English Language Learners and School Belonging: Implications for School Counselor Practice

Abstract

Using an evidence-based framework in a mixed-method study, we examined the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) in a middle school in the eastern United States and identified strategic intervention approaches to enhance ELL students’ sense of school belonging to promote academic success. We illustrate how describing a problem as part of an evidence-based framework can lead to a targeted intervention for ELLs. When describing the problem, we considered intersectional social identity factors of ELL students. Problem description revealed how ELLs perceived their relationships with teachers, how school personnel viewed ELL student needs, obstacles to meeting ELL student needs, and current solutions. Suggested interventions focus on a culturally responsive bibliotherapy approach.

Advocacy of School Counselors Working With ELL Students

“…It is difficult to estimate how much advocacy work is truly occurring in schools, and nearly impossible to know whether school counselors participating in advocacy efforts are doing so successfully or with any support. Placing the onus for advocacy on individual school counselors rather than creating unified and systemic efforts can leave school counselors under resourced and unable to meet the advocacy needs of their schools and student populations (Shi & Watkinson, 2019).…”

“…Other reasons for underrepresentation of gifted ELLs include teacher bias, test bias, and inequality of educational opportunity (Worrell, 2015). Most studies have focused exclusively on Latinx/Spanish-speaking ELL students’ academic achievement or advocacy through community integration (Betters-Bubon & Schultz, 2017; Clark et al, 2012; Cook et al, 2012; Gonzalez et al, 2013; Harris & Sullivan, 2017; Villalba et al, 2007), and very few have focused on the complex needs of the ELL population as a whole (Johnson et al, 2016; McCall-Perez, 2000; Shi & Watkinson, 2019). Only a few articles involve the voices of the counselors who are directly working with this population.…”

School belonging constellations considering complete mental health in primary schools

“…Perhaps the Latinx students classified into the High School Belonging profile perceived authentic caring from their teachers. Latinx students' polarization may also have been due to other individual factors, such as socioeconomic circumstances and English Language Learner status (Shi & Watkinson, 2019). It would be beneficial for future studies to consider multiple, nonbinary gender and ethnic groups to refine information about the associations between personal and cultural identification and school belonging.…”

Group Counseling for English Language Learners to Promote Academic Navigational Capital

“…Graduation is an elusive goal for many ELL students, making school an obstacle rather than an avenue to success (Abrego & Gonzalez, 2010). Other assessments show that ELL students tend to score low in core educational subjects such as math, reading, and language arts (Shi & Watkinson, 2018). This issue is not uniformly a matter of ELL achievement; ELL students attend low-performing and understaffed schools with other underachieving students in (Menken, 2010).…”

“…ELL students experience a variety of factors that affect their schooling, including cultural adjustments, language learning, socioeconomic conditions, unsupportive learning environments, high dropout rates, and low graduation numbers (Shi & Watkinson, 2018). The reality is that ELL students not only face several transitional and cultural barriers as they try to settle into new educational settings, but they also encounter a lack of instruction and preparation needed to academically succeed and navigate multiple educational environments (Pagan Rivera, 2015).…”