Counseling leadership: examining race and racism using social constructionism

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the relationships among leadership, race and racism, and social constructionism within counseling leadership. Accordingly, we critically examine the dominant constructions of race and racism within leadership. Next, we propose seven social constructionist principles to inform leadership’s construction and praxis within counseling. Finally, we utilize social constructionism and leadership, further informed through race-centered and anti-racism literature, to further this profession’s constructions of race and racism within leadership and future race-centered and anti-racism leadership actions.

KEYWORDS:

• anti-racist leadership
• counseling leadership
• educational leadership
• organizational leadership
• social constructionism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This manuscript draws upon critical race theory and critical whiteness studies by intentionally capitalizing the first letter for marginalized races and ethnicities (e.g., Black, Latinx, Indo-Caribbean) and using a lowercase letter to decenter whiteness. This practice has been observed in counseling, education, and related scholarship, and we sought to credit and build upon this within this manuscript.