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Reducing Barriers to Entry: Enhancing Inclusivity and Engagement in Elementary School Extracurricular Programs
Get PDFThis mixed-methods action research study explores the barriers and strategies related to developing inclusive extracurricular programs in an urban elementary school. Through stakeholder surveys, interviews, and archival data, the study investigates how extracurricular activities support student engagement, social-emotional learning (SEL), and a sense of belonging, particularly for students from marginalized backgrounds.
Findings highlight persistent barriers, including funding limitations, staffing shortages, logistical challenges, and the absence of a centralized system for tracking participation. These issues disproportionately impact students with disabilities, English Language Learners (ELLs), and those from low-income households. The study also identifies key supports, such as community partnerships and culturally responsive programming, as essential to sustainability and equity.
Recommendations include hiring a Program Development and Community Engagement Coordinator to manage funding, partnerships, and participation data; integrating SEL into the school day through a dedicated teacher or the library block; and implementing structured activity periods to increase access during the school day. Future research should analyze the impact of these changes using state climate surveys to elevate student and stakeholder voice. Together, these strategies aim to foster inclusive, enriching extracurricular programs that promote equity, engagement, and holistic student development
If you cannot afford an attorney, none will be appointed for you: Exploring rates of representation by counsel in Texas misdemeanor courts
No full textAll misdemeanor defendants in the United States have the right to be represented by a lawyer if they are facing the possibility of incarceration. Yet implementation of that right is often left to local policymakers, and rates of non-representation (defendants proceeding without lawyers) vary enormously. Through an examination of data from Texas counties in 2019, we find non-representation rates were highest in the state’s poorest and most rural counties. But we also find signs that local policy choices matter. Counties with public defender offices, and those with less restrictive policies on financial eligibility for indigent defense services, appointed lawyers to substantially more misdemeanor defendants, and had substantially lower non-representation rates as a result. State officials should encourage policy choices that can effectively uphold defendants’ constitutional rights and create more equitable access to counsel, no matter where a defendant happens to be prosecuted
UTILIZATION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGENCIES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Get PDFIn this research, I examined the use of mental health services at domestic violence (DV) programs in rural and urban Pennsylvania and agency size. I examined the needs, characteristics, and availability of mental health services for DV survivors across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I looked at DV service use from a variety of sources to provide a well-rounded understanding of the factors that contributed to mental health service use. I used three secondary data sources: the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP), Adequacies of Network of Services Provided to the Survivors of Domestic Violence in Pennsylvania–Phase II study, and data obtained from publicly available DV agency websites. Each resource helped me to create an in depth understanding of service utilization for DV survivors across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from a variety of a perspectives. In this study, I included data from 214 DV survivors at DV agencies, 49 DV agency websites, and 6,139 DV survivors in Pennsylvania communities. I examined
factors that impacted mental health service use by reviewing descriptive statistics and analyzing website content. I found there was an overall lack of mental health service support across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at DV agencies, regardless of agency size and location. There were slightly more services at large agencies than small agencies; however, there was no difference based on agency locality. In this study, I used feminist and ecological theories, the healthcare beliefs model, and the Andersen and Newman model to inform the factors impacting mental health service use. I uncovered the following themes: agency use of nonmental health counseling services, overarching use of crisis services, and no psychiatry at DV agencies. The results have several policy implications regarding federal and state government programs, especially the Violence Against Women Act. Based on the findings of this study, I propose specific considerations should be made to fund training to for mental health providers in the treatment of DV survivors and funding should be increased for agencies where onsite and community mental health programs are not accessible
Faculty Search Experiences of Assistant Professors of Counselor Education
Get PDFUsing an online quantitative survey, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the faculty application experiences of assistant professors of counselor education (N = 159). The counselor educators in this sample completed a median of two off-campus interviews and a median of one on-campus interview. They received a median of one offer for any faculty position and a median of one offer for an assistant professor position on the tenure-track. Assistant professors on the tenure-track differed from those not on the tenure track on the following variables: demographic and professional characteristics, application strategies, credentials/qualifications at the time of their applications, the importance of decisional criteria in applying for and accepting faculty positions, work experiences, and occupational satisfaction. The implications of this survey research for counselor education faculty positions and searches are discussed
