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…

As migration and displacement continue to increase around the world, guidelines are needed clarifying how school counselors can use their power and privilege in working with refugee students and their families across K-12 education, more so in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. We introduce the Refugee Well-Being Project intervention to school…

Counselors can play an integral role in developing transformative schooling environments that center equity and disrupt marginalizing practices. The purpose of this "Equity by Design" brief is to conduct a critical examination of the profession and training of school counselors, shifting towards positioning the school counselor as an…

This article focuses on what school-based mental health counselors need to know to be anti-racist and culturally responsive for Black students, while recognizing that many of the presented theories and frameworks have implications for other minoritized gifted and talented (GATE) students/clients. The authors provide an overview of the most…

In this article, I outline an approach for critical hip-hop school counseling (CHHSC) for novice and tenured school counselors to use when working with Black boys. Various facets of hip-hop culture (e.g., music, hip-hop scholarship) can sharpen Black boys' "conscientização" (Freire, 1996) and help them discern how interconnected social…

Over the past two decades, research on urban schools has focused predominantly on achievement gaps. However, achievement gaps exist because of gaps in opportunities for urban, low-income, and racially/ethnically diverse students. Partnerships among schools, families, and communities can provide the enrichment opportunities, support, resources, and…

The author introduces a humanistic theory for school counseling called Advocating Student-within-Environment (ASE). According to this theory, the student is an adaptive agent who operates within ever-evolving environments. With ASE, a school counselor can use the capacities of the student, the school environment, and their shared agency to promote…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students often face considerable isolation, discrimination, and violence at school, which can exacerbate the acute psychosocial and academic problems they already encounter. The purpose of this article is to introduce gay-straight alliances (GSAs) as a social justice and advocacy approach…

This qualitative study explored the aspects of "self" school counselors (N = 16) described as central to advocating for social justice in their school systems. Using grounded theory, this study explored racial, feminist, and advocacy identity development in relation to the personhood of the counselor, and how these elements coalesced around action…

Social justice in the education of all K-12 students begins with school counselors; preparing school counselors as advocates and leaders who can implement these principles in U.S. schools begins with counselor educators. Suggestions for intentional preparation of school counselors to be social justice advocates in schools by integrating the…

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 transformed role of school counselors as advocates is key in reducing the academic achievement gap. Redefining the school counselors' role requires culturally competent practitioners, social justice advocates, and organizational/social change agents. A major obstacle to implementing culturally responsive social justice advocacy and change in…

This article shares how school counselors-in-training are oriented to cultivate strengths-based professional identities based on culturally relevant and evidence-based practices that support the developmental learning abilities of all students. Professional identity and positive youth development are tied to practices, Web sites, and resources…

Homonegativity among female professional school counselors (n = 215) representing a single Southern state was measured using adapted versions of the Homonegativity Scale (HS) and the Modern Homonegativity Scale (MHS). With the use of factorial analysis of variance, significant differences (p less than 0.05) were found when HS and MHS scores were…

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…