GrantED – School Counseling

This report looks at several national school counseling associations and course textbooks that are used in in many of the mandatory multicultural or diverse counseling courses that are required to obtain a master’s degree. Additionally, course descriptions, syllabi, and textbooks were surveyed for the inclusion of far-left key terms.

Number of programs, syllabi, course textbooks, or course descriptions containing:

• “microaggressions”: 21
• “oppression”: 32
• “social justice activism/advocacy”: 49
• “privilege/white privilege”: 37
• “white racial identity”: 34
• “whiteness”: 16

*This report is not exhaustive and will be updated over time.

Many of the school counseling degree programs also follow the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) school counselor preparation standards. ASCA, a nonprofit organization, states that it “supports counselors’ efforts to help students focus on academic, career and social/emotional development so they achieve success in school and are prepared to lead fulfilling lives as responsible members of society.” It also states that its mission is to “represent the school counseling profession and equip school counselors to create equitable opportunities and inclusive environments that enable all students to succeed.”

ASCA standards include advancing ideologies such as anti-racism, equity, and gender identity. For example, section C.i. states that school counselors should provide “staff with opportunities and support to develop knowledge and understanding of historic and systemic oppression, social justice and cultural models (e.g., multicultural counseling, anti-racism, culturally sustaining practices) to further develop skills for systemic change and equitable outcomes for all students.”

The ASCA is also a driver of gender ideology in K-12 schools, as is evident from this 2022 webinar titled Supporting Your Students Who Are Transgender & Gender Expansive.

Most of the school counseling programs are accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP). As a result, these university programs utilize CACREP standards (2016, 2024) to align their philosophies and course content . The organization’s 2024 standards include section 3.B.1 – “theories and models of multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy” and section 3.B.5 – “the effects of stereotypes, overt and covert discrimination, racism, power, oppression, privilege, marginalization, microaggressions, and violence on counselors and clients.”

The University of Missouri – St. Louis, which was awarded a $306,209 grant to train school counselors in Trauma-Informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL), is an example of how CACREP standards are used to align the focus of a university’s school counseling track.

In addition to reviewing university program websites and syllabi, we looked at the content of course textbooks. While we were only able to review the most widely used textbook (Counseling the Culturally Diverse), we did a review of the table of contents to evaluate others.

Counseling the Culturally Diverse

Counseling the Culturally Diverse by Derald Wing Sue, David Sue, Helen A. Neville, and Laura Smith was found to be used in at least 36 programs based on syllabi or using a university’s online bookstore. It is by far the most widely used textbook for school counseling.

Content covered in the textbook includes bias, microaggressions, privilege, social justice, transgender, white supremacy, white privilege, white racial identity, and whiteness. In fact, throughout the book the word “microaggressions” appears 228 times, “social justice” appears 145 times, “transgender” appears 89 times, “white racial identity” appears 74 times, “whiteness” appears 52 times, and “white privilege” appears 19 times.

The textbook also contains a section on page 35 that states that a “word of caution” needs to “be directed toward students of marginalized groups as they read CCD and find it affirming and validating.”

It continues:

“In teaching the course, we have often encountered students of color who become very contentious and highly outspoken toward White classmates. A good example is provided in the reaction of the African American student in the fourth scenario. It is clear that the student seems to take delight in seeing his White classmates “squirm” and be uncomfortable. In this respect, he may be taking out his own anger and frustration upon White classmates, and his concern has less to do with helping them understand than having them feel some of the pain and hurt he has felt over the years. It is important to express and understand one’s anger (it can be healing), but becoming verbally abusive toward another is counterproductive to building rapport and mutual respect. As people of color, for example, we must realize that our enemies are not White Americans, but White supremacy! And, by extension, our enemy is not White Western society, but racism and ethnocentrism.”

Further insight into courses that utilize this textbook can be found in this Substack post titled Is Therapy Racist? “Counseling the Culturally Diverse” by Ryan Rogers, currently a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling.

The next most widely used book is Developing Multicultural Counseling Competence: A Systems Approach by Danica Hays and Bradley Erford. According to its table of contents, the course covers color-blind racial attitudes, gender identity, heterosexism, racism, social justice, white privilege, and whiteness.

