Counselling in a Multicultural Education Program - Report Example

Name Institution Professor Course Outline 1.0 Summary: Counselling in a Multicultural Education Program 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Multicultural Education Program 1.3 Multicultural Counseling 1.4 Challenges in a Multicultural Education Program Counseling 1.5 Multiracial Challenges 1.6 Multicultural Challenges 1.7 Multilingual Challenges 1.8 Conclusion Counselling in a Multicultural Education Program Summary/Outline With the increased multicultural diversity facing counselors today, it is essential that counselors uphold their own multicultural competency level throughout their professional endeavors. Given that counselors and administrators in multicultural education program work with diverse populace, they face enormous challenges based on the cultural values of their clients and how these values affect the process of counseling. When integrated with the requirements of an ever-changing student populace, the challenges experienced by multicultural administrators and counselors are more intricate because of the requirement to attain the diverse needs of diverse students. These challenges include issues relating to multicultural, multilingual and multiracial requirements of their clients. This research paper highlights multiracial, multicultural and multilingual challenges facing administrators and counselors in multicultural education program counseling and how to overcome challenges these. The paper also underscores why administrators and counselors in multicultural education program counseling encounters these challenges. The paper culminates with a coherent conclusion. Introduction As the society evolves into a considerably diverse society, multicultural education program administrators and counselors should hold the essential awareness, skills and knowledge to offer multiculturally competent counseling. One of the major obstacles counselors and administrators encounter is uncertainty regarding whether they are adequately prepared to attain the requirements of multicultural, multilingual and multiracial students. The swiftly shifting populace demographics and the constant development among multiculturally diverse populace challenge school counselors to offer the finest prop-up to their increasingly assorted student populace. The central issues hinge on social relations and relations among people. As the face of the society shifts, it is imperative that counselors and administrators within schools systems help learners as they transit into diverse inclusive community. While multicultural education program counseling help students to transit to diverse global community, racism, cultural competency, communication barriers affect administrators and counselors in multicultural education program counseling. Multicultural Education Program DonNwachukwu, an author, defines multicultural education as an educational strategy or process that entails more than one culture (84). Multicultural education is viewed as an effort to establish tolerance and awareness amid related worldviews and cultures. Multicultural education maintains that all learns notwithstanding their social class, racial, cultural, ethnic and gender characteristics should hold an equal prospect to learn (DonNwachukwu 84). Multicultural education is anticipated to be a constant procedure that becomes a fundamental portion of the educational program. Multicultural educational program targets educational systems and schools with the intention of changing them to the point where languages, ethnicity, class and gender no longer pose a challenge to learners in obtaining their best in school. A multicultural educational program calls for ideological shifts and curricular shifts (DomNwachukwu 83). Multicultural education links to instruction and education created for diverse cultures and races. The approach to multicultural education is founded upon respects, promoting cultural pluralism and consensus development within diverse races. Multicultural Counseling Multiculturalism is ideologically dependable with the conceptual blueprint of counselor education programs. The preparation of culturally sensitive and culturally competent is consistent with the mission of counselor education programs (DomNwachukwu 83). Multicultural education counselors appear to instinctually comprehend the worth of person development and learning in the procedure of studying multicultural issues. Multicultural counseling curriculum offers students with learning experience needed in a multicultural society. It entails a therapy that considers ethnic and racial differences of students besides ability, spirituality, social class and sexual orientation. Multicultural counseling involves the interface amid a client and a counselor that considers the personal dynamics of the clients or counselor along the changing and emerging configurations that might be noted in the cultures of the client or the counselor. Multifaceted perspectives to multicultural counseling education offer additional access ports to students besides demonstrating the commitment of programs to multiculturalism in order to facilitate students’ multicultural development and growth. According to Palmo and Borsos, writers, multicultural counseling centers on ethnic and racial dynamics amid the counselor and culturally diverse clients (136). Multicultural counseling combines social justice, prevention elements, skills, knowledge and cultural awareness. It recognizes that individuals subsist in complex and dynamic political, cultural, social and economic contexts. As a result, multicultural counselors and administrators of multicultural education programs are aware that challenges faced and endured by clients entails some integration of continually interacting environmental and personal factors over which clients hold diverse degrees of control (Palmo & Borsos 