#SchoolCounselors2020: Supporting Communities Pre & Post Election

In preparation for the 2020 presidential election, school counselors need to be equipped with antiracist tools and strategies to unpack difficult topics and lead challenging conversations. In this presentation the following will be covered:

1. Preparing your school community for the election season
2. Addressing post-election results with students, staff, and stakeholders
3. Empowering school counselors to support healing and civically engaged action steps in a post-election world

Derek Francis
Derek Francis is a passionate school counselor with years of experience focusing on a proactive, equity based and proactive approach. He currently serves as the Manager of Counseling Services for Minneapolis Public Schools. Derek specializes in helping students and staff build trusting cross cultural relationships and has presented at conferences throughout the country including American School Counselors Association, Minnesota School Counselors Association, Texas School Counselors Association and Wisconsin School Counselors Association. . Recently, Derek lead a webinar for over 25,000 counselors and educators on “Proactive School Counseling After a Major Racial Incident.” Some of Derek’s published work includes contributions to Contemporary Case Studies in School Counseling, published blog “This Is Not A Fire Drill – Supporting students after George Floyd” and July/August publication articles for American School Counselors Association and American School Board Journal.. Spending time with his wife and daughter and traveling are Derek’s favorite hobbies. Derek also serves as a professional Development Specialist for Hatching Results

Kara Leva
Dr. Kara Ieva is currently an Associate Professor in the Counseling in Educational Settings program at Rowan University. In addition to her current position in Counselor Education, her educational career spans over 20 years as a former Spanish teacher and professional school counselor. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Secondary Education and Master’s of Education in Secondary Education Curriculum and Administration from Towson University. Additionally, she earned her Master’s of Education in School Counseling from Loyola College in Maryland and her PhD in Counselor Education for the University of Central Florida. Kara’s areas of research interest include promoting equity and wellness in education for children and adolescents of marginalized populations: in the areas of college and career readiness, social/emotional development, and group counseling. She provides professional development to K-12 school counselors, teachers, and administrators on how to embed social/emotional development into curricula and strategies for cultivating an emotionally safe and welcoming mental health and neurodiverse culture in schools. She created and facilitates the New Jersey School and SAC Counselor Online Collective, which started out of necessity during the multiple pandemics, and current today, offered supervision /peer consultation to all the counselors in the state. Kara holds multiple leadership positions for national and state professional counseling organizations. She serves on the editorial review board for Professional School Counselor Journal published by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Dr. Ieva’s scholarship includes multiple peer review articles, book chapters, newsletter and magazine articles, and technical writing/ evaluation reports. Further, she serves as the former PI and current Director of Academic and Student Services for the Rowan University's pre-college access programs that aid first generation and under-resourced college students in post-secondary preparation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Education, Arts, and Mathematics (Aim High; STE2AM). Lastly, she serves as the evaluator on multiple Foundation and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, and the Co-PI for an NSF Grant, Broadening participation in STEM through Virtual Reality Career Exploration: Introducing Underrepresented Students to High Need STEM Careers. Her grants to date total $1,844,236.

John Nwosu
John Nwosu is a Human Developer and the owner of Think D.I.F. Consulting, Georgia Middle School Counselor, and an ASCA DEI (Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity) Committee Member.

Jennifer Susko
Jennifer Susko is a school counselor with experience leading, collaborating, and advocating for systemic change at multiple levels of society. She is a R.A.M.P. award recipient and passionate about doing anti-bias, anti-racist work to increase equity in schools. She currently works as an elementary school counselor in Metro Atlanta. Jennifer uses Critical Race Theory and Culturally Relevant Teaching to design a school counseling program that is data-driven and pertinent to the population with whom she works. She has created standards-aligned classroom lessons and small group curricula that aim to help Black students and students of color combat harmful stereotypes, protect them from the effects of weathering, and empower them to use their voice and actions to create the change they wish to see. Jennifer believes that the work to end racial injustice has always been embedded in the role of ethical school counselors.

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An Antiracist Foundation to School Counseling: Students’ Mindsets & Behaviors

School counseling programs across the country utilize a variety of student standards and competencies to assess students’ academic, college and career, and social-emotional learning. But are these standards perpetuating racist outcomes? Are the standards antiracist? This webinar’s participants will examine the level of equity within the guiding principles of their school counseling program and how those principles align with an antiracist stance.

Danielle Duarte 
Danielle Duarte is an education leadership doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a former school counselor, past president of the California Association of School Counselors, and co-author of two school counseling texts. 

Dr. Natalie Edirmanasinghe
Dr. Natalie Edirmanasinghe is a former middle school counselor. She currently serves as an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

John Nwosu
John Nwosu is a Human Developer and the owner of Think D.I.F. Consulting, Georgia Middle School Counselor, and an ASCA DEI (Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity) Committee Member.

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Antiracist School Counseling: A Call to Action Webinar

On July 29, 2020, school counselors and counselor educators discussed a shift in the profession focused on antiracist school counseling practices. Antiracist school counseling reflects the mindset, behaviors and professional practices that address and dismantle racist ideologies, policies, and practices in K-12 schools.

