Three Voices on Multiculturalism in the Art Therapy Classroom

Abstract

Multicultural competence in art therapy continues to be redefined. The American Art Therapy Association (2003) Ethics Document was recently revised to list multicultural "awareness" rather than competence, thereby raising important questions about our profession's stance on multicultural competence. Awareness is the first in a series of steps towards achieving multicultural competence. It is within this context that we discuss reflective writing as a pedagogical tool. Generally, cultural competence is discussed in the context of therapist-client interactions. Seldom is the concept discussed within a pedagogical framework. This paper attempts to make concrete the process of gaining awareness through reflective writing by focusing on first-person narratives that emerged from classroom discussions about privilege, white experience, cultural encounters, and achieving multicultural competence. We found that encounters with the "other" helps create self-definition and that it is a lot easier to identify with the self-as-oppressed rather than the self-as-oppressor.