Counseling Students’ Emotions During Cultural Immersion: Impact on Reactance

Abstract

Counselor trainees’ multicultural development is a process that engenders strong emotions. The authors inventoried students’ emotions in cultural immersion activities and assessed their impact on course reactance. Findings indicated that reactance was shaped by both negative and positive emotions and that cultural immersion can be universally challenging for students.

Developmental Pathways of Cultural Immersion: Motivations, Processes, and Outcomes

“…Our summary of domains and categories demonstrates how, although students individually tailored their CI experiences and invested in them to different degrees, similar developmental pathways unfolded with direct connections to multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. These pathways played out across student positionalities and immersion populations or activities, again suggesting the relevance of CI for all counselors (King et al, 2019). Prominent-although not exhaustive-developmental pathways included (a) reflection was a means to self-regulate, resolve cognitive dissonance, or alter student concepts of identity, power, and difference; (b) gaining knowledge in real-world contexts allowed students to consider individual-, group-, and universal-level experiences (e.g., exceptions or within-group differences); (c) perspective taking during interactions supported growth in empathy and cultural humility; (d) engaging with diverse "others" facilitated insights about personal values and worldview; (e) motivation for undertaking the particular immersion was often clarified during the activity, with students increasingly able to name and grapple with the weight of their biases; and (f) students' appreciation for their current limitations deepened and converted into desire for continued cross-cultural learning.…”

“…In the process, students are meant to develop cultural self-awareness, knowledge, and empathy for the experience of being "other" (Barden & Cashwell, 2013;DeRicco & Sciarra, 2005;Shannonhouse et al, 2015), moving toward the ideal stance of multicultural and social justice counseling competence (Ratts et al, 2016;Tomlinson-Clarke & Clarke, 2010). There is limited empirical support, however, that this shift occurs (Ishii et al, 2009;King et al, 2019). Few longitudinal studies of CI exist, and those that do (e.g., DeRicco & Sciarra, 2005;Hipolito-Delgado et al, 2011;King, 2020;Shannonhouse et al, 2015) were focused on a small subset of students, involved international travel, and/or did not follow an identifiable CI model.…”

“…MAP direct action is thus built upon sustained interaction (Hipolito-Delgado et al, 2011). In one cross-sectional study, the MAP demonstrated potential to be challenging and emotionally evocative across students, settings, and populations (e.g., King et al, 2019); however, aspects of CI that stimulated learning were not described. Students in a narrative study of MAP, who were initially distressed by contact with community members where their negative expectations appeared to be reinforced, later had positive interactions that served as powerful counters (Hipolito-Delgado et al, 2011).…”

“…This extension is critical because individually tailored CI can increase challenge and relevance to students' current context or eventual practice environment (Barden & Cashwell, 2013). Moreover, when CI is individualized, students can directly address biases and increase understanding of systemic inequities (Atkins et al, 2017;King et al, 2019), both foundational to growth in multicultural and social justice counseling competence (Ratts et al, 2016). In line with recommendations for meaningful immersion, students in this study also had prolonged interaction with group members over multiple days or events, often on more egalitarian or reciprocal terms (Shannonhouse et al, 2018).…”

Counselor Education and Supervision: 2019 Annual Review

“…Additionally, Feather and Carlson (2019) assessed how instructors teaching in CACREP‐accredited programs cover disability‐related content throughout the curriculum, examining the influence self‐perceived disability‐related competencies have on decisions to infuse disability‐related content into pedagogy. Finally, King et al (2019) evaluated students' emotions in cultural immersion activities to assess potential impact on course reactance.…”