School counselors are charged with creating comprehensive school counseling programs that recognize and affirm the wholeness and humanness of students, families, and their communities (Holcomb-McCoy, C., Mayes, R. D., Cheatham, C., Sharp, S., and Savitz-Romer, M. (2020). Antiracist school counseling: A call to action [webinar]. Center for Postsecondary Readiness and Success, American University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEjNaB2L3Vc ). However, despite our best efforts, many school environments operate in ways that harm BIPOC students (Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press). School counselors are uniquely positioned to be leaders in antiracist efforts and can influence a shift in school culture by using evidence-based practices across academic, career, and social/emotional domains. This conceptual article has four primary goals: (a) provide a working definition of antiracist school counseling; (b) outline key components of developing a critical consciousness as a foundation to antiracist school counseling practice; (c) describe a framework for engaging in evidence-informed, antiracist practice as a part of MTSS to support strategies that interrupt and dismantle harmful school policies/practices across all domains of service; and (d) provide recommendations for school counselors and school counselor educators who are committing to antiracist practice.
This self‐study examined the challenges experienced by three Black counselor educators when implementing antiracist pedagogy into their classrooms. Two themes emerged: White gaze in counselor education and marked as an outsider within. Counselor educators should engage in continuous self‐reflexivity and positionality while integrating and valuing Black perspectives in counselor education.
The purpose of this study was to illuminate how and to what extent Black women’s developmental processes have influenced their success within their respective U.S. college environments. Crenshaw’s three dimensions of intersectionality guided our analysis. We synthesized 38 peer-reviewed articles and interpreted five themes: (a) navigating the educational matrix, (b) sense of belonging, (c) perceptions of (lack of) institutional support, (d) living and learning at the margins while combating stereotypes, and (e) need for counterspaces and counternarratives. Implications of our findings include expanding definitions of student success, intersectionality and identity development, and equity-driven institutional practices.
It is commonly accepted and expected that gifted students enjoy reading and other forms of creative modes of storytelling. A core principle from bibliotherapy is that students engage in reading when they identify with one or more characters, and challenges and interests like their own. The same principle applies to multicultural literature—when students of color see themselves mirrored in the book, they become more eager to read. This column focuses on the vital need for educators to use multicultural literature with gifted Black girls. Strategies and resources are provided for educators’ expansion of their pedagogical toolkit.
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic intervention that uses stories and narratives to offer insight about personal dilemmas, teach cultural traditions, and assist in fostering various facets of identity development. For adolescent Black boys, exploring stories with protagonists that look like them, who come from similar cultural backgrounds and contend with familiar social/emotional issues and systemic barriers, stimulates healthy discussions that can increase self-awareness and an understanding about the systemic barriers they navigate. This article provides clear, concise, step-by-step guidelines to assist practicing school counselors in effectively using bibliotherapy with adolescent Black boys.
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