The Call for Multicultural Competency in New Counselors

The Call for Multicultural Competency in New Counselors

Research and Program Evaluation

Cedric B. Stewart

Section CNV_5314

Lamar University

'''The Call for Multicultural Counseling Competency in New Counselors '''

Introduction

The continued growing diversity of the United States requires a counseling force that is well versed and trained in meeting the needs of an ethnically, racially, and gender neutral diverse population. Today, counselors are often faced with clients whose cornucopia of differences span a broad spectrum of categories that include cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and socioeconomic needs and this diversity requires having a counselor who acknowledges that understanding these unique characteristics is critical in order to be effective in the counseling role (Kagnici, 2014). The need for counselors to become well versed and to at least have a working knowledge of multicultural counseling practices is not only important for majority to minority counseling relationships, but for minority to minority counseling relationships, as well (Baruth & Manning, 2012).

Even with such a salient topic to the counseling profession as multicultural counseling practices, a review of the current literature suggest that there is still a paucity of information related to this topic (Worthington, Soth-McNett, & Matthew, 2007). Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to provide a brief cursory overview of the current existing literature that applies to the subordinate nature of multicultural counseling. In particular, the literature will be used to examine the manner in which new counseling students are exposed to multicultural counseling techniques in order to raise their awareness of the need to incorporate these aspects into their developing practices.

'''The Importance of Research to the Counseling Profession '''

          In recent years, there has been a growing call for school counselors to increase their participation levels in scientific research (Falco, Bauman, Sumnicht, & Engelstad, 2011; Gysbers, 2010; Sink, 2012). Driven by a mandate that counselors must now employ a plethora of data driven techniques in order to determine counseling practice’s effectiveness, the call for counselors to increase their use of research as viable training options has met with some substantial resistance by those within the counseling profession (Kaffenberger, 2012). Yet, Kaffenberger (2012) proposes that the advent of counselor conducted research, particularly practitioner based research, has several distinct advantages for the counseling profession. These advantages include the creation of a systematic source that can readily be accessed in order to determine what counseling techniques have been effective and which ones did not work. In addition, the use of this research adds to the growing body of existing literature that is important in creating a body of evidence-based practices. Last, although generalizability of the findings may be somewhat limited, they serve to aid the initial researcher in examining all aspects of program effectiveness.

In addition to understanding the importance of research to the counseling profession, it is also vital that practitioners understand the fundamentals of scientific research. Scientific research is generally conducted using one of two levels of typology. In the first level, determining a research paradigm, the researcher must choose a type (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methodology) of study to conduct. Often these decisions are based on the topic of interest, research question, time and cost constraints availability of participants, or possibility of the manipulation of the variable (Johnson & Christensen, 2008). These authors suggest that the second level of the typology should be concerned with the research design and is often dependent on the research paradigm. They designs may include: (a) quantitative (i.e. experimental or non-experimental); (b) mixed methods (i.e. qualitative or quantitative dominant or neutral); or (C) qualitative (i.e., phenomenology, ethnography, case study, grounded theory, or historical).

Although there are three typologies, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, these three typologies are not as discreet or as different as they may initially appear (Creswell, 2007, 2009). Instead, these three research typologies represent different ends on a continuum (Newman & Benz, 1998). As such, most studies or research that is conducted simply tends to be more qualitative or more quantitative, given the approach. Likewise, mixed methodology resides somewhere in the middle of these two ends (Onwuegbuzie, & Collins, 2007). More specifically, descriptions of the three typologies as well as their most salient features to me are as follows:

'''Description of Quantitative Methodology'''. This research approach uses a top down model and assumes that behavior is explainable and predictable. Its most common goals are to explain, predict, and describe, and it involves testing specific hypotheses. Observations using this approach are generally conducted under controlled conditions; data is collected and measured using precise instrumentation; and data analysis is concerned with the identification of statistical relationships. For me, its most outstanding feature is the ability of the researcher to apply the findings to a large group of individuals who share similar characteristics. However, this approach generally fails to capture a deep thick and rich understanding of the variable under review.

