Advancing Social Justice Training through a Difficult Dialogue Initiative: Reflections From Facilitators and Participants

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 852-882
Author(s):  
Kerrie G. Wilkins-Yel ◽  
Laura M. Gumbiner ◽  
Jeffrey L. Grimes ◽  
P. F. Jonah Li

Our society continues to be plagued with rampant acts of racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and hate crimes. More so than ever before, engaging in difficult dialogues across differences is imperative. Counseling psychologists are equipped with a multitude of skills that make them uniquely suited to be leaders in effective dialogue engagement. This article provides an overview of a time-limited social justice training opportunity for emerging counseling psychologists called Community Conversations. Community Conversations are designated brave spaces where small groups of college students from varying backgrounds are invited to engage in facilitated interactive and experiential dialogues that explore difficult topics related to power, privilege, and marginalization. The current study examined the multi-tiered impact of the Community Conversations Initiative on both graduate student facilitators and undergraduate participants. We discuss results and practical implications.

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 444
Author(s):  
Jung Soo Kim

This study is aimed at figuring out the effects of major selecting motivation on dropout, academic achievement, and major satisfactions of college students majoring in foodservice and culinary arts. To accomplish this, an empirical survey was conducted through a structural equation model. These findings showed that students are likely to drop out of college due to a career change or major maladjustment if they decide their major in consideration of college reputation or department recognition rather than their aptitude. Unlike existing studies, this study has practical implications concerning the importance of these factors in that their academic achievement is affected by their relationship and perception of their major satisfactions rather than their major selection motivations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick R. Grzanka ◽  
Kirsten A. Gonzalez ◽  
Lisa B. Spanierman

The mainstreaming of White nationalism in the United States and worldwide suggests an urgent need for counseling psychologists to take stock of what tools they have (and do not have) to combat White supremacy. We review the rise of social justice issues in the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions and point to the limits of existing paradigms to address the challenge of White supremacy. We introduce transnationalism as an important theoretical perspective with which to conceptualize global racisms, and identify White racial affect, intersectionality, and allyship as three key domains of antiracist action research. Finally, we suggest three steps for sharpening counseling psychologists’ approaches to social justice: rejecting racial progress narratives, engaging in social justice-oriented practice with White clients, and centering White supremacy as a key problem for the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M. Minieri ◽  
Robert J. Reese ◽  
Kristin M. Miserocchi ◽  
David Pascale-Hague

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Museus

Context Systemic oppression is one of the most pressing problems in U.S. society. However, relatively little is known about the process by which college students become committed to social justice agendas. In addition, systematic empirical inquiries that examine how Asian American students, in particular, develop such commitments are difficult to find. Purpose/Research Question This inquiry was focused on understanding the process by which Asian American college students develop commitments to social justice. The following overarching research question guided the inquiry: How do Asian American college students cultivate a commitment to social justice? Research Design Using a qualitative approach grounded in a critical paradigm, individual interviews were conducted with Asian American college students involved in social justice activism and advocacy. Data Collection and Analysis A single, semistructured 60-minute face-to-face individual interview was conducted with each participant. The data were analyzed in three phases, using line-by-line, focused, and axial coding. Memos were also used throughout the data analysis process to capture thoughts, make comparisons, and clarify connections across data points. Findings The analysis shows how environmental threats that create a sense of urgency, sources of knowledge that foster collective critical consciousness, and models of critical agency contribute to students developing their own critical agency, which ultimately leads to social justice commitments. Conclusions/Recommendations The current study extends prior knowledge by demonstrating that critical agency is salient in Asian American students developing commitments to engage in social justice agendas. The findings also contribute to existing research by offering some evidence that ongoing opportunities to cultivate critical consciousness and connections to agents who model social justice interact and converge with key environmental threats to shape critical agency. The study also provides some initial evidence that Asian American parents can catalyze students’ critical agency and social justice commitments through serving as sources of knowledge that increase students’ awareness about social injustices and modeling how to contribute to a more just world, while college curricula across diverse disciplines and peer networks that center social injustices also help foster critical consciousness that leads to social justice commitments among some Asian American students.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-237
Author(s):  
Timothy Ewest

