Elizabeth E. Sparks

Training Counseling Psychologists as Social Justice Agents Feminist and Multicultural Principles in Action

Despite recent calls for counseling psychology to embrace social justice-oriented work, there has been little discussion about what such work actually looks like. The first part of this article derives a set of principles from feminist and multicultural counseling theories that counseling psychologists should consider as they engage in social justice work. These include (a) ongoing self-examination,(b) sharing power, (c) giving voice, (d) facilitating consciousness raising, (e) building on strengths, and(f) leaving clients the tools to work toward social change. The second part of the article describes a program designed to integrate social justice work into the core curriculum of the Boston College doctoral program. The authors discuss ways in which the above principles have shaped students; activities, and some of the ethical dilemmas that have emerged. Finally, the article under-scores professional obstacles that counseling psychologists doing social justice work are likely to face, and offers recommendations for overcoming them.

Family diversity and family policy : strengthening families for America's children

Foreword K. Bogenschneider. Foreword H. Pipes McAdoo. Preface. 1. The Family: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. 2. Child Poverty within the Ecology of Americas Families. 3. Developmental Contextualism and the Developmental Systems Perspective. 4. Engaging Public Policy: The Substantive Importance of Diversity. 5. The Parenting of Adolescents and Adolescents as Parents. 6. The Importance of Diversity in Welfare Reform. 7. Toward the Development of a National Youth Policy. 8. Implications for Policy Design, Delivery, and Evaluation. References. Name Index. Subject Index.

Relational-Cultural Practice: Working in a Nonrelational World

SUMMARY While more and more clinicians are practicing a relational-cultural approach to therapy, many work in settings that continue to reinforce the normative values of separation and disconnection. Consequently, practitioners face the challenges of helping clients heal and grow-through-connection while navigating work settings that are all too often professionally disempowering, disconnecting, and isolating, i.e., “cultures of disconnection.” This article begins a conversation about the complexities of practicing Relational-Cultural Theory in nonrelational work situations and explores new possibilities for creating movement and change in these settings.

Human Rights Violations in the Inner City: Implications for Moral Educators.

Abstract The pervasive violence that is occurring in US urban communities involves not only violent acts against individuals, but also systemic violence perpetrated against the ethnic‐minority poor. It represents a breakdown in interpersonal relationships and the social order within these communities, and as such, it is a moral issue. Systemic violence refers to the inequities in the distribution of resources in urban communities, along with the immoral social policies and programmes that constitute the maintenance of this poverty. In this paper it is argued that systemic violence is a unique form of human rights violations. These violations affect the moral climate surrounding violence, which interferes with urban adolescents’ efforts to resolve moral questions. Applying a human rights perspective to violence contextualises the problem in such a way that youth can be helped to explore the aetiology of violence and the inherent moral questions from both micro‐ and macro‐systemic levels. Moral educators sh...

Developmental Contextualism and the Developmental Systems Perspective

Developmental contextualism (Lerner, 1986, 1991, 1995, 1998b) is an instance of a theoretical orientation to human development termed “developmental systems theory” (Ford & Lerner, 1992; Sameroff, 1983; Thelen & Smith, 1998). Developmental contextualism has its roots in the multidisciplinary and multiprofessional field of home economics (Lerner & Miller, 1993; Miller & Lerner, 1994), a field now labeled family and consumer sciences. In addition, developmental systems theory, generally, and developmental contextualism, more specifically, have emerged within the current study of human development as representing important, and arguably key, theoretical orientations within the field because of their “co-evolution” with the life-span view of human development (Baltes, 1987; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998), the life-course study of human development (Elder, 1974, 1980, 1998), and the ecological view of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998).

The Parenting of Adolescents and Adolescents as Parents

Parenting is both a biological and a social process (Lerner, Castellino, et al., 1995; Tobach & Schneirla, 1968). It is the term summarizing the set of behaviors involved across life in the relations among organisms who are usually conspecifics, and typically members of different generations or, at the least, of different birth cohorts. Parenting interactions provide resources across the generational groups and function in regard to domains of survival, reproduction, nurturance, and socialization.

Engaging Public Policy: The Substantive Importance of Diversity

There are several reasons why diversity should become a key focus of concern in the study of human development (Lerner, 1991, 1992, 1998) and in the applications of such scholarship to the policy making process. As noted by McLoyd (1994), by 1990 about 25% of all Americans had African, Asian, Latino, or Native American ancestry. Moreover, the proportion of Americans from other than European backgrounds will continue to grow; for example, more than 80% of legal immigrants to America continue to be from non-European backgrounds (Barringer, 1991; McAdoo, 1998a, 1998b, 1999).

The Family: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

The lives and personal experiences of the authors reflect the key focus of this book: the relation between family diversity and family policy. Each of the three authors of this book are of different racial backgrounds and of different religions. Both genders are represented in the authorship team, and across the team there exist age differences of more than a generation. In turn, while all authors have immediate and extended families that span multiple generations, our locations in these generational groups vary. For instance, one author is a member of the youngest generation in her family constellation whereas another author is the parent of several teenagers and, at the same time, contributes to the support of an aged mother. Add to this diversity the fact that across their respective lives the authors have had experiences with their immediate and extended families that pertained to both normative life events such as births, deaths, marriages and divorces, and to non-normative life events such as unexpected illnesses, changes in family structure, financial calamities, and severe accidents.

The Importance of Diversity in Welfare Reform

In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA; P.L. 104–193). This act replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) entitlement program, dissolved Emergency Assistance (EA), eliminated the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) Program, and substituted a single capped block grant for states, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, the funding of which is based on prior state welfare spending (Corbett, 1997; Zaslow, Tout, Smith, & Moore, 1998). The intent of this new welfare law is to turn custodial parents into breadwinners; public assistance is intended to become only a short-term phase of transition to self-sufficiency (Kondratas, 1997, p. 1).

Implications for Policy Design, Delivery, and Evaluation

From the perspective of developmental contextualism, policies—and the programs that do (or should) derive from them—merge (or, better, synthesize) basic and applied research. They represent the means through which ecologically valid interventions may be enacted. Evaluation of these interventions provides information, then, both about the adequacy of these “applied” endeavors and about “basic” theoretical issues of human development—about bases for the enhancement of the life courses of individuals, families, and communities (Lerner & Miller, 1993; Lerner, et al., 1994).