School Counselors Multicultural SelfAwareness

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School Counselors Multicultural
Self-Awareness

• North Dakota Counseling Association2004
  Midwinter Conference

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Denise Loftus

• School Counselor
• McKinley Elementary School
• Fargo, North Dakota
• Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity
  (S.E.E.D.)

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Premise of Presentation

• It is essential for school counselors to develop
  self-awareness in relation to culturally
  different students in order to effectively meet
  the mental health needs of these students.
• (Constantine et al., 2001)

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How multiculturally competent are you?

• 1 I perceive my competence as low.
• 3 I perceive my competence as okay.
• 5 I perceive my competence as high.

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Enhance Counselor Self-Awareness

• Emily Style Metaphor of windows and mirrors
  enhances counselors self-awareness.
• Peggy McIntosh Observations of White privilege
  challenges counselors self-awareness.

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Windows and Mirrors A Metaphor

• Window
• Look through window frames in order to see the
  realities of others.
• What might this persons reality be like?

• Mirror
• Look into mirrors to see your own reality
  reflected.
• What reminds me of me while looking at this
  person?

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Windows

• A persons words and actions are the windows to
  his/her world.
• Windows provide fresh air into the experiences of
  others.

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Empathy

• Empathy has been defined as the counselors
  ability to communicate a sense of caring and
  understanding regarding the students
  experiences.
• (Egan, 1994)

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Windows Become Mirrors

• A delightful truth is that sometimes when we
  hear another out, glancing through the window of
  their humanity, we can see our own image
  reflected in the glass of their window. The
  window becomes a mirror!
• (Style, 1988)

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Remember the Metaphor

• Windows
• to look out

• Mirrors
• to look in

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Windows and Mirrors A Metaphor

• Window
• Look through window frames in order to see the
  realities of others.
• What might this persons reality be like?

• Mirror
• Look into mirrors to see your own reality
  reflected.
• What reminds me of me while looking at this
  person?

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Our Students

• By 2020, the majority of school-aged children
  will consist of racial and ethnic minorities.
• (Constantine Yeh, 2001)

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The Challenge

• 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.
• (Holcomb-McCoy, 2001, p. 195)

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The Challenge

• Among the issues facing contemporary school
  counselors, addressing the developmental needs of
  the growing number of students from culturally
  diverse backgrounds is, perhaps, the most
  challenging.
• (Lee, 2001, p. 257)

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The Culturally Encapsulated Counselor (Wrenn,
1962)

• University of Minnesota
• Harvard Educational Review
• One of the first articles published about
  multicultural counseling

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Cultural Encapsulation

• cocoon of pretended reality
• The walls of the cocoon must be permeable so
  that pressure does not build up between the
  reality within the cocoon and the reality
  without.
• fight encapsulation with vigor
• (Wrenn, 1962)

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Cultural Encapsulation and Windows

• What is right is right for me only, and I
  should not be smug about its being right for
  anybody else.
• (Wrenn, 1962, p. 449)

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Cultural Encapsulation Window and Mirror

• We seek purpose constantly and there may be
  purpose in how I related myself to others as well
  as how I come to understand myself.
• (Wrenn, 1962, p. 449)

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Multiculturalism Urgent and Necessary

• It is clear to us that the need for
  multiculturalism in the counseling profession is
  urgent and necessary for ethical practice, an
  integral part of our professional work.
• (Sue, Arredondo, McDavis, 1992, p. 73)

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Multicultural CounselingUniversal Approach

• Broad definition includes
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Class
• Affectional orientation
• Religion
• Sex
• Age
• (Sue, Arredondo McDavis, 1992)

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Multicultural Counseling Focused Approach

• Visible Racial Ethnic Minority Groups
• African Americans
• American Indians
• Asian Americans
• Hispanics and Latinos
• (Sue, Arredondo McDavis, 1992)

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Cross-Cultural Counselor Competencies

• Association for Multicultural Counseling and
  Development Professional Standards Committee
• Approved by AMCD, April 1991
• Published in Journal of Multicultural Counseling
  and Development, April 1992

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Cross-Cultural Counseling Competencies

• Counselor awareness of own assumptions, values,
  and biases
• Understanding the worldview of the culturally
  different client
• Developing appropriate intervention strategies
  and techniques

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The Culturally Competent Counselor - Mirror

• A culturally skilled counselor is one who is
  actively in the process of becoming aware of his
  or her own assumptions about human behavior,
  values, biases, preconceived notions, personal
  limitations, and so forth.
• (Sue, Arredondo McDavis, 1992, p. 75)

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The Culturally Competent Counselor - Window

• A culturally skilled counselor is one who
  actively attempts to understand the worldview of
  his or her culturally different client without
  negative judgments.
• (Sue, Arredondo McDavis, 1992, p. 75)

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The Culturally Competent Counselor (3rd
Characteristic)

• A culturally skilled counselor is one who is in
  the process of actively developing and practicing
  appropriate, relevant, and sensitive intervention
  strategies and skills in working with his or her
  culturally different clients.
• (Sue, Arredondo McDavis, 1992, p. 75)

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ASCAs Position Statement

• Adopted 1988 revised 1993, 1999
• The position statement calls for the school
  counselors to have an understanding of and
  appreciation for multiculturalism and diversity.
• This can be accomplished, in part, through the
  use of windows and mirrors.