136) . Challenges in a Multicultural Education Program Counseling Helping professional in scores of multicultural societies continue to encounter challenges in clearing their own culturally modeled assumptions and values and acknowledging paradigmatic plurality and diversity in construction of meaning and realities. To work productively with clients, counselors and administrators in multicultural education program are needed to comprehend categorically the students’ world of fallings, meanings and values (Palmo & Borsos 136). Counselors and administrators of this program must also address the socio-cultural and logical impact upon students’ experience and perceptions of personal concerns and difficulties. As a result these counselors and administrators in multicultural education program require special skills and corrective attention to fit in the multicultural realism of their clients. Arthur, a writer, asserts that counselors working in multicultural education programs are exposed to scores of issues relating to cross-cultural transition and adjustment to life of the multicultural populace (18). It is captivating to consider how a cultural lens assists in explaining the experiences of a multicultural populace. The diverse cultures in a multicultural populace imply that similar transition concerns are encountered in diverse ways (Arthur18). As a result, counselors need to bear in mind that culture is a constant force in the changing demand that a multicultural population face. Multiracial Challenges Attitudes and beliefs concerning ethnic and racial disparities are some of the challenges that counselors and administrators in multicultural education program faces. The call to check stereotypes and biases besides development of a positive orientation towards multiculturalism are other challenges facing counselors in multicultural education program. Counselors and administrators also needed to have knowledge of their own worldview, facts about diverse cultural groups and understanding of socio-political effects on diverse cultural groups. Administrators and counselors also need to have feasible strategies, interventions and skills required to work with a multicultural group. While multicultural education programs are directed at breaking down cultural obstacles, emphasize appreciation of cultural disparities, the issues of racism is one of the biggest challenge for counselors and administrators of these programs. The counselors’ self-awareness of racial identity is a crucial variable needed for growing multicultural competence. According to Locke and Kiselica, the topic of racism is one of the most psychologically charged subjects in the modern world (80). Comprehending racism from human experience and intellectual concept is essential to heal the pervasive pain caused through racism. Racism hurts all people and it establishes obstacles amid people besides preventing people from making substantive human contact with each other (Locke and Kiselica 80). Racism also hinders people from enjoying the beauty that every group offers. In addition, racism keeps people of diverse colors at a distance. Most counselors and administrators in multicultural education group may side step discussions regarding racism to evade fears and pains linked to the topic of racism. As a result, counselors must understand racism and its impacts on human beings. Dealing with cultural, individual and institutional racism in multicultural education program is a big challenge for counselors and administrators in this program. Racisms in schools take diverse forms. Administrators, peers and teachers can be discriminated and stereotypes against learners due their ethnicity, gender, ability, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status (Locke and Kiselica 80) . Counselors and administrators may be influenced by their own experiences, prejudices and backgrounds which many show negatively within therapeutic links with clients of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Multicultural Challenges Other challenges facing counselors and administrators in multicultural education program include lack of cultural competence. Cultural competence entails the capacity to interact efficiently with persons of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence is a work-in-progress given that cultures are progressing targets. Cultural competence entails an understanding of self and others that must be flexible in the change face (LeRoy, Veach and Bartels 204). Becoming culturally competent is challenging for counselors because it does not necessitate a counselor to reject his/her own values or set aside his/her own beliefs . According to Lago, an author, the general culture of a nation impacts how people think, behave and think about themselves (229). Theories of personality and social behavior are usually culture specific given that theorists view occurrence from the lens of their own life times and experiences. Their personality is usually a product of a single culture. Some counselors may think that they have enough knowledge on multiculturalism based on their experience. These counselors fail to understand that multicultural competence is essential in multicultural counseling. Multicultural competence is constantly changing and it calls for continued attention and work. Counselors encounter a lot of stressors and challenges in their profession. They experience challenges in dealing with their personal responsibilities and expectations in their profession. These challenges raises issues relating to sufficiency of their training and multicultural competence. With respect to multicultural competence, administrators and counselors in multicultural education programs must learn to tolerate ambiguity, adapt to novel professional and social roles and above all be flexible. However, counselors face challenges when using alternative counseling techniques and perspectives to