Training School

Counselors to Advocate
for Black Students

Dr. Eva M. Gibson Dr. Mariama C. Sandifer Dr. Sarah Brant-Rajahn

Austin Peay State University Columbus State University Messiah University

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 Objectives
After attending this session you should be able to:
1. Provide intentional, explicit instruction on social justice advocacy
for Black students
2. Integrate action-oriented, culturally responsive skill development
across curriculum
3. Explore ASCA’s race and equity resources and discuss
considerations for training
4. Articulate the importance of utilizing data to highlight and address
disparities for this population

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 Woke: being aware of and
actively attentive to
important facts and issues
related to racial and social
justice

Social justice advocacy:

action steps initiated to
remove obstacles to
success for
underrepresented
students
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Challenges?

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The Need For Training
● Systemic oppression continues to disenfranchise communities and this shows up in
schools as a microcosm of society.
● As advocates, school counselors are called to create an inclusive and antiracist
environment that promotes equitable access to opportunities and resources.
● Counselors in training have reported feeling unprepared to work with unfamiliar groups
of people (Littleford et al., 2010)
● Educators have acknowledged the need for training to prepare them to be more culturally
responsive (Malo-Juvera et al., 2018).
● Culturally responsive approaches require not only awareness and comprehension of
diverse cultures, but also intentional infusion in pedagogy (Gibson, et al., 2019).
● Training programs should be intentional about integrating cultural competency training.
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The Need For Training: Standards
CACREP: Counselor educators are
ASCA: provides guidance through the
required to prepare SCITs to apply
Eliminating racism and bias in schools
theories and models of multicultural Standards in Practice and applicable
counseling, cultural identity position statements (i.e., Cultural
development, and social justice and Diversity and Equity for all Students).
advocacy (F.2.b) and to understand
the impact of heritage, attitudes,
beliefs, understandings, and ACA: provides guidance through the
acculturative experiences on an Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling
Competencies (MSJCC) and Advocacy
individual’s views of others (F.2.d)
Competencies. Ethical guidelines from
(Council for Accreditation of
these organizations also address
Counseling and Related Educational responsibilities in these areas.
Programs [CACREP], 2016). MS
CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT)

A theoretical framework
used to explore racism,
privilege, oppression, and
power that marginalized
populations face through
socio-political and
institutional processes.

1994 SB
Consider:
● What (and how) do we teach SCITs as we prepare them to develop school
counseling core curriculum?

● As school counselors commonly prepare social-emotional lessons for teachers to

deliver, how do we as counselor educators teach SCITs to infuse social justice and
antiracism within these lessons?

● As Black students are overrepresented in the number of discipline referrals, how

do we teach SCITs effective classroom management skills and practices?

● How do we teach SCITs to respond to school needs in the wake of public displays
of injustice (e.g., riot at Capitol Hill, police violence on Black bodies, etc.)
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Successful practice?

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 Creating a Space to Train Counselors in
Social Justice Advocacy Work: A CRT Lens

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 Program and Class Environment:
The Importance of Modeling
● Champion the hiring and retention of Black faculty and Black leaders

● Be aware of and name power dynamics

● Set the tone of the learning environment through the syllabus with a diversity statement &
antiracist learning objectives

● Engage in culturally responsive and antiracist scholarship and service activities, as well as
social justice advocacy work and share this relevant work with students (Gibson et al., 2021)
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 Program and Class Environment:
The Importance of Modeling
● Elevate the Voices of Black Scholars: Include the contributions, texts and readings, and
perspectives of Black scholars & give an explanation that addresses the explicit purpose of
these selections.

● Invite Black school counselors, doctoral students, and Black school counselor educators as
guest speakers

● Be intentional to seek Black field experience site supervisors

● Effectively address overt and covert discrimination, marginalization, and racism in the
classroom and in university spaces MS
 As school counselor involvement in
addressing the causal sequence of
racism increases, so does the need for
in-depth and specific preparation.

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 Course Work
● BE INTENTIONAL: Move from integrating to centering cultural competence and social justice
advocacy. Prioritize social justice and inclusion from course conceptualization, to syllabi development,
and course assignments and delivery.

● CHALLENGE STUDENTS in their self-awareness and worldview, awareness of others and other
worldviews, ability to accept and celebrate diverse ways of being, and understanding of power,
privilege, and oppression

● INCREASE ATTENTION TO MULTICULTURALISM, ANTI-RACISM, & SOCIAL JUSTICE through

covering these areas in multiple or all courses; avoid teaching Black experience as monocultural, give
attention to intersection of identity

● CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE, CULTURAL AFFIRMING, & ANTI-RACIST SCHOLARSHIP AND

READINGS SB
 Course Work
● CASE STUDIES
○ Adapt traditional student engagement strategies to intentionally include cultural
reflection.
■ Assign client case studies that represent Black students and people and
demonstrate the intersection of identity.
■ Have SCITs conceptualize the case from a culturally responsive lens
■ Ask students to identify and discuss their cultural biases and assumptions and
explore the origin of their biases and assumptions.
● Have SCITs construct personal narratives that reflect on socio-cultural discourses that
have influenced their self-view and worldview.
● Assign SCITs an end-of-course assignment that requires them to reflect on and narrate
their growth as a culturally responsive and antiracist counselor.
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 Course Work
CULTURALLY AFFIRMING AND RESPONSIVE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS &
APPROACHES

● Liberation Psychology: allows counselors to shift from blaming the victim to understanding
how structural forces influence well-being (Chávez et al., 2016)
● Relational-Cultural Theory: consists of seven tenets and key concepts which demonstrates the
importance of growth fostering relationships in healthy human development and provide
implications for teaching and counseling with awareness of oppression and privilege at the
forefront of our practices (Jordan, 2017)
● African American Male Theory: grounded in an Afrocentric worldview, considers historical
and current underpinnings of the Black male experience, and focuses on strength-based
concepts (Bush & Bush, 2013)
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 Course Work
CULTURALLY AFFIRMING AND RESPONSIVE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS & APPROACHES, cont.

