Solutions Manual for Counseling the Culturally Diverse Theory and Practice, 8e
INTRODUCTION: TEACHING TIPS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MULTICULTURAL
COUNSELING AND THERAPY COURSES
Activities—Function or Filler?
As instructors, we are aware that our students bring with them a range of preferred
learning styles. We also know that while most people do not learn best by “chalk and talk,” many
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instructors still rely on this teaching approach. Finally, we additionally know that every time that
an additional “sense” is added to the learning process, the percentage of retained information will
likely increase. Although well-designed, well-timed, and well-executed activities can effectively
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address the above, the use of activities, including icebreakers, is often not utilized by instructors
as fully as possible. I strongly advise you to avoid using icebreakers and other activities as
“fillers.” Activities not only offer variety to the instructional process—breaking up information
conveyed via lectures and other more traditional teaching approaches—they also offer students a
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shared springboard. More specifically, there is tremendous value in having students experience
an activity together and then compare, contrast, and process their shared and differing individual
experiences, perceptions, and “take-aways.” (Refer to Appendix VI for additional information
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about icebreakers.)
Included in this Instructor’s Manual (IM) is an icebreaker, entitled “The Mistreated
Giant” (Appendix II)—my rewrite of the fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk” to include issues
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related to oppression, power, and perspective, as well as to provide the necessary “right-left”
element of this icebreaker. This activity has allowed me to get a feel for and address the students’
expressed goals and concerns at the beginning of the course, facilitate class cohesiveness and
name recall and has been an effective springboard for introducing some of the basic components
of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy.
Go-Rounds
Students and instructors will likely find Go-Rounds to be a useful processing, assessment,
and instructional course tool. Go-Rounds take place at the beginning of each class, starting with
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the second-class meeting. In a Go-Round, each student individually verbally shares their primary
take-away from the previous class and/or assignment(s); students can also share something that
has transpired during the intervening week that is not directly related to the readings,
assignments, or what transpired in class, but is still related to the area of Multicultural
Counseling and Therapy. Consistent with the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling
Competencies (MSJCC) “Action” component, I also use this time to identify, and give kudos for,
instances of student “praxis,” where course content/discussion has led to critical reflection and
action. An example of student praxis was when a student, who was employed as a mental health
worker at a nationally acclaimed psychiatric hospital, successfully convinced her department to
purchase multicultural crayons for the children in their pediatric unit.
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I named this class opener “Go Round” because students literally go around the circle
sharing one thing that they remember, took away, had an insight about, were disturbed about,
thought more about, and so on, related to our most recent class/assignments. By sharing
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information in this way, all students have an opportunity to speak—the stage is theirs—and to
engage in active listening. It also increases student openness to and curiosity about the narratives
and experiences of others, facilitates student “ownership” of the course and its content and
increases cultural humility. It additionally helps to quickly bring students back to what took
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place during the preceding week so that we can efficiently move into the theme of the current
class. Finally, as the instructor, I use the Go-Round as an opportunity to highlight, reinforce,
clarify, and supplement what has been said.
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Ground Rules
It is not unusual for students to have concerns, especially at the beginning of this
particular course, about what might take place in class. Examples of such concerns are that the
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student may say or do the “wrong” thing, discover that they are “prejudiced,” and/or may be
misinterpreted by others. The collective anxiety is often palpable. While some discomfort and
“dissonance” is an important component of constructive change in this area, excessive anxiety or
concern can have the opposite effect.
I have found it critical to collaboratively develop a set of “ground rules” for the course,
during the first course meeting. These rules help to create a collectively agreed-upon
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environment in which authentic, challenging, respectful, and “safe” dialogue can take place. The
rules help identify and address student concerns, as well as increase the likelihood that student—
and instructor—goals for the course will be met. This activity also provides an additional vehicle
for instruction.
I conduct this activity using an acronym—R-E-S-P-E-C-T—which not only conveys an
important element of the course, and Multicultural Counseling and Therapy, as well, but also
provides letters that will cover most of the concerns, wishes, and goals that students are likely to
have (see Appendix I).
“If It’s Unmentionable, It’s Unmanageable”: Handling Challenging
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Situations
The Judge Baker Good Grief Program, in Boston, Massachusetts, embraces the following
concept: “If it’s unmentionable, it’s unmanageable.” I encourage you—my fellow course
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instructors—to adopt this as one of your guiding principles. It should come as no surprise that a
course that focuses on a topic that continues to be such an increasingly vitriolic and loaded one
for our country, would be expected to result in challenging, oftentimes uncomfortable
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conversations and situations inside—and possibly also outside—of the classroom. I strongly
believe that if students cannot have these difficult discussions in a “controlled” and emotionally
“safe” class setting, then where can such discussions take place? I am not suggesting that
students should be coddled or overprotected. Rather, for such discussions to become maximally
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meaningful and transformative, the 400-pound gorilla must be “named.” We do our students (and
their future clients) a disservice, to do otherwise. As instructors, we become important classroom
models of effective ways to engage in this naming, claiming, and transformation process. By
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exhibiting constructive ways to discuss emotionally charged issues in a non-defensive way, we
encourage students to courageously own, examine, and alter their beliefs, feelings, worldviews,
and issues that would likely interfere with their effectiveness as a multicultural counselor and
embracer of social justice. It is through this naming, claiming, and “taking students where
they’re at” process, that the “unmentionable” can lose its powerful often paralyzing hold on
students and real student change can occur.
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While many of such challenging situations/conversations are predictable and are built
into the structure of the course, it has been my experience that some of the most important in-
class discussions that will occur have been unplanned “teachable moments.” Instructors are
encouraged to read Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence by Dr. Derald Wing Sue—one of
the authors of the current text—for additional information and recommendations about this
critical component of Multicultural Counseling courses (Sue, D. W. (2015). Race Talk and the
Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race. Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley).
Instructional Scaffolding
Instructional scaffolding occurs when teaching takes place in a constructivist way.
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Teaching of concepts and skills, learning experiences/activities, and the challenging of the
student’s current thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes progress in a way that builds on previous
learning and course-related experiences. Instruction becomes progressively more complex and
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challenging.
Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse of the Class
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Students (as well as instructors) are accompanied by their unique configuration of
“baggage” around this often-loaded area; how this “baggage” may surface during the course can
vary widely. I have found that it is important to keep my finger on the “pulse” of the class
throughout the course, and respond/intervene, if and as needed. From a proactive perspective,
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some of the methods that I have used in this regard have included an initial icebreaker activity,
such as “The Mistreated Giant” (Appendix II), “Go-Rounds”; Reflection Sheets (Appendix V);
Guided Journals (brief self-reflective semi-structured essays); student mid- and final course self-
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assessments and other forms of formative assessment “exit tickets”; and building in sufficient
time for activity-related debriefing.
Know Thyself
One of the domains of the MSJCC is Counselor Self-Awareness. Remaining aware of
what you, as the instructor, bring to this area, will increase your teaching effectiveness, and help
to maximize your students’ degree of self-reflection and informed risk-taking.
