AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRACTICING URBAN SCHOOL COUNSELORS' COLORBLIND RACIAL IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE FACTORS SUCH AS SUPPORTS, BARRIERS, SELF-EFFICACY AND OUTCOME EXPECTATIONS, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE INTEREST AND COMMITMENT

Groups of American students are learning at alarmingly different rates. This disparity in education is seen disproportionately in schools in urban areas, where students of color and low income students are concentrated in highly segregated areas. In urban areas, the effects of poverty, racism, and isolation are compounded by stressful environments that make learning difficult for students as is evidenced by the various educational gaps. The inadequate and under-resourced education provided for children in urban schools results in a dramatic loss of human potential and economic loss to the nation's economy. Professional school counselors, who work in the urban context, are in a unique position to remove systemic barriers and create equitable opportunities for learning for these students. School counselors need multicultural counseling competence in order to provide appropriate services to these diverse urban student populations; however, multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills are not enough if counselors are to create systemic change. School counselors must work as social justice advocates in order to tackle the pervasive systemic barriers that plague urban students. Through increased social justice self-efficacy, positive social justice outcome expectations, and social justice supports, and minimal barriers to social justice, school counselors may become more interested in and committed to social justice advocacy. The study examines the relationships between colorblind racial ideology, social justice factors, namely social justice self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and social justice supports and barriers, and the social justice interest and commitment of practicing urban school counselors