Exploring the Self-Perceived Multicultural Counseling Competence of Elementary School Counselors

One of the major challenges facing the field of school counseling today is the preparation of school counselors who are able to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population (Carey, Reinat, & Fontes, 1990; Coleman, 1995; House & Martin, 1998; Lee, 1995; Lewis & Hayes, 1991). Future projections indicate that by 2020 most school-age children attending public schools will come from diverse cultural, ethnic and/or racial backgrounds (Campbell, 1994). In fact, in many major cities (e.g., New York; Washington, DC; Chicago), ethnic minority children make up a majority of the total public school enrollment (Hacker, 1992). Given these changing demographics, it is critically important that school counselors are prepared to address the concerns of culturally and ethnically different students. For the past two decades, there has been an extensive amount of literature written about the multicultural competence of professional counselors (Ponterotto & Casas, 1987; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). The literature regarding multicultural counseling competence has focused on three main dimensions: (a) awareness of one's own personal worldviews and how one is the product of cultural conditioning, (b) knowledge of the worldviews of culturally different clients, and (c) skills necessary for work with culturally different clients (Corvin & Wiggins, 1989; Sue et al., 1982; Sue et al., 1998). It is presumed that counselors who acquire competence in these areas will possess the characteristics and understand the strategies necessary to effectively counsel culturally different clients. Recently, Holcomb-McCoy and Myers (1999) found that self-perceived multicultural competence consists of two additional dimensions: racial identity development and multicultural terminology. Others have suggested that multicultural counseling competence is related to cultural schemas (Ridley, Mendoza, Kanitz, Angermeier, & Zenk, 1994), scientific foundations (Sue, 1998), and white racial identity development (Ottavi, Pope-Davis, & Dings, 1994). The Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) Professional Standards Committee used the three dimensions of multicultural competence suggested by Sue et al. (1982, 1992) as the basis for developing a set of Multicultural Counseling Competencies. Arredondo et al. (1996) noted that the competencies were intended to guide "interpersonal counseling grounded in the context of culture, ethnicity, and race" (p. i). Recently, as a result of continued research, explanatory statements were added to the competencies in order to address specific behaviors such as the ability to identify one's culture(s), recognize stereotyped reactions to culturally different persons, articulate cultural differences between ethnic groups, and other activities that demonstrate the attainment of multicultural competence (personal communication, D. Locke, October 25, 1995). According to Arredondo et al. (1996), the explanatory statements are "examples and anecdotes that give life to the competencies" (p. 9). Both the competencies and the explanatory statements are intended to be the basis for preparation of multiculturally competent counselors. With respect to the multicultural competence of school counselors, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) adopted a position statement encouraging school counselors to "take action to ensure students of culturally diverse backgrounds have access to appropriate services and opportunities which promote the maximum development of the individual" (ASCA, 1993). Although the position statement does not address the multicultural competence of school counselors directly, the statement indicates that school counselors should have the "skills necessary to foster increased awareness and understanding of cultural diversity existing in the school community. " Furthermore, school counseling professionals (e.g., Lewis & Hayes, 1991) have suggested that cultural knowledge, sensitivity, and awareness be integrated into existing school counseling training programs. …