School Counselors’ Leadership Experiences in Multi-tiered Systems of Support: A Phenomenological Investigation

Abstract

Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) are widely implemented throughout the U.S., and according to the literature, school counselors are one school-based staff member who supports and even leads MTSS implementation, along with other school-based staff. At the same time, there exists limited research examining school counselors’ leadership roles in MTSS. In this study, researchers conducted an exploratory phenomenological investigation to learn of school counselors’ leadership experiences in MTSS (N = 10). According to the results, school counselors reported (a) commonalities between school counseling and MTSS, and (b) benefits and challenges of their MTSS leadership roles.