Multicultural Competency Building: a Multi-year Study of Trainee Self-Perceptions of Cultural Competence
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Multicultural Competency Building: a Multi-year Study of Trainee Self-Perceptions of Cultural Competence Janine M. Jones 1
&
Lisa H. Lee 1
Accepted: 12 November 2020 # California Association of School Psychologists 2020
Abstract The rapid growth of cultural diversity in the US population has urged training programs to prepare school psychologists and related school-based mental health practitioners to work with students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Accreditation bodies, such as the National Association of School Psychologists and the American Psychological Association, charge graduate programs with measuring growth in trainees in terms of competencies. As a result, multicultural competency is a domain of professionalism deserving of further study. The current study investigated the effects of a 10-week standalone graduate course on multicultural issues in school psychology, designed to increase self-assessed multicultural competencies in preservice school psychologists. The results indicated a significant increase in students’ perceptions of multicultural competence across all 5 years of the investigation. In addition, using a two-way analysis of variance, cohort effects on growth over time suggested that the demographic composition of cohorts affected the growth in multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Implications and recommendations for future school psychology research are discussed. Keywords Multicultural . Culturally responsive . Cultural competency . Training
Over the past decade, the surging cultural diversity in the composition of the US population has heightened the importance for school psychologists to provide culturally responsive services to students from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds. These shifting demographics are reflected in the current statistics for the US population growth, with one-half of children under 18 years old identifying as students from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds in 2020 (Malone and Ishmail 2020). Although the field of school psychology has pushed towards multiculturally responsive practice via knowledge of biases, self-reflection, and professional skill development to promote more equitable student and school outcomes, gaps in outcomes between individuals from majority and minority backgrounds persist (Johnson et al. 2019). Without a corresponding increase in multicultural competencies in school psychologists serving these populations, leaders in the field warn against the dangers of inaccurately diagnosing, treating, or assuming students’ challenges or strengths based
* Janine M. Jones [email protected] 1
College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
on cultural misunderstanding (Davies et al. 2015; Vega et al. 2015).
Multicultural Competence of School Mental Health Providers Given the demographic shifts that are apparent in the educational system, school psychologists are posed with the important task of providing culturally appropriate services to an increasingly diverse student population. With rising school enr
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