Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School
College for Community Health
Department/Program
Counseling
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Muninder K. Ahluwalia
Committee Member
Amanda L. Baden
Committee Member
W. Matthew Shurts
Abstract
Social justice advocacy has been described as a foundational ethical duty for all professional counselors (American Counseling Association, 2014). Counselor educators of color (CEOCs) have advocated for the advancement of multiculturalism and social justice in counseling (Sue et al., 1992; Vera & Speight, 2003). However, their lived experiences are not well-accounted for in the counseling literature. Grounded in critical race theory (CRT) (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), this phenomenological study sought to explore the lived experiences of CEOCs who teach students to engage in systemic social justice advocacy (SSJA). Eleven participants described the essence of their experiences and four themes emerged from this study: (a) systemic social justice advocacy is embodied congruence, (b) systemic social justice exists on a continuum, (c) applying the S-quad model to CEOCs, and (d) counseling must evolve. Each theme also included several subthemes. Implications for counselor training programs, the counseling profession, and future directions for research are also provided.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Sharma, Sunanda M., ""It's A Calling That Won't Let You Rest": The Experiences of Counselor Educators of Color Who Teach Social Justice" (2025). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1588.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1588