Exploring the Lived Experiences of School Counselors' Preparation in Working With African American High School Students in Career Development

• In Event: Catalysts for Change: School Counselors Tackle Inequitable Educational Opportunity, Racial Injustice, and COVID-19

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of the study is to explore school counselors’ lived experiences in preparation for working with African American high school students in career development. Also, to provide school counselors with a forum to have their voices heard regarding their experiences related to their real-world job expectations versus their graduate school training program in career development and multicultural training, explicitly working with African American students.

Perspective or Theoretical Framework
This topic is significance because school counselors are responsible for working with students in academic, social/emotional, college, and career areas. With the inclusion of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), along with recommendations for the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model, it is becoming increasingly important for school counselors to work with diverse students in career development and assisting with postsecondary goals, including entering the workforce.

Methods, Techniques, or modes of inquiry
The author will conduct phenomenological research to explore school counselors’ lived experiences regarding their competency based on their graduate program preparation in working with African American public high school students’ career development.


Participants
The study is expected to include 6-8 participants within the phenomenological study recommended range of 5 to 25 (Pisarik, Rowell, Thompson, 2017). Participants will be selected from the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) membership database, Counselor Education and Supervision Network Listserv (CESNET), and the National Career Development Association (NCDA) membership database. Participants will be selected from current public high school counselors working with African American students.
The guiding research questions are:
RQ1 What have been the lived experiences of working with African American/Black high school students in career development?
RQ2 What have been your lived experiences as a counselor-in-training to prepare you to work with high school students in career development?

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Once approval is provided from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the signed consent form is secured from participants, the proposed data collection will take place in the form of interviews based on the modality that is most comfortable for each participant. Since the researcher expects participants to be located throughout the United States, interview modalities will be the telephone, Google Meet, or Zoom. The researcher will conduct a semi-structured interview that will focus on the participants’ lived experiences as school counselors’ preparation in working with African American high school students in career development. The data analysis will begin immediately after the first interview and continue throughout the data collection process. The computer software will assist the researcher in providing a visual model to show the relationship between codes and themes (Bloomberg, & Volpe, 2019; Creswell & Poth, 2018).

Results and Substantiated Conclusions:
Data collection to begin Fall 2021. The conclusions will be supported by previous research.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study of work:
There is a disconnect between career and multicultural training. The lack of training may contribute to school counselors feeling as if they are not prepared to assist students in career development (Morgan, Greenwaldt, & Gosselin, 2014) and cultural competency.

Author

• Carla Cheatham, University of Arizona