A Handbook for Developing Multicultural Awareness

This book presents a practical guide on how to improve the communication and cultural awareness among culturally different people. It is organized into three parts which correspond to the three stages of multicultural development: awareness, knowledge, and skills. The first part emphasize the awareness of culturally learned opinions, attitudes, and assumptions. Chapter 1 applies the awareness, knowledge, and skill sequence to assessing needs, developing objectives, designing training, implementing training, and evaluating outcomes. Chapter 2 presents 12 exercises to help trainees identify their own culturally learned assumptions, opinions, and attitudes. Chapter 3 discusses 10 culturally biased assumptions from a white, middle-class, urban, male, dominant culture perspective. Chapter 4 begins the second part of the book by emphasizing knowledge about multicultural counseling. Chapter 5 emphasizes research on multicultural counseling; chapter 6 reviews data and information, describing why multicultural awareness is needed in the counseling profession. Chapter 7 begins the third part of the book by discussing skills used in multicultural counseling. Chapter 8 describes the Triad Model as one model for developing multicultural skills in counseling. Chapter 9 describes four dimensions of skill development that apply to developing multicultural awareness. The conclusion summarizes basic elements of awareness, knowledge, and skill as they contribute to developing a multicultural awareness. (NB)