Critical Pedagogy for Anti-Racist Social Justice Advocacy: A Psychoeducational Group

The year 2020 marked a pivotal moment for education and anti-racism efforts in the United States. Students’ mental and physical health across higher education institutions was deeply impacted by COVID-19 pandemic (Huckins et al., 2020) which was further compounded by the highly publicized murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. These events re-traumatized many BIPOC students, reigniting their experiences of racial trauma. To sustain the momentum of anti-racist efforts and prepare practitioners to effectively address ongoing racial tensions and xenophobia, we propose integrating psychoeducational groups that focus on racial disparities into counseling programs. Drawing from lessons learned from this two-fold pandemic-era, we present a curriculum for a psychoeducational group centered on anti-racism, specifically designed for master-level counseling students.