J ames is a student in the first year of his master's degree in counseling. Usually very conscientious and enthusiastic, he has recently started leaving class without any explanation. Last week he missed all of his classes and didn't contact anyone to explain his absence.
When his agent calls to express his concern, James says that his car recently broke down and he doesn't have the money to pay for repairs. He depends on friends to help him get to and from class. He left early because that was the only time someone could drive him home. Last week he couldn't find anyone to take him. He was too embarrassed to ask his classmates or professors for help.
Stephanie is in the final year of her doctoral program and has applied for apprenticeships. Despite good grades, multiple honors in her program, good teaching reports from students, and strong recommendations, she has difficulty getting interviews. Stephanie recently received feedback that her résumé contains no evidence of significant professional involvement. Reviewers were concerned that they did not provide evidence of attending or presenting at state, regional, and national conferences. While a member of the American Counseling Association, it has no affiliation with any divisions or country chapters.
Stephanie is frustrated and discouraged. She could not afford the conference registration, travel, room and board costs, nor could she pay for multiple professional memberships. She feels that her financial situation during her PhD is turning against her during her job search.
Celia is a single mother of three children who lives in a multi-generational house with her children and their older parents. She has worked as a case manager for several years and her supervisor has been consistently impressed with her work ethic, empathy, creativity and critical thinking. Her supervisor has been encouraging her to do her Masters for years.
Celia recently met with the program director of an advisory program at a local university. She was thrilled to learn about the courses she could take and the career opportunities that would be available to her once she enrolled and graduated. However, when Celia found out that she had to do an unpaid internship, she became discouraged. As the sole provider of her family, she cannot afford to quit her full-time job to do an unpaid internship, and the counseling program had no locations that only offered internship hours in the evenings and on weekends. Celia finally decided not to enroll.
Stories like those of James, Stephanie, and Celia are familiar to many counseling educators, but despite the counseling profession's rich history, these stories become rare to promote awareness and respect for issues related to multiculturalism, diversity and diversity discusses social justice. Both the ACA Code of Ethics and the counseling skills for multicultural and social justice developed by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development underscore the need for counselors to be aware of the privileges and oppression that come from membership in different groups. Counselors are also called upon to understand how such issues affect the worldviews and concerns of the people they serve, and to work to reduce privilege-based differences.
As counselor educators and students in counseling training programs, we have observed that conversations about privilege and oppression are common in education but generally take place in two ways. First, the conversations typically use a lens that looks outward into social structures while neglecting to use a lens that looks inward and focuses on how our own educational and professional structures create differences. Second, such conversations most often focus on benefits granted to a person based on gender, race, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or age, while ignoring socioeconomic class.
The lack of recognition of class privileges is also reflected in our research. While there is a large amount of research on privileges based on other criteria, there has been very little research on privileges based on classes. However, our collective experience leads us to believe that class privileges are embedded in our counseling training programs in such a way as to create real barriers to entry into the counseling profession for all but the most economically privileged. This strikes us as a major oversight in the conversation about privilege in general, and a crucial issue to be addressed if we are to live up to our ideals as a profession.
Understanding class privileges and classism
Class privileges are generally defined as the material or immaterial advantages enjoyed by someone of higher class status. At the individual level, indicators of class privilege include things like the ability to own a home, support a household with a job or salary, afford childcare, pay for a vacation, enjoy frequent meals, or amass savings.
Class privileges exist within the larger construct of social class that divides individuals into groups based on similar levels of wealth, power, resources, or status. In the United States, discussions about social class are often considered taboo. Hence it can be difficult to define social class. It is important to note, however, that social class refers not only to economic status, but also to other forms of capital available to an individual. In his 1986 essay "The Forms of Capital", Pierre Bourdieu identified three different types of capital:
Economic capital – control of resources such as money, property or property
Social capital – having a network of relationships that offers access to power, recognition, or economic or cultural capital
Cultural capital – possession of education, knowledge or skills that offer an advantage when trying to achieve a higher social status.
In the context of higher education, class privilege can be presented not only through differences in the amount and type of capital available to students, but also through institutional and programmatic guidelines and expectations that privilege the holders of various types of privilege Capital over those who do not have this capital. When students have no capital compared to their peers, or when they encounter institutional and programmatic guidelines that require access to capital they do not have, they can experience marginalization and oppression. When marginalization or oppression occurs because of social class it is known as classism.
