Multicultural Guidance and Counselling

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Multicultural Guidance and Counselling

• Mr Mika Launikari, Project Coordinator
• Finnish National Board of Education
• Tel. [phone]
• Email mika.launikari_at_oph.fi

Amsterdam, the Netherlands 10 October 2006
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CONTENTS OF THE PRESENTATION

• EUROPEAN LEVEL POLICY ISSUES
• EUROPEAN HANDBOOK
• MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING
• INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• DEVELOPING MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING COMPETENCIES
• LIFE MAPPING TECHNIQUE

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GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN EUROPE

• Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2001)
• International reviews of career guidance policies
  by OECD, World Bank, CEDEFOP, ETF (2003-2004)
• European Employment Strategy 2005-2008
• Education and Training 2010
• Guidance resolution (2004) High-quality lifelong
  and lifewide guidance is a key component of
  education, training and employability strategies
  in Europe! Guidance is a way to promote SOCIAL
  INCLUSION, SOCIAL EQUITY, GENDER EQUALITY,

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HANDBOOK MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES IN
EUROPE

• Only American and Canadian literature available
• Discussion about multicultural guidance and
  counselling from a European perspective needed
• Finland is not interested in making the same
  mistakes with immigrants as other European
  countries have made during the 1960s and 1970s
• PREVENTIVE MEASURES building up competencies,
  establishing structures, creating good practices,
  etc.

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HANDBOOK ON MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE

• TARGET GROUPS guidance counsellors, trainers of
  guidance counsellors, education and employment
  authorities, human resources personnel,
• CONTENTS combination of theory and practice,
  some policy level issues
• AUTHORS Experts from 8 European countries
• FUNDING European Commission Finnish
  authorities
• HANDBOOK available as a pdf-document at
• http//www.cimo.fi/english -gt Publications

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DEFINITION OF MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE AND
COUNSELLING

• MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING is a
  situation in which two or more persons with
  different ways of perceiving their social
  environments are brought together in a helping
  relationship. (Pedersen 1994)
• MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING refers to preparation
  and practices that integrate multicultural and
  culture-specific aware-ness, knowledge and skills
  into counselling interaction with individuals of
  different ethnic and cultural origin. (Arredondo,
  Toporek al, 1996)
• N.B. The term MULTICULTURAL refers not only
  to various ethnic groups, but also to gender
  issues, different age groups, disabled people,
  people with different sexual identity, etc.

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DEFINITION OF CULTURE developed by UNESCO world
conference on cultural policies

• "In its widest sense culture may now be said
  to be the whole complex of distinctive spiritual,
  material, intellectual and emotional features
  that characterise a society or group. It includes
  not only the arts and letters, but also modes of
  life, the fundamental rights of human beings,
  value systems, traditions and beliefs."
• In other words, culture includes spiritual
  beliefs, actual physical property, people's
  thoughts and emotions. It includes ways of life,
  basic human rights, people's values, beliefs,
  attitudes, norms and traditions.
• N.B.1. No culture is good or bad cultures
  are only different in relation to one another.
• N.B.2. Cultures are dynamic and they evolve over
  time.

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An influential researcher of cultures Geert
Hofstede defines it as a collective programming
of the mind that distinguishes one group or
category of people from another.

• Generally agreed upon characteristics of CULTURE
  are
• CULTURE is shared. All members of a particular
  group will share a common culture which defines
  the range of behaviour "acceptable" within that
  group.
• CULTURE is learned. Culture is not innate or
  instinctive. It is passed from one generation to
  the next and from individual to individual. It
  may change over time, as new items are learned
  and become customs, and others fall into disuse.
• CULTURE is based on symbols. The elements of
  language are the primary symbols used by all
  groups which possess a culture.
• CULTURE is integrated. The culture of a group is
  not a collection of random characteristics. It is
  an interrelated whole.

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MORE CONCEPTS

• ETHNICITY - In general ethnic origin refers to
  membership to a group of persons that are defined
  on grounds of common history, traditions, culture
  or cultural background, language, geographical
  origin and so forth. Ethnicity is experienced
  cultural differences that matters in social
  relations.
• ETHNIC GROUP - Any group of people who set
  themselves apart and are set apart from other
  groups with whom they interact or coexist in
  terms of some distinctive criterion or criteria
  which may be linguistic, racial or cultural.

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WHAT IS MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING?

• What we see and observe, how we define
  ourselves, what we eat and drink, what we like
  and value, are products of our culture. Our
  culture determines our choices and views,
  although it does not explain everything. We are
  not prisoners of our cultures, our lives are also
  influenced by our society. Taking the cultural
  background of our clients into account in
  counselling does not mean that we adopt a
  stereotypical attitude towards them but that we
  accept and understand differences.
• Multicultural guidance and counselling does not
  mean that counsellors should know as much as
  possible about different cultures but that they
  are aware of the impact of culture on the
  personalities and behaviour of both the
  counsellor him- or herself and the client.

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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES 2 MAIN TRENDS

• UNIVERSAL TREND emphasises that all counselling
  is multicultural in the sense that all
  individuals belong to many cultures that have
  different values.
• e.g. a black, disabled man from an ethnic
  minority
• CULTURE-SPECIFIC TREND stresses the importance of
  understanding and responding to the special
  nature of certain cultural groups in counselling
  and keeping in mind that clients should be seen
  both as individuals and as members of a
  culturally different group.
• e.g. a cultural group defined by ethnic
  background

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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES CULTURAL IDENTITY

• NATIONAL Japanese, American, French,
• ETHNIC Arab, Zulu, Roma,
• REGIONAL East German, West German,
• GENDER cultural models based on the gender roles
  in ethnic groups
• SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS rich vs. poor, high vs. low
  status, ...
• LEVEL OF EDUCATION no formal education, basic
  education, ...
• RELIGION Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Atheist,
  
• AGE different generations in national and ethnic
  groups
• PHYSICAL ASPECTS blind, deaf,
• SEXUAL ORIENTATION straight, gay, bi, lesbian,
• ORGANISATION multinational, public, private,

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COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURES

• COLLECTIVE CULTURE WE comes before I, the
  whole extended family involved in decision
  making, individual is an integrated member of a
  cohesive ingroup communal responsibility, social
  usefulness, acceptance of authority, loyalty to
  family are important.
• INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURE I precedes WE,
  individual has full freedom of choice concerning
  his/her life (work, education, religion,
  politics, social role, ), self-actualisation and
  independence are highly valued, reservations
  towards authorities, loyalty to things that are
  personally important and relevant.

