TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 271 experiences during the studio creation as well as assessing how they believed the studio creation process impacted them and might support themmoving forward. The PI and the teacher were interested in understanding participants’ lived experiences through action research, so an IPA framework was used for interview guide development, data collection procedures, and data analysis. IPA was selected by the PI as an approach to action research that allows researchers to play a role in guiding a process that leads to development of theoretical and practical knowledge (Zuber-Skerritt & Fletcher, 2007). The difficulty of action research in this regard is for the researchers to limit their subjectivity, which is why the PI chose not to participate in the intervention and instead facilitated the focus groups. Generally, qualitative methods are most appropriate when engaging in phenomenological research with the PI positioned outside of the intervention (Breen, 2007; Zuber-Skerritt & Fletcher, 2007). Therefore, a focus group interview guide was developed by the PI to prompt discussion around participant experiences, including perceptions of what they learned in the process as well as what they identified as important to them. However, consistent with IPA standards (J. A. Smith et al., 2009), the semi-structured interview guides were flexible enough to allow participants the opportunity to lead the discussion. The two focus groups both lasted 30 minutes and took place within the recording studio at LHS. Design The studio construction process occurred over a 3-month period (September to December 2018) as a classroom-based intervention during a hip-hop lyric writing course taught by the teacher. The course met twice a week for 90 minutes each time. Because of school holidays, the class met for a total of 10 sessions for studio construction. The PI met with the teacher twice in late August of 2018, prior to the launch of the class, to order necessary equipment. Further, the PI met with the teacher once a month over the course of the 3-month study to provide curricular support. The studio construction process was designed to be entirely student driven. Based on research suggesting the cultural importance of the hip-hop studio (Harkness, 2014), the need for client voice in counseling office design (Pearson & Wilson, 2012), and cultural competence literature requiring the co-designing of interventions (L. Smith & Chambers, 2015), the PI believed it was necessary to provide students with total ownership over the studio creation process. Implementing the CAS Model The studio construction process was guided by the CAS model, which targeted the systemic concern of school counselor availability and subsequently sought to support students in designing an ancillary space for social and emotional services. Drawing from the advocate role of the CAS model, the PI and the teacher collaboratively advocated for financial support through a GoFundMe campaign on Facebook. This crowdsourced campaign garnered $900 for school studio equipment. Next, the teacher met with their school principal to advocate for a location where the class could construct a studio. In line with the scholar role, the teacher and the principal were interested in understanding the impact this classroom- based intervention had on their student body. The PI agreed to assist the teacher and the principal in analyzing evaluation data. The CAS model suggests the importance of culturally sensitive counseling processes. Pulling from HHSWT, a culturally responsive, process-based counseling framework (Levy, 2012), the teacher functioned as a group facilitator who sought to keep the class focused on their group goal of creating the studio. For example, each session began with a group conversation about the plans for that day, asking group members to agree on varying roles they would take during construction. Halfway through each session, the facilitator would bring the group back into a circle to discuss work done, evaluate progress