Supporting Crossover Students in an Urban School District: A Participatory Project

This participatory action research (PAR) project describes crossover students’ college and career readiness needs in a major west coast urban school district. The paper provided insights from administrator researchers, participants, facilitator, and recommendations for school counselors, educators, and organizations who are thinking of creating more counseling support and educational opportunities for crossover students. The results include the reflections and recommendations of crossover youths (e.g., encourage us, we are worth the rigor). The discussion includes strategies for supporting the academic, career, emotional, and social needs of crossover students.

Description and Pilot Evaluation of a Dreamer Ally Training for Higher Education Staff and Faculty

We describe a Dreamer Ally training provided to staff and faculty on a university campus and present results of a pilot evaluation of this training. The Dreamer Ally training was designed to (a) increase university faculty and staff awareness, understanding, and self-efficacy for working with Dreamer students and (b) stimulate action to make the campus more responsive to the challenges and contributions of Dreamer students. For the purpose of this study we define Dreamer students as inclusive of undocumented students, students with the temporary protection of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), students who qualify for the state’s tuition equity program, and students from mixed legal status families. Study goals were to describe the training, gather pilot data on participant learning goals, post-training satisfaction and self-efficacy for supporting Dreamer students, and generate participant feedback about utility of training components and their plans for subsequent action. Participants completed questionnaires before and after the training. Responses to open-ended questions indicated that most participants attended in order to learn how to better support Dreamer students. Paired samples (pre and post) t-tests indicated significantly higher self-efficacy for supporting Dreamer students at posttest. Participant satisfaction with the training was high and found the information session content and working through different Dreamer student scenarios most useful. Action plans included changing program or unit websites to be more inclusive of Dreamers. Limitations include the absence of a control group. Findings can inform institutional efforts to raise faculty and staff awareness of and responsiveness to the challenges facing Dreamer students.

Visions of Health: The GirlPower Photovoice Project

The perceptions of 12 middle school girls regarding the health promoting and inhibiting aspects of their community were explored using the innovative methodology known as Photovoice that was situated in a youth-participatory-action research (YPAR) methodology. The photographs and resulting focus group discussions revealed overarching themes of Community Health and Safety, Food, Relationships, Socioeconomic Status (SES), Moral Development, and Physical Activity. The themes offer a way to organize the multiple realities of adolescent girls and how they interpret their personal health and the health of their communities, while the outcomes associated with participating in the project provide evidence of gains in self-esteem, collective efficacy, and leadership and advocacy skills.

Examination of Social Justice Behaviors: Testing an Integrated Model

In this study, we tested an integrated model of social justice behaviors among a community sample of 179 Asian American and White American adults. The integrated model builds on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and sociopolitical development theory (SPD). Findings from path analyses provided partial support for the integrated model. Specifically, social justice awareness, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were uniquely and positively related to participants’ social justice intention. Intention to act, however, did not predict self-reported social justice behaviors. Multiple group comparison analyses suggested that the aspects of the integrated model consistent with the TPB were better supported in the White American sample, whereas the aspects of the model consistent with SPD were a better fit for the Asian American sample. Particularly, social justice attitudes were related to self-reported actions for Asian Americans in the sample, but not White Americans.

The Impact of Curiosity on Counselors’ Social Justice Identity

The role of counselors has expanded to emphasize social justice principles and community action, encouraging social justice to become infused with counselor’s professional identity. As a result, counselor educators are examining strategies for promoting the social justice identity of students and new professionals. Curiosity has been positioned as theoretically related to the concept of social justice. The current study investigated the relationship between counselor curiosity with social justice identity across three domains (self-efficacy, interest, and commitment) in a sample of 124 counselors and counselor trainees. Results indicated that three types of curiosity (specific, diversive, and competence) predicted each domain of social justice identity. Strategies to incorporate counselor curiosity into social justice pedagogy are discussed.

Exploring Youth Participatory Action Research in Urban Schools: Advancing Social Justice and Equity-Based Counseling Practices

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is emerging as a group counseling practice that focuses on topics that are of personal interest to youth and aims to promote social change. Although YPAR has been found to facilitate critical consciousness, assist with youth self-identity development, and promote social change, few researchers have examined its application in counseling. The present study explored six school counselor trainees’ perceptions of YPAR as a therapeutic intervention and its impact on counseling skill development and how it relates to multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. The themes that resulted from the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis for YPAR as a counseling practice were: (1) fun, interactive, youth-centered approach, not like counseling or therapy, (2) implementation of challenges requiring planning, time, and commitment, (3) collaborative supports to step out of comfort zone, overcome initial hesitancy, and welcome new learning experience, (4) development of counseling skills and confidence as a counselor, and (5) understanding differences and increasing self-awareness and advocacy skills. Discussion and implications for school counseling practice are provided.

A Call for Social Justice in the American Counseling Association (ACA)

Leaders and members of seven social justice-oriented divisions of the American Counseling Association (ACA) met at a Social Justice Summit called by the Counselors for Social Justice in March 2019 at the ACA National Convention in New Orleans. The goal of the summit was to create conversations among members of these seven divisions around ways to improve social justice within the ACA. These discussions at the summit were transcribed and summarized for the purpose of creating a document to outline how ACA could improve its social justice practice. The resulting call for social justice in ACA includes three topics derived from discussions of social justice in the counseling profession: social justice in the organization of ACA, social justice for the people in ACA, and social justice at the ACA conference. Implications for improved social justice practice in the organization are provided.

Knowledge is Power: An Analysis of Counseling Professionals’ Medicare Policy Proficiency

This study examines counseling professionals’ knowledge concerning the Medicare program and related advocacy efforts. American Counseling Association members (N = 5,097) answered a series of true-false questions that were intended to measure proficiency in two areas: Medicare policy and the counseling profession’s advocacy for provider eligibility. Statistical analyses indicated that members have a wide range of Medicare knowledge. A significant difference in advocacy history knowledge was found when comparing counselor educators, practicing counselors, doctoral students, and master’s students. However, no differences in policy knowledge were present among these groups. Implications for the counseling profession and counselor training are discussed.

Reflections and Results from the Intersections: Teaching and Learning the Praxis of Intersectionality in the Psychology Classroom

This article bridges multiple ways of knowing to explore the experience of an undergraduate psychology class focused on intersectionality. Drawing on feminist pedagogy, intersectionality, and critical consciousness literatures, we, the instructor and students together work to understand the experiences of the course and to offer our lessons learned. We present a detailed structure of the course, Experiences of Intersectionality, results of a qualitative analysis of students’ written course reflections, and instructor reflections. Three themes were extracted from the data: Vulnerability and Privilege, “Small Slaps in the Face,” and Empathy and Action. The discussion of the findings includes reflections from the course instructor and applications to praxis, particularly for educators.