Abstract
In addition to instructing students in social justice counseling and advocacy competencies, counselor educators also serve as mentors for aspiring advocates by exemplifying their commitment to the profession as counselors, advocates, and academics. The main point of this chapter will describe an example of an experiential, field-based, service-learning project that students complete in their second year of a part-time master's in counseling degree with a hybrid learning format. Additionally, an overview of the S-Quad framework for social justice advocacy will be provided. This serves as a template for inclusive advocacy that educators can modify to be applicable when working in any program and within a variety of teaching modalities (i.e., synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid). The final section of this chapter will include an analysis of current challenges to educator sustainability fostered by sociopolitical factors and manifestations of systemic oppression found in educational systems.
TopIntroduction
Essential philosophical principles of professional counseling include valuing holistic wellness, client autonomy, cultural diversity, and respecting differences between worldviews (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014, Preamble). Master’s level counseling programs that are accredited in the U.S. by the Council on Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) combine pre-professional training in counseling skills, ethical practice, and evidence-based intervention with knowledge of relevant research in the field and openness to diverse perspectives across the populations served in school or community settings (CACREP, 2015). Graduate students in counseling are also taught to adhere to the tenets of the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics, which outlines their responsibilities to engage in both academic and personal growth as part of their training (American Counseling Association, 2014, Section F.8.c.). These principles manifest throughout master’s-level counselor education curricula as counselors in training (CIT) are taught by counselor educators who infuse multicultural considerations into all curricular areas (American Counseling Association, 2014, Section F.7.c.).
Students in counselor education programs are encouraged to develop an awareness of themselves as social-cultural beings (American Counseling Association, 2014, Section F.11.c.). They are also asked to acknowledge and develop an appreciation for worldviews that differ from their own (CACREP, 2015, Section 2.F.2.d), and to increase their understanding of how social power dynamics influence the clients and students CITs will eventually counsel (CACREP, 2015, Section 2.F.2.e.). Some of these aspects of counselor preparation are consistent with multicultural education (Lee & McAdams, 2019), a framework that encourages educators to acknowledge the pluralism of identities held by students and faculty; however, CITs are urged to actively engage in advocacy more directly than colleagues in related fields like teacher education or adult and higher education.
CITs are expected to develop their knowledge and skills in the area of social justice advocacy so that they are well-prepared to engage in advocacy throughout their professional careers in school or community settings. As outlined by the American Counseling Association (2014) in the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics’ Section C., Professional Responsibility:
Counselors are expected to advocate to promote changes at the individual, group, institutional, and societal levels that improve the quality of life for individuals and groups and remove potential barriers to the provision or access of appropriate services being offered. (p. 8)
Similar language can be found in the 2016 CACREP Standards for beginning school counselors, who are asked to understand their role as “leaders, advocates, and systems change agents in P-12 schools” (CACREP, 2015, Section 5.G.2.a., n.p.). These professional responsibilities all relate to counseling’s core values of beneficence, justice, and fidelity (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014, Preamble) and the belief that counselors who possess multicultural competencies can ethically serve diverse populations of clients and students (ACA, 2014, Section C.2.a.; CACREP, 2015, Section 2.F.2.c.).
In this chapter, the authors summarize the principles of social constructivist approaches to teaching and learning (Adams, 2008) and relevant components of critical pedagogy (Giroux, 2010), as these approaches underscore our teaching practices. The primary focus of this chapter will be the illustration of Advocacy in Action (AIA), an experiential, field-based, service-learning project (Arnold & McMurtery, 2011) that students complete in their second year of a three- to three-and-a-half-year master’s program with a part-time, hybrid learning format. This innovative activity in counselor education aims to activate students’ strengths, build their confidence as agents of social change, and introduce concepts of interconnectedness that are vital to sustainability as counselors in school or community settings.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Community engagement: “[T]he process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people,” the purpose of which is to “[bring] about environmental and behavioral changes that will improve the health of the community and its members” (Centers for Disease Control, 1997, p. 9). Community engagement often involves partnerships or collaborations among stakeholders invested in changing policies, programs, or practices.
Counselor Education: “[C]ounselor education address professional roles in five doctoral core areas: counseling, supervision, teaching, research and scholarship, and leadership and advocacy. These five doctoral core areas represent the foundational knowledge required of doctoral graduates in counselor education” ( CACREP, 2015 , n.p.).
Stakeholders: Interested parties in a lobbying or advocacy effort, including organizations and people who influence an advocate’s efforts, as well as those who will be influenced by those efforts ( Morris, 2018 ). Stakeholders in educational or counseling advocacy may include students/clients, teachers, parents, school/agency administrators, members of local/State/Federal government, and members of the public who could be impacted by a change in legislation, policy, or practice.
Social Constructivism: Social constructivism's basic tenet is that human learning and knowledge are formed via social interaction and are shared experiences rather than solitary ones.
Social Justice: “ Social justice in counseling represents a multifaceted approach in which counselors strive to simultaneously promote human development and the common good through addressing challenges related to both individual and distributive justice. This approach includes the empowerment of individuals and groups as well as active confrontation of injustice and inequality in society, both as they impact clientele and in their systemic contexts. In doing so, counselors direct attention to four critical principles that guide their work: equity, access, participation, and harmony. From this perspective, equity is the fair distribution of resources, rights, and responsibilities to all members of society. Access is key to a socially just world. It includes notions of fairness for both the individual and the common good based on the ability of all people to access the resources, services, power, information, and understanding crucial to realizing a standard of living that allows for self-determination and human development. Participation is also crucial to a socially just world. This principle describes the right of every person in society to partake in and be consulted on decisions that impact their lives as well as the lives of other people in their contexts and systems. The final element of our definition of social justice is harmony. This is a principle of social adjustment wherein the actions revolving around the self-interests of any individual or group ultimately produces results that afford the best possible outcomes for the community as a whole” ( Crethar & Ratts, 2008 , p. 1-2).
Advocacy: Actions taken by individuals or groups of stakeholders “to address systemic barriers and issues facing students, clients, client groups or whole populations” ( Toporek & Daniels, 2018 , p. 2). In counseling, there are “six domains of advocacy: empowerment, client advocacy, community collaboration, systems advocacy, collective action, and social/political advocacy” ( Toporek & Daniels, 2018 , p. 2). Advocacy can include actions taken on behalf of clients/students (e.g., client advocacy, systems advocacy) or actions with clients/students (e.g., empowerment, collective action).
Critical Pedagogy: A philosophy of teaching, most often associated with Brazilian professor Paulo Frière (1970), that describes systems of education as inseparable from sociopolitical concerns and focuses on pedagogy as a means of critiquing existing structures of oppression (including educational systems) and empowering students who have socially marginalized identities ( Giroux, 2010 ).