Advocacy as a critical role for urban school counselors: working toward equity and social justice

Professional School Counseling, Feb, 2005 by Fred Bemak, Rita Chi-Ying Chung

SHIFTING ROLES: A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL

It is not easy to move from being a well-liked and friendly school counselor to being an advocate. Because the role of the school counselor has been consistent for the past 40 years (Baker, 2001), the expectations for whom the school counselor is and what the school counselor does are well established in school systems. Notably this does not include advocacy. The recent attention regarding a shift in responsibilities and role is more evident in the profession of school counseling but is less prominent in the education field among school administrators and teachers. House and Martin (1998) described the need to change the school counselor's role to include social advocacy that aims to eliminate the obstacles for academic success for all students. We would concur that for effective school counselors to be capable and focused on providing services for all students, an essential aspect of their job must be social advocacy. To not advocate is to uphold social and academic inequity, hence doing an injustice to selected groups of clients and students.

In contrast, to advocate for all students means challenging the system, which has the potential to produce personal and professional difficulties. "Taking on" a system to become an advocate for social equity means assuming a dramatically different position as a school counselor. Resistance and resentment for "rocking the boat" are bound to occur. For example, advocating may require confronting teachers who hold low expectations for students of color or poor students and who consciously or unconsciously discriminate against these student groups by harboring lower academic demands or giving lower grades. Or, advocacy may mean directly challenging administrators who promote policies and practices that are overtly and covertly nonsupportive of all students or talking to peers and administration about instituting school-wide or system-wide policies that promote academic success for all students, not just some students. One potential outcome for this type of activity is that school counselors are viewed as disruptive or as troublemakers. The aim of a school counselor, of course, is not to be seen in that light, but rather as a team player who challenges the team to improve, to not accept historical practices as "given practices," and to fight and advocate for fairness and equity that will benefit all students.

Given that school counselors do not have administrative authority within schools, coupled with their dependency on administrators for their professional livelihood, it is important to have a good working relationship with administrators. The reality for school counselors is that by and large they are hired and evaluated by principals and school administrators. The administrators are their professional lifelines within a school system, deciding on contracts, promotions, and other personnel actions, so that assuming the role of an advocate within schools may create potential difficulties for school counselors. To advocate, to challenge, to confront, and to take a leadership role in moving a school system forward toward social equity is to risk tension and discord with supervisors and peers. In fact, advocacy may create a threat to school settings by challenging the politics, procedures, and structure of the school itself, which may lead to negative repercussions (Lee, 1998). Yet, the goal of equity and social justice for all students is so important that we would strongly encourage that advocacy toward these goals become an integral aspect of the school counselor's role. One important aspect of successful advocacy by school counselors, therefore, is understanding how to sustain good professional relationships while challenging school systems to adopt goals that benefit all students, including those who have been marginalized or discriminated against in the educational system.