Is It Students or the System? Infusing a Culturally Sustaining Approach to Tier 2 Groups Within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

Abstract

School counselors play an instrumental role in advancing equity and access for students through tiered supports and specifically group counseling. In this article, we propose the need to move away from a deficit-based model of groups focused on student skill gaps. First, we outline a culturally sustaining group approach that focuses on students’ experiences, strengths, and assets while providing a space where students can collectively heal and learn from each other. Second, we describe a cyclical process whereby school counselors learn from students and use students’ expertise to inform and improve the school-wide systems, processes, and practices that negatively impact students and contribute to the initial need for students to participate in group interventions. Finally, because groups are increasingly implemented within Tier 2 of a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework, we outline a visual model we have developed to illustrate how culturally sustaining practices can be infused throughout the Tier 2 process.