UNC School of Education

>> Akos, Patrick

Patrick Akos’s research is conceptually based on Strengths-Based School Counseling (SBSC). SBSC confronts the identity conflict and role ambiguity that plagues school counseling by providing a culturally responsive, theoretically clear and empirically driven framework that dictates the school counselor’s role with a “primary mission to promote the optimal development of all students.” Akos and his colleague Dr. John Galassi have articulated this new conceptual framework for school counseling in the American Counseling Association’s flagship publication, Journal of Counseling and Development and in a special issue of the American School Counselor Association’s journal Professional School Counseling. Most recently, they outlined this vision in the text, Strengths-Based School Counseling: Promoting Student Development and Achievement.

In particular, his work centers on how school counselors can promote development and build strengths in students during early adolescence – school years associated with puberty, one of the most diverse, rapid and intense periods of human development. Akos has written about promoting healthy body image and promoting racial identity development and has co-edited a special issue of Professional School Counseling devoted to middle school counseling. Ongoing research in this area includes evaluating the impact of comprehensive school counseling programs on academic achievement in middle schools, the influence of career relevant curriculum on student engagement in middle school, and early adolescent aspirations and academic tracking as it relates to dropouts and the transition to high school.

A primary focus of Akos’s research is on school transitions and how school counselors and schools can promote optimal developmental paths and strengths-enhancing environments. Akos’s inquiry began when as a practicing middle school counselor, he obtained grant support from the American School Counseling Association to document a longitudinal study of the positive aspects of student perceptions in the transition to middle school. This line of inquiry has led to similar work on student, parent and teacher/staff perceptions, the concept of connectedness as a potential moderator on the outcome of successful transitions and student agency, or the contribution students make to negotiate the transition. It also has led Akos as a lead author to write a book titled Promoting a Successful Transition to Middle School.