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Abstract
Perceptions and attitudes are two concepts often used interchangeably and it is
common for people to refer to a person’s attitude as perceptions to explain their
behaviour. Attitudes may also be perceived as a complex construct as often it is
a manifestation of a combination of attributes that include one’s personality,beliefs, values, behaviours and motivations. Pickens (2005, p.52) defines perceptions as “a mental or neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a dynamic influence on the individual’s response to objects and situations to which it may be related”. Perceptions and attitudes play a significant role in human social behaviour.
According to Pickens (2005), perceptions are related to attitudes and sometimes difficult to differentiate. To establish the perceptions of counsellors towards clinical supervision (CS) in Botswana, two hundred and ten (210) counsellors and thirty-eight (38) supervisors were recruited to determine the level of access, knowledge of
CS, attitudes, and CS practices. The study used the explanatory sequential
research design; quantitative data was collected first and analysed to inform the
qualitative data collection. The two data sets were merged through a metaanalysis
to establish convergence and divergence. The total population sample was 248 practising counsellors of any gender drawn from 5 districts. More counsellors identified as females (79.3%), and (20.7%) as males; none indicated any other gender.
The study revealed poor CS access, limited knowledge, limited training, and a lack of guiding principles. Surprisingly, both counsellors and supervisors had positive attitudes and more convergence than divergence.
The study recommends the development of a CS national framework, a review of the counsellor education curriculum, effective regulation and future research to consider the use of the focus group method.
Keywords: 1. Attitudes, 2. Botswana, 3. Clinical Supervision,4. Knowledge,
5.Perceptions, 6. Practice.
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