Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1002/jcad.12551

Publication Title

Journal of Counseling & Development

Volume

103

Issue

2

Pages

185-200

Abstract

School counseling district leaders (SCDLs) are instrumental in shaping district policy, supporting school counselors, and interfacing with both internal and external constituents; as such, their systemic lens is of particular importance, given the K-12 pushback on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) occurring at the state- and district-levels. As a result, we conducted a critical application of Husserl’s phenomenology to understand the collective experience of a sample of SCDLs (N = 10) working in locations with anti-DEI laws and/or policies, specifically those restricting Black, indigenous, and people of color and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning rights and topics. Through the findings, participants shared that navigating the anti-DEI systems resulted in increasingly complex leadership roles, overcoming fear to recommit to their students and professional values, and finally, combating anti-DEI efforts through advocacy. Recommendations for future practice and research are included and grounded in a multi-systemic approach and advocacy.

Rights

© 2024 The Authors.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

ORCID

0000-0003-4129-3308 (Goodman-Scott)

Original Publication Citation

Goodman‐Scott, E., Sampson, D. J., Johnson, K. F., & Sawyer‐Mays, D. (2025). School counseling district leaders’ experiences with anti–DEI laws and policies: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of Counseling & Development, 103(2),185-200. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12551

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