Mandy Savitz-Romer, Ph.D.
Nancy Pforzheimer Aronson Senior Lecturer of Human Development and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. 
Twitter: @MSavitzRomer

Carla B. Cheatham, M.Ed., NCC, LCPC, GCDF, CSCDA
School Counselor, Bremen High School and Doctoral Student, Governors State University.
Twitter: @cbcheatham

Renae D. Mayes, Ph.D., NCC
Associate Professor in the Counseling Program in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies, University of Arizona
Twitter: @DrRDMayes

Stephen Sharp, M.Ed.
K12 School Counseling Coordinator, Hempfield School District and
President, Pennsylvania School Counselors Association
Twitter: @StvSharp

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Resources

ANTIRACIST SCHOOL COUNSELING

• WEBINAR: Antiracist School Counseling: A Call to Action Webinar
• WEBINARS: Derek Francis’ webinars
• WEBINAR: Proactive Counseling in the Aftermath of Major Racial Incidents
• HANDOUT: Proactive Counseling in the Aftermath of Major Racial Incidents
• RESOURCES:A Seat At The Table
• RESOURCES: How School Counselors Can Support After Social Racial Events
• BLOG: Equity and Inclusion By Rebecca Atkins and Alicia Oglesby
• PRESENTATION: Interrupting Racism: Ignite Change for Equity and Inclusion By Rebecca Atkins and Alicia Oglesby Handout
• ARTICLE: Robin DiAngelo: Nothing to Add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions
• RESOURCES: ASCA Race and Equity Resources
• WEBINAR: ASCA Town Hall Webinar: Racism in Schools
• RESOURCES: PSCA Equity and Anti-Racism Resources
• WEBINAR: PSCA Roundtable Webinar - Equity and Antiracism
• BOOK: Interrupting Racism: Equity and Social Justice in School Counseling, 1st Edition
• Addressing Race, Privilege, Bias in School Counseling and Learning Cultural Humility
• Antiracist School Counseling
• Supporting Schools After a Major Racial Incident
• White Friends & Colleagues Desiring to Be Allies
  Compiled by Sharai Bryan
• Antiracism Resources

ANTIRACIST SEL:

• Possibilities and Problems in Trauma-Based and Social Emotional Learning Programs
• Guide | Abolitionist Teaching Network - Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning
• SEL and Racial Equity | Social Emotional Learning Curriculum for Kids
• When SEL is Used as Another Form of Policing
• ARTICLE: Antiracism in Social-Emotional Learning: Why It’s Not Enough to Talk the Talk
• Social Emotional Learning: Confronting Racism,Preventing Racial Violence,Raising Anti-Racist Children
• RESOURCES: Teaching about Race and Social Justice is Part of Social-Emotional Learning 

ANTIRACISM: OTHER VIDEOS & RESOURCES

• WEBINAR: Education Now: Practicing Antiracism in Your School
  Harvard Graduate School of Education

RESOURCES: BOOKS ON ANTIRACISM BY EDUCATORS FOR EDUCATORS

• EduColor  
• BOOK: WE WANT TO DO MORE THAN SURVIVE: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
  A book by Bettina Love 
• WEBINAR: Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools
  with Bettina Lova
• Moving From Cultural Competence to Antiracism
• How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 
• ARTICLE: What it means to be anti-racist 
• ARTICLE: How Ibram X. Kendi's Definition of Antiracism Applies to Schools 
• PODCAST: Nice White Parents The New York Times 
• How to Raise Kids to be Anti-Racist and Talk to Them About Racism
• Navigating White Privilege and Building an Anti-Racist Classroom | Peer Exchange | WGBH Education
• WEBINAR: How to Be an Anti-Racist Educator Part 1
  Maryland State Education Association 

BLACK LIVES MATTER AT SCHOOL RESOURCES

• National Education Association
• Episode 1: Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching
• Episode 2: Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching
• RESOURCES: Race and Equity Resources
• RESOURCES: Resources to Support Anti-Racist Learning

Antiracist School Counseling

Using Hip-Hop Based Practices to Foster College and Career Readiness for Students in Urban School Settings by Ian Levy, Ed.D. and Erik M. Hines, Ph.D.

“I believe everyone is born into the world to do something unique and distinctive.” — Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays

We echo the sentiments of Dr. Mays. Every individual has the ability to contribute something special and unique to society, particularly our students who live in urban settings. To help students maximize their abilities, certain skills and training are needed for them to optimize their potential. Therefore, an education at the secondary and postsecondary levels are an important part of the process given that the majority of individuals use their gifts and talents in their careers, fulfilling their purpose, or in their life’s calling. Moreover, we believe a postsecondary education can play a vital role in the lives of one of our most vulnerable populations from urban settings. 

Attaining a postsecondary education can lead to improved career opportunities, higher salaries, and a better quality of life (Carnevale et al., 2015; Hines et al., 2020a). Former First Lady Michelle Obama created the Reach Higher Initiative (now Better Make Room) during her tenure to encourage ALL students to pursue an education or training beyond high school as former President Barack Obama’s North Star initiative centered around being a global leader in producing the higher proportion of college graduates by 2020. Currently, the Biden-Harris Administration priorities include positioning the middle class to compete in a global economy by improving the United States’ global standing in the world. A postsecondary education is vital in order for the aforementioned to be accomplished. More importantly, we must ensure students of color, women, and potential first generation students are not left out of the equation, especially those from urban school settings. 

Preparing students in urban schools for postsecondary education must be innovative and transforming. We must engage them and meet them where they are rather than trying to get them to meet educators where they are. Therefore, we propose integrating hip-hop based practices with college and career readiness activities as a method to ready urban students for postsecondary opportunities. 

