Subject teachers in general upper secondary education are usually described as experts in pedagogy, which they are. Subject teachers have also some other duties at school among their teaching. They have responsibilities in guidance counselling as it is said in national core curriculum of Finnish general upper secondary education. Students are guided and supported by homegroup teachers during students´ three-year studies. It means that every group of students have their own homegroup teacher. The position of homegroup teacher is not an easygoing role for subject teachers and their might have some discordant thoughts about working as homegroup teacher. As a guidance counsellor I have been asked a question by teachers: “Why we must do guidance counselling even we are incompetent for that? We are teachers and we just want to teach”.
The aim of my study is to describe how subject teachers describe themselves as homegroup teachers and how they talk about guidance counselling issues. I´m curious to know what kind of counselling competences homegroup teachers have and why they describe themselves incompetent in guidance counselling. The second aim is to find out what homegroup teachers talk about their practical knowledge in guidance counselling and how they use their practical knowledge to manage in challenging counselling situations at work as homegroups teachers.
This study has narrative research approaches. Research data was collected in peer group mentoring meetings for subject teachers. Peer group mentoring is an effective and adequate method to talk about issues of guidance counselling and to share thoughts and experiences with other homegroup teachers.