Generating visions, generating knowledge - ALMS counsellors write!

In this paper we describe a project on language counsellor development we have been engaged in over the past two years. Nine counsellors from the Autonomous Learning Modules (ALMS) are involved in the project, which began by adapting peer-group mentoring (PGM) techniques developed in teacher education in Finland (Heikkinen et al. 2012). The aims of our regular PGM meetings have been to enhance teacher autonomy and wellbeing and to foster critical reflection on our counselling practice. We have been exploring how a “scholarship of counselling” (cf. Vieira 2013) can be developed through our discussions and, especially, through collective writing. In our writing effort, we have engaged with a form of experimental academic writing that uses our autobiographies and experiences and is proving to be significant in our counselling practice. In this article, we present our PGM discussions and dialogic writing process as potential tools for developing the scholarship of counselling.