School counseling internship and the role of grit: Perceptions Among newly graduated school counselor trainees who successfully navigated internship during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

School counseling interns rose to the task of teaching full-time while earning hours for their internship course during COVID-19. For this qualitative study, the researchers conducted a focus group with eight graduates who successfully completed their internship in Fall 2021 or Spring 2022 amid the pandemic. The purpose of this exploratory, inductive, qualitative research study was to examine the role of grit in successful completion of Internship requirements among school counselor trainees who were enrolled in Internship during some of the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Criterion and convenience sampling were utilized for participant recruitment. After the interviews were transcribed, the authors utilized thematic content analysis and identified six overarching themes. Following themes were identified: a) personal characteristics of grit, b) observations about gritty individuals, c) internal internship challenges, d) external internship challenges, e) internal contributors to internship success, f) external contributors to internship success. The authors present results on the participants’ perceptions of their experiences during internship to offer an enhanced description of the phenomenon of grit. Implications were provided for students, educators, and programs to foster grit as a contributing factor for student success and overall well-being