In our experience as PhD students and counselor educators, we have observed various ways in which class privilege and classism permeate graduate programs in counseling, even when they are not recognized. We believe that ignoring students' social class positions in counseling education programs eases social class microaggression and maintains a system of oppression that needs to be recognized, explored and addressed in order to truly live up to our ethical ideals.
Class privilege in counseling education systems
In 2019, a small group of counseling educators and counseling students started an informal discussion on the CESNET Listserv (CESNET-L) about the way social class was perceived to add extra privileges and barriers to counseling students create programs. The interviewees identified several ways in which class privileges are embedded in counseling programs. Their comments reflected experiences with class privileges based mainly on economic capital, although cultural capital and social capital were also mentioned. A review of this discussion follows.
Class privilege based on economic capital
Class privilege within counseling programs takes many forms, and although it is overlooked by counseling educators, students are well aware of it. In terms of economic capital, panellists noted that class privilege is in place from the very beginning of the education process when potential students have to afford enrollment fees and pay for required entrance exams such as the GRE graduate school entrance exam. In addition, panellists pointed to the total cost of counseling programs as a significant barrier, noting that many programs have hidden fees that are not included in the costs reported. These fees include, for example, fees for student activities, mandatory membership in professional associations with substantial fees, technology fees, fees for comprehensive exams such as the National Counselor Examination or Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination, and graduation fees. Doctoral students, in particular, reported embedded expectations that they would attend conferences without considering their ability to pay travel, accommodation, meal, and registration fees.
In addition to the cost of applying for and participating in counseling programs, there were concerns about the cost of living during enrollment. Panellists noted that students with dependents need to find ways to cover childcare or care for the elderly and maintain an income that allows them to continue to pay for food, clothing, and other household expenses. With the majority of counselor education programs – especially at the Masters level – low in grants or scholarships, the system appears skewed to the point of privileging those with higher economic capital who can afford the additional financial burdens associated with enrollment are.
The unique problem of unpaid internships
The internship / internship experience also reveals the class privilege inherent in counseling programs. Internship and internship experiences typically last around a year and require students to devote between 10 and 20 hours per week to the experience. While the internship experience is an invaluable part of training, the vast majority of internships are unpaid. Some programs may even have internship policies that prohibit any form of payment.
This system inherently privileges those who can afford to give up full-time positions in order to devote themselves to internship. Students who cannot afford this option try to get internship and internship hours in addition to full-time employment and attending courses. This leads to a near-intolerable level of chronic stress and exhaustion that privileged students do not have to endure.
Class privilege based on cultural capital
The participants in the CESNET-L discussion also identified ways in which access to cultural capital creates advantages or disadvantages in the graduate school. Among those identified were the quality of previous educational experiences, the educational experiences and achievements of family members, family expectations and support for educational achievement, and other experiences that supported educational achievement.
As many previous studies have shown, educational success depends to a large extent on the quality of education, which begins at pre-school age and continues through to high school. Each year of educational experience sets the stage for the next and begins to build a number of advantages and disadvantages. Access to high-quality, resource-rich elementary and higher education provides easier access to a college degree that adequately prepares students for graduate-level work in a counseling program. Gaps at any level make students struggle to catch up. For example, students who have not attended high schools or colleges that emphasized writing may have difficulty developing counseling programs that emphasize strong writing skills.
Another privilege that makes it easier for students to access resources in the Graduate School is to have family members or mentors who have enrolled and completed a college education. Your knowledge can be used to find your way around the education system of the graduate school. There seems to be a correlation between family expectations and students' willingness to take on the difficult graduate task and then remain enrolled. We are personally aware of students whose family members have not supported their educational endeavors, and we interpret students' pursuit of higher education as a rejection of family culture. As they attempt to work on their degree, these students face the unenviable challenge of navigating a graduate culture that they often don't feel they belong in while receiving messages that no longer fit their families.
Class privileges based on social capital
In addition, aspects of privileges relating to social capital or the ability to build social networks that support access within graduate programs and to employment were addressed in the CESNET-L conversation. In general, social capital is related to extracurricular activities and family jobs that lead to networking opportunities. In counseling education programs and employment relationships, social capital is built through programs and departmental social events, conferences that facilitate and create networking opportunities, and other situations that facilitate access to mentoring.
The luxury of time is an often overlooked form of social capital. Students who do not have outside jobs, care responsibilities, or other duties can attend extracurricular events, attend honorary society meetings, and attend presentations at agencies in their communities. The same applies to students with strong support systems who can be used to fulfill their other duties and responsibilities so that they can take part in professional events. Students who do not have the luxury of attending external events and expanding their networks can put themselves at a disadvantage compared to their more privileged colleagues when they start looking for jobs.
