
First, anchor the dual role positioning, establish a multi-level and all-round post-service education service system, and enhance the core competitiveness of counselors for professional title promotion. On the one hand, it gathers the joint efforts of “ministries, provinces, schools” and various sectors of society in education to actively improve the counselor training system, develop high-quality courses, and provide them with rich learning resources. At the same time, counselors are encouraged to improve their academic qualifications to consolidate their teaching and scientific research capabilities and empower counselors in their "teacher" role. On the other hand, experienced and sentimental experts, scholars, party and government cadres, etc. are invited to carry out special training for counselors, teach relevant theories, knowledge and working methods unique to the position of counselors, and improve counselors’ student work capabilities, so as to provide them with "Manager" role enhancement.
Secondly, continue to improve and refine the rules and regulations for professional title promotion, formulate assessment standards that are consistent with the nature of counselors' work, and provide a scientific basis for their professional title promotion. On the one hand, we should adhere to the principle of "improvement first, refinement second" to improve the diversity and pertinence of the evaluation criteria for counselors' professional title promotion. On this basis, counselors should be encouraged to produce academic results with the characteristics of "student work", break the "one-size-fits-all" approach of comparing the promotion standards of counselors and full-time teachers on an equal basis, and create more opportunities for their professional title promotions. On the other hand, counselors should be given a certain degree of policy inclination on the basis of respecting their main responsibilities and work characteristics. For example, the proportion of student work and scientific research achievements in the assessment standards should be reasonably demarcated, the requirements for scientific research results should be moderately reduced, and the focus should be placed on the assessment of the effectiveness of counselors' work, so as to reduce the negative emotions of "being powerless" in the process of professional title promotion.
Finally, optimize the development platform, broaden the channels for professional title promotion, and create a broader career development path for counselors. In the horizontal aspect, each university should form a professional "counselor working team" based on its own advantages, guide team members to support each other, give full play to the team advantages of "1+1>2", and provide counselors with a sense of professional belonging and identity. feel. Colleges and universities should also provide special career planning for counselors, effectively streamline the job categories of counselors, and avoid "grabbing every eyebrow and beard". In the vertical aspect, all colleges and universities should learn from existing advanced experience and based on their own development status, formulate a career hierarchy system for counselors covering multiple ranks and titles, draw a clear promotion path for them, and make efforts to break the "ceiling" of counselor promotion. In short, colleges and universities should deeply understand and grasp the core keyword of "dual lines", and on the basis of following the principles of "one school, one discussion" and "double lines of progress", strengthen the team building of counselors, improve the assessment and evaluation methods, and ensure that counselors "There are conditions for work, a platform for officers, guaranteed benefits, and room for development."
(The author is a professor at the Department of Education of Northeast Normal University and a doctoral candidate at the Department of Education of Northeast Normal University)
(Guangming Daily)