Question 1: In your own words, what are the 3 most important concepts, ideas or issues in the reading? Briefly explain why you chose them.

Question 2: What are 2 concepts, ideas or issues in the article that you had difficulty understanding, or that are missing but should have been included? In your own words, briefly explain what you did to correct the situation (e.g. looked up an unfamiliar word or a missing fact), and the result. Cite any sites or sources used in APA format. Issue 1 (In your own words)

Question 3:     What is the main economic story of the reading? (Economics studies the allocation of scarce resources.)

Article Critique

The article titled “A mixed-method study of male recruitment in the counseling profession” by Michel, Hall, Hays and Runyan (2013) focused on the evaluation of the perception of counselor educators and counseling graduate students of the presence of men in the counseling profession. A mixed research approach using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data collection was employed. This paper is a critique of the research methodology and the findings attained.

Methodology

The authors adopted a mixed research method to obtain qualitative and quantitative data on the issue of male recruitment and presence in the counseling profession. The use of a mixed research method is essential in enhancing the voice of the study participants and guaranteeing the inclusion of their experiences in the findings. The mixed-method is also important in cross-validation of the findings reported from the two research methods. The researcher is able to judge the quality and credibility of the findings based on whether the data from the two research methods come to the same conclusion.

The sample size adopted in the two research methods, semi-structured interviews and the survey depicts the correct sample size for a qualitative and quantitative method respectively. The researchers interviewed 10 counseling graduate students and engaged 238 counselor educators in a quantitative survey, sample sizes that are suitable for qualitative and quantitative studies, justifying the accuracy of the sampling procedure.

The data collection and analysis process adopted by the researchers promised the attainment of quality and credible data. The use of a validated research instrument (Cronbach alpha = 0.89) in data collection and the reduction of possible researcher biases during the collection of the qualitative data guarantee the attainment of valid and reliable data that will respond to the formulated research questions.

Results

Comprehensive findings were obtained to respond to the three research questions formulated by the researcher. However, more credible findings were obtained to respond to the first and the third research question. The data collected from the two sources come to the same conclusion on the issue of the effect of the number of male students on the culture of a graduate counseling program and the perception of the counselors in training and counselor educators on efforts to recruit men into masters’ degree counseling program. Both the interview and survey findings indicated that the male voice is lacking in the counseling profession since they are few in number justifying the credibility of the results. The findings for the third research question were also based on the data drawn from the two methods of data collection, indicating its reliability.

On the contrary, the credibility of the findings on research question two remains questionable, since the authors only relied on the survey data. The need for the mixed research method was to achieve comparison of the data and ensure that more reliable information is presented. Relying on a single data source thus makes the response to the research question less accurate. In addition, the issue of the effects of male counselors on the counseling profession (research question 2) could have been best answered by counseling practitioners and not educators per se. More studies need to be done on the role of male counselors in influencing the client’s options from the perspective of counseling practitioners.

References

Michel, R. E., Hall, S. B., Hays, D. G., & Runyan, H. I. (2013). A mixed-methods study of male recruitment in the counseling profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 91(4), 475-482.