Get to know our students and address the class privilege
The CESNET-L discussion provided anecdotal evidence for the idea that class privileges are embedded in the structure of counselor training in a variety of ways. But how big is the problem? In examining this question, we found that we didn't have good data on who our counseling students really are in terms of class and class struggles.
To answer the question, research teams have been formed to collect quantitative and qualitative data on who our counseling students are in relation to their social class and what experiences they have had with class privileges and classism. We hope that the data gleaned from this research will form the basis for a more critical and comprehensive examination of our current educational system and lead to structural changes that will make it easier for students with less privileged backgrounds to obtain a counseling degree.
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In the meantime, we believe that counseling educators can now take a few steps to be more aware of class privilege:
Consider raising the issue of class privileges with all students. The individual counseling should include a discussion of the barriers for class-related students. Group discussions during coursework about privilege and oppression can include classes in addition to other forms of privilege based on gender, race, or sexual identity. These conversations will help bring class privilege out of the shadows.
Implemented a more formal process of interviewing students at different stages of the program to assess their level of economic, cultural and social capital. These survey results can be included in the program evaluation plan. For example, how many students would have difficulty completing the internship hours during the typical 9 to 5 working day? How many internship positions have hours outside of this timeframe that students can access? Should programs seek relationships with additional alternative websites that offer weekend and evening hours?
Develop aggressive donation strategies that emphasize the vital role of counselors in addressing the community's mental health needs. Programs at universities with strong development offices may require advocacy for better visibility of student counseling needs among university donors. For programs without strong development offices, this could mean working to create a development position. Even if resources are no longer available for assistant positions, strategies can be developed to allow students to raise funds for conferences or other professional development activities. Any degree of financial aid will remove barriers related to economic privilege.
Removal of obstacles for paid internships. If websites have the ability to pay students for internships, they should be eligible. However, many locations simply lack the funding to pay interns because they cannot bill for the services interns provide. This requires the endorsement of managed care organizations at the state and national levels so that the agencies can bill for the services provided by students under the supervision of licensed staff.
Create a formal mentoring program that pairs students who want mentoring with faculties, graduates, or possibly more advanced students in the program. Informal care by default favors students with more class privileges (those who have time to attend departmental events or informally attend faculty office hours). A formal mentoring process reduces these barriers. Formal mentoring programs also offer mentors (advanced undergraduate, graduate or alumni) the opportunity to expand their resumes.
Final Thoughts
Counseling courses emerged in the middle of the 20th century, at a time when higher education was cheaper, the cost of living was not so high and families were easier to support on a single wage. While privilege in higher education based on gender, race, gender identity, age, and other characteristics existed at the time these programs were created and still exist today, great strides have been made in terms of recognition and active advancement over the past few decades achieved removal of these obstacles. However, class privilege has largely been neglected, even as economic disparities increase.
We acknowledge that the steps described above are not representative of a complete list of all possible steps that could be taken to address class privilege in advisory training programs. However, we believe that the steps provide a starting point for counseling educators to better implement the ethical call to reduce disparities by targeting class privilege in their program structures. We also hope that our ongoing research will lead to a better understanding of who our counseling students are in relation to their social class positions so that we can create an education system that better suits the needs of students in the 21st century.
For more information about class privileges and our research, please visit our website at https://classprivilegeinces.wixsite.com/mysite.
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Related reading from the Archives of Counseling Today: “Promoting Awareness of Social Classes in the Counseling Profession”
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Cynthia Miller is a licensed professional counselor and counselor educator with a private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has been a practicing counselor for nearly 20 years, working with adults in university, community and correctional institutions. Contact them at [email protected].
Frankie Fachilla is a licensed professional counselor with 12 years of full-time counseling experience in the mental health and correctional areas. She now offers evidence-based practice training, supervision and coaching for clinicians in community mental health facilities. Contact them at [email protected].
Jennifer Greene-Rooks is a consultant with a research background in areas such as multicultural counseling skills, counseling preparation and mentoring, school counseling and leadership. Her background is in school counseling, although she now focuses on preparing multicultural competent, social justice counselors. Contact them at [email protected].
Knowledge-sharing articles developed from sessions presented at American Counseling Association conferences.
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Opinions and statements in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to reflect the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