Purpose This paper aims to outline the prosocial leadership development process for guiding pedagogical and social justice course goals as a means to foster prosocial leadership values within the millennial generation. Design/methodology/approach The paper is guided by a social justice framework and proven classroom pedagogies as a means to align millennial characteristics within the four stages of the prosocial leadership development process. Findings An educational rubric is provided as a means to guide classroom pedagogies, course goals and millennial characteristics through a prosocial leadership development process. Research limitations/implications The paper is conceptual in nature, and therefore, theoretical correspondence remains speculative. Practical implications The research in this paper provided guidelines for educators to use pedagogical practices as a means to develop prosocial values as a basis for organizational leadership behaviors. Social implications This leadership development process when facilitated through proven pedagogical techniques (guided by established social justice curriculum goals) and is within the context of millennial characteristics (those born between the years 1982 and 2005) becomes catalytic in empowering leaders to be a remedy for the world’s environmental and social challenges. Originality/value This paper connects characteristics of millennials to a prosocial leadership development model.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 636-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Unerman

Purpose This paper aims to provide a commentary on evidence presented and issues raised by Egan (2018) regarding LGBT+ diversity initiatives in the accountancy profession. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an invited commentary based on the author’s experiences of LGBT+ and other diversity initiatives in the profession. Findings There is cause for optimism in how far the profession has progressed in some countries on supporting LGBT+ (and other forms of) diversity. Practical implications As multinational accountancy firms can be agents for change in countries where there remains considerable discrimination and hostility to LGBT+ (and other) communities, constructive critique to help further improve the firms’ innovative actions on LGBT+ and other diversity issues could have a major positive impact on social justice. Egan (2018) is an example of such constructive critique. Social implications Where other academic studies take a disparagingly critical approach, they risk both squandering the opportunity to help achieve the progress they espouse and discouraging other firms embracing innovative diversity practices. Originality/value This study provides a counter perspective to some critical accounting arguments that appear to value idealism over progress.


2021 ◽  
pp. 203-218
Author(s):  
Kathryn Metz

Most ethnomusicology graduate programs emphasize research and teaching, with rare mentions of how to apply those skills beyond the academy or how to develop additional skills that might serve an ethnomusicology graduate student in their hunt for meaningful employment. In this chapter, the author discusses how to implement the idea of connecting music to social justice from the beginning of an ethnomusicology curriculum. The author advocates for incorporating more public scholars into the classroom environment and taking students out of the classroom into those public spaces, from museums to out-of-school arts programs to philanthropic institutions to service organizations. The chapter illustrates how to balance the academic syllabus with listening to and creating podcasts, reading blogs, long-form journalism, and professional organization publications affiliated with museums, arts nonprofits, and libraries, as well as specific job functions such as development, community engagement, marketing. The chapter explores how to reduce elitism against those who choose not to pursue a PhD beyond their master’s research and how to reconceive social justice-centered research in an entirely new environment.


Author(s):  
Deanna Day

This chapter describes how a children's literature educator provided a space for preservice teachers to select, read, and discuss diverse and social justice literature through read-alouds and literature circles. In addition, the preservice teachers questioned and challenged their own assumptions about their world during a semester-long read-aloud partnership with elementary students focusing on diverse or social justice children's literature. The college students involved the children in discussions around the texts and planned response activities for them. The findings suggest that partnerships, emphasizing diverse literature, help preservice teachers practice how to choose diverse books, experience the value of read-alouds, and discover how to encourage discussion around diverse texts.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Christensen ◽  
Justin D. Henderson ◽  
Cort M. Dorn-Medeiros ◽  
Ian Lertora

The purpose of this chapter is to provide counseling students with a framework that will allow them to broach gender with male clients and to navigate conversations that may elicit anxiety for beginning counselors. This will be done through the case example of Whitney, a graduate student who just started internship. Her client is Rick, a client in his 50s, who is coming to services because of receiving a DUI and needing to complete counseling for his diversion mandate. Whitney is younger than Rick and has the experience of having some discomforting exchanges with him, such as remarks on how “bright” she is and a passing comment her outfit. The strategies proposed in this case study are grounded in the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies and in Relational Cultural Theory and will give students a framework for understanding clients who may respond like Rick.


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