Using an Antiracist Lens in School Counseling Research

Abstract

It is important for school counselors to learn more about antiracism and to incorporate antiracist concepts into their practice more consistently ( Holcomb-McCoy, 2021 ; Mayes & Byrd, 2022 ; Stickl Haugen et al., 2022 ). Operating from a critical political standpoint perspective ( Cushman, 1995 ; Prilleltensky, 1994 ), namely, critical race theory (CRT), we offer a conceptual framework for helping school counselors and counselor educators develop an antiracist lens that guides and informs their research agendas and research-informed practices.

Continual Evolution in Evidence-Based School Counseling: Proceedings From the 2022 Conference

“…4. Prioritizing antiracist efforts and perspectives to create systemic change (Beasley et al, 2023; Washington et al, 2023). 5.…”

“…How do we conduct research in ways that best support students and their well-being? What questions can we ask ourselves to keep an antiracist perspective in mind as we develop school counseling research projects (Washington et al, 2023)? Some of the most innovative methods for providing evidencebased mental health are occurring in Virginia, where multiple stakeholders are collaborating with the state department of education to provide integrated professional development sessions via telementoring (Taylor et al, 2023; also see https://education.…”

“…There have also been significant shifts in how we think about doing research, with existing methods for conducting educational research, publishing findings, and linking scholarship to practice all being called into question (Dimmitt & Zyromski, 2023; Green, 2020; Held, 2019; Patel, 2016). Conducting antiracist and social justice-oriented research means deep consideration of the ways that power and privilege are reproduced and perpetuated in this work (Levy et al, 2023; Patel, 2016; Washington et al, 2023). Within EBSC, we need to consider who has the resources—both time and money—to conduct the empirical research so often considered the gold standard of evidence-based interventions.…”

“…How do we conduct research in ways that best support students and their well-being? What questions can we ask ourselves to keep an antiracist perspective in mind as we develop school counseling research projects (Washington et al, 2023)?…”

Exposing blindspots and the hidden curriculum within counselor supervision models

“…The report documents how white students repeatedly “taunted Black students by making monkey noises at them, touching and pulling their hair without permission, repeatedly referencing slavery and lynching and telling Black students ‘go pick cotton’ and ‘you are my slave’” with impunity. White infatuation with the white master/Black slave dynamic has been well‐documented within the social sciences and humanities (Fanon, 1963, 1967; Fredrickson, 1987; Hartman, 1987; Patterson, 2018), and only recently has this theoretical perspective on anti‐Blackness been applied to the context of schooling and counseling (Dumas, 2016; Washington et al., 2021; Washington & Henfield, 2019; Williams et al., 2021). It is important to note how these fresh perspectives on anti‐Blackness in education make a critical intervention at the level of epistemology (thinking, thought, and thought‐generating power) and ontology (what does it mean to be “human”).…”