'''Description of Qualitative Methodology'''. This approach to research employs a bottom up approach and assumes that behaviors are dynamic and changing. The goals of this research approach are to generally describe, explore, discover, and to construct. Observations are conducted in as natural and uninterrupted settings as is possible. The researcher is the primary data collector and uses data collection methods such as interviews, field notes, participant observations, and open-ended questions. The researcher using this approach is primarily seeking patterns and themes while attempting to provide an insider’s perspective of the phenomenon under review. In my opinion, this typology is an excellent choice for counseling practitioners in that it allows the researcher to gain a much deeper and thicker description of the phenomenon under review. Unfortunately, it lacks the potential mass generalizability feature that is present in quantitative research.

'''Description of Mixed Methodology'''. The scientific method in this approach can either be explanatory (qualitative) or confirmatory (quantitative). Those choosing this method assume that human behavior is somewhat predictable and is concerned with observing behaviors in more than a single context. Data is collected in multiple forms (e.g., variables, words, images) and is analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results are usually a combination of both insider and outsider perspectives and findings are displayed as a mixture of numbers and images. Although this approach can be more time consuming and more difficult to conduct as a study, the use of the two combined methodologies often result in findings that have reduced the problems often associated with single methodological designs.

A Brief Literature Review

For counselors, using multicultural lens within their respective practices involves challenging existing assumptions, valuing others, and being genuine in all interactions (Smith, 2004). Pederson, Draguns, Lonner, and Trimble (2000), defines multiculturalism as “a multicultural perspective seeking to provide a conceptual framework that recognizes the complex diversity of a pluralistic society while at the same time suggesting bridges of shared concern that bind culturally different persons to one another” (p. 35). In the counseling profession, diversity has been a strong historical theme and is especially required in today’s society (Hansen, 2010). Especially for novice counselors who often work with diverse clients, the increased range of people who will need assistance in the future translates into reliance on competencies for helping across cultures and ethnic groups (Lee, 1999). Furthermore, the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice (2000) also addresses the need for multiculturalism by including language that states in the counseling relationship one must respect diversity, not engage in discrimination, and respect differences.

Even though there has been an increasing amount of attention paid to conducting research, training practitioners, and developing practice guidelines to better meet the needs of underrepresented and oppressed groups in the past 20 years with respect to counseling, more training and more research in this area have been called for in order to better inform the profession (Gysbers, 2010; Sink, 2012). A cursory review of the literature revealed that there was a scarcity of existing studies that examined multicultural counseling techniques and efforts with respect to new graduating counselors (Falco et al., 2011; Gysbers, 2010; Sink, 2012). Of those studies that were both reviewed for this project as well as those that pertained to my particular research agenda, the date and paucity of the studies suggest new and more studies are needed in this area.

Counselor Certification Training

A Boolean and delimited use of various search terms for multicultural counselor certification training produced a return of approximately 3,603 hits using several databases. These hits included sources such as academic journals, books, text, dissertations, reports, and magazines. Methodological approaches involved quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods typology with varying research designs.

However, a majority of the studies that were used to examine new counselor multicultural training were quantitative in nature (e.g., Castillo, Brossart, Reyes, Conoley, & Phoummarath, 2007; Coleman, Morris, & Norton, 2006; Seto, Young, Becker, & Kiselica, 2006). Within this methodology, survey designs were primarily used in order to measure student’s awareness, skills, and knowledge of multicultural issues as they pertained to counseling as a result of having participated in some form of a structured university sponsored multicultural training program (Malott, 2010). The majority of the researchers conducting the qualitative studies employed Arredondo et al. (1996) and Sue et al’s. (1982) operationalization of multiculturalism in order to define the independent variable within their respective studies.

In addition to the constructs of knowledge, skills, and awareness in multicultural training, many researchers in various studies also attempted to measure the construct of student’s racial attitudes as a result of being exposed to different pedagogical practices (Castillo et al., 2007; Neville, Heppner, Louie, Brooks, & Baker, 1996; Parker, Moore, & Niemeyer, 1998). Some of the instruments used to measure these racial attitudes included Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz’s (1998) Implicit Association Test, Helms and Carter’s (1990) White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (WRAIS), and the White Racial Consciousness Development Scale (WRCDS; Claney & Parker, 1989).

