Fostering Multicultural and Identity Development in Adult Learners through Study Tours

The author qualitatively examined adult learners' experiences on a study tour to South Africa and assessed the effectiveness of the tour as a tool for enhanced multicultural awareness. The findings may be of interest to counselors/educators who teach about multicultural issues or wish to enhance their personal growth in multiculturalism. ********** Adult learners are often seen as individuals who pursue a degree or specialized training in a field of interest. Hensley and Kinser (2001) found that "adult learners constitute a significant percentage of all students enrolled in higher education" (p. 88). In an expanded definition of adult learners, professionals who are encouraged or required to participate in continuing education opportunities to maintain a level of competency in their field should also be identified as adult learners. Thus, counselors and counselor educators, whether in practice or teaching, should be considered part of the adult learner population in the United States. Furthermore, these professionals, as both educators and adult learners, should see learning as continuous, particularly in the area of cultural understanding and exploration. The Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Arredondo et al., 1996) encourage counseling professionals to become aware of their personal background in terms of culture and how their background has influenced their attitudes, values, and beliefs. The education of adult learners, then, needs to incorporate opportunities that provide an assessment of their cultural beliefs and values, followed by critical reflection of how their assumptions and biases affect their own and others' worldviews. Counselors and counselor educators need personal growth experiences that provide them with exposure to people and contexts dissimilar to their own cultural background, although racial similarities might exist. With exposure and the opportunity to process affect that arises from encountering differences, counselors may be better equipped to work with racially, economically, and culturally different clients who present in counselors' therapy offices or classrooms. Counselors who work with diverse clients understand that knowledge about multiculturalism and worldview must be deconstructed and that as multiculturally sensitive counselors, they are on a continuous journey of learning. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION AND THE ADULT Multicultural education in adult education has been a somewhat neglected area of focus. Johnson-Bailey and Cervero (2000) reviewed eight handbooks that defined the field of adult education. They found that "although race is a central location for the negotiation of power and privilege in education and in society, this topic has never formed the focal point of a single chapter in the entire corpus of eight previous handbooks" (p. 151). Furthermore, they argued that adult education has socially constructed the view "that the White race is the norm against which all other races are to be compared" (Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2000, p. 151). Even when mental health professionals have been held to certain standards in their work with racially and ethnically diverse populations, they often have the same ethnocentric biases as the general U.S. population (Pedersen & Leong, 1997). Because of this similarity in biases, counselors must continuously work toward understanding themselves and their cultural worldviews so that they do not have a negative impact on the diverse clients they serve. Affect has been emphasized in adult education and the counseling literature as being an important link in the learning process for transforming multicultural understanding. Although affect's role in learning has been emphasized, the Eurocentric educational and cultural value system emphasizes rational thought and subordinates emotional discourse. In addition, the adult learner often may not have engaged in cultural, educational discourse except as a by-product of what society has incorporated through mainstream media and culture (Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2000). …