Engaging Students and Supervisees in Social Justice: The Social Justice Toolbox

Social justice has been identified as the “fifth force” in counseling (Ratts, 2009, p. 160). As such, counselor educators and supervisors must respond by helping counselors-in-training become competent social change agents. This article presents an approach to teaching social justice skills entitled the Social Justice Toolbox, a collection of tools that students, educators, and supervisors can use to assist them in becoming actively involved in social justice advocacy. The goal of the toolbox is to make taking action in social justice achievable and accessible for all, at a variety of levels of participation. Additionally, potential research questions are presented. Social justice has gained recognition as a core component of the counseling profession (Ratts, 2009). Advocates argue it is time for practicing counselors to intervene with clients beyond the traditional “culturally impositional” individual level, as it does not account for the role of oppression in the lives of clients (Chang, Crethar, & Ratts, 2010, p. 83). The Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) division of the American Counseling Association (ACA) advocates an approach to counseling that accounts for all aspects of clients’ lives, promotes growth and empowerment, and works to combat societal injustices (CSJ, 2011). Further, the ACA Code of Ethics (2005) states, “When appropriate, counselors advocate at individual, group, institutional, and societal levels to examine potential barriers and obstacles that inhibit access and/or the growth and development of clients” (A.6.a, p. 5). Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2014 2 Though the above represents a call to the profession, translating this call to action presents unique challenges. This challenge remains in spite of the connection between multiculturalism (a core component of counseling practice) and social justice that is reflected in the counseling literature (e.g., Ratts, 2011; Vera & Speight, 2003). A participant in Odegard and Vereen’s (2010) qualitative research elaborated on the connection with a reflection stating, “the advocacy competencies are just the action [version, the] connection to the multicultural competencies” (p. 141); however, this leap is not always easily made. While conducting professional presentations on the topic of social justice advocacy, we have come to better understand some of the challenges professionals in counseling face in teaching and implementing social justice. Many individuals have reported an interest in participating in social justice advocacy, but hesitate when it comes to taking action. For some there is a reported lack of time to properly engage in advocacy, an unclear understanding of advocacy efforts, and/or lack of motivation to continue efforts when faced with challenges. These anecdotal challenges reported by potential social change agents are echoed in the literature. Ward (2006) interviewed Mark Kiselica, a counselor educator who has published articles on social justice, about his development as a social justice advocate. During this interview, Kiselica noted that there is a misconception perpetuated by the social justice literature that “you must be extremely vocal to be an effective advocacy counselor” (p. 17). Kiselica also noted, “it is important for counselors to identify a style of social justice work that is right for them” (p. 17). In addressing the same issue, Glossoff and Durham (2010) suggested that an understanding of the complexity of advocacy work is essential. Therefore, a psychoeducational resource designed to inform, instruct, and motivate counseling professionals in their pursuit of advocacy efforts could help ameliorate some of these concerns. The purpose of this article is to introduce educators and supervisors to an educational resource entitled the Social Justice Toolbox. This toolbox is conceptually linked to the ACA Advocacy Competencies (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002). It is designed to help an individual find his or her place in the world of social justice advocacy and to provide supervisors and educators with a tool to use in their efforts to support the growth of counselors-in-training. It provides concrete activities for counselor trainees along the complex range noted by Glossoff and Durham (2010). It is our hope that this resource reduces the hesitation we believe is based in fear of not being able to do something “good enough” to be considered significant. Counselor Education and Supervision in Social Justice Training Counselor educators and supervisors have been called to take an active role in helping counselors prepare to respond to shifts in the field of counseling, including the social justice movement (Chang et al., 2010). Counselor education programs can be highly influential in counseling professionals’ development of social justice advocacy skills by helping students develop self-efficacy beliefs related to social justice, providing social supports rooted in social justice (Miller & Sendrowitz, 2011; Miller et al., 2009), promoting political interest, and teaching specific skills in advocacy (Nilsson & Schmidt, 2005). Vera and Speight (2003) argued that now is the time for counselor education programs to take on the responsibility of social justice training. Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2014 3 Counselor education curricula have seen an increase in attention to social justice concepts according to the literature. In a review of multicultural related syllabi, Pieterse, Evans, Risner-Butner, Collins, and Mason (2009) found that 59% of the syllabi included objectives related to social justice and 48% of syllabi had some focus on social justice concepts. Social justice concepts have also been integrated into specific courses such as counseling theories (Brubaker, Puig, Reese, & Young, 2010), group counseling (Ibrahim, 2010), and Steele (2008) suggested concepts could be infused into any course subsequent to basic counseling techniques. Other counselor education curricula have integrated social justice concepts across courses or as a core philosophy of the program. Some strategies include teaching an understanding of ethics from a multicultural and social justice perspective (Pack-Brown, Thomas, & Seymour, 2008), using a cohort model and sequencing courses to promote the growth of students’ commitment to social justice (Paisley, Bailey, Hayes, McMahon, & Grimmett, 2010), immersing students in a social justice experience during their first year of training (Goodman et al., 2004), and building social justice advocacy competence by relating it to the school counselor national models (Dixon, Tucker, & Clark, 2010). We believe that beyond didactic instruction, counselors-in-training need more focus on action, and there is a call for changes and/or additions to how social justice is taught in counselor education (e.g., Dixon et al., 2010; Miller & Sendrowitz, 2011; Pieterse et al., 2009). Pieterse et al. (2009) noted that few of the syllabi reviewed in their research included a focus on what counselors themselves can do regarding social justice. Additionally, according to Miller and Sendrowitz (2011) counselor education programs are falling far short in translating information into action. This research showed that although 58.1% of respondents felt encouraged to participate in social justice work, only 30% reported that their program provides the resources necessary for them to do so. Counseling students have expressed a desire for social justice training to be infused throughout counseling training programs. Students in Singh et al.’s (2010) research reported a desire for social justice advocates to “walk the talk” (p. 786) and for programs to incorporate social justice training in their process without diluting the concepts. This infusion of social justice may contribute to the development of a social justice orientation, as counseling students and professionals have cited critical incidents in education and coursework as influential in their commitment to social justice work (Caldwell & Vera, 2010). The Social Justice Toolbox was designed to provide educators and supervisors with the tools needed to help students become social justice change agents, translating talk into action. There are specific activities to encourage even the most timid social justice advocate to become active. It is our hope that exposure to achievable social justice related activities would support students, educators, and supervisors on their journey to becoming more active and involved social change agents. The Social Justice Toolbox The conceptual framework for the Social Justice Toolbox is the ACA Advocacy Competencies (Lewis et al., 2002). These competencies, endorsed by the ACA Governing Council in 2003, are an easy to understand yet comprehensive way to conceptualize social justice. Organized in a three by two matrix, the horizontal axis identifies the level of engagement, from micro to macro. The vertical axis identifies with whom the individual engages, either on behalf of a client/student, or in conjunction with a Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2014 4 client/student. Each of the six domains identifies specific counselor competencies that are relevant to that domain. As such, each item included in the Social Justice Toolbox corresponds to a domain in the competency framework (see Figure 1). Further, each item was created in accordance with the competency standards proposed by Lewis et al. (2002). We believe that all of these items can be used in an educational or supervision setting; however, from here forward, recipients of the items described will be referred to as students, and the person handing out the toolbox items will be referred to as the educator. Figure 1. Advocacy Competency Framework with Toolbox Activities. Introduction of the Toolbox Activity Although instructions for use are included with each section, we encourage each individual who uses the Social Justice Toolbox to be creative by