Withholding advice following a request for advice

the ideal of self-direction in conversation

• Sanna Vehviläinen University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3698-2061

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.112178

Keywords: oppilaanohjaus [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p19847], ohjaus (neuvonta ja opastus) [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p178], itseohjautuvuus [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p8016], opinto-ohjaus [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p14999], vuorovaikutus [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p10591], ongelmanratkaisu [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p6006], keskustelunanalyysi [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p7828] educational counselling [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p14999], pupil counselling [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p19847], self-direction [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p8016], direction (instruction and guidance) [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p178], interaction [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p10591], conversation analysis [http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p7828]

Abstract

This article (in Finnish) examines counselling interaction in careers training. Careers training aims at enhancing the students’ life planning, finding employment possibilities, and facilitating self-directedness. The article presents a part of a study that applies conversation analysis to recorded counselling encounters, examining in detail how counselling encounters are carried out as conversations and what interactional patterns are used to shape the interaction according to central counselling principles. Here I examine sequences where the student requests advice or solution to a problem. Instead of giving it, the counsellor withholds the expected response, and uses questioning to elicit the student’s own ideas on possible solutions. The advice is given only after that, grounding it in these ideas. Thus, the counsellor avoids taking the position of a solution-provider, activates the student in solving the problem, and maintains the possibility to evaluate the student’s ideas. I discuss the dynamics and consequences of this interactional pattern in relation to the aims of counselling.