BIO

Kaleela is a first-year student at FSU studying Public Health and minoring in Philosophy & Law from Coral Springs, FL. Her research interests include health and safety promotion and policy as well as educational development. She enjoys watching foreign movies and learning new languages in the process.

Highly Active Advocates: A Phenomenological Study with School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists

Abstract

School-based speech-language pathologists (SLP) carry a plethora of responsibilities, one of many being to effectively advocate for or against issues pertaining to themselves and their students.
Currently, in the state of Florida, SLPs face heavy caseloads and a lack of cooperation from other levels of leadership and policy-making in public education. Challenges in effective advocacy and self-efficacy have been shown to be an issue for both experienced and inexperienced SLPs alike. With adequate professional training, mentorship, and administrative cooperation and transparency can school-based SLPs and beyond properly facilitate their services to their students. Deciphering which methods work best to implement advocacy skills to current and prospective SLPs in order to overcome challenges effectively.

Keywords: self-efficacy, SLP, advocate