The Briar Patch: Thorny Challenges for Directors

Bucking the Culture...

Vic Pantesco, Ph.D
 

The Thorn
       It is not uncommon for the training clinic to buck up against some element of the prevailing culture within the department or university. One place it may take form, for example, is in the weak or poor clinic evaluation of a student who, until their new visibility and responsibility requirements of practicum, had been problem free or even seen as strong. This dynamic could be triggered also by reviewing or disciplining the student as a result of a serious breach or mistake.
       These actions by clinic faculty or director may invite overt or more subtle punishment for such cultural violations. It may, for example, take the form of the student's faculty advisor embracing an advocacy role for the student, energizing an obvious split. Or, the department more subtly may not support the clinic's findings or judgments, relegating them to outlier status in defense of the department's unimpeachable preparation of candidates.
       While the clinic in this role of pointing to the emperor's nakedness may have laudable intent and function, the costs of such action could be significant depending on where harder evaluations fit within the culture. It is often instructive, as we might find ourselves bloodied in such battles, to look around and see who else in the system has the strength and insight to pursue theseculture to be the enforcers.
       The culture may outwardly espouse these evaluations, but the theory-in-use may be at odds with that espousal. This thorn can be particularly sharp and painful.

To Dull the Pain
       One anodyne could involve a systems effort, and the other an individual strategy. For the culture, moving the conversation before the fact about how evaluations of such problems in the clinic will interface with the history and systems of the department can be useful. At least it provides the experience of the faculty having to load into its collective consciousness that the clinic director will not stand alone out there and absorb the problems and expectations for remedy. At most, it may engender the beginning of paradigm shift concerning how more folks will take on the tougher questions sooner.
       Individual strategy invokes some of the systems elements as well. As soon as we detect that there might be cultural noise about our evaluative procedure(s) with a student, it would be useful to see that as a signal that private dealings with the problem stop. Moving to the open forum as much as possible, including feedback vehicles and evaluation debriefings, is advised. This at minimum might include the clinic supervisor, director, student, and student's advisor. In addition, as so many of our ADPTC meetings and materials have espoused, pursuing best practices within supervision including careful attention to documentation of evaluations, goals, and feedback measures is a given.

Here is Vic getting some much-needed therapy from his rock troll therapist on Block Island, RI last summer. A future ADPTC meeting site? (The therapy is free.)