Free «Advocacy» Essay

Define advocacy in your own words and tell us five ways you plan to advocate for students when you become a school counselor

Advocacy can be defined as active moral help of an idea or reason, particularly the act of beseeching or arguing for something. Advocacy occurs in various levels and places. It involves discovering the needs of minorities that are not met, and developing strategies to come up with an action that will alter the circumstances leading to unfairness as for rights and justice. School counselors usually advocate the students and their unmet needs. Almost everything that school counselors do is inherent to advocacy. When I become a school counselor, I plan to advocate for students in the following ways:

1. Find out the problem’s etiology/Identify the problem. First, I would come up with strategies of determining the cause of problems that the students experience. This would be by analyzing their different needs and then evaluating the unmet ones.

2. Conduct research to gather additional information.Before embarking on any action, I would conduct a research about issues that affect students. This would give the right knowledge and skills to advocate for their needs as well as the social injustices. Research establishes the needs for students and all the circumstances leading to unfairness pertaining to rights and social justice.

3. Identify the stakeholders – all those involved in the problem.

4. Research on advocacy history of the problem.I would beaware with the measures that were taken earlier to address the problem.

5. Identify the intuitional and environmental barriers contributing to the problem.

Five Moral Principles of Advocacy as It Relates to Advocacy and Social Justice

They include beneficence – ‘to do good’ always seeking to educate students on opportunities of success (Dahir & Stone, 2011). Second, nonmaleficence: above all do no harm. It begs school counselors to consider the results of their actions. Third, loyalty – remaining determined in efforts to make system change. Fourth, justice – treating equals equally but treating unequals unequally. Fifth, promoting autonomy – delicate balancing for school counselors.

Activity Questions

3. Gather additional information

Who needs to be involved in addressing the problem of bullying? How might they be brought to table?   

Teachers, parents, bus driver and the school principal need to be involved in addressing the problem.

4.  Research the advocacy history of the problem

What can be done by others to address the problem? What can be learned from these previous efforts? Is there any research addressing the problem?

I would gather information on what the principal and teachers have done to address the problem. Then deduce what I can do further to help solve the problem if it had persisted despite efforts to stop it. Afterward, I would research from sites of other schools to find if there is a similar problem.

5. Identify the institutional and /or environmental barriers contributing to the problem

What institutional and /or environmental barriers are contributing to the problem?

I would look for barriers in parents as well as teachers’ relationship. Then find how the parents of children being bullied and this process are related socially and further examine teachers’ relationship and loyalty in solving the problem. Look on how the school management relates to parents and teachers in addressing the issue.

6. Develop an action plan

What will be specific strategies of your school counseling program to reduce bullying and, therefore, absenteeism for fifth graders?

I will talk to the parents about the issue and get to know if they have had any background differences that could make children bully each other. Then I would discuss bullying of fifth grade boys with the school management and identify the measures it will put to deter the phenomenon. Finally, I will plan to hold regular meetings with all pupils to make them aware of risks of bullying as well as the consequence they will face if found bullying.

7. Set goals and develop accountability measures

How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your school counseling program to reduce bullying and, therefore, absenteeism for the fifth grade boys? Does the goal have an interim target to reach as you steadily move towards improvement? Does the target have a timeline?

I will put strict measures that will see any pupil found to be bullying fifth grader taken a serious action. This measure includes heavy punishments, and even expulsion from school.