A Qualitative Investigation of Graduate-Student Changes Associated With Multicultural Counseling Courses

Abstract

The critical incidents technique was used to gather information from graduate students about the changes they experienced connected to their participation in multicultural counseling courses. Trainees were also asked what course elements were linked to their personal changes. Racial and ethnic differences in response frequencies were analyzed. A diverse sample of 124 trainees from a variety of graduate programs participated in this Web-based qualitative survey. Trainees reported changes in terms of increased knowledge, increased self-understanding, attitude, and behavior and attributed these changes to didactic, interactive, and reflective activities, the influence of the instructor, and the course as a whole. The identified themes are illustrated through the use of the trainees' own words. Chi-square analyses found no differences between students of color and White students in types of changes reported or elements reported as catalysts for changes. The implications of these findings for the future of multicultural counseling training are discussed.

Development and Initial Examination of the School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale

“…Knowledge and skills can be explicitly taught within a classroom setting while practicum provides the opportunity to apply and practice these skills under supervision. Previous studies (Constantine & Yeh, 2001;Holcomb-McCoy, 2005;Sammons & Speight, 2008;Smith, Constantine, Dunn, Dinehart, & Montoya, 2006) have noted the impact of training, specifically multicultural and diversity coursework, on the development of multicultural skills and knowledge and overall multicultural competence.…”

The relationship between personal characteristics, multicultural attitudes, and self-reported multicultural competence of graduate students.

“…Specifically, the significant relation that emerged between attitudinal characteristics and self-reported multicultural counseling competence suggests that by focusing on students' attitudes on diversity we may be able to impact the development of multicultural competence. Previous research (Sammons & Speight, 2008) has indicated that multicultural classes may create changes in graduate student attitudes, knowledge, and awareness. In the current study, course taking did contribute to the prediction of multicultural knowledge, and cognitive attitudes were predictive of both multicultural knowledge and awareness.…”

Multicultural Curriculum Designs in Counselor Education Programs: Enhancing Counselors-in-Training Openness to Diversity

“…Additional research by Sammons and Speight (2008) and Stadler, Suh, Cobia, Middleton, and Carney (2006) found similar results from single multicultural courses in counselor education programs, and emphasized the importance of the explicit multicultural design for an initial encounter with diverse clients and open dialogue surrounding multicultural issues. They reported that the utilization of the single multicultural course is not the end, but the beginning of a multicultural process of growth and development.…”

“…Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Dorota Celinska at dcelinsk@roosevelt.edu and Roberto Swazo at roberto.swazo@uni.edu multicultural competencies regardless of the pedagogical approach (Brown, 2004;Castillo, Brossart, Reyes, Conoley, & Phoummarath, 2007;Cates, Schaefle, Smaby, Maddux, & LeBeauf, 2007; Chu-Lieu Chao, Wei, Good & Flores, 2011;Malott, 2010;Pack-Brown, Thomas, & Seymour, 2008;Sammons & Speight, 2008;Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000). However, it remains a paramount challenge to find the curriculum designs for implementing the multicultural standards that most effectively enables counselors in the field to apply their multicultural knowledge and skills with diverse populations.…”