Rooted in Joy and Purpose: A Narrative Inquiry Into Professional School Counselor’s Use of Community Cultural Wealth

For too long, P-12 educational spaces have operated under a deficit narrative; giving little to no acknowledgement to the ancestral and traditional knowledge of the communities in which they are located. The authors of this study utilized a qualitative narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of five school counselors who have incorporated forms of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) into their school counseling program. Participants offered a glimpse into their integration of the different forms of capitals (i.e., aspirational, linguistic, navigational, social, familial, resistant) under CCW, and their commitment of changing the deficit narrative traditionally found in P-12 education, into one of empowerment and recognition. The overarching results of this study explores the participating school counselors’ motivation, dedication, and responsibility to the community these school counselors experienced through intentional acknowledgement of community wealth.