Other Course Books

Other books used in courses are listed below:

• Readings for Diversity and Social Justice by Warren J. Blumenfeld, D. Chase J. Catalano, Keri Dejong, and Maurianne Adams
• Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services by Jerry Diller
• Cultural Humility: Engaging Diverse Identities in Therapy by Joshua N Hook
• Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson
• Social Justice, Multicultural Counseling, and Practice: Beyond a Conventional Approach by Heesoon Jun
• Introduction to Multicultural Counseling for Helping Professionals by Wanda M.L. Lee, Graciela L. Orozco, John A Blando, and Bita Shooshani
• Culturally Alert Counseling: A Comprehensive Introduction by Garrett J McAuliffe

Additionally, books by Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo appear as supplemental texts in a handful of courses.

The University of Florida’s 2024 MHS 6428: Multicultural Counseling course includes content such as intersectionality, tenets of queer theory, transgenderism, white privilege, and “White Racial Identity.”

The course “classroom policies” state: “We are also experiencing a heightened collective awareness of racism in this country, our institutions, and ourselves” and that the “national engagement in conversations about violence against Black people, the xenophobia against Asian people, and the continued exploitation of Native people has presented opportunities both for advocacy and growth as well as continued trauma to populations that are already weary.”

It adds that in the course, there will be discussions about “topics that are so critical and painful and enduring that we MUST treat them with urgency.”

In 2022, Springfield College was awarded a $3,290,000 Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant from the Department of Education with the goal of “increasing the number of racially and linguistically diverse” school counselors.

As part of the grant funding, the college is offering tuition assistance for “up to 15 students in each cohort.” The college states that it will give priority to applicants who currently work in or are alumni of Springfield Public Schools or Holyoke Public Schools, or who “reflect the diverse identities of students in SPS and HPS (e.g., first-generation college students, racial or ethnic minoritized students, Spanish speaking or bilingual students, or other minoritized identities).”

Grant funds are also used for a “School Counseling Diversity Fellowship” position which provides “support to program directors in the areas of recruitment and retention with particular attention to Diversity recruiting events.” “Required Qualifications” include having “experience with DEI initiatives.”

The University of Missouri’s ESC_PS 9000: Multicultural Issues in Counseling course description states that students will “develop the foundational anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-classist, anti-ableist, anti-xenophobic and general anti-discrimination competencies necessary for working with diverse individuals and for changing oppressive systems.”

A February 7, 2024, press release from Antioch University states that it has started a new master’s program in school counseling that aims at “training a new generation of school counselors whose practice is rooted in social justice and antiracist principles.” The program will emphasize “four critical areas in the work of school counselors: leadership, collaboration, advocacy, and systemic change” and prepare students to “provide culturally responsive services addressing the academic, social/emotional, and career development needs of K-12 students through a social justice and advocacy lens.”

The program requires students to take the course “CNS 5800 – Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling,” which includes the use of the textbook Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice by Sue & Sue. Students are to also select one of the following texts for the Spring 2025 semester which include Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist, Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F Saad, and Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing by Anneliese A. Singh and Derald Wing Sue.

Clemson University’s EDC 8110-400 Multicultural Counseling course includes content and topics such as a “Land and Labor Acknowledgement,” “Social Justice Counseling Competencies” and “advocacy,” tenets of queer theory, and white privilege via reading Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”

The course textbook, Culturally Alert Counseling: A Comprehensive Introduction (3rd ed.), includes topics such as “Equity,” “Oppression,” “Microaggressions,” “Privilege,” “Critical Consciousness,” “Color-Blind Racism,” “White Racial Identity Development,” and “Engaging in Activism Toward the Eradication of Heterosexism and Bisexism.”

In 2024, George Mason University was awarded a $5,000,000 grant over five years by the Department of Education as part of ED’s “School-Based Mental Health Alliance” program.

The counseling program’s EDCD 660 – Multicultural Counseling course states that it “Investigates variables that interact with culture that may interfere with the counseling relationship, such as historical, political, socioeconomic, psychosocial adjustment, racism, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression.”

The course includes content such as ableism, oppression, tenets of queer theory, white privilege, and white racial identity. Assignments include students writing a reaction to readings on “white privilege.”

The course EDCD 628 – Counseling and Social Justice will “provide an overview of theories and models of social justice, social change, advocacy and leadership” and will look at the “new role of counselors as agents of change, leaders, and advocates.” The course will “focus on the applied aspects of new role of the counselors, and explore the individual, group, institutional, and systemic barriers confronting counselors in performing their role, such as, issues of power and authority, sexism, racism, discrimination, etc.”

Course topics include social justice, abolitionism, and “decolonizing mental health.”