A Scoping Review of Spirituality and School Counseling Literature

Background: School counselors have an ethical responsibility to respond effectively to students’ religious and spiritual identities. However, many school counselors report feeling limited in their ability to do so when students’ spiritual and religious issues arise at school. Few resources exist to guide school counselors on appropriate actions for responding to students’ spirituality. Objectives: We sought to explore the existing literature regarding spirituality and school counseling through a systematic scoping review. Specifically, we examined the contexts in which spirituality has been addressed in school counseling literature and aimed to identify the recommendations previous scholars have provided for school counseling practice and research. Research Question: What school counseling literature exists that addresses religion and spirituality in school counseling? Methods: We employed a scoping review methodology to systematically search for and analyze peer-reviewed articles related to spirituality and school counseling. We identified 31 (n = 31) publications that fit our criteria and examined their abstracts, frameworks, objectives, and recommendations for school counseling practice. Results and Conclusions: Through this scoping review, we sought to explore the publications available for school counselors and identify the remaining gaps regarding spirituality and school counseling scholarship. Although scholars have noted ethical and multicultural considerations for school counselors’ responses to students’ spiritual/religious issues, our findings indicate that many gaps remain related to the recency and scope of scholarship. We provide implications for school counseling research and practice.