Student members in these studies ranged from a low of 17 to a high of 54 participants. In that the primary variable measured was having participated in a university sponsored multicultural counseling course, participants were selected using some form of a purposeful stratified random sampling technique. Potential members were later assigned to an experimental or control group and results were gathered through the use of some formal type of written survey instrument. Results were statistically analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics. Although the results of all of the studies varied, participants in most of the quantitative research conducted were shown to have some level of increase of awareness of multicultural issues as a result of having undergone some form of formal training (Castillo et al., 2007; Neville et al., 1996; Parker et al., 1998).

Researchers have suggested that qualitative design features of allowing the researcher to explore phenomenon on a much deeper and more personal level is one of the primary reasons that qualitative designs are so appropriate to examine the intersection of multiculturalism and counseling (Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000). Nonetheless, I was only able to locate only one true qualitative study that fit the search parameters that I needed for this project. In this outdated study, Heppner and O'Brien (1994) used guided inquiry in order to examine instructional effectiveness on a group of 20 graduate students who had participated in a 15-week course designed to teach multicultural awareness. Utilizing a semi-structured interview that consisted of seven questions, these researches attempted to explore the graduate students’ perceptions of multiculturalism as it pertained to counseling practices after completing a course that was specifically designed to use didactic and experiential components as part of the uniquely designed curriculum. The researchers carefully choose topics to be include in the syllabus that were identified as being crucial to multicultural education by Helms (1990) and Casas, Ponterotto, and Gutierrez (1986).

The findings for this research revealed that the graduate students when responding to the open-ended questions reported becoming both more conscious as well as receptive to issues related to multiculturalism. In addition, these students reported an increased awareness of their own cultural backgrounds and personal biases. In the findings, the researchers noted that the participants suggested that the use of guest speakers as well as the employment of experiential activities seemed to be the most common self-reported variables for affecting the increased level of multicultural awareness.

In addition to supporting qualitative research in order to measure the effectiveness of multicultural training for counselors, researchers also advocated the use of mixed methods as an effective research typology (Pruegger & Rogers, 1994; Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000). In one study by Neville, Heppner, Louie, Brooks, and Baker (1996), the scholars sought to examine the perceptions of 38 graduate students after attending a 15-week counseling course on multiculturalism. Within the 15-week course, students were encouraged to explore their own racial and ethnic identities while increasing their knowledge of other groups using various counseling tools. Like in the qualitative studied reviewed, didactic and experiential components were introduced and multiculturalism was operationalized using Sue et al.’s (1982) definition.

          For both the initial results and a subsequent one-year follow-up, the quantitative portion employed Helms and Carter’s (1990) WRAIS in order to measure the participants’ level of White racial identity. The results indicated that the participants scored higher in the pseudo independence and racial identity attitude categories. Thus, it could be inferred that the participants tended to move toward a greater positive non-White identity. For the qualitative portion of the study, Neville et al. (1990), also utilized Heppner and O'Brien’s (1994) guided inquiry. In their approach, the researcher used five semi-structured interview questions designed to illicit self-reported changes to students related to their views of racially and culturally diverse groups as a result of exposure to different individuals through classroom activities. The activities were varied and included such things as lectures, discussions, and readings. Like the results from the quantitative findings of this study, the researchers indicted that the students general reported having a favorable change in their views of multiculturalism as a result of taking the 15-week course.

In a second related study, Tomlinson-Clarke (2000) also engaged in a mixed methods design to analyze the effectiveness of a multicultural counseling class on increasing the level of multicultural awareness among 17 graduate students. Using Sue et al. (1982) and Pederson’s (1994) 22 multicultural competencies as a basis for measuring multicultural awareness, during the quantitative phase Tomlinson-Clark (2000) attempted to measure the students’ level of multicultural awareness using Ponterotto, Alexander, and Grieger’s (1995) Multicultural Competency Checklist (MCC). A statistical analysis of the MCC revealed that the students reported meeting 16 out of 22 of the multicultural competencies which, at the time, was higher than the national average.

