An Exploration of Themes That Influence the Counselor Education Doctoral Student Experience

Ten simple rules for creating and sustaining antiracist graduate programs

In 2020, the combination of police killings of unarmed Black people, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought about public outrage over long-standing inequalities in society. The events of 2020 ignited global attention to systemic racism and racial inequalities, including the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy and especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields. Racial and ethnic diversity in graduate programs in particular warrants special attention as graduate students of color report experiencing alarming rates of racism, discrimination, microaggressions, and other exclusionary behaviors. As part of the Graduate Dean's Advisory Council on Diversity (GDACD) at the University of California Merced, the authors of this manuscript held a year-long discussion on these issues and ways to take meaningful action to address these persistent issues of injustices. We have outlined 10 rules to help graduate programs develop antiracist practices to promote racial and ethnic justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in the academy. We focus on efforts to address systemic causes of the underrepresentation and attrition of students from minoritized communities. The 10 rules are developed to allow graduate groups to formulate and implement rules and policies to address root causes of underrepresentation of minoritized students in graduate education.

Listening to fathers: Personal impacts of raising children with Down syndrome

The aim of this qualitative study was to contribute to an understanding of how biological fathers (N = 311) believe having a child with Down syndrome has impacted them personally. Thematic analysis was used to derive meaning from responses to open-ended survey questions. In addition to describing personal impacts, fathers shared how their perspectives shifted over time and possible contributory factors. The results indicated that fathers were often deeply impacted by the experience of parenting a child with Down syndrome. The vast majority expressed positive changes in terms of personal growth; however, it is important to note that positive emotions often coexisted with more distressing ones such as anxiety and loss. Most fathers reported a positive trajectory in terms of their adjustment and many attributed it to learning that their negative assumptions about people with Down syndrome were not accurate. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Promoting Multicultural Competencies in Early Career Rehabilitation Counsellor Supervisors

This article discusses multicultural competency education options for early career rehabilitation counsellor supervisors. It specifically addresses the importance of the cultural awareness and competencies in supervised supervision. Multicultural counsellor competencies in clinical supervision are considered in the context of rehabilitation counsellor professional preparation programs in the United States. Diversity considerations are important to operationalising the construct of the working alliance in the context of clinical supervision training for early career rehabilitation counsellor supervisors. Acquiring, retaining and cultivating multicultural clinical supervision competencies in self and others is a lifelong process.