Supervisor cultural responsiveness and unresponsiveness in cross-cultural supervision.

Abstract

Thirteen supervisees' of color and 13 European American supervisees' experiences of culturally responsive and unresponsive cross-cultural supervision were studied using consensual qualitative research. In culturally responsive supervision, all supervisees felt supported for exploring cultural issues, which positively affected the supervisee, the supervision relationship, and client outcomes. In culturally unresponsive supervision, cultural issues were ignored, actively discounted, or dismissed by supervisors, which negatively affected the supervisee, the relationship, and/or client outcomes. European American supervisees' and supervisees' of color experiences diverged significantly, with supervisees of color experiencing unresponsiveness more frequently and with more negative effects than European American supervisees. Implications for research and supervision practice are discussed.The development of multicultural competencies in clinical practice is considered essential to effective and ethical client treatment (e.g., Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, American Psychological Association [APA], 1993;Pedersen, 1995). Perhaps one of the most significant factors to learning and integrating such competencies into practice is having had supervision experiences that promote growth as a culturally competent practitioner (Pope-Davis & Coleman, 1997). Of interest, Constantine (1997) found that 70% of supervisees had received training in multicultural counseling in graduate school, whereas only 30% of supervisors had received such training in their NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author's final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. Psychology, Vol. 53, No. 3 (July 2006): pg. 288-301. DOI. This article is © American Psychological Association and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. American Psychological Association does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from American Psychological Association. Journal of Counseling3 academic programs. Furthermore, Duan and Roehlke (2001) found that 93% of supervisors in their study had no experience supervising trainees who were racially or culturally different from themselves. With supervisors having had such limited training in multicultural counseling and similarly limited experience with cross-cultural supervision, we wonder about supervisors' comfort, confidence, and competence in addressing cultural issues during supervision. Furthermore, the discrepancy between supervisee and supervisor training in multicultural issues may contribute to conflicts during supervision. For example, supervisees trained to be sensitive to cultural issues may expect supervisors to address such issues and, consequently, may feel conflicted and frustrated with supervisors who are unwilling to or are incapable of engaging in such discussions. Thus, supervisor responsiveness an...

Multicultural Supervision: What Difference Does Difference Make?

“…Multicultural training deficiencies also likely contribute to a lack of cultural awareness by supervisors, which in turn has been shown to negatively impact the multicultural supervisory relationship (Burkard et al 2006). Indeed, lack of cultural awareness by supervisors was viewed as a negative critical incident by supervisees that contributed to weaker appraisals of the supervisor-supervisee relationship (Toporek et al 2004).…”

“…Indeed, lack of cultural awareness by supervisors was viewed as a negative critical incident by supervisees that contributed to weaker appraisals of the supervisor-supervisee relationship (Toporek et al 2004). Moreover, Burkard et al (2006) found that when supervisees encountered a culturally unresponsive supervisor, they disclosed less to their supervisor and were instead more likely to go to other students and practitioners for advice and informal supervision regarding their clients. As a result, supervisees may perceive supervisors as culturally unresponsive.…”

“…While research suggests that cultural match is not necessary for an effective supervisor-supervisee relationship or for supervisee satisfaction with his or her supervisor (Gatmon et al 2001;Chang et al 2003), several studies have found that many racial minority supervisees report feeling vulnerable and encounter incidences of disrespect or cultural insensitivity when supervisors were White (Burkard et al 2006;Constantine and Sue 2007). For example, in a study exploring how racial minority supervisees perceive their White supervisors, supervisees "expected their supervisors to be less empathetic, respectful, and congruent" and supervisees viewed perceived liking by their supervisors to be an important component of cross-racial supervision (Duan and Roehlke 2001, p. 132).…”

“…For example, a supervisor's Eurocentric attitudes could be manifested by insistence that a trainee develop an intervention plan for a high school student with high rates of absenteeism without exploring the student's family background or household responsibilities, such as caring for younger siblings while both parents work. In addition, the supervisor might be less empathetic toward the supervisee's past struggles with prejudice and oppression, which could result in feelings of frustration, anger, and poor outcomes for the supervisory process (Burkard et al 2006).…”

The Relationship Between Multicultural Supervision, Multicultural Competence, and Multicultural Self-Efficacy and the Effect of Previous Supervisors on the Development of Multicultural Supervision, Multicultural Competence, and Multicultural Self-Efficacy

“…With the brevity in which multicultural counseling is presented, usually multicultural supervision is not addressed. This lack .of exposure t.o multicultural-c-ounseling educati.on can cause supervisors to not feel confident in addressing multicultural issues (Gatmon et al, 2001) leading to the av.oidance of discussing multicultural issues with supervisees (Burkard et al, 2006). In addition, education can build supervisors awareness of their attitudes towards diversity…”