story by Claire Miller
In most master’s-level counseling programs, students preparing to become counselors take a course on social and cultural diversity.
Courses like this are key to giving counselors-in-training a better understanding of their future clients and an opportunity to confront and address their own preconceptions.
“For example, through the multicultural counseling course, a student may become more aware of a bias that they hold against a particular group of people,” wrote Professor Catharina Chang and doctoral student Ashlei Rabess in an article published in Teaching and Supervision in Counseling. “Having discovered this particular bias in their multicultural counseling course, they are better able to increase their awareness of the ways in which they may negatively impact future clients with their biases, they can receive direct and corrective feedback from instructors and ultimately, they can potentially spare future clients from harm done unto them had they not taken such a course early in their training.”
In their article, Chang and Rabess examine courses like this, along with professional standards and counselor education programs, to help answer a larger question: Does the counseling profession as a whole have a signature pedagogy for multicultural and social justice knowledge?
“Signature pedagogies define what knowledge is important in a particular discipline and how this knowledge is imparted to students,” the authors explained.
In their assessment, Chang and Rabess discuss how multicultural and social justice content is currently incorporated at the university and professional level – such as the American Counseling Association endorsing a set of standards called the Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competencies – and note where improvements can be made.
The authors encourage more research on the most effective teaching styles in this area before making a firm judgment; more specifically, researchers could consider examining curriculum elements used across counselor education programs and teaching methods used to prepare students to be culturally self-aware and to think like multicultural and social justice advocates, among other research topics.
“As the research in pedagogy in counselor education in general and in the content area of multicultural and social justice counseling competencies continues to grow, so will the discussion and argument for a signature pedagogy in this content area,” they wrote.
To read the full article, click here.
About the Researchers
Catharina Chang
Department of Counseling and Psychological Services
Catharina Chang has published and presented in the areas of social justice and advocacy, multicultural counseling competence, privilege and oppression issues and counseling implications related to Asian American and Korean American clients. She serves as coordinator of the Chi Sigma Iota: Chi Epsilon chapter at Georgia State University and was the lead editor for the book, “Professional Counseling Excellence through Leadership and Advocacy.” Chang previously served as president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development and Chi Sigma Iota-International. She was the 2018 recipient of the American Counseling Association’s David K. Brooks, Jr. Distinguished Mentor Award and she is an American Counseling Association Fellow. Chang is the 2020 recipient of Chi Sigma Iota’s Thomas J. Sweeney Professional Leadership Award and the American Counseling Association’s Thomas J. Sweeney Award for Visionary Leadership and Advocacy.
Ashlei Rabess
Department of Counseling and Psychological Services
Ashlei Rabess, who is pursuing her doctorate in counselor education and practice, has worked as a school- and community-based mental health counselor as well as a couple and family therapist in both Florida and Georgia for the past six years. Her research focuses on multiculturalism and social justice in counseling and counselor education, and generational trauma and healing in Black families and communities. Rabess currently serves as president of the Chi Epsilon chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, editorial assistant for the Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy and was selected as an emerging leader for the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Additionally, Rabess is a 2016 (master’s) and 2020 (doctoral) recipient of the National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Award.
Citation
Chang, Catherine Y. and Rabess, Ashlei (2020). “Response to Signature Pedagogies: A Framework for Pedagogical Foundations in Counselor Education: Through a Multicultural and Social Justice Competencies Lens,” Teaching and Supervision in Counseling: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7290/tsc020203.