Hidden Counselors in Schools: Physical Education Teachers

The main objective of this qualitative research is to provide a detailed examination of the contributions of physical education and sports teachers to counseling services in schools based on common experiences of school counselors. For this purpose, a phenomenological research design as one of the qualitative research methods was used in this study. Determined by using a purposeful sampling method, 14 psychological counseling teachers working in schools from 14 different provinces (cities) in 7 different regions of Turkey were interviewed. As a result of the thematic analysis, it was found that there were four main themes that define the contributions of physical education and sports teachers to the counseling services in schools: (i) physical education teachers' communication power, (ii) structure of physical education class, (iii) value transfer and (iv) problematic students. As a result of the study, it was found that physical education lessons and physical education teachers contribute to the counseling service by working in harmony with the counseling service.