● Narrative: intentionally creates a relational environment and addresses experiences of

oppression with culturally diverse clients; Grounded in historical and philosophical thought of
individual storytelling and multiple subjective truths to be of great importance (Epston et al.,
2012)
● Womanism: centers Black female experience as multidimensional; challenges social constructs;
considers intersection of identity; focus is empowerment; emphasizes the value and strength of
traits purportedly characteristic of Black American women’s culture” (Haskins et al., 2019);
● Strengths-Based vs. Deficit Based Lens and Approach
● Art, Music, and Visual Approaches

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 Course Work
● COURSE WORK DESIGNED TO TEACH ADVOCACY SKILLS: infuse activities designed to
identify and address disparity issues in course content; Intervention development

● HOW TO DIRECTLY ADDRESS RACIAL INJUSTICE: present scenarios for discussion

● CONSIDER INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION IN COURSE OFFERINGS: across school counseling,

educational leadership, and curriculum & instruction

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How are we teaching
SCITs to view data
with a cultural lens?

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 Data
● Collecting and Examining Data for Black Student Advocacy (academic,
social/emotional, and college and career)
○ What are the gaps? (gifted and special education; test scores; grades; AP course
referral and enrollment; college application and acceptance; scholarships;
discipline referrals and penalties)
○ How can the SCIT close these gaps? (systemic, SC program)
○ Who can the SCIT collaborate with? (community, families, ed leadership,
curriculum and instruction, school social worker, nurses)
○ What are the needs of Black students & how can the SCIT address these needs?
○ What are the STRENGTHS of the Black students and how can we leverage them?
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 Other Data Points
● Engage in a critical analysis to evaluate:
○ How well are we engaging Black families?
○ How do our Black students perceive the school climate?
○ What attitudes do our school personnel have toward our Black students?
○ Are our materials and curriculum culturally relevant?
○ Are our policies oppressive or inclusive?
○ Do our faculty trainings integrate cultural issues?

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 Teaching Students to Advocate With Data
• Create a visual and/or written report of data
• Create agenda items for discussion with co-counselors
• Consult with other student support professionals to review data and brainstorm
• Present data about student concerns to administration and ask to present data to school faculty, staff,
and parents (where applicable). Teach students to align data with school mission and annual strategic
goals when possible.
• Evaluate and recommend changes to school policies and procedures (academic, discipline, referrals
for SPED, AP, and gifted, etc…). Ex: “given this data, we recommend a re-evaluation of how we suspend
students based on this policy. Options include…”
• Ask to provide a Professional Development (where applicable) and prepare students to engage in this
process
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• Help students prepare for pushback and role-play responses
 Experiential and Scholarship Opportunities
● PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL AND EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS
TO
○ work with Black people (students/youth populations, families, communities)
○ understand the Black experience and needs for advocacy
○ strengthen advocacy skills to work with and on behalf of Black student/youth,
families, and communities

● EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES may include visiting historical sites, cultural

experiences (performance, arts, spiritual/religious), service learning, community
building, field experiences, advocacy projects

● Engage students in social justice and anti-racist research EG

Interdisciplinary Collaborative Leadership
ASCA emphasizes the need for school counselors to understand four leadership contexts:
structural leadership, human resource leadership, political leadership, and symbolic
leadership (Michel et al., 2018).

Teach how to have courageous conversations/difficult dialogues- utilize role plays

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 Resources: Collaborative Leadership
Resource: Enhancing the Principal-School Counselor Relationship toolkit (College Board, 2011)

○ This framework is the result of a collaborative project between ASCA, National

Association of Secondary School Principals, and College Board. This toolkit
provides collaborative activities for the counselor and administer to complete
self-assessments, review school data together, enhance communication, engage
in collaborative planning, and build strong working relationships.

Resource: The ASCA website offers a multitude of resources (to include publications,
videos, and presentations) designed to help principals and counselors to collectively
ensure equitable practices and to meet the demands of the ever-changing school
demographic.
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Resources: Supervision
As school counselor educators provide targeted feedback on the use of
culturally responsive techniques, SCITs may experience personal and
professional growth. A continuous focus on trainee development is important
as the school counselor role is critical to the culture of the school.
Resource: Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory- Revised to be a beneficial resource
for feedback (Chung & Bemak, 2012)

• This tool assesses cross-cultural counseling skills, socio-political awareness,

and cultural sensitivity.

• Results from this evaluation may be discussed during supervision and EG

subsequent plans of improvement may be collaboratively developed.
 Resources: Centering Equity & Social Justice
SCITs should be taught how to develop goals that center on equity and social justice while also developing
programming and interventions that meet student needs.

Resource: Interrupting Racism: Equity & Social Justice in School Counseling (2018)
• Addresses racial inequity in schools and issues around intention,
action, white privilege, and implicit bias.

Resource: Culturally Sustaining School Counseling by Grothaus et al. (2020)

• Includes prompts and activities that promote
reflection and the establishment of personal objectives.

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Resources: Centering Equity & Social Justice

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 Reach out
Dr. Eva Gibson
Austin Peay State Univ. Dr. Sarah Brant-Rajahn
[email protected] Messiah University
[email protected]

Dr. Mariama Sandifer

Columbus State University
[email protected]

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