Hip-Hop based practices in education, broadly, span decades (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002; Stovall, 2006, Alim, 2011; Ewing, 2014, Levy & Adjapong, 2020) all calling for the need to infuse culturally sustaining approaches into our school curricula. Hip-Hop based approaches are often rooted in a foundational understanding of hip-hop culture as a movement that amplified Black and Brown voices against systemic ills (Chang, 2005), using documents like mixtapes to protect the culture from erasure (Ball, 2011). Drawing from the reality that the educational system in America has historically weaponized assimilative praxis to minimize the voices of Black and Brown youth, Emdin (2016) calls for the use of hip-hop based approaches to support youth in reclaiming knowledge, culture, and history. Therefore, contemporary understandings of hip-hop in educational spaces believe in activating youth as change agents, who pull from their intra- and interpersonal network of resources to engage in the creation of multimodal hip-hop projects that simultaneously advocate for social justice and spur academic, career, and social and emotional development (Adjapong, 2019; Levy & Travis, 2020; Washington, 2018). This social justice or strengths-based hip-hop scholarship pulls from the core belief that hip-hop is resilience, leverages joy, and corrals the community to make sense of and combat external realities – the proverbial rose that grew from concrete (Shakur, 1999). As hip-hop practices have been more trendy, particularly in the realm of counseling and therapy, practitioners need to be careful to not frame Black and Brown youth solely as traumatized, broken, or in need of saving. Both education and counseling often operate from deficit models which pathologize youth experience, label concerns as internal, and then call for interventions to fix said problems. This is the antithesis of hip-hop which is a response to ecological contexts that produce feelings, and illustrates how the education system can erase culture through pulling hip-hop based practices into the matrix of assimilative praxis if its practitioners are not intentionally critical. Use of hip-hop practices in school counseling argues for a shift away from a deficit lens, seeing youth as complex, irreducible (Hannon & Vareen, 2016) and asset-rich (Bryant & Henry, 2012), human beings who can optimize their internal capacities if we as educators create the systems to do so (and abolish the ones that don’t). Therefore, Bettina Love’s (2019) call for the centering of joy and love in our education practices is essential in hip-hop because it allows educators the ability to see youth as complex individuals and foster their knowledge and capacity to actualize.

In school counseling practice, we’ve seen hip-hop leveraged as a small-group intervention (where students write, record, and perform emotionally themed music) to support students with navigating stress, anxiety, depression (Levy & Travis, 2020) and developing coping skills (Levy, 2019). In collaboration with teachers, hip-hop lyric writing interventions around science content have enabled the simultaneous acquisition of academic content and the processing of social and emotional concerns (Emdin et al., 2016). Youth have led initiatives to design physical school spaces, in the form of hip-hop studios, as potential safe-havens to express themselves authentically, process difficult emotions, and build relationships with peers (Levy & Adjapong, 2020). In each of these interventions, youth were positioned as experts of their own stories and development, who called on educators and schools to relinquish control and allow them to display their brilliance.

Some researchers (Lee & Goodnough, 2018; Lunenburg, 2010) note that schools are systems. Moreover, these systems have subsystems (e.g., community, family, and district) that impact the academic, socioemotional, college, and career outcomes of students (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). For this reason, we have adapted an integrated, systemic approach with programmatic intervention levels created by Lee and Goodnough (2018) to incorporate college and career readiness activities with hip-hop based practices to prepare students in urban school settings for postsecondary options. See table below.