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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

• Intercultural communication can be defined as
  face-to-face interaction between people whose
  cultures are significantly different from one
  another. (Bennett, M. 1998 Basic concepts of
  intercultural communication)
• The sending and receiving of messages can be
  divided into verbal and non-verbal communication.
  What is said is closely linked to how it is said.
  The impressions (e.g. closeness or distance,
  spontaneity or reservedness) that we get from
  people are to a great extent based on non-verbal
  communication (e.g. gestures, facial expressions,
  eye-contact, touching, body distance, )

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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

• There are a number of cultural verbal and
  non-verbal communication differences that can
  influence the communication and counselling
  process with individuals from culturally and
  linguistically different backgrounds.
• If misunderstood and/or misinterpreted, many of
  these communication differences can seriously
  jeopardise the relationship between guidance
  counsellor and client.
• CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOUR IS
  CRUCIAL TO SUCCESSFUL COUNSELLING OUTCOMES!

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EXAMPLES OF MULTICULTURAL ISSUES IN NON-VERBAL
COMMUNICATION

• N.B. Individual, context and cultural
  differences contri-bute to difficulties in
  interpreting non-verbal messages. For example
• BODY LANGUAGE
• PHYSICAL SPACE AND TOUCHING
• TIME
• EYE CONTACT
• VOCAL TONE AND SPEECH RATE

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SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL NON-VERBAL
COMMUNICATION

• Knowledge and understanding of others
  non-verbal communication is the key to successful
  non-verbal communication across cultures.
• BE AWARE AND DELAY ATTRIBUTIONS
• BE AWARE OF YOUR OWN NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
• MATCH YOUR COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOUR TO DIFFERENT
  CULTURES

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL GUIDANCE
COUNSELLORS relevant for general and
multicultural counselling competencies

• CARING as a core element
• SELF-AWARENESS who am I, what is my culture?
• SENSITIVITY towards cultural differences
• ABILITY to analyse ones own feelings
• ABILITY to act as a model to others
• ABILITY to support counselees individual growth
• ALTRUISM (unselfish regard for the welfare of
  others)
• STRONG SENSE OF ETHICS
• RESPONSIBILITY for oneself and others

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EMPATHY AS A CORE COUNSELLING QUALITY

• EMPATHY describes an attempt to understand
  by imagining or comprehending the others
  perspective and communicating that understanding
  back to the person.
• EMPATHY is based on an assumption of difference
  and implies respect for that difference and a
  readiness to give up temporarily ones own
  worldview to imaginatively participate in the
  others.

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CULTURE-GENERAL ADVICE FOR SHOWING EMPATHY

• RESPOND TO CORE THEMES (i.e. listen attentively,
  put clients central messages into his/her own
  words)
• RECOVER FROM MISUNDERSTANDINGS (i.e. check out
  your perceptions with the client)
• DO NOT PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND (i.e. ask for more
  information/further clarification)
• USE TIME IN WAYS THAT REFLECT EMPATHY (i.e. take
  time to think before you speak/respond to
  clients)

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CULTURE-SENSITIVE ADVICE FOR SHOWING EMPATHY

• CHECK YOURSELF FOR CULTURAL BIASES AND HIDDEN
  PREJUDICES (i.e. be as objective as possible)
• DO NOT STEREOTYPE (i.e. avoid overgeneralising
  about any cultural group)
• INCORPORATE CULTURAL AND ETHNIC DATA INTO
  COUNSELLING (i.e. personalise the cultural
  information that you get from your clients)
• USE CULTURAL SCHEMATA (i.e. mental structures
  that are characteristic of one cultural group but
  not others)

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VARIOUS STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING MULTICULTURAL
COMPETENCIES

• EXPERTS in various sectors in your country, in
  Europe
• VOLUNTEER for work in an agency dealing with
  culturally different clients
• RESOURCE PERSONS from ethnic groups
• REVIEW of counselling journals, professional
  literature
• DAILY JOURNAL for identifying insights regarding
  your own cultural identity, assumptions,
  behaviour,
• TRAINING to learn more about multicultural issues

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LIFE SPACE MAPPING CASE FROM SWEDEN

• The original LIFE SPACE mapping technique was
  created by Vance Peavy, Canada
• - two round spaces are drawn on a large paper
  one of them for PRESENT SITUATION and the other
  for FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
• - these two round spaces are combined with a
  bridge or ladder which represents the steps that
  the client needs to take before he/she can reach
  the potential goals.
• - SWEDEN a third circle was needed to this
  visualisation to represent THE PAST (see next
  slide)

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LIFE SPACE MAPPING CASE FROM SWEDEN

• O OO
• The past The present
  The future
• Diagram 1. The three circles of Life Space
  mapping

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GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN FINLAND Building up
multicultural counselling competencies

• In-service training of guidance counsellors
• Initial training of guidance counsellors
• Information materials
• Research
• Professional study visits abroad
• Participation in national and international
  conferences
• Nationally and internationally funded projects