Implementation of Social Justice Pedagogy in Canadian Counselling Psychology: A Case Study

Summary

The counselling psychology program (EDCP) in the Werklund School of Education (WSE) at the University of Calgary (UCalgary) has recently declared a social justice orientation as its signature pedagogy. The study aims to investigate the lived experiences of students, faculty members, administrators, recent graduates, and field supervisors of our students and graduates, who are engaged with our new signature pedagogy across their graduate training. As such, through this research, we aim to a) illuminate the concept and practice of social justice in our counselling psychology program, in order to b) make recommendations to improve the ways that social justice is embedded in our curriculum content through teaching and learning and c) advance the applications of social justice in professional practice.

Should you choose to take part in this study, you will be asked to sign a consent form, fill out a demographics questionnaire and complete a 60 to 90 minute one-on-one qualitative interview. In the interview we will ask you to reflect on your experience of and engagement with social justice teaching and learning practices within EDCP in the WSE. Your interview will be conducted by a research team member external to EDCP. At any point during the study, you may decline to answer or skip over any questions, without consequence or penalty. Following your interview, we will invite you to engage in a feedback process with us: The research team member external to EDCP will provide you with a written description of what we understood to be the most important part(s) of the experiences that you shared in your interview and will invite your feedback regarding how accurately we captured your experiences.