TPC-Journal-V4-Issue1

71 Increases in diverse clientele have caused counselor education to enhance its focus on multicultural pedagogy, using the Tripartite Model (TM) to impart multicultural learning. While knowledge and awareness are important, it also is important to enhance skill development in counselors-in-training. Counselor educators have a unique opportunity to blend knowledge and awareness with skills learned in counseling techniques courses by incorporating microskills training in the multicultural classroom. Additionally, other theories, such as Relational- Cultural Theory (RCT), can be used as a framework to merge the TM and microskills. This article includes an overview of RCT, a brief history on microskills training and a case study to integrate the two concepts for use in counselor training. The reader should begin to see how microskills, RCT and the TM can serve to enhance skill development in the multicultural classroom. Keywords : microskills, multicultural, Relational-Cultural Theory, counselor education, pedagogy Kristopher G. Hall is a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. Sejal Barden is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida. Abigail Conley is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Correspondence can be addressed to Kristopher G. Hall, University of Central Florida, College of Education and Human Performance, 12494 University Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32816, kristopher.g.hall@knights.ucf.edu . The Professional Counselor Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 71–83 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2014 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/kgh.4.1.71 Kristopher G. Hall Sejal Barden Abigail Conley A Relational-Cultural Framework: Emphasizing Relational Dynamics and Multicultural Skill Development Counseling as a profession espouses the need for counselors to be culturally competent, as evidenced by the inclusion of diversity training in preparation standards (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2009) and in ethical standards (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2005). According to the 2009 CACREP standards, an institution must provide instruction that includes “an understanding of the cultural context of relationships, issues, and trends in a multicultural society” (Section II, Code G.2, p. 10). Although the importance of multicultural competence is supported in preparatory and ethi- cal standards, current pedagogical practices may be ineffective as graduates of counseling programs frequently report feeling unprepared to effectively work with culturally diverse clients (Bidell, 2005; Bidell, 2012; Rock, Carlson, & McGeorge, 2010). Therefore, counselor educators need to consider how to more effectively meet the challenge and responsibility of cultivating cultural competence for counselor trainees by focusing on increasing skill development (Cates, Schaefle, Smaby, Maddux, & LeBeauf, 2007; Dickson & Jepsen, 2007; Hays, 2008). Priester et al. (2008) conducted a content analysis of 64 introductory master’s-level multicultural course syllabi to understand the content of contemporary multicultural courses. The authors collected the syllabi by examining counseling program Web sites and contacting the instructor of record. Results indicated high em- phasis in multicultural knowledge across syllabi, with over 84% of the syllabi highly emphasizing knowledge and moderate emphasis on self-awareness, with 41% of syllabi emphasizing self-awareness and a significantly lower emphasis of skill acquisition, and with only 12% of syllabi emphasizing skill development. Findings highlight relatively high emphasis on knowledge when working with culturally diverse groups and markedly