Critical Incident Analysis Based Training: An Approach for Developing Active Racial/Cultural Awareness

For at least 3 decades, the field of counseling has attempted to better meet the needs of an increasingly diverse American population. The Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992), which organize competency into three areas--knowledge, skills, and awareness--were developed (Sue et al., 1982) and updated (Sue et al., 1992; Sue et al., 1998) to set a standard for competent mental health care that is truly inclusive of all people. Much of multicultural counselor training is based on this tripartite model of competence (Goodyear & Guzzardo, 2000). The goals to engender knowledge and skills tend to fit easily into the standard pedagogies of counselor training programs. Developing counselors' awareness of their own assumptions, values, and biases, however, tends to be more complicated. This article proposes a unique approach to training for multicultural awareness. Although we describe the approach in the framework of increasing racial awareness, we believe that it could easily be adapted for other areas, such as gender, disability, and sexual orientation. We begin with a discussion of two perspectives on understanding the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Sue et al., 1992). One perspective views the competencies as fixed, achievable goals, and the other views them as an ongoing process. Applying the process perspective to the multicultural awareness component of the tripartite model, we derive a unique view of awareness (active racial/cultural awareness) that emphasizes engagement in and commitment to a daily process of increased and increasing levels of awareness. We review current challenges to training for this type of active awareness and then present a training approach centered on critical incident analysis. The structure and implications of this new approach are discussed from three perspectives: those of the counselor training program, the counseling faculty, and the students. This article concludes with potential challenges and limitations facing the application of critical incident analysis as a training method. * Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Fixed-Goal and Process Perspectives The Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Sue et al., 1992) are a centerpiece of the multicultural movement in counselor education and counseling psychology (Ponterotto, Fuertes, & Chen, 2000) and have now been adopted as guidelines for psychological practice by the American Psychological Association (APA; 2003). The guidelines represent a major advance in multicultural counseling and are a compelling tool for fighting oppression and monoculturalism in the field (Sue et al., 1998). The competencies, as outlined in the literature, are often presented as specific, measurable capacities. For example, a competent counselor is able to describe examples of cultural conflict between himself or herself and culturally different others (Arredondo et al., 1996). One way to look at these capacities is to see them as fixed, static goals. From this perspective, each competency is a criterion that can separate therapists into two groups: competent and incompetent. Each competency represents a linear approach to development; in this perspective, counselors attain a level of competence that places them securely in the competent group as opposed to counselors who have not yet attained competence. This aspect of the competencies is most evident in the clear, operationalized definitions of the competencies (Arredondo et al., 1996). This clarity has been essential for the creation of the APA (2003) guidelines, and it offers an individual the ability to verify (in oneself and others) whether a competency is present or not. Clear operationalizations of competence have also been useful in responding to critics of the multicultural movement, who have stated that the goals of multiculturalism are too vague (Sue et al., 1998). However, the fixed-goal aspect of the competencies brings its own set of limitations. …