Facilitating Anti-Racism in Counselor Education

Introduction

The 2020 murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and the 2021 United States Capitol Attack brought forth a social unrest and racial reckoning which led many higher educational institutions to make statements about being “anti-racist” calling out historic oppression, systemic racism, and White supremacy. Anti-racism is defined as identifying, challenging, and dismantling the values, structures, and behaviors perpetuating systemic racism and its residual effects (Kishimoto, 2018). One can either be racist, upholding and perpetuating racism or anti-racist actively disrupting and dismantling the racist systems (Kendi, 2019). Scholars (Bell et al., 2020) have especially called for action against anti-Blackness and White supremacy in the academy because higher education institutions were historically designed for the dominant culture in American society, specifically upper-class White men. Therefore, leaving one to question whether these institutions have the flexibility to align with the norms, values, and expectations of Black, Indigenous and people of Color (BIPOC) students.

Furthermore, Singh et al. (2020) argue that the process of colonization has had a significant impact on the counseling profession, leading to resistance of the multicultural and social justice competencies. This can lead to the unintentional oppression of BIPOC counselor trainees at a macro and micro level (Sue et al., 2009) and perpetuate the lack of attention given to issues related to race and systemic racism within programs (Arredondo et al., 2020; Baggerly et al., 2017). Regarding school counselor education specifically, school counseling programs are historically hosted in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and consist of majority White educators, students, and theories. Therefore, moving toward anti-racism in school counselor education is critical to actively dismantle the values, structures, and behaviors that intentionally or unintentionally maintain racist systems and practices within these programs. Anti-racist school counselor education refers to school counselor educators understanding the extent to which systemic racism pervades society and impacts school counselor trainees and, in turn, intentionally guiding school counselor trainees to understand the impact anti-Blackness and other forms of systemic racism have on the clients and communities they serve (Gonzalez & Cokley, 2021). Facilitating anti-racist school counselor education requires an intentional and holistic approach to upholding the ethical responsibility of practicing inclusivity and advocacy within programs and beyond. In this chapter, the authors call counselors education programs to develop and implement pedagogical, supervisory and mentoring practices that identify and address issues of equity and justice within society and in classroom settings.