College and Career Readiness Activities with Hip-Hop Based Practices

System Level	College & Career Readiness Activity	Hip-Hop Based Practices
Individual	Instill the belief that college or a postsecondary pathway is a viable option; Working with students at the middle and high school levels to choose college and career ready courses for postsecondary preparation (academic/educational planning); Working with a student through career assessments to help them understand their career options, gifts, interests, and talents.	Lyric Writing as Emotive Journaling: Lyric writing can be used as an assessment, where school counselors co-select an instrumental beat with youth, and have them reflect lyrically on their strengths, areas of growth, and then goal setting. For example, students might construct a song titled “5-year plan” where they set long-term and short-term goals. This inherently narrative and aspirational verse can illuminate myriad student assets that can be used in the college and career planning process.
Group	Discussions around navigating the postsecondary process with students from urban school settings on topics such as potential barriers, advantages-learning how to thrive in new environments, and learning to code switch.	Collaboration as Role-play is a hip-hop and school counseling tactic that engages students in the discussing, processing, and co-constructing of a song around a shared emotional theme. In the content of CCR work, students can collaborate on songs around transitions to college, financial planning, or imagining how they would navigate the slew of barriers that exist on college campuses. The act of having students engage in this work in pairs to help students preemptively develop skill to navigate future barriers, but also learn from their peers about alternative tactics.
Classroom	Show movies/documentaries on postsecondary institutions (e.g., Higher Learning or School Daze) to discuss the nuances of being a student in those postsecondary settings, especially students of color, first generation, and English Language Learners.	Mixtape Making as a school counseling large-group process tasks students with highlighting a social justice theme of importance to them (retention issues on college campuses), which they then research, discuss, and plan a multimodal music project around. This might mean students, over the course of a series of classroom counseling lessons, construct multiple songs, a music video, artwork, and/or a social media campaign which helps them disseminate their findings. Germane to mixtape creation however, the research has to be strong. Meaning students need to be able to understand, and report out on retention issues, even developing personal solutions to navigate external challenges. Ancillary skill development is also apparent here including research and writing skills, public speaking, social media marketing, tangible art making skills, and many others.
Grade Level	Bring guest speakers who live/or from urban areas with postsecondary credentials. Also, have guest speakers who have backgrounds in hip-hop and pursued and attained a postsecondary education.	School counselors might organize a panel of speakers who have drawn from hip-hop to construct innovative careers across disciplines. Notable professionals exist across scholarly disciplines, as well the fields of business, architecture, the nonprofit sector, and service industries who have each leveraged hip-hop sensibilities to transcend music and art and find success in other fields. However, grade level hip-hop interventions should not be limited to external guest speakers or experts. Students who have engaged in rigorous and creative mixtape making can share-out their research and findings via grade-level shows. This offers each grade level the opportunity to digest the relevant mixtape content. For example, homerooms at each grade level can then process the show with guide breakout discussions that future explore the college and career process.
School Wide	Create a college going culture throughout the school (signs, posters of postsecondary institutions, positive/inspirational messages); College/Vocational night; College virtual/physical tours; Partner with local colleges universities, and vocational schools for programming (Hines et al, 2020b).	Immersive College Tours can follow the creation of student-made mixtapes. School counselors deploying Hip-hop informed CCR must form partnerships with college campuses, prior to college visits, to carve out opportunities for students to share their work. For example, a school counselor might identify a Black Student Union on a college campus to collaboratively hold an open-mic event where college students and high school students can perform. Then, in addition to the normal tour activities, an experiential/immersive open-mic event can occur where students share out their rhymes about retention, transitions, and/or five-year plans, while also building community within otherwise potentially isolating campuses. Much like a post-tour reflection that artists engage in, a post-college tour reflection can be facilitated by school counselors. Here school counselors guide youth though processing their college visit, reflection on the open-mic event, but also fit. The immersive nature of the tour should increase the depth of the reflections, as students are offered a genuine opportunity to assess feelings of connectedness or lack thereof. Pictures or documents from the college-tour performances can then be displayed across the school building to create a college-going culture that looks and feels relevant to students.
District	District school counselor supervisors can align the college and career readiness curriculum (district wide) where all school counselors are using the same pedagogy to merge hip-hop based practices and postsecondary readiness.	Experts in hip-hop based practices can come in and facilitate a district wide training for ALL school counselors. For example, a recent study explored a hip-hop based active listening skill professional development that focused on practicing the dialogical skills needed to engage in hip-hop work individually and in groups (Levy & Lemberger-Truelove, 2021).
Family	Meet with family to talk about shared aspirations and goals of their child’s postsecondary future.	At the family level, hip-hop based practices can be used as a tool to engage parents/guardians in dialogue around youth’s career and college aspirations. Opportunities in this arena are vast, including parent meetings where students share songs (like their five-year plan) with their parents and then discuss the content. This can happen in an individual students and family context, or as a larger listening party where a small-group of students share their entire mixtape with parents, to facilitate a larger discussion around the college and career process. Viewing family as an asset in supporting student development, opportunities may arise for parents to lead workshops (across music, art, research, business and marketing disciplines) that help elevate mixtape projects.
Community	Facilitate college and career readiness workshops at a local community center or church.	Community engagement opportunities include:  Developing a college and career festival featuring local hip-hop artists who have postsecondary backgrounds to perform and/or speak on a panel about topics on college and career readiness. Paying local community members to run after-school programming that focuses on beat making, music engineering, clothing design, graphic design, social media marketing, etc.

Our integrative approach to college and career readiness using hip-hop based practices is not exhausted and can be a foundation for helping students from urban settings with postsecondary planning. Hip-Hop can be a remedy for helping students aspire to education and training beyond high school that will not only give them optimal career outcomes, but reinforce that a culture rooted in love and asset-based can play an important role in their personal development.

Ian Levy, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Director of the School Counseling Program at Manhattan College, a New York City native, former High School counselor, and the Vice President of Counselor Educators for the New York State School Counselors association. His research interests include the examination of mental health practices in urban schools, which entails exploring the effective use of the school counselor and other school staff to support the emotional lives of young people. Most notably, Dr. Levy piloted the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Hip-Hop based counseling framework that engaged students in small-group counseling through the writing, recording and performing of emotionally-themed mixtapes. His work has been featured on various news outlets including the New York Times, and CNN, and published a variety of reputable academic journals. In 2016 he was named the New York State School Counselor of the Year. Ian is a co-editor of the HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip-Hop Education, Volume 2, and author of a forthcoming research monograph with Routledge titled Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches (in May, 2021). Ian is also an emcee, and released his album – And Then It Glistens – in 2020.

Erik Hines, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at the Florida State University as well as the coordinator of the Counselor Education Program and School Counseling Track. Dr. Hines prepares graduate students to be professional school counselors. Dr. Hines’s research agenda centers around: (a) college and career readiness for African American males; (b) parental involvement and its impact on academic achievement for students of color; and (c) improving and increasing postsecondary opportunities for first generation, low-income, and students of color (particularly African American males). Additionally, his research interests include career exploration in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for students of color. Dr. Hines has secured research funding to study the college readiness and persistence of African American males to improve their academic and career outcomes. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Counseling and Development, Professional School Counseling, The High School Journal, and Urban Education. Equally important, Dr. Hines is an ACA Fellow. Dr. Hines received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park in Counselor Education with a concentration in Urban School Counseling. Finally, he has worked as a counselor in various K-12 settings and for the Ronald E McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. 

