Student Change Agent Model: How School Counselors Can Operationalize the Advocating Student-Within-Environment Framework to Promote Student Empowerment

Abstract

Feelings of empowerment among students are crucial prerequisites to their participation in change agency in both educational and non-educational settings. Educators notice a compelling correlation between student empowerment and academic achievement and other positive outcomes in K–12 educational environments. School counselors are optimally positioned to influence positive changes in power dynamics and student outcomes by creating space for students, especially those who have been historically marginalized, to become change agents within their environments. The Student Change Agent Model operationalized through the Advocating Student-within-Environment theoretical framework and delivered through the evidence-based school counseling approach is one proposed way for school counselors to achieve and evaluate the extent of their impacts on student empowerment.