Missing the Process for the Product: Tension Between Instructor Goals and Student Perceptions of ePortfolios as Personalized Action Research
The creation of ePortfolios as a capstone project for school counselors-in-training has many benefits for the students, instructors, and program. However, there can be tension due to misalignments in goals and lived experiences of the ePortfolio even when the students find ePortfolios useful. This paper explores this tension between instructor goals and student perceptions of the purposes and values of ePortfolios created as part of a capstone in a graduate school counseling program. While the school counseling instructor conceptualized the ePortfolio process and product as a form of personalized action research focusing on aspirational goals, the school counselors-in-training experienced the ePortfolio as a useful product for reflection and job preparation but did not grasp the process as a form of personalized action research. Reflections on this disconnect suggest recommendations for better alignment of instructor goals and student experiences in order to use ePortfolios as a form of personalized action research.