References

Adjapong, E. (2019). Towards a practice of emancipation in urban schools: A look at student experiences through the science genius battles program. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 6(1), 15–27.

Adjapong, E. S., & Emdin, C. (2015). Rethinking pedagogy in urban spaces: Implementing hip-hop pedagogy in the urban science classroom. Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 11, 66–77.

Adjapong, E.S., & Levy, I. (2020). Hip-hop can heal: Addressing mental health through hip-hop in the classroom. The New Educator. 10.1080/1547688X. 2020.1849884

Alim, H. S. (2011). Global ill-literacies: Hip hop cultures, youth identities, and the politics of literacy. Review of Research in Education, 35(1), 120-146.

Ball, J. A. (2011). I mix what I like! A mixtape manifesto. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Ecological models of human development. In M. Gauvain & M. Cole (Eds). Readings on the development of children (4th ed.). Worth.

Bryan, J., & Henry, L. (2012). A model for building school–family–community partnerships: Principles and process. Journal of Counseling & development, 90(4), 408-420.

Carnevale, A. P., Cheah, B., & Hanson, A. R. (2015). The economic values of college majors. https:// cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/valueofcollegemajors/ 

Emdin, C. (2016). For White folks who teach in the hood… and the rest of y’all too: Reality pedagogy and urban education. Beacon Press.

Ewing, E. L. (2014). Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 125–128.

Hannon, M. D., & Vereen, L. G. (2016). Irreducibility of Black male clients: Considerations for culturally competent counseling. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 55(3), 234–245.

Hines, E.M., Hines, M. R., Moore, J.L. III., Steen, S, Singleton, II, P., Cintron, D., Traverso, K., Golden, M. N., Wathen, B., & Henderson, J.A. (2020a). Preparing African American males for college: A group counseling approach. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 45(2), 129-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2020.1740846

Hines, E.M., Moore III, J.L., Mayes, R.D., Harris, P.C., Vega, D, Robinson, D.V., Gray, C.N., & Jackson, C.E. (2020b). Making student achievement a priority: The role of school counselors in turnaround schools. Urban Education, 55(2) 216-237. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916685761

Lee, V.V. & Goodnough G.E. (2018). Data-driven school counseling practice and programming for equity. In B.T. Erford (Ed). Transforming the school counseling profession (pp. 67-93). Pearson.

Levy, I., & Adjapong, E. S. (2020). Toward culturally competent school counseling environments: Hip-hop studio construction. Professional Counselor, 10(2), 266–284. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1259697.pdf

Levy, I. (2019). Hip-hop and spoken word therapy in urban school counseling. Professional School Counseling, 22(1b).

Levy, I, & Travis, R. (2020). The critical cycle of mixtape creation: Reducing stress via three different group counseling styles. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 45(4), 307–330. doi: 10.1080/01933922.2020.1826614

Love, B. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.

Lunenburg, F.C. (2010). Schools as open systems. Schooling 1(1), 1-5.

Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J. M. (2002). Promoting academic literacy with urban youth through engaging hip-hop culture. English Journal, 88–92.

Shakur, T. (1999). The rose that grew from concrete. Simon and Schuster.

Stovall, D. (2006). We can relate: Hip-hop culture, critical pedagogy, and the secondary classroom. Urban Education, 41(6), 585–602.

Washington, A. R. (2018). Integrating hip‐hop culture and rap music into social justice counseling with black males. Journal of Counseling & Development, 96(1), 97-105.

This blog was posted originally on the College Counseling Now Blog March 3, 2021. 

Interview with Alicia Oglesby
HS counselor
Co-Author of Interrupting Racism: Equity and Social Justice in School Counseling

What does an antiracist school counselor do differently? 
An antiracist school counselor catches when they are thinking, behaving, and responding as an oppressor. Antiracist school counselors interrupt their behavior patterns and thoughts because they acknowledge the racism embedded in our society and embedded in our socialization from our earliest years. They actively work at dismantling, healing, and rebuilding the education system so that it can benefit all students. This doesn’t mean it’s an “All Lives Matter” approach. In fact, it’s more of a “Black Lives Matter” approach. Uplifting communities that are systematically marginalized is equity and how we rebuild a system to work for everyone.

How do you implement antiracism into your school counseling program?
I implement antiracism in every facet of my school counseling program, from the counselors I hire to the affinity clubs with whom I share social justice activities. Antiracism is in the superficial parts of my program, like the bitmoji virtual counseling office visuals, the books in my office on display, and the clothes I wear to work. Antiracism is in my classroom counseling lessons from the poets I share to the content I cover, such as encouraging activism as community self-care. Antiracism is in the advisory program I help develop, celebrating BLM at School Week of Action and Hispanic Heritage Month while encouraging awareness all school year long. Antiracism is also in academic advising when I explicitly discuss the lack of representation in STEM fields as my students consider whether or not to take an engineering elective at my school. It’s everywhere!

What advice would you give to a school counselor who’s ready to start implementing antiracism practices? What’s one piece that you feel is universal to all schools? 
I’d encourage that counselor do a lot more reflection to fully understand where their motivation stems from, so that they fully invest in doing antiracism work. The one piece of advice I’d give is to be prepared to make mistakes, get called out for them and commit to recalibration. Many white school counselors want to dive into this work focused on making Black children’s lives better, but that’s not exactly it. We must re-shift that focus and reframe our work as removing barriers so that our Black and brown students can shine as they always do, as they already have. Black and brown children aren’t the problem, the systems are. School counselors who want to start, need to sit back and reflect on their own biases and privileges related to the education system. They need to learn from the educators who have been heavily involved in this work. They need to remove the label of the expert from their self-understanding and do introspective work.