the requirements of the culturally diverse groups. They encounter challenges when trying to match clients in an atmosphere of acceptance. For effective multicultural counseling, counselors offer an accepting and non-judgmental atmosphere while being careful to evade any pressure or anticipations for clients to conform. Administrators and counselors in multicultural education program struggle to gain the trust of their clients and create an atmosphere where clients feel free to express their cultural and cognitive styles. Multilingual Challenges Counselors and administrators struggle to match their communication styles with those of their clients in efforts of removing any obstacles to the counseling process (Trusty, Looby & Sandhu 274). In ensuring effective multicultural counseling, counselors encounter difficulties when trying to conduct formal evaluation of their clients’ preferred styles. They assess client’s preferred cultural and cognitive styles through formal inventories and observations. While counselors and administrators must assess their clients preferred cultural and cognitive styles, they must also asses their own preferred professional and personal styles which may conflict with those of their clients. However, for effective counseling, counselors must identify prejudices, biases and determine mismatch or match with clients. According to Trusty, Sooby and Sandhu, writers, when counselors’ communication style fails to match with that of the clients, difficulties may arise (274). Inability to create a relationship and premature termination of counseling are confronts that counselors and administrators in multicultural education program encounter. In the course of the counseling procedure, counselors must be in a position to acknowledge when clients feel discriminated against and react by recognizing and validating the feelings of the clients and then processing the feelings with the client. For productive counseling and communication to take place, clients and counselors must be in a position to receive and send nonverbal and verbal messages appropriately and accurately. Given the significance of both the counselors and clients to communicate with their own culture and posses the capacity to comprehend other cultures, counselors experience difficulties in ensuring effective counseling. Counselors must also understand social constructivism. Social constructivism is a blueprint of reference that inspires counselors to think about the social milieu in which their clients grew (Trusty, Looby and Sandhu 274). As a result, counselors experience difficulties while trying to understand the cultures of their diverse clients, their communities and their ways of thinking. This is because counselors must enter their clients’ world; recognize the disparities that exist in efforts of helping their clients attain their goals. The counselors must be in a position to synthesize pertinent information and establish suitable generalizations. Counselors and administrators in multicultural education program encounter challenges such multicultural, multilingual and multiracial challenges such as communication barriers, racism, inability to develop a rapport with their clients, lack of cultural competence because of the diverse perceptions, assumptions, values and expectations of their clients. They also encounter these obstacles because of their diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. However, they can overcome these challenges through including experiences and contents that are pertinent in developing culturally sensitive atmosphere in their educational and counseling programs (Trusty, Looby & Sandhu 274). The administrators and counselors in the program should be provided with constant program for multicultural training. They should also be aware of diverse cognitive learning styles of clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Conclusion The school counselors and administrators of multicultural education program face enormous challenges because of the diverse needs of their diverse clients. However, knowledge of multiculturalism offers a foundation for exploration of personal values, attitudes, race, racism and beliefs. Creative counseling and teaching approaches can assist counselors and administrators of multicultural education program to become more productive and less threatening to the parties involved. To ensure effective counseling and administration of multicultural education program, counselors and administrators must establish an atmosphere that attains the different needs of their diverse clients. The counselors and administrators must understand the populace they are working with and their diverse backgrounds and needs. With the increased multicultural diversity facing counselors today, it is essential that counselors uphold their own multicultural, multilingual and multiracial competency levels throughout their professional endeavors Work Cited Arthur, Nancy. Counseling international students: Clients from around the world. UK: Springer Science & Business Media, 2008. DomNwachukwu, Samuel. An introduction to multicultural education: From theory to practice. UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. Lago, Colin. Race, Culture and counseling. UK: McGraw-Hill International, 2005. LeRoy, Bonnie, Veach, Patricia and Bartels, Dianne. Genetic counseling practice: Advanced concepts and skills. UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Locke, Don and Kiselica, Mark. Pedagogy of possibilities: Teaching about racism in multicultural counseling courses. Journal of Counseling and Development, 77. 1(1999), 80-86. Palmo, Artis and Borsos, Weikel. Foundations of mental health counseling. USA: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 2006. Trusty, Jerry, Looby, Joan and Sandhu, Daya. Multicultural counseling: Context, theory and practice and competence. UK: Nova Publishers, 2002. Read More