Continuing Efforts to Investigate and Validate Cross-cultural Competencies

Although several researchers have identified competencies for school psychologists working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations, most have relied on reviews of the literature or the authors’ own expertise to generate the areas of competency (Gopaul-McNicol, 1997; Figueroa et al., 1984; Rosenfield & Esquivel, 1985). Research based competencies were recently generated by Lopez and Rogers (2001) and Rogers and Lopez (2002). Both investigations asked panels of experts to identify essential cross-cultural competencies. However, those two investigations generated two sets of essential cross-cultural competencies that are not yet integrated nor validated.

Specific competencies must also be investigated and validated for bilingual psychologists working with bilingual students and English language learners. Bilingual language skills (i.e., skills in communicating in two languages) are only some of the competencies that bilingual school psychologists need to provide effective services to linguistically diverse children and their families (Figueroa et al., 1984; Rosenfield & Esquivel, 1985). Bilingual school psychologists must also have knowledge of language development in the languages that they are proficient in to be able to examine children’s first and second acquisition skills. Such skills would be helpful to bilingual school psychologists as they examine children’s assessment results in two languages (e.g.., assessment of cognitive, academic and/or language skills in Chinese and English). Also relevant is knowledge about how the use of two languages can impact the counseling process as in situations where clients may respond to issues differently depending on the language(s) used during sessions (e.g., speaking to a client in her native language about family relationship issues may evoke themes that did not emerge in previous discussions conducted only in English; Oquendo, 1996).

School psychologists who are bilingual in specific languages (e.g., a Chinese and English speaking school psychologist) are also often called to work with other linguistically diverse clients via interpreters (e.g., clients speaking Spanish, Urdu, Hindi, or Russian). As such, bilingual school psychologists need to have, in addition to special competencies related to the specific language groups they support, skills and knowledge relevant to working with other linguistically diverse clients.

In addition to the challenge of systematically identifying cross-cultural competencies, there is also a need to develop valid and reliable tools to assess the cross-cultural competencies of graduate students in school psychology programs, faculty in training programs, and of practitioners in the field. The counseling field has clearly taken the lead on confronting this challenge. For example, three tools reviewed by Ponterotto, Rieger, Barrett, and Sparks (1994) are available as self-report measures of multicultural counseling competencies. A fourth measure, the Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (LaFromboise, Coleman & Hernandez, 1991) was designed for supervisors to evaluate counselor’s multicultural competencies. In school psychology, the only published instrument is the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale (Rogers & Ponterotto, 1997), a measure specifically designed to assess counseling skills. Other instruments are needed to assess the full array of services that school psychologists deliver.

Meeting Training Needs

The challenges related to meeting training needs are multiple and interrelated. The available research suggests that there is a shortage of practicing school psychologists well prepared to provide psychological services to CLD clients (Ochoa et al, 1997). The shortage of multicultural competent school psychologists leads us to question the consequences of providing services to populations we are not equipped to work with. For example, what are the consequences of (a) Using psychological and educational measures not validated for specific populations of students, (b) translating tests on the spot and using those scores as if they are representative of students’ levels of functioning, and (c) developing and implementing interventions that do no take into account the children’s and families’ cultural backgrounds? These questions and many others must be examined to continue to move the field to further explore cross-cultural competencies in practice and training.

Training programs face the challenges of meeting the training standards set by the NASP (2000a) and the accreditation guidelines established by the APA (2002b) regarding multicultural training. A careful examination of these standards point to areas of overlap as well as points of divergence. Both the NASP and the APA training standards emphasize coverage of multicultural issues in all aspects of the curriculum, and stress the need to provide applied training experiences and placements with diverse clients. In addition, both advise programs to promote the recruitment and retention of CLD students and faculty. APA’s standards go one step further by noting that minority recruitment efforts must be “systematic, coherent, and long-term” (p. 12). NASP’s standards extend to include the need for training programs to communicate their commitment to diversity in their mission and program philosophy. In addition, NASP’s standards also make specific statements about the need for future school psychologists to (a) recognize their own biases and the ways that bias affects “decision-making, instruction, behavior, and long-term outcomes for students” (p. 29), and (b) “develop…interventions that reflect knowledge and understanding of children and families’ cultures…” (p. 28). What the standards do not state are specific recommendations for how training programs should engage in these objectives, leaving trainers with little explicit guidance or insight about how to achieve excellence in these areas.

Training programs may not have faculty with cross-cultural expertise to train future school psychologists to work with CLD populations. Questions then arise as to the need to prepare trainers so that they are able to integrate cross-cultural issues into the program curricula and applied training experiences. Do trainers recognize their own need for cross-cultural competencies? How do we go about preparing trainers? What areas do we emphasize when preparing trainers (e.g., specific cross-cultural competencies related to their areas of specialty, overview of issues)? Of concern also is research in psychology and education suggesting that CLD faculty members who are hired for tenure track positions confront a number of personal and institutional barriers that may result in lower retention rates of CLD faculty within university settings (e.g., lack of CLD faculty serving as models and mentors, lack of institutional support, unfamiliarity with the tenure process and demands) (Hendricks, 1997).

Training programs encounter barriers when attempting to recruit CLD graduate students. For example, financial constraints prevent CLD students from attempting graduate school. In addition, the university community may not be ethnically diverse or may not reflect the students’ backgrounds (Constantine & Ladany, 1996). Muñoz-Dunbar and Stanton (1999) suggest that CLD students may measure institutional sensitivity to cultural diversity by the presence or absence of faculty members from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Bilingual graduate students may be difficult to recruit because although they may have oral language skills in English and/or a language other than English, those bilingual skills may not translate into proficiency in reading and/or writing. This pattern is not unusual because oral skills in a second language typically develop earlier than writing skills (Collier, 1992). Other bilingual applicants may also be able to communicate well orally in their first language but never had the opportunity to receive instruction in reading or writing in the first language and thus lack the corresponding reading and writing skills.

Retention of CLD graduate students is also a challenge for training programs. Studies suggest that relative to White students, minority students tend to experience greater feelings of alienation and isolation in academic environments that lack cultural diversity (Bernal et al., 1999). When culturally diverse faculty are not present in a graduate program or department, CLD students lack role models, mentors, and important sources of support (Constantine & Ladany, 1996). Other CLD students struggle with acculturation conflicts as in situations where women students experience confusion and stress as a result of their