Social Justice Advocacy Research Articles

Development and Validation of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies-Inventory

We developed a 54-item inventory to measure counselors’ multicultural and social justice counseling competence. We posited a confirmatory factor analysis model using the structure of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies and found the fit indices to be within acceptable ranges, indicating overall good model fit.

Social Justice as Ontology: The Intersection of Black Evaluators’ Identities, Roles, and Practice

Violence, marginalization, oppression, exploitation, erasure, and injustice are cornerstones of the Black experience in the United States. Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, Black people have worked diligently and competently to earn spaces within the present-day professional arena. While the experiences of Black professionals have been investigated in multiple fields, little is known about Black evaluators. This study aimed to investigate Black evaluators’ experiences in an attempt to understand the intersectionality of their identities, roles, and practice and to ensure voices and contributions of Black evaluators are highlighted. We conducted 26 interviews with Black evaluators across academic, government, nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sectors. We found race and advocate for social justice are central to Black evaluators’ identities, roles, and practice. We developed a thematic framework as a result of our analysis and interpretations of the ways in which Black evaluators’ identities impacted their perceptions of their professional role and practice.

Use of the MSJCC: A content analysis of ACA journals

Use of the MSJCC: A content analysis of ACA journals

Outsider at home: Reading Babasaheb Ambedkar as a radical, decolonial psychologist.

Known primarily as the architect of the constitution of India, Babasaheb Ambedkar was also a human rights lawyer, an economist, a social justice advocate, and a polymath. Yet his story is often overlooked in favor of national leaders such as Gandhi. This study highlights Ambedkar as a visionary who called for a radical and new psychology of self that was anchored in ideas of social justice, equity and full participation. Furthermore this study fills the gap in the field of psychobiography which rarely reflects the cultural lives and experiences of the Global South. This study follows the psychobiographical method and uses memoirs, essays, speeches, and biographies as data. Three "turning points" in Ambedkar's life are examined: (1) Early childhood experiences of being an "untouchable"; (2) Returning to India for employment after completing his doctorate in the U.S.; (3) Converting to Buddhism in later life. Using a decolonial theoretical lens, we analyze the multiple ways that he experienced being colonized and dehumanized. As he defied the caste structures within his own culture and resisted colonialism, Ambedkar developed a syncretic politics of resistance that emphasized the creation of a decolonized Dalit self and community.

Presidential Address, 2022-Dismantling Systemic Barriers: Re-Envisioning Equity and Inclusion.

Presidential Address, 2022-Dismantling Systemic Barriers: Re-Envisioning Equity and Inclusion.

Revisiting social work professional identity in the light of the impact of COVID-19

ABSTRACT The meanings and status of social work—and potentially professional identities—vary internationally according to factors such as roles, training and status, as well as political, economic and social contexts. A new contextual element for social work identity is the profession’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This paper considers recently published international literature discussing social work and social work education during the pandemic; and revisits the author’s previously published findings about social work professional identity. Following a literature search, the resulting articles were treated as texts and analyzed using the theoretical concept of interpretative repertoires. The academic literature indicates that, globally, social workers have played an essential role during the pandemic. The importance of professional identity as a source of collective support, pride and inspiration is consistently highlighted. Professional values and ethics have provided guidance for dealing with unprecedented situations, both in social work practice and social work education. Social workers and educators have mobilized around professional identity to advocate for social justice and fairer policies. Innovative fieldwork placements have expanded students’ understanding of how organizations can work for social change. The literature highlights social work education’s vital role in supporting students to explore and develop professional identity.

Psychology, politics, and female empowerment: An interview with Dr. Bobbie Celeste.

In the following interview, Bobbie Celeste, PhD, reflects on her experiences as a counseling psychologist, longtime social justice advocate, and founder and codirector of the Women's Political Leadership Circles. She provides specific details regarding her path to her current position, the nature of her work (i.e., setting, duties, challenges), and her hopes for the future. She also reflects on what she has learned over the years and provides guidance for mental health professionals interested in pursuing political advocacy work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Where are the Social Workers? A Practicum Model to Engage Social Workers in Political Advocacy for Social Justice

ABSTRACT The Policy Field Unit (PFU) is an independently designed practicum placement for School of Social Work (SSW) students at a large, urban Midwestern university. The placement provides students an opportunity to engage with the policy process as macro social work practitioners in a variety of settings. Increasing social work students’ efficacy in policy advocacy is based on the fundamental understanding that social work is a political activity. Experiential learning opportunities focused on public policy equip social work graduates for professions in policy or policy adjacent fields. The authors describe the PFU’s origin, leadership, activities, and overall practicum model completed by social work students in its inaugural year. Furthermore, the authors chronicle student experiences, report practicum benefits and encountered challenges, culminating with recommendations for future directions for the program.

