Metacognition and Multicultural Competence: Expanding the Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling Model

The authors focus on the significance of the counselor's cultural contexts in effective career interventions vis-a-vis the incorporation of multicultural metacognition. They briefly summarize and critique extant career counseling models for racial/ethnic minority clients and then describe an expanded model for career counseling that incorporates metacognition processes for addressing counselor-related cultural factors. Cultural diversity is a significant feature of the social context in which career development and work behavior occur (Sue, Parham, & Santiago, 1998). Increasing numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, women, and older workers are entering the U.S. workforce. Within the field of vocational psychology, there is a growing recognition of the need for context-sensitive career counseling that acknowledges the impact of clients' cultural contexts on their career behavior (Blustein, 2001; Chung, 2003; Cook, Heppner, & O'Brien, 2002; Fouad, 2001; Hartung, 2002; Ponterotto, Rivera, & Sueyoshi, 2000; Pope, 2003; Whiston, 2003). Although there is growing consensus in vocational psychology for career counseling to be culture centered, relatively little is known empirically about how, exactly, culture influences vocational processes. The assumption is that the relevance of career interventions in general can be increased by approaches that take into account the sociocultural, historical, and political factors that shape career development for culturally diverse groups and significantly influence their view of themselves and their view of the world. We acknowledge that every individual belongs to many cultural groups, and thus all people are culturally diverse. Although our discussion is relevant to all career clients, we particularly focus on racial/ ethnic minorities in this article. We believe that career counseling that is context sensitive includes explicit, ongoing attention not only to the client's cultural contexts but also to the cultural contexts of the counselors. In this article, we examine the significance of cultural factors that have an impact on the multicultural efficacy of career counseling from the counselor's perspective. We first briefly discuss the importance of culturally competent career practice and the relevance of multicultural guidelines to facilitating such practice. Next, we summarize and critique career intervention models for racial and ethnic minorities regarding the models' attention to the impact of counselors' multicultural awareness throughout the course of intervention. Then, we offer an expanded application of one model, the Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling Model (CACCM; Fouad & Bingham, 1995), by incorporating metacognitive processes to guide counselors' culturally centered career interventions. We conclude with recommendations for practice that focus on enhancing career counselors' multicultural competence in the counseling process. Career Counseling: What We Know and Do Not Know Support has been found for the effectiveness of career counseling in helping clients make vocational choices and career decisions (Oliver & Spokane, 1988; Ryan, 1999; Spokane & Oliver, 1983; Whiston, Sexton, & Lasoff, 1998). Brown and Krane (2000) reported on results from Ryan's (1999) meta-analysis, noting that five critical components contributed to the effectiveness of career counseling: written exercises, individualized interpretations and feedback, world-of-vvork information, modeling opportunities, and social support. Brown and Krane noted, however, that little information is available on the role that race, gender, and sexual orientation play in career interventions. More specifically, Hcppner and Hcppner (2003) observed how much remains unknown about the impact of both clients' and counselors' cultural factors on counseling outcomes. In other words, although we know career counseling is effective, we do not know whether some types of career counseling are more effective for particular clients than are other types, nor do we know how cultural variables may influence the career decision-making process. …