A Phenomenological Investigation of African American Counselor Education Students' Challenging Experiences

Abstract

This study explored 11 African American doctoral students’ perceptions of challenging experiences in counselor education programs. The authors identified the following themes using critical race theory: feelings of isolation, peer disconnection, and faculty misunderstandings and disrespect. Implications for counselor education programs and policies are discussed.

A Systematic Review of Online Response Rates in Four Counseling Journals

“…Issues related to the impact of using an online data collection strategy on the quality of the data collected were coded into this category. Examples include “because of the decision to use e‐mail and instant messenger for data collection, the researchers could not obtain additional information from students’ nonverbal or verbal behavior” (Henfield, Woo, & Washington, 2013, p. 134); “E‐mail data collection seemed to elicit more brief responses; phone interviews, while no prompting was offered, elicited richer responses with more details” (Dollarhide, Smith, & Lemberger, 2007, p. 367); and “since the survey was administered online, the researchers had no control over the environment in which the survey was taken. Discerning whether or not the environment could have had an effect on participant responses is difficult” (Tillman et al, 2016, p. 112).…”

Contributing Factors to Earning Tenure Among Black Male Counselor Educators

“…Furthermore, understanding their lived experiences requires consideration of race in the face of systemic variables. Similar to Henfield, Woo, and Washington (2013), we used CRT to contextualize our understanding of the lived experiences of tenured Black male counselor educators. Power and privilege are at the core of CRT, as are the notions of power and privilege on the basis of race (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995;Trahan & Lemberger, 2013).…”

What Do the AMCD Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies Mean in the Context of Black Lives Matter?

“…If it is to be taken seriously as a helping profession focused on moving from beliefs to social justice action, counselor education should move from a practitioner focus to a field that also produces quality research that addresses more pertinent issues related to Black Lives Matter. Within the past few years, exploratory research has focused on ethnic minority counselor education students’ experiences in counselor education programs (Baker & Moore, 2015; Henfield, Woo, & Washington, 2013). However, there is very little, if any, understanding of these students in terms of their beliefs and attitudes, knowledge, skills, and actions in the name of social justice counseling.…”