In the qualitative portion of the study, Tomlinson-Clark (2000) used written artifacts to measure the students’ perceptions of cultural competencies based on the 22 indicators. In this portion of the study, the researcher found that students reported exposure to a diverse group of people as well as the introduction of various learning techniques as being fundamental to increasing their multicultural awareness. More importantly however, participants indicated that some readings related to racially incongruent groups served to reinforce stereotypes related to those groups.

'''How Does This Research Inform Best Practices '''

One aspect of best practices advocates the use of well-designed research studies that can be generalized to a large group of individuals. The studies examined in this research simply underscored the problem of using single course subjects (e.g. counseling multicultural classes) in order to measure, implement, and possibly replicate studies within the counseling profession. In addition, the relatively small class sizes served to limited both the qualitative statistical power as well the generalizability of the findings to other populations. Furthermore, the use of single subject designs in a majority of the quantitative studies hampered the ability of the original researchers to determine whether or not the perceived changes in the graduate counseling students’ perceptions that related to multiculturalism was a result of having attended the multicultural course itself, being a counseling student, or a combination of the two factors.

The primary use of self-reporting instruments by the participants may also have been problematic. In that best practices for counseling research calls for the use of rigorous controls, self-reporting instruments like those used in the studies analyzed have been previously shown by researchers to contain a great deal of bias as participants are often subject to respond in a manner that is consistent with social conformability and desirability and that their responses may not represent their true feelings or opinions (Smith et al., 2006). Kitaoka (2005) has also suggested that such instruments may offer relative ambiguity in their attempt to identify those groups in which counselors may be endeavoring to measure some level of multicultural competency.

In order to advance best practices, additional research used to examine the effectiveness of multicultural training on new counselors should include research designs that relate to specific designs as well as specific populations that are germane to multicultural counseling efforts in new counselors. These future studies could be designed so that there is a measureable difference between specific pedagogical strategies and multicultural subject matter. As such, researchers using future studies may be better able to delineate if any reported changes were the result of specific work or instruction within the class.

Finally, one of the hallmarks of any empirically based best practices scientific research is the ability of future researchers to replicate previous studies. A number of the studies examined for this project were ladened with methological design flaws that would have made appropriate replication of the studies and thereby verification of the results, difficult at best. The lack of rigor, limited participant sizes, missing or marginal controlled groups, as well as longitudinal assessments all served to underscore the ineffectiveness of the studies’ designs and descriptions.

Current State of the Research 

Although there is a large body of evidence that suggest that multicultural competency is critical to the counseling profession (American Counseling Association, 2005; Coleman, 2006; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs; CACREP 2009), there is also a paucity of research on how such an undertaking should actually be accomplished (DeRicco & Sciarra 2005; Kim & Lyons 2003). In addition to the dearth of material related to multicultural counseling, existing formal multicultural instruction has been general prefaced on a White European framework that offers a monolingual and monocultural perspective (Sue et al., 1982).

Exacerbating the problem with multiculturalism in current counseling training programs in the United States is that the majority of counselors are White who represents historically mainstream cultural values (Barden & Cashwell, 2013). This has resulted in cultural encapsulation in which those individuals outside of these narrowly defined parameters may feel isolated or marginalized. Furthermore, several authors have reported that often new graduate students reported feeling completely unprepared or underprepared in dealing with issues associated with being a multiculturally competent counselor (Arthur & Achenbach 2002; D’Andrea & Daniels, 2001; Ponterotto 1997).

Researchers have suggested that future studies in examining the effectiveness of multicultural training for new counselors should focus on the learning domain that is targeted by the training offered (Arredondo & Toporek 2004; Sue et al. 1982). Current research suggests that pedagogical approaches to multicultural training reveal that most programs only target the cognitive domain. Instead, researchers have found that the most effective training programs for increasing multicultural awareness for counselors are those programs that target both the cognitive and the affective domains (Arredondo & Toporek 2004). Furthermore, researchers argue that by focusing only on a single domain, cognitive, counselor self-awareness, a critical component in competency development is being completed ignored in the process (Pieterse, Evans, Butner-Risner, Collins, & Mason, 2009).