Why do you think it is important to be an antiracist school counselor?
Our students’ well-being might be greatly impacted by us, and we can be the influence that makes the community better or worse. The level of influence we have on our school community can certainly be felt in many different ways. We can choose to advocate for programs, policies, and practices that benefit our Black and brown students’ lives, yet many school counselors choose not to do this for fear of “messing up.” Our fears cannot outweigh the benefit of antiracism in schools. It takes a lot of bravery and courage to do antiracism work, and it’s our responsibility to do it every single day.

What have you learned from your antiracist work?
I have learned that just because I am a Black woman does not mean I always live and work in antiracist ways. I have been influenced by our society in the same ways as my white colleagues, and while Black communities don’t hold the power to be racist in America, we can leave negative impacts on our Black and brown students. I have learned that I must actively heal from racial traumas I have experienced in school from kindergarten through graduate school. I have learned that I can unapologetically advocate for my BIPOC students while still holding space for my white students, who often already benefit from all systems. I have learned that I’m not neglecting my white students because of my advocacy for my Black and Filipino students. I can love all my students and cheer for them and help them and adore them while still being antiracist. I have learned that this work takes practice, and even I still get it wrong sometimes. That’s a part of the journey.

Interview with Rebecca Atkins

What does an antiracist school counselor do differently?
The key word for an antiracist school counselor is action. Antiracist school counselors aren’t simply trying their best to support all students, they are intentionally countering racist policies, practices, and norms in their building and their district. To do this, there are several key components:

1. Knowledge and Skills to identify racist policies and practices. As educators, we have often always lived and worked within the education system. From Kindergarten to College to Graduate School to Career, many school counselors have only known one way. It takes learning and practice to see and identify aspects of the system that are harmful.
2. Reflection and Awareness to see the bias that we, as school counselors, bring into our work. I firmly believe that 99% of school counselors came into this career to help students. It takes work and responsibility to see where we are falling off our goal by introducing our own bias in what we do each day.
3. Action and Advocacy to speak up and be a part of the change. It can be intimidating to be the squeaky wheel. Counselors are helpful people. We might feel like being an advocate for change is upsetting the system too much. But that is part of the work. It takes practice to do it well and to know how to use your advocacy in the best way possible, no one gets it right all the time, but action is a must.

What advice would you give to a school counselor who’s ready to start implementing antiracism practices? What’s one piece that you feel is universal to all schools?
The first step is to find your team, the people that you can count on to support you and work with you. This may be in your building (hopefully), in your district (likely), or in the community at large (certainly). No distance is too far, my co-author, Alicia Oglesby, and I met on Twitter and still text and talk regularly about issues that come up for us. We can’t do this work alone for two main reasons - that our own biases sometimes cover up areas where work is needed, and collaboration helps us do better and because it’s hard and draining. Finding your co-conspirators helps you to do your best work and to maintain that effort over time.

Once you have your team, the first place to start is with your data. What data you look at might depend on your school. One thing is for certain, your school board, district leaders, principals, and teachers care about the data. Like it or not, data drives education. In our book, Interrupting Racism, we have an agenda that will guide you through data-based problem solving to identify areas where improvements can be made. The hardest part of this conversation is refocusing the problem solving away from fixing the student and toward fixing the system. As counselors, we are often in the very best position to be this advocate in problem-solving meetings. To prepare, look at the data yourself ahead of time and consider a policy audit as a connection point for the data.

Why do you think it is important to be an antiracist school counselor?
I think you want more to my answer than “because it’s in the job description.” I truly believe that it is an ethical mandate for all school counselors to be anti-racist practitioners. Consider why you became a school counselor - write it down and then consider if students of color are impacted differently in that area than white students. For example, you became a school counselor because you want each and every student to reach their full potential and achieve their dreams. Are students of color facing barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential and achieving their dreams? Absolutely. So we need to do differently, and anti-racism is going to be part of the necessary work.

What obstacles or push-back have you experienced in implementing these methods? How did you overcome these?
I’m very fortunate to work in a school district that is very supportive of anti-racist action. The biggest obstacle I have faced is the forward motion of the system. Systems-level change is hard (and slow) and can take a lot of effort for very incremental improvements. I think because educators have been students or educators for most of their lives, it can be hard to see a different way. I know that I have struggled with the idea of “if we don’t do it that way, then how will we do it?”

I don’t know that I have an answer for how I have overcome this obstacle, but the strategy that I typically use is to ask solution-focused questions to help arrive at a new answer. For example, what are schools doing to increase enrollment of students of color in AIG, honors, and AP courses? What’s working well? How can we replicate that elsewhere? Sometimes we get so bogged down in the problem, we forget that there are examples of solutions all around us. Educators are doing great work at every school, in every district, in every state. Let’s find those educators and spread the word.

What have you learned from your antiracist work?
I have learned a great deal about humility. I don’t know all the answers, I definitely mess up constantly, and I definitely could do more and do better. That can be hard for me, the consummate perfectionist, to stomach. But that is the work that we need to do, so I can’t give up even though I stumble consistently. Maybe the takeaway from that is: You can take small steps and small actions, just don’t stop.

