The School Counselor’s Role in Anti-Racist College Counseling and Advising
Project LEARN Category
L- Listen
E- Educate
A - Acknowledge
R - Respond
Intended Audience(s)
Theme/Focus
Racism
Activism
Article Details
Citation:
Levy, Ian and Lopez-Perry, Caroline (2021) "The School Counselor’s Role in Anti-Racist College Counseling and Advising," Journal of College Access: Vol. 6 : Iss. 3 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca/vol6/iss3/3
Article Abstract
At the time of writing the introduction for this special issue, we are on the heels of a national reckoning with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequity and violence, and systemic injustice. As the nation prepares to pivot back into in-person schooling, at least partially, conversations regarding mental health and Critical Race Theory have come to the fore. While a growing number of school counselors and other educators have rightfully advocated for the inclusion of anti-racist practices in schools to make sense of the multitude of ways racism pervades education and undermines the mental wellbeing and holistic development of young people, there has been national outcry and political decisions barring its use. While this special issue does not intend to detail the myriad ways Critical Race Theory can/should be drawn from, it does consider the role school counselors play in combating racist systems that disproportionately impact the College Counseling and Advising process for Black youth. This issue also explores the ways in which mental health, and social emotional wellbeing is wedded to the role of college counseling and career development. Emdin (2016) argues for White educators, who work with Black youth, to become acutely aware of how age-old racist schooling practices force youth to assimilate to ways of knowing and being that are divorced from their authentic selves. The path towards authentic self actualization, or the celebration of Black youth and their ways of knowing and being, are achieved through the abolishment of the policies and practices that squelch their development (Love, 2019). In this special issue, we introduce a series of articles that explore the role that counselors play in K-12 schooling and on college campuses, to challenge racist systems and structures and to support Black youth.