Understanding Anti-racism in Counselor Education: A Narratology of Anti-racist Pedagogy in Sociocultural Courses

Counselors have the privilege to join children, adolescents, and adults from all walks of life in a journey of working towards mental and emotional wellness. Our code of ethics outlines “honoring diversity and embracing a multicultural approach in support of the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of people within their social and cultural contexts” (p.3) and promoting social justice as two of our core professional values (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014). The ACA also stated in their Antiracist Statement in 2020 that “we have a moral and professional obligation to deconstruct institutions which have historically been designed to benefit White America.” Despite these publicized statements, there is a dearth of empirical articles that examined the experiences of clinical mental health counselors-in-training (CMHCIT) with anti-racist development. To bridge the research gap, this study employed narrative inquiry to examine the lived stories of five CHMCITs who took a sociocultural counseling course with a professor who utilized anti-racist pedagogy. Findings resulted in the identification of three salient themes, although experienced in varying ways across participants: a) experiencing and managing discomfort, b) pedagogical tools for transformation, and c) striving towards cultural humility and anti-racist practices. The study findings provide practical and research implications for counselor education, supervision, training standards, institutional leadership, and research.