Exploring School Counselor Advocacy in the Career Development of Undocumented Latino Youth

Abstract

School counselors working on career development objectives with undocumented Latino youth have unique challenges that can inform and improve advocacy efforts within the counseling profession. With approximately two million undocumented Latino students in the U.S. public education system (Passel, 2006; Passel and Cohn, 2011), school counselors are faced with unique challenges in providing and advocating for career services to this marginalized group. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 16 school counselors providing career counseling to undocumented Latino students within six states with the highest populations of undocumented Latinos. Using grounded theory methodology (Patton, 2002, Corbin and Strauss, 2008) results generated salient themes in how school counselors understand the barriers facing undocumented Latino youth and provided important insights into how the school counseling profession can improve advocacy for this population.