Challenges with Social Emotional Learning at a Rural School District
Get PDFSocial emotional learning (SEL) is a systemic approach that includes key competencies that can support school personnel to advance educational equity by focusing on all stakeholders within a system. The link between educator and student SEL has grown, as educators practice, model, and support the development of SEL in students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore six mental health personnel’s experiences of implementing SEL at one rural school district in a southwestern state. Analysis identified four roadblocks to SEL implementation: a lack of foundational knowledge of SEL, lack of structural supports, learned helplessness, and inadequate ongoing professional development. This study calls upon one rural school district’s need to support mental health team needs, including autonomy and agency to make SEL a priority
S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Self-care for Counselors
Get PDFPracticing self-care activities is essential to helping professions stave off and combat burnout and vicarious trauma. Mental health counselors and counselor educators and supervisors (CESs) need specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (S. M. A. R. T.) self-care activities to best meet the demands of this highly relational field. This article will assist CESs in supporting the personal development of S. M. A. R. T. self-care goals for their students and supervisees’ evolving professional identity with the addition to evaluate (E) and review (R) identified self-care efforts. CESs are supported with gatekeeping relevance and examining student and supervisee self-care plans as a parallel process to support clinical competence, professional identity development, and longevity in the counseling field
De-Colonizing and Enlivening Lifespan Development in Counselor Education with Experiential Exercises Across the Curriculum
Get PDFACA and IAMFC codes of ethics center culturally-affirming lifespan development skills as professional identity responsibilities specific to counselors. Despite the critical importance of lifespan, the training of CITs in this area is inadequate and grounded in research based on homogeneous samples and discriminatory practices. Counselor education is deeply in need of a lifespan curriculum that reflects diverse populations. The updated lifespan curriculum must be inclusive and consider the impact of context and culture on lifespan development. In this conceptual article, we call on counseling faculty to infuse updated developmental science with clinical skills development across their plans of study
New Counselor Educators’ First 10 Years of Journal Article Publications
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to assess the journal article publications accrued by a recent cohort of counselor educators (N = 376) over the first ten years since attaining their doctoral degrees. After ten years, these counselor educators had accrued a median of three journal article publications. There were not any clear trends in publications over the first ten years since degree completion except for an upper trend in publication counts for counselor educators at R1 universities. Journal article publication counts could be predicted from academic rank, the funding source of their current universities, and Carnegie Classifications. Implications for counselor education are presented
Interprofessional Education in Healthcare Related Social Work: A Systematic Review
Get PDFThe demand and need for social workers to enter the healthcare field continues to grow in the United States, particularly in integrated care settings working with other healthcare professionals. Social workers bring a unique perspective to the table, particularly when it comes to understanding and addressing intricate health issues like social determinants of health and social inequalities impacting individuals. However, they face numerous obstacles that hinder their ability to function optimally. These challenges begin during their undergraduate and graduate education, where there is a disparity among social work schools regarding the implementation of Interprofessional Education (IPE). This is partly due to the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) lack of explicit guidelines on IPE, despite being a member of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC). Considering these identified barriers, the author of the study undertook a systematic review to ascertain the best practices for IPE and the necessary IPE-related competencies and skills that social work students need to develop. The PRISMA Checklist was employed to steer the study protocol and the overall systematic review. Moreover, the study protocol was registered and approved by PROSPERO. Transformative learning theory served as the theoretical foundation of the review. The study’s findings recommend a triad-based approach to IPE, which includes experiential learning experiences, field-based experiences, and IPE-related coursework. This is considered the most effective practice for implementing IPE. Additionally, IPE competencies should be in line with those proposed by the IPEC (2023), and IPE-related skills should encompass interpersonal, knowledge-based, and clinical/technical skills
Preventing Burnout in Mental Health Counseling Students: A Shared Responsibility
Get PDFBurnout is an ongoing concern for counseling professionals across the career span. Master’s students studying to enter the field are vulnerable to burnout due to multiple factors, including the numerous challenges associated with graduate school and the dearth of experience coping with the pressures of clinical work. The onus of self-care is often placed solely on students, yet the training process allows opportunity for shared responsibility among leaders who encounter counselors in training. Considering the roles of counselor educators, faculty, and administrators; counselor supervisors and workplace leaders; and master’s-level students themselves, the authors apply the 5 P Communitarian Model for Preventing Burnout (Simionato et al., 2019) to the master’s-level counseling training process and suggest strategies for prevention