What Counselor-Trainees Need Most in Cross-Cultural Education : Some Suggestions for Course Content of One Semester Courses / Robbie J. Steward.

Competence in multicultural counseling has been defined as the knowledge of clients' culture and the ability to devise innovative strategies vis-a-vis the unique client needs. Data were collected to assess the specific most critical needs of graduate students (N=79) enrolled in a cross-cultural counseling course. During the first session over four consecutive semesters, students completed the Culture Shock Inventory (CSI). The results revealed that lowest levels of student awareness were found on the cognitive flex, culture knowledge-specific, and interpersonal sensitivity subscales of the CSI. These findings suggest that areas that would be most troublesome to these students when interacting with culturally different clients would be in remaining open to and accepting of new ideas, beliefs, and perspectives and accepting them as valid; being able to identify ways specific cultural behaviors and beliefs uniquely differ from those of the mainstream culture; and effectively maintaining interaction with individuals whose interpersonal styles differ from their own. High scores on the cultural behavior-general and culture knowledge-general subscales suggest that students recognize the importance of the study of cultural differences. These findings have implications for counselor educators designing courses in multi-cultural counseling. (NB)

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