Reading Woke: Exploring How School Counselors May Use Bibliotherapy With Adolescent Black Boys

Abstract

Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic intervention that uses stories and narratives to offer insight about personal dilemmas, teach cultural traditions, and assist in fostering various facets of identity development. For adolescent Black boys, exploring stories with protagonists that look like them, who come from similar cultural backgrounds and contend with familiar social/emotional issues and systemic barriers, stimulates healthy discussions that can increase self-awareness and an understanding about the systemic barriers they navigate. This article provides clear, concise, step-by-step guidelines to assist practicing school counselors in effectively using bibliotherapy with adolescent Black boys.

An Antiracist Framework for Evidence-Informed School Counseling Practice

“…For example, school counseling student standards, the American School Counselor Association’s ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors (American School Counselor Association’s, 2021), support the assumption that all students are individually empowered to address their areas for growth. Not enough attention is placed on the school environments that disproportionately create barriers for BIPOC youth (ASCA, 2019; Byrd et al, 2021; Washington et al, 2021). Like the legislation that sought to repress student’s access to knowledge during enslavement, current ongoing debates and court cases restrict state departments of education and local school districts about teaching students complete and accurate history.…”

“…Engage in implementing or teaching culturally responsive and antiracist school counseling approaches (Ladson-Billings, 2021). Approaches that center the narratives of BIPOC children and celebrate their cultural differences include but are not limited to: infusing an intersectional understanding of students (Mayes et al, 2021, 2022), postmodern career development approaches (Storlie et al, 2019), creative counseling approaches that center student voices (Byrd et al, 2021; Washington et al, 2021; Williams et al, 2019), and opportunities to dismantle racist policies (Cheatham & Mason, 2021). It is important that these approaches occur across school counseling training programs and at the practitioner level.3.…”

Using an Antiracist Lens in School Counseling Research

“…Storytelling. Scholars have addressed how school counselors can support spaces for counter storytelling for students of color (Appling & Robinson, 2021;Byrd et al, 2021). Although many students who are disenfranchised in school settings often seek out and form counterspaces with peers experiencing similar adverse experiences (Tatum, 1997), schools that openly support (emotionally and financially) these spaces foster a sense of belonging (Carter, 2007).…”

“Where I Can Be Myself”: Black Youth Narratives of Their Future Careers

“…The use of My Career Story (Savickas & Hartung, 2012), informed by narrative career theory, enhances the meaning-making process through an active recollection of the individual’s story (Rehfuss, 2009; Savickas, 2001; 2011). Notably, storytelling has historically been used across the African diaspora to preserve history, to teach morals, and to learn more about oneself and the world (Byrd et al, 2021; Ford et al, 2019).…”