Family Counselors Addressing Social Determinants of Mental Health in Underserved Communities

Couple and family counselors (CFCs) practicing in underserved communities must be aware of and properly address social determinants of mental health (SDOMH). This conceptual manuscript offers an explanation of how the SDOMH domains impact families in underserved communities and provide evidence-based recommendations for infusing SDOMH into family counseling through the ecological social justice counseling theory, adapted for couple and family counselors. This article concludes with the next steps for practice and research.

Global Financial Governance and Progressive Feminist Agendas

Feminists and other progressives have long argued that global macroeconomic governance is deeply deficient. The deficiencies have been revealed and amplified by the COVID-19 crisis. The need to radically reconstruct the global economic governance architecture is therefore pressing. Albert Hirschman’s conception of “possibilism” is particularly relevant for navigating these challenges. In the spirit of Hirschmanian possibilism, I make a case for what I refer to as “enabling global financial governance.” I use this term to refer to reforms of global financial governance that could provide a supporting environment for feminist and other progressive plans for sustainability and social justice. I advance the provocative claim that feminists and other social justice advocates should embrace what I term “permissive multilateralisms” rather than “harmonized multilateralism.” I also highlight a number of directions for global financial governance reform that could provide policy space for progressive initiatives, including those advanced by feminists. I offer this paper as a small way of honoring my friend, Eugenia Correa, whose intellectual legacy and commitment to engaged scholarship has influenced me profoundly.

Martha Sharp Joukowsky, 1936–2022

Martha Sharp Joukowsky, 1936–2022

Factors impacting play therapists’ social justice advocacy attitudes.

Factors impacting play therapists’ social justice advocacy attitudes.

교사들의 능력주의 신념이 체제 정당화 신념과 사회정의 옹호 교육에 미치는 영향

Purpose: This study aimed to ascertain how the belief in school meritocracy (BSM) of teachers relates to their system justification belief (SJB), and how it affects teacher social justice advocacy, focusing on elementary school teachers born in the 1990s. Methods: This study surveyed 406 elementary school teachers working in ten cities nationwide. Multiple regression was utilized to analyze which factors affect BSM and SJB. Multiple mediation analysis was then conducted to confirm the mediating effect of SJB between BSM and teacher social justice advocacy. Results: The results of the analyses would appear to indicate that the higher the degree of the BSM of a teacher is, the higher the degree of the SJB is. On the other hand, the BSM of the teachers born in the 90s was formed regardless of their personal characteristics, while the BSM of the teachers of other ages was mainly influenced by political orientation. Lastly, the BSM of the teachers of other ages had an indirect effect of reducing teachers' social justice advocacy (TSJA) mediated by economic system justification. In contrast, the BSM of teachers born in the 90s directly promoted teacher social justice advocacy, and there was no indirect effect through the SJB. Conclusion: The findings show that the BSM, which is believed to serve as a principle of education fairness, is associated with system justification that rationalizes status quo. On the other hand, the finding that the BSM of the teachers born in 90s increased the TSJA implies that the BSM does not always lead to the result of legitimizing an unfair social structure even though the BSM connects to a system justification motive. Therefore, It is argued that, by discerning what meritocratic assumption teachers are supporting as their educational belief, their BSM could work as norms not for inegalitarian structure, but for advocating just education.

Using a Consultation Assignment to Enhance Trainees’ Understanding and Implementation of Consultation and Social Justice in Career Counseling

Social justice advocacy and career counseling are foundational competencies for counseling professionals. However, training in advocacy and consultation outside of the classroom (i.e., in the community) is infrequent and career counseling courses, despite conceptualizing systemic issues, often focus on individual-level interventions. There is an opportunity to merge these competencies into a single experience for graduate trainees. Graduate students in a clinical psychology master’s program completed a pilot, semester-long assignment in their career counseling class, which required them to work as consultants to organizations on a social justice oriented, career counseling focused project. We used a multi-method qualitative approach to analyze students’ career theory knowledge and application and social justice advocacy. Data were generated through students’ written assignments. Using coding reliability thematic analysis, data indicated most students were able to describe consultant and individual difficulties from an advocate and social justice framework, but about half the students struggled to integrate these social justice frames into career counseling theories and interventions. Five themes relating to student development emerged (e.g., recognizing privilege, self-efficacy), alongside three themes related to the logistics of the assignment design and implementation. Results are discussed alongside how to improve the assignment.

