An Exploratory Study of Multicultural Competence of Counselors in Training

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the “fourth force” within the counselor education field, multicultural theory articles and multicultural guidelines for competency have proliferated in the literature for the last decade. Competency continues to be operationalized and re-operationalized. In general, there are three components that continue to remain stable as multicultural competency continues to be redefined: awareness, knowledge, and skills. This study considers the relationship between graduate students' awareness, knowledge, and skills to the amount of training they have completed, whether or not they have had practicum experience, self-reported exposure to various multicultural activities, and overall confidence in being a competent counselor. Student's general attitude toward diversity training and a discussion regarding the implications of this research to counselor training programs and future research is provided.