Interview with John Nwosu

How would you define antiracism?
Understanding racism is necessary in order to understand antiracism. The definition that I use most commonly is from David Wellman (1), who defines it as “a system of advantage based on race.” Ibram X. Kendi (2) also defines racism as “a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities."

Antiracism, on the other hand, is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably (The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre (3)). Kendi goes on to say, "the opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'antiracist.' What's the difference? One endorses either the idea of racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an antiracist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an antiracist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.'”

Racism and antiracism exist as invisible and visible systemic structures that govern individual and collective beliefs and behaviors. Like water, they exist in multiple forms; they are paradigms, perceptions, performances, policies, practices, and products. It is impossible to fully understand racism or antiracism without considering the various levels at which they exist. A social system is defined as individuals and the relations between them. Social system analysis helps us break things down into more digestible pieces:

• The micro-level includes intra and interpersonal interactions
• The meso-level focuses on the interactions of people in small groups, communities, and within institutions
• The macro-level focuses on interactions across multiple institutions along with the policies, laws, histories, and ideas that govern social interactions

We must remember that no matter how small, all incidents of bias and racism within a social system accumulate, compound, and persist with time unless intentionally acted upon by an opposing force.

What obstacles or push-back have you experienced in implementing these antiracist methods? How did you overcome these?
As much as possible, work to surround yourself with good people. I’m forever grateful to my wife Chanelle, who has helped me in so many ways on this journey. We make each other better, and now we have a son. My wife, son, parents, family, and community serve as motivation to keep moving forward even when it gets hard. For the most part, I try to be intentional, so I haven’t experienced a lot thus far. Even when I speak from the heart, I try to support lived experience with data and ethics. I believe it’s important to “discern it til you learn it” and “begin with the end in mind.” You must resist the urge to act without spending enough time learning the culture you have to navigate and discerning what does and does not work from other people’s experiences as much as possible.

I spent a significant amount of time reading and taking copious notes during my master’s program and new counselor training. Then my first semester as a school counselor, I often asked questions like “How do we usually do [this] here?” or “What’s the rationale for why this is happening?” or “Could you help me understand what my goal should be for this task?”. I also shared that I was new often to help build relationships and garner support. I’d say things like, “I’m still new, could you help me with [this].” I made sure I asked good questions. Often good questions create more positive regard and attention than great answers. I leaned heavily on teachers and other staff for help and worked to contribute value to others as often as possible.

I built up significant social capital with the people in my building and district. I was asked to serve on committees and to present. I was also asked to work with families throughout the district and do some community organizing by my good friend and school counseling colleague Jennifer Susko. Jennifer is a lot more direct in her style of activism, so we played off each other well. I played to my strengths, which also helped people who were looking for leaders know what I had to offer. This all helped me once I began to be more vocal about the racial injustice I was seeing in and outside of my school. After speaking at school board meetings, I have been called into my principal's office a few times. Each time my principals and supervisors were able to say that even though I made the wrong people upset, they believed my heart was in the right place.

Most recently, I received a letter of direction (which is a big deal). I emailed our superintendent on behalf of concerned school counselors in our district in March 2020 to share our displeasure with food distribution services and how it disproportionately impacted our part of the district. I cc’d some stakeholders, and information from the letter was leaked to the local news. As a result, I was also asked to step down from a leadership opportunity in summer 2020. Friends and colleagues of mine were also targeted, which has impacted my stress levels at certain times. I was distraught by that level of push-back, but I was eventually able to focus on what I could learn from the situation.

Sometimes you will get punched, but you can’t be fly without ruffling some feathers. Since then, I’ve been moving more strategically. I have begun to organize with more groups in and outside of my school and district. This has brought me state and national attention. It’s important to keep adding value to your life and others as often as possible. It’s also important to work to repair harm when you do make mistakes. There are some relationships that may be irreparable -- remember that before, not after. When it hurts, take time to tend to your wounds. Practice self-care. Embrace the pain and trauma. Talk to colleagues and find a therapist. Go watch some funny TV shows (like Community or the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and pay attention to your loved ones. It’s okay to not be all things for all people, and folks will find a way to get through things without you. Take care of yourself because you’re the only one you’ll ever have, and, when you’re ready, get back out there and provide some more value to the lives of others.

What does an antiracist school counselor do differently?
Before doing anything, an antiracist school counselor must learn about what it means to be antiracist and learn about the sociohistorical context that shapes all our interactions. Antiracist school counselors reject the idea of colorblindness and ultimately use methods from Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogies to lead, collaborate, and advocate for systemic change. Antiracist school counselors start with learning about multicultural, social justice, and antiracist theories and practices. This means they read or watch lectures related to academic research from scholars and ethical practitioners then apply evidence-based interventions whenever possible. During professional learning opportunities (e.g., trainings, conference sessions, webinars, etc.), they seek out sessions related to equity, social justice, and antiracism. Articles such as “Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: institutional interventions for professional school counselors” (4) and books like We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love (5) are great places to start. They also consistently work on improving their own self-awareness by

• using self-assessments (e.g., the implicit association test, personal self-assessment of anti-bias behavior, etc.)
• acknowledging and examining power dynamics in their relationships
• using listening and empathy skills to understand the perspectives of others when they are in socially advantaged positions
• remaining curious about exploring the culture, lived experiences, and improving group outcomes of BIPOC

As they work to better understand Whiteness, BIPOC individuals, and the racist systems we all must navigate, antiracist school counselors also use their voice to center the needs of BIPOC. Additionally, antiracist school counselors collaborate and advocate with others to remove barriers BIPOC face while using their social advantage and capital to empower BIPOC to speak on their own behalf whenever possible. Last, antiracist school counselors use data to assess and increase systemic change at the micro, meso, and macro levels of society.

