Toward Critical Counseling: A Content Analysis of Critical Race Theory and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Community College Counselor Education

• Main Author: Insley, Lyman A
• Format: Others
• Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: critical counseling; community college counselor education; critical race theory; culturally relevant pedagogy; critical consciousness; Academic Advising; Community College Leadership; Counseling; Counselor Education; Curriculum and Instruction; Curriculum and Social Inquiry; Educational Leadership; Student Counseling and Personnel Services
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/954; https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2060&context=etd

Background: Prior to the early 1990s, most counselor preparation programs did not have multicultural competencies. Therefore, a call was made for the use of multicultural competencies in counselor preparation programs. Yet, the popularization of multicultural competencies of this time in education had a Eurocentric bent, a kind of colorblindness More recently, scholars confirmed that these Eurocentric multicultural competencies had become the primary template from which counselor preparation programs taught culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy. Therefore, a call was made for the use of critical race theory (CRT) in counselor preparation programs to challenge and change Eurocentric cultural competence. Purpose: This study explored the presence of CRT and culturally relevant pedagogy in an educational counseling master’s program preparing community college counselors. Methodology: This content analysis explored an educational counseling master’s program. Various data collection methods employed included program document analysis, and semi-structured interviews of program faculty/counselor-educators, program student-counselors/alumni. Conclusion: The main findings of this content analysis are that although not explicit, and albeit limited, evidence of CRT themes were inferred in some way in the program’s content; while culturally relevant pedagogy was evident within the variety of counseling techniques employed.