Two steps forward, one step back: Collaboration in school-based consultation

Gutkin (this issue) has showcased the collaboration debate in school-based consultation by first reviewing its history and empirical backdrop and then presenting a model that clarifies current thinking regarding collaboration in consultation. The article's positive contributions are die chronologica l depiction and integrative discussion of selected process-outcome studies of school consultation, and the introduction of a 2 x 2 grid model of rappr ochement that attempts to disentangle the collaborative and directive dimen sions of consultant behavior. However, less positively received are the aut hor's efforts to search for the presence of the poorly defined construct "c ollaboration" in the extant literature, and the model's failure to incorpor ate in a comprehensive manner an interpersonal perspective on the consultan t/consultee relationship and the role of social influence in consultation. (C) 1999 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.