Advocacy and Creativity in Community: A Social Justice Project for Counseling Students

The proven effective teaching of social justice advocacy competencies while recognized as important by the counseling profession and counselor education programs, remains somewhat nascent in its implementation. Evidence suggests that experiential and constructivist approaches to the teaching of multicultural and social justice counseling competencies represent a worthwhile pedagogical foundation and set of tools in furthering multicultural and social justice counseling competencies in counseling students. The author relates, in detail, the implementation of an experiential, client/community-based, social justice and mental health advocacy project, the Advocacy and Creativity in Community (ACC) Project as a final class assignment in the last term prior to graduation within a CACREP-accredited clinical mental health counseling program in the Northwest region of the United States. Descriptions of student projects, the multitude of benefits for clients/participants and students as elicited from student reflections, and the author’s reflection after three years of implementing this project are presented. This project exemplifies the benefits within the literature of taking an experiential and constructivist approach to social justice advocacy training in counselor education programs.

Applications of Intersectionality Theory to Enhance Career Development Interventions in Response to COVID-19.

The school counseling profession has an ethical responsibility to provide and advocate for individual students’ career planning and development, while expanding school counselors’ own multicultural and social justice advocacy to become effective culturally competent professionals. Additional literature is needed to identify how school counselors can adapt their career counseling approaches to fit the unique challenges and barriers of historically marginalized students both during and after the global COVID-19 pandemic. We describe how school counselors can use intersectionality theory as a framework for career development with marginalized populations in response to COVID-19 and its impact on the economic decline.

COVID-19 and Mental Health Among People Who Are Forcibly Displaced: The Role of Socioeconomic Insecurity.

Forcibly displaced persons may be at elevated risk for poor mental health outcomes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to examine associations between COVID-19-related socioeconomic insecurity and mental health outcomes among asylum seekers. The authors evaluated the association between the degree of food, housing, and income insecurity related to the pandemic and mental health outcomes among East African asylum seekers in a high-risk, postdisplacement setting in the Middle East (i.e., Israel). Anxiety symptom severity (p=0.03) as well as the rate of suicidal ideation among women (odds ratio [OR]=2.81, p=0.016) were significantly elevated in a community sample of asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic (N=66) relative to a similar sample (N=158) from the same community and context assessed before the pandemic. No differences between the two groups were observed for severity or rate of probable depression or posttraumatic stress disorders. In addition, among the sample assessed during the pandemic, socioeconomic insecurity due to the pandemic was strongly associated with elevated symptom severity and probable anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorders as well as suicidal ideation (R2 range=0.19-0.35; OR range=4.54-5.46). Findings are consistent with growing evidence of a mental health crisis among asylum seekers that is linked to COVID-19 control policies and residential status policies. The results highlight the risk for suicidal ideation linked to intersectional marginalization among female asylum seekers. These findings may inform postdisplacement policy making, social justice advocacy, humanitarian aid, and clinical science and practice to mitigate poor mental health outcomes associated with COVID-19 among forcibly displaced persons.

Social Media and the Quest for Equity and Diversity in Oncology: On Safe Spaces and the Concept of the Public Physician.

Despite their increased enrollment into medical school, women still face systemic barriers in medicine, whether in an academic or nonacademic setting. Those from Under-Represented Minority (URM) groups face similar issues, which may affect their desire to enter, pursue, and/or maintain a career in medicine. Social media provides unique opportunities for peer-to-peer support among members of URM communities and for amplification of their voices calling for social justice-here defined as a redistribution of power and the quest for equity in access to opportunities, including access to mentorship, professional development, and timely promotion in academic rank. These issues are relevant to oncologists especially as we strive for diversity, equity, and inclusion and to ensure that our patients have equal access to care, regardless of their circumstances. In this article, we review current literature that highlights issues faced by women and historically URM groups in medicine, particularly in oncology. We also discuss the physician's role as a social justice advocate and the concept of the public physician.

Counseling and social justice advocacy interventions with refugees: Two case studies

AbstractThe Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCCs) illustrate the need for counselors to act as social justice advocates. The significant influx of refugees in the United States and the sociopolitical nature of their resettlement necessitate practical multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. Using two case studies, the authors apply the four levels and four competencies of the MSJCCs and provide multicultural and social justice interventions on three levels: interpersonal, community, and public policy.

Coach Education and Coach Development within a Contemporary Social Justice Society: Implications for Future Research and Potential Pitfalls

ABSTRACT Literature discussing youth sport coaching indicates the importance of a holistic coaching approach, particularly related to the use of positive youth development (PYD) approaches promoting the development and transfer of life skills. However, in the shadow of recent sociopolitical movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too, raised awareness of mental health concerns and an ongoing global pandemic, there are calls for a reimagined perspective of PYD through a social justice worldview. The purpose of the current article is to posit how coach education programs and coach development systems can inclusively meet the diverse needs of coaches, youth athletes, and society alike. Specifically, two questions guided the development of this article: 1) Why should coach education and coach development integrate social justice life skills? and 2) How may social justice life skills be integrated into coach education and coach development? Ultimately, as researchers and coach developers, we must not only be advocates for social justice in youth sports, but critically engaged activists who progress youth – and societal – development forward.