Decolonizing Alterity Models Within School Counseling Practice

Abstract

Drawing on a case study, this chapter critically investigates models of alterity in the field of professional school counseling. We argue that the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) multicultural counseling competency model (MCC; Sue et al., 1992), the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Model (ASCA 2005), and the ASCA Position Statement: The Professional School Counselor and Cultural Diversity (ASCA, ASCA Position Statements, 2009) are inadequate for the task of interrupting the unequal playing field that exists in our schools for students from traditionally underrepresented and undervalued groups. Specifically, we unpack four fundamental tenets found within these models: (1) the assumption of cultural pluralism, (2) the rationale of changing demographics, (3) an egalitarian approach, and (4) the call for advocacy against unidentified social forces. We then examine the construct of colonizing dominant discourses and their role in perpetuating an unequal playing field for students from traditionally underrepresented groups. We argue that each of the four fundamental tenets tacitly buttresses colonizing dominant discourses by failing to interfere, ignoring their influence, and propagating their invisibility. Finally, we call for a social justice model of alterity for the field of professional school counseling, using the case example to exemplify how such a model would foster the decolonization of schools.