A Qualitative Meta-analysis of Ethical Conflicts and Coping Experiences of School Counselors

The purpose of this study is to examine what school counselors experienced both inside and outside of psychology while encountering ethical conflicts and coping experiences. To this end, a qualitative meta-analysis was conducted on seven qualitative studies addressing the ethical conflicts and coping experiences of school counselors. Qualitative meta-analysis is a research method that synthesizes the results and discussions of individual qualitative studies to derive overarching themes and extended interpretations that permeate the individual studies. The ethical conflict and coping experiences of school counselors were described through the process of data coding and preparation of key statements from the analyzed papers, cross-comparative analysis of individual studies, derivation of central concepts and descriptive topics, and derivation and visualization of comprehensive topics and results. As a result of the analysis, 18 descriptive topics, 3 comprehensive topics, and 1 core topic were derived. School counselors, inevitably experiencing ethical conflicts on the “challenging path that school counselors must take,” were aiming for ethical growth by “seeking ways to coexist” and insisted on preparing institutional measures by “calling for structural changes.” The core topic was derived as “fully residing in the universal uncertainty and ambiguity that must be shouldered.” Based on these results, the meaning of the findings was discussed, along with the significance, implications and limitations of the study for school counseling, and suggestions for follow-up research were presented. It is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to providing meaningful interpretations of school counselors' ethical conflicts and coping experiences and foundational data for the establishment of school counseling legislation.