School counselors are in an excellent position to lead positive initiatives and outcomes for all students, especially those from underrepresented populations. Broaching -- the ability to explore the contextual dimensions of race, ethnicity, and culture (REC) to eliminate barriers for students -- can strengthen school counselor leadership capacity.…

Principals and school counselors, as advocates and leaders, have a moral and ethical imperative to interrogate and disrupt the educational inequities pervading P-12 schools. Trained in data collection, disaggregation, and analyses, principals and school counselors must utilize their knowledge and skills in program evaluation to challenge systemic…

We investigated the relationship between self-reported multicultural competence and social issues awareness among school counselors and raters' assessment of multicultural orientation skills (cultural humility and cultural comfort) using a recorded mock counseling session. Results revealed a positive correlation between multicultural competence…

This article presents the development of the Antiracist School Counseling Inventory (ASCI), an instrument designed to support school counselors engaging in antiracist counseling practice. We administered the ASCI to a sample of 457 practicing school counselors. Results of an exploratory factor analysis yielded a 19-item exploratory model…

Background: K-12 students have experienced increases in the amount of hate crimes and prejudice they encounter. School counselors are well-positioned to reduce oppression in schools, but often lack the means to develop advocacy skills that would do so. Objectives: We implemented the School Counselor Equity Fellowship (SCEF), a yearlong…

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), this study explored the unique experiences, needs, challenges, and coping mechanisms of six Muslim-American students attending public high schools in the Midwestern United States. Three distinct themes emerged from the participants' interviews and artifacts: (a) climate: experiences of school…

School counselors are called to advocate for social justice in education and use evidence-based practice (EBP) to meet the diverse needs of students in schools today. This conceptual article describes the approach of one Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)-accredited counselor education program to…

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) encourages school counselors to promote equity experiences for all students through leadership, advocacy, and collaboration. School counselors and school administrators (e.g., principals, assistant principals) are uniquely positioned to combine their social capital in an effort to create a positive…

Many school counselors endorse using social justice advocacy to close achievement gaps. In this study, school counselors from a single state scored in the moderate to high range on the Social Issues Advocacy Scale. Results showed alignment between school counselors' self-endorsement of social justice advocacy and scores on the Advocacy…

This study examined the factor structure of the School Counselor Leadership Survey (SCLS). Survey development was a threefold process that resulted in a 39-item survey of 801 school counselors and school counselor supervisors. The exploratory factor analysis indicated a five-factor structure that revealed five key dimensions of school counselor…

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of rural school counselors as social justice advocates. The first author interviewed seven participants in their respective communities and identified five themes, including both positive and negative elements: the stability of place, community promise, mutual reliance, professional and personal…

A qualitative study used a grounded theory methodology to explore the strategies that 16 school counselors who self-identified as social justice agents used to advocate for systemic change within their school communities. Findings included seven overarching themes: (a) using political savvy to navigate power structures, (b) consciousness raising,…

The recent endorsement of the advocacy competencies by the American Counseling Association signals their relevance to the school counseling profession. This article outlines the importance of being a social change agent, the value of advocacy in K-12 schools, and how school counselors can use the advocacy competencies as a framework for promoting…