No description available.

There has been a considerable amount of research focused on the multicultural counseling competence (MCC) of counselors, but research examining the MCC of school counselors looking at school counselors' awareness of the national achievement gap has been quite sparse. The current study was conducted to fill this gap. One hundred and sixty five American School Counselor Association (ASCA) members participated in the current study. The study was a web survey where each participant was contacted through email and invited to participate by Survey Monkey, an on-line survey tool. Survey Monkey was used to post the survey and demographic questionnaire and collect the data. The Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey-Revised (MCCTS-R) (Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004) was used to examine the perceived MCC of school counselors. A Demographic Questionnaire was also added consisting of questions regarding variables such as race/ethnicity, gender, school level, and school urbanicity and questions that examined school counselors' awareness of the national achievement gap. The results of the current study suggested that school counselors possessed a self-perceived MCC between somewhat competent and competent. The results also suggested that school counselors who had taken a Master's level or specialty course on multicultural counseling possessed a higher MCC than those who had not, school counselors of Color were found to possess a higher MCC than their White counterparts, and gender was found to have no significant relationship with MCC. In addition, the results suggested that school counselors were aware of the national achievement gap, believed in the importance of being aware of the national achievement gap, were committed to activities aimed at closing the achievement gap, and believed that it was the duty of school counselors to participate in activities aimed at closing the gap. Finally, using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-C SDS), the results suggested that social desirability may have played a small role in the results of the MCCTS-R. / Ph. D.

Counselor educators foster the multicultural counseling competence of counselors-in-training; however, counselor educators face challenges that include emotionally charged exchanges that may might impact counselor educators' relationship with students. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to investigate counselor educators' experiences with emotionally charged exchanges related to teaching multicultural counseling. The ecological systems theory was used as a conceptual framework. A purposeful sample of 4 counselor educators from Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs-accredited counselor education programs in the United States shared their knowledge of these emotionally charged exchanges through semistructured phone interviews in their natural settings. The data gathered underwent analysis following the descriptive phenomenological method, and revealed the essence of counselor educators' lived experiences: ever-present conflicting emotions and tension, with peaks of feeling exposed, inadequate, and satisfied after intentionally evoking students' emotions. Counselor educators can use the results of this study to alter their pedagogy and empower their students to develop their multicultural counseling competence more fully. Improved multicultural counseling competence might improve the treatment provided to a diverse range of clients and reduce treatment disparities.

No description available.

Postcolonial critiques have emphasized the need for Western psychology to become more reflective of the histories, worldviews, and lived realities of historically marginalized communities across the globe (Comas-Díaz, 2000; Duran & Duran, 1995; Pickren, 2009). These works have included the contributions of liberation psychologists who advocate for the need to privilege the knowledge systems, concerns, and perspectives of local communities when proposing avenues for psychological research, intervention, and theoretical development (Watkins & Shulman, 2008). Recognizing the legacies of colonialism in North America, U.S. psychologists working with Indigenous communities have advocated for better collaboration with grassroots elders, teachers, and community groups, noting the importance of recognizing the validity of Indigenous epistemologies and the colonizing tensions that still exist between Indigenous healing systems and Western psychology (Duran, Firehammer & Gonzalez, 2008; Gone, 2007; Gone & Alcántara, 2007). Against this backdrop, the present research was carried out as an immersive, long-term ethnographic study in collaboration with Alma de Mujer (Alma), a community of Indigenous-identified women in central Texas, who are committed to creating accessible spaces for their communities to practice Indigenous lifeways and healing. Employing reciprocal ethnographic methods, the author spent two years participating in events and gatherings with the Alma community, as well as conducting in-depth interviews. Community members were consulted on an ongoing basis about the development of the research. The document centers on four objectives: First, the author traces the history of the Alma community as it emerged from social liberation and psychospiritual healing movements over the latter half of the 20th century. Second, based on the women's stories, the author presents community members' narratives about how healing is situated within the community's Indigenous knowledge systems. Specific attention is given to the holistic and reciprocal nature of healing in these stories. Third, the author includes contributions from Indigenous healers who remark on their experiences of the tensions between Indigenous healing systems and Western mental health institutions. Fourth, the author concludes with a personal critical reflection as a trainee in Western psychology and considers how dialogues between local Indigenous communities and Western psychology might be further explored. / text

Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Training racial/ethnic minorities, or people of Color (POC), to provide culturally competent mental health care has gained increasing significance in counselor education and applied psychology programs in the past 30 years. From a developmental perspective, race may be the most salient psychosocial lens through which POC trainees perceive and experience professional training; multicultural supervision might be the primary mode for developing their cultural competence. However, supervision may not sufficiently attend to POC trainees' race-related characteristics. To better understand the possible influence of POC trainees' racial psychosocial development and experiences of multicultural supervision on their competence in counseling clients of Color, the present study examined relationships among POC trainees' racial identity attitudes, perceptions of multicultural supervision, and self-reported multicultural counseling competencies. POC trainees (N = 203) from clinical, counseling, and school psychology programs, who had completed at least one semester of therapy supervision, completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the People of Color Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (Helms, 2011), the Multicultural Supervision Competencies Questionnaire (Wong & Wong, 1999), and the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (Sodowsky et al., 1994). Canonical correlation and regression analyses were used to investigate relationships among the variables. The canonical correlation analyses revealed three statistically significant patterns: (a) "Competent Internalization," wherein trainees reported positive relationships between self-actualizing racial identity attitudes (i.e., Internalization) and multicultural counseling competencies; (b) "Racially Ambivalent Relationships" characterized trainees endorsing low levels of Dissonant and Immersion/Resistance racial identity and increased competence in managing racial/cultural dynamics in counseling relationships; and (c) "Supervision Incompetence," characterized by POC trainees rating supervisors' cultural competence and their own multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skills competencies as low. Two multiple regression analyses indicated that only Internalization racial identity attitudes uniquely contributed to predicting trainees' perceptions of supervisors' cultural competence. Results were discussed with respect to how supervisors might utilize Helms's (1995) racial identity theory in multicultural supervision to assess and promote racial identity development and enhanced multicultural counseling competencies. Methodological limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

The importance of multicultural counseling training received much attention for decades, however, studies on effective training focused on multicultural counseling training in a face-to-face environment with minimal focus on online training environments. These studies found that face-to-face interactions had the most impact on multicultural training. Therefore, the current study was an evaluation of online master's counseling students' and graduates' multicultural attitudes to determine the effectiveness of online multicultural training using Banks' transformative approach. The research questions focused on the significant difference in participants' recalled multicultural attitude scores (know, care, and act) before an online multicultural counseling course as compared to recalled multicultural attitude scores after an online multicultural counseling course as measured by the Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE). A quantitative survey design was used with a convenience sample of 129 students enrolled in online counselor education programs to measure their multicultural attitude changes before and after a multicultural counseling course. Results were analyzed using MANCOVA with group designs and interpreted using a one-tailed F-test to determine if there were statistically significant differences in the multicultural attitude scores of students before and after completing an online multicultural counseling course. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in Knowledge scores (F(1, 112) = 59.23, p < .001) and Care scores (F(1, 112) = 73.57, p < .001) from before as compared to after taking the course. Ultimately, the results established the effectiveness and reputation of online counselor education programs and multicultural counseling training.