'''Cultural, Legal, and Ethical Implications'''

One prominent current model in counseling posits that potential clients have the ability to change and therefore, are responsible for their plight. Such a belief is based on the dominant culture subscription to self-determination and is based on an internal locus of control and responsibility. Person-centered counselors who operate from this position must be careful when applying this approach to all of their potential clients. By only using this paradigm, the counselor fails to take into account a multicultural perspective that legitimizes different cultural and sociopolitical awareness of others and it also fails to legitimize opposing worldviews. By doing so, one may be engaging in a form of cultural oppression which has both legal and ethical implications.

As previously discussed, another cultural and ethical implication that must be considered is that any counseling practitioner must become cognizant of the worldviews of others and accept the legitimacy of those worldviews in order to not potentially isolate a client. This is initially accomplished through graduate training counseling programs. However, these training programs must also move beyond the White European ideology that have traditionally bound them and instead move these training opportunities into a direction that includes alternative perspectives that value cultural diversity. As such, counseling will only then be able to lose its’ historically oppressive nature.

As a growing diverse nation, counseling services must also be tailored to those that are in most need. This entails moving counseling services from the traditional model to that of a dynamic evolving counseling practice that moves from the one-to-one interaction in the office counseling method to those of service providers that are available and willing to enter into clients’ neighborhoods and natural environments. As such, it involves embracing a counseling ideology that purports that many of the minority clients have issues and concerns that are the product of systemic and external forces and are not necessary rooted within internal psychological causes. Under these conditions, counseling services may best be delivered by practitioners who understand that there efforts may best be delivered from a perspective that emphasizes that the most appropriate approach to helping should be focused on dealing with forces such as poverty, discrimination, prejudice, and stress and not necessary on self-exploration.

'''Trends in the Literature Review'''

The two general most difficult methodological designs to find material related to multicultural training involved qualitative and mixed methods studies. A cursory review of the existing literature found that of the 3,604 hits for studies that were remotely related to the topic of multiculturalism and training for new counselors, 48 of these were qualitative and 178 were classified as quantitative. Although none of these studies were overtly classified as mixed methods, a quick review of the empirically classified studies results revealed that approximately 21 of studies could be classified as having a mixed methodological orientation. While quantitative research is important to exploring this phenomenon, I feel that it lacks the ability to gather key elements that are essential to understanding the impact of multicultural training on new counselors. Moreover, qualitative studies provide the researcher opportunities to explore the feelings, perceptions, and experiences related to multicultural courses and would result in a deeper understanding that would be lacking in quantitative studies.

A second trend in the literature suggests that new research should focus on acute factors associated with cultural immersion and its overall impact on counselor multicultural competence (Ishii, Gilbride, & Stensrud, 2009). These researchers have noted that most research conducted has focused on students who have been part of very similar immersion experiences. Instead, they propose that future research specifically target students who have experienced different forms of training and immersion experiences in order to determine if there are common themes or similarities across participants that seem to transcend groups.

Conclusion

In attempting to start both this class work and my eventual literature review, perhaps the best strategy that I found was to keep an opened mind while researching articles and information. My research time was devoted to just that purpose: researching. I used a variety of search engines, databases, and configurations of guidewords all designed to compile as much information on my topic as I could cover given my self-imposed time schedule. During these sessions however, being unable to access all of the databases presented me with several options: I could physically drive to a library such as the one located at Lamar; I could request an interlibrary loan and patiently hope that the requested material arrived in time; or, I could simply chose to locate another source. The lesson that I did glean from this experience was that getting the proper materials would require some advanced work so starting early would be paramount.

Once I had the materials in hand, I decided to review each article and to use a series of charts as suggested by Pan (2008). This step provided me with a visual representation of my work and also assisted in helping to generate subtopics to which I could add or delete information. The use of index cards and multi-colored highlighters enabled me to extract salient points from each article and distribute them to the appropriate headings. This also contributed to my doing a better job of keeping my reference section current and allowed me the opportunity to do some cross-referencing.

One of the biggest problems that I had encountered was ensuring that I was using standard APA format. While I have used the publication manual for a number of years and have written numerous APA formatted papers, I simply feel that my level of proficiency in this style of writing still requires that I consult that manual as a reference continually. Even after reviewing the manual and visiting several internet reference sites, I lack the quality of total confidence. Perhaps the confidence and fluency that I seek as writing traits will only come from years of ideations of my work?

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