What advice would you give to a school counselor who’s ready to start implementing antiracism practices? What’s one piece that you feel is universal to all schools?
It takes time. Systemic change is a 3-5 year process on average in cases where everyone is on the same page. Racism is a deeply rooted problem that is interwoven with the fabric of our country. We must first be race conscious. Acknowledge the role race and racism have played in our society and critically examine how it operates in your school. You can start by using the 4th Ed. ASCA Model templates (6). Your School Data Summary, which can be found here, will help you create your school’s Data Story. Being intentional about antiracism will help you begin disaggregating data and identifying things that are difficult to discern without deeper analysis.

Next, use your Annual Administrative Conference to set intersectional antiracist priorities, program goals, roles, training opportunities, and materials. Antiracism and anti-Blackness create unique experiences for various BIPOC. For example, Black girls have some experiences that are similar to Black boys but also have many experiences that are unique that require targeted interventions. From here, you can begin using Action Plans to help determine how you will implement and assess your antiracist delivery. No matter what school you’re at, it is important to accurately assess your system’s readiness for change. These questions will help you do that:

• What are you expected to do in your professional role?
• What are the relationship dynamics of your team? What about your grade level?
• What do you have control over in your building?
• Do you have the support of your building leadership? If not, how do you create buy-in?
• Who are possible collaborators that can help bring about change?
• How much social capital and influence do you have? Do you have a shared understanding of the norms of your culture, a solid reputation, and the trust of your colleagues and students?
• Do people listen when you speak? Who do they listen to that could share your cause?

When you’re ready to take action, start with what you have control over, then work to increase your influence by providing value to others (e.g., sending out helpful/easily digestible/immediately applicable information via a newsletter, share quotes and words of encouragement to staff, get involved with school committees, build positive relationships with key stakeholders, etc.). Use data to highlight concerns and spark conversations (e.g., disproportional attendance, discipline, and achievement data). Identify helpful, evidence-based solutions to suggest to decision-makers that are aligned with the building’s and district’s strategic plan (e.g., restorative practices increase school connectedness and improve school climate, trauma-informed practices reduce referrals/suspensions/days of missed instruction, which translates into higher grades, fearless SEL increases student engagement and performance, CR-PBIS improves school connectedness by clarifying school-wide expectations and rules in culturally responsive ways, etc.).

Why do you think it is important to be an antiracist school counselor?
Being antiracist is in our school counselor DNA. The ASCA Standards state that “School counselors demonstrate their belief that all students have the ability to learn by advocating for an education system that provides optimal learning environments for all students… special care is given to improve overall educational outcomes for students who have been historically underserved in educational services.” How can we live up to this expectation without being anti-racist?

Additionally, being antiracist is arguably one of the most American things one can be. James Baldwin once said, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” At the time that this country was founded, its forefathers spoke of inalienable rights to which all people should have access. Unfortunately, at the time, they held a very narrow stance on who was viewed as a person. A majority of people were excluded from this view (e.g., women, BIPOC, gender and sexual minorities, non-landowning men, etc.). Additionally, they paradoxically spoke of life and freedom as many of them killed indigenous people, enslaved Black human beings, and simultaneously created/perpetuated racist systems to justify their heinous behavior. Even so, the lofty ideals of life, liberty, opportunity, equality, and protection are just as American as racism. It’s up to us to determine how the terms “American” and” school counselor” will be defined moving forward. Will our country be racist or antiracist? Will we be guidance counselors who specialize in obsolescence or antiracist school counselors who operate as agents of systemic change?

References:

1. David Wellman https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/portraits-of-white-racism/B63FB0737E11F8907AC2643F8D079346
2. Ibram Kendi https://www.ibramxkendi.com
3. Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre http://www.aclrc.com
4. “Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: institutional interventions for professional school counselors” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2326716X.2020.1727384
5. Bettina Love https://abolitionistteachingnetwork.org
6. ASCA 4th Ed-Annual agreement and data templates https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors/asca-national-model/templates-and-resources

Antiracist School Counseling: A Call to Action Webinar

On July 29, 2020, school counselors and counselor educators discussed a shift in the profession focused on antiracist school counseling practices. Antiracist school counseling reflects the mindset, behaviors and professional practices that address and dismantle racist ideologies, policies, and practices in K-12 schools.

Mandy Savitz-Romer, Ph.D.
Nancy Pforzheimer Aronson Senior Lecturer of Human Development and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. 
Twitter: @MSavitzRomer

Carla B. Cheatham, M.Ed., NCC, LCPC, GCDF, CSCDA
School Counselor, Bremen High School and Doctoral Student, Governors State University.
Twitter: @cbcheatham

Renae D. Mayes, Ph.D., NCC
Associate Professor in the Counseling Program in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies, University of Arizona
Twitter: @DrRDMayes

Stephen Sharp, M.Ed.
K12 School Counseling Coordinator, Hempfield School District and
President, Pennsylvania School Counselors Association
Twitter: @StvSharp

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