Unsettling Complex Inequities on School Climate for Males of Color: School Counseling Applications From an Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis

Abstract

Intersectionality continues to be taken up as a promising framework across multiple disciplines for practices involving equity, inclusion, and social justice. Increased use of intersectionality has resulted in the development of an intersectionality-based policy analysis (IBPA) intended for multiple settings and contexts, despite its roots in health policy. Young men of color in schools face numerous forms of racial violence and oppression, including interpersonal violence, harm, misrepresentation in society, deficit models, and structural oppression. This article describes the implementation of an IBPA to navigate structures of oppression within school climates and to design a systematic agenda toward equity for males of color in schools.

Applications of Intersectionality Theory to Enhance Career Development Interventions in Response to COVID-19

“…Because SDOH explicitly synthesize health disparities and access to services, employment and career development are crucial elements for school counselors to consider in their practices and analysis. Intersectionality builds a promising platform for school counselors due to its attention to social context, power, social inequities, and social justice ( Chan et al, 2021 ). Given intersectionality’s incorporation of social structures, the approach invites school counselors to acknowledge their own vantage points and social identities in terms of inequities illuminated by COVID-19 ( Litam & Hipolito-Delgado, 2021 ).…”

“…A critical process for school counselors is to actively engage in self-awareness of their own privilege to better understand its influence on providing career guidance to diverse and historically marginalized populations ( Chan et al, 2021 ; Chan & Henesy, 2018 ). School counselors can draw on the tenet of complexity to explore multiple identities as an avenue for identifying which groups are located in privileged or oppressed statuses ( Chan et al, 2021 ).…”

“…A critical process for school counselors is to actively engage in self-awareness of their own privilege to better understand its influence on providing career guidance to diverse and historically marginalized populations ( Chan et al, 2021 ; Chan & Henesy, 2018 ). School counselors can draw on the tenet of complexity to explore multiple identities as an avenue for identifying which groups are located in privileged or oppressed statuses ( Chan et al, 2021 ). Intersectionality emphasizes new points of inquiry for school counselors to interrogate their own biases and explore how they might unintentionally trivialize the problem of COVID-19 in their schools ( Hankivsky et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Namely, power characterizes the intersection of power relations, which leave certain groups with more power in a system and others with less ( Collins & Bilge, 2020 ). Power is characteristically mapped onto a variety of social contexts in educational settings ( Chan et al, 2021 ; Collins, 2019 ; Settles et al, 2020 ). Without adequate awareness of social inequities that ultimately affect SDOH, school counselors run the risk of punishing students with multiple marginalized identities or foreclosing their career opportunities by imposing stereotypes.…”

“…By linking several elements that deconstruct the intersections across structural forms of oppression, school counselors can be more intentional about locating how forces, such as racism, classism, genderism, ableism, and heterosexism, compound negative effects on SDOH ( Bowleg, 2020 , 2021 ). Given intersectionality’s central focus on a critical inquiry ( Collins & Bilge, 2020 ), the approach invites school counselors to create a systematic plan to dismantle inequities rather than simply documenting them ( Bowleg, 2017 ; Chan et al, 2021 ; Hankivsky et al, 2014 ). Considering COVID-19 as the antecedent of SDOH and career disparities ( Blustein & Guarino, 2020 ; Kantamneni, 2020 ), we call on school counselors to construct systematic plans that reduce negative effects of SDOH that often lead to career and educational inequities.…”