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School Counselors Self-Awareness

• School counselors need to examine their attitudes
  and beliefs about students who are culturally
  different from themselves in order to understand
  the impact of students backgrounds in their
  lives (Constantine et al. Oct. 2001).
• Look through window to see differences.
• Look at mirror to examine attitudes and beliefs
  about the differences.

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Mirrors Reveal Cultural Blindspots

• Lee asserted that educators have cultural
  blindspots that they need to recognize.
• Lee warned educators that if these cultural
  blindspots are not found, students may be
  alienated from educators.
• (Lee, 2001)

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Why do school counselors need windows?

• It is vital that school counselors are
  cognizant of students cultural backgrounds when
  performing tasks such as educational and
  vocational assessments, evaluating students
  academic progress, conferencing with teachers and
  families, and conceptualizing cases.
• (Constantine Yeh, 2001, p. 205)

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Windows and Mirrors Build Alliances with Students

• When school counselors are aware of how
  culturally different students may be alike and
  different from themselves, alliances can be built
  with these students.
• (Constantine et al., 2001)

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Counselor Awareness of Own Assumptions, Values,
and Biases (1st Characteristic)

• White counselors need to understand how they
  may have directly or indirectly benefited from
  individual, institutional, and cultural racism.
• (Sue, Arredondo, McDavis, 1992)

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White Identity

• A popular theme reflected in the White racial
  identity literature is that White counselors may
  be better able to comprehend and appreciate other
  racial and cultural groups when they are aware of
  their own racial attitudes and feelings.
• (Constantine 2002, p. 164)

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Window Coverings?

• Because White culture is such a dominate norm, it
  is like a covering over the window between the
  counselor and the student.
• Counselors must identify the window covering,
  which is invisible.

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1

• I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company
  of people of my race most of the time.

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7

• When I am told about our national heritage or
  about civilization, I am shown that people of
  my color made it what it is.

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• I can do well in a challenging situation without
  being called a credit to my race.

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• I am never asked to speak for all the people of
  my racial group.

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• I can be reasonably sure that if I ask to talk
  to the person in charge, I will be facing a
  person of my race.

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• I can be late to a meeting without having the
  lateness reflect on my race.

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46

• I can choose blemish cover or bandages in
  flesh color and have them more or less match my
  skin.

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White PrivilegeA List of 46

• personal observations, autobiographical,
  contextual, not a scholarly analysis
• ordinary and daily ways in which I experience
  having white privilege
• This list is not intended to be generalizable.
  Others can make their own lists from within their
  own life circumstances.
• (McIntosh, 1988,p. 71)

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White Privilege A List of 46

• It is crude work, at this stage, but I will
  give here a list of special circumstances and
  conditions I experience which I did not earn but
  which I have been made to feel are mine by birth,
  by citizenship, and by virtue of being a
  conscientious law-abiding normal person of good
  will.
• (McIntosh, 1988, p. 73)

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White PrivilegeDefined by McIntosh

• an invisible package of unearned assets which I
  can count on cashing in on each day, but about
  which I was meant to remain oblivious.
• White privilege is like an invisible weightless
  knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports,
  codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank
  checks.
• (McIntosh, 1988, p. 71)

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Denial of White Privilege

• I think whites are carefully taught not to
  recognize white privilege
• If these things are true, this is not such a
  free country ones life is not what one makes
  it many doors open for certain people through no
  virtues of their own.
• (McIntosh, 1988, p. 71 and p. 76)

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Parallel with Male Privilege

• Allow them to more like us
• I think many of us know how obnoxious this
  attitude can be in men.
• (McIntosh, 1988, p. 73)

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McIntoshs Challenge

• Having described it, what will I do to lessen
  or end it?

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McIntoshs Response

• Talk and write.
• Ask, How does white privilege damage white
  people?
• Examine other advantaging systems.
• Age
• Physical ability
• Sexual orientation
• Religion

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McIntoshs Call to End Denial

• The first step in combating privilege is to
  acknowledge that it exists.
• End the obliviousness about white privilege

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Myth of Meritocracy

• The myth of meritocracy is that democratic
  choice is equally available to all.

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How to Develop Windows

• Constantine (2001) recommended that counselors
  participate in events that reflect the values,
  beliefs, and practices of students from various
  cultural groups.
• Religious services
• Holiday celebrations
• Culture fairs
• Movies

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Application

• How can you use the metaphor of windows and
  mirrors in your practice?

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Windows and Mirrors

• Classroom guidance
• Group
• Individual
• Staff

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Ethical Issue

• professionals without training or competence
  in working with clients from diverse cultural
  backgrounds are unethical and potentially
  harmful, which borders on a violation of human
  rights.
• (Sue, Arredondo, McDavis, 1992, p.72)

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Handouts

• McIntoshs work
• Bibliography

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Contact Me

• Denise Loftus
• McKinley Elementary School
• 2930 8th Street North
• Fargo, ND 58102
• [phone]
• loftude_at_fargo.k12.nd.us