<p>Det huvudsakliga syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka attityder och förhållningssätt till begreppet mångkulturell vägledning hos verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare i den kommunala sektorn. Vi vill också ta reda på om mångkulturell vägledning per definition används i den dagliga verksamheten och vilka premisser den i så fall förutsätter.</p><p>Undersökningen har en kvantitativ ansats och grundar sig på en enkät som har mailats ut till 100 studie- och yrkesvägledare som arbetar i en skola där antal elever med annat etniskt ursprung överstigit 40 %.</p><p>Av resultatet framkom att majoriteten av våra respondenter tolkar begreppet mångkulturell vägledning som ett förhållningssätt. Den etniska tillhörigheten tillskrivs liten betydelse i ett vägledningssamtal då inte heller en särskild metodik tillämpas. Mot detta vägs en intressant parallell som visar ett uttalat behov av särskild kompetens i det fleretniska mötet. Slutsatser vi drar är att det finns en klar enighet i den teoretiska tolkningen av begreppet mångkulturell vägledning men att det i praktiken finns en stor diskrepans i begreppets tillämpning.</p> / <p>This thesis was written with the key purpose of inquiring as to the attitudes and opinions of career counselors with regard to multicultural counseling as a concept. A second issue was to examine whether multicultural counseling per definition is practiced, and if so, what the implications are. The research method used was a web survey which was sent to 100 practicing career counselors in schools where at least 40 % of the students were from other ethnic background than Swedish.</p><p>The results of the study showed that the majority of the recipients interpret the concept of multicultural counseling as a matter of disposition. Also, the general opinion was that ethnic affiliation in counseling is of little importance and few use a particular method or strategy in counseling students with alternative ethnic background. Interestingly the survey also points to the fact that multicultural counseling does require specific competence. The conclusions drawn were that whilst the recipients agree with the theoretical interpretation in the concept of multicultural counseling, there lies a discrepancy within its application.</p>

This study examined the multicultural counseling competence among new residence life professionals by using the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale (MCKAS: Ponterotto, Gretchen, Utsey, Riger, & Austin, 2002) and a demographic questionnaire created by the researcher. Results included statistically significant positive relationships between participants’ completion of multicultural counseling graduate coursework and multicultural knowledge, quantity of field experiences and multicultural knowledge, and race and multicultural awareness. A negative relationship was discovered between the frequency of travel experiences outside country of birth and multicultural knowledge. Implications of these findings for field of Student Affairs and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Det huvudsakliga syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka attityder och förhållningssätt till begreppet mångkulturell vägledning hos verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare i den kommunala sektorn. Vi vill också ta reda på om mångkulturell vägledning per definition används i den dagliga verksamheten och vilka premisser den i så fall förutsätter. Undersökningen har en kvantitativ ansats och grundar sig på en enkät som har mailats ut till 100 studie- och yrkesvägledare som arbetar i en skola där antal elever med annat etniskt ursprung överstigit 40 %. Av resultatet framkom att majoriteten av våra respondenter tolkar begreppet mångkulturell vägledning som ett förhållningssätt. Den etniska tillhörigheten tillskrivs liten betydelse i ett vägledningssamtal då inte heller en särskild metodik tillämpas. Mot detta vägs en intressant parallell som visar ett uttalat behov av särskild kompetens i det fleretniska mötet. Slutsatser vi drar är att det finns en klar enighet i den teoretiska tolkningen av begreppet mångkulturell vägledning men att det i praktiken finns en stor diskrepans i begreppets tillämpning. / This thesis was written with the key purpose of inquiring as to the attitudes and opinions of career counselors with regard to multicultural counseling as a concept. A second issue was to examine whether multicultural counseling per definition is practiced, and if so, what the implications are. The research method used was a web survey which was sent to 100 practicing career counselors in schools where at least 40 % of the students were from other ethnic background than Swedish. The results of the study showed that the majority of the recipients interpret the concept of multicultural counseling as a matter of disposition. Also, the general opinion was that ethnic affiliation in counseling is of little importance and few use a particular method or strategy in counseling students with alternative ethnic background. Interestingly the survey also points to the fact that multicultural counseling does require specific competence. The conclusions drawn were that whilst the recipients agree with the theoretical interpretation in the concept of multicultural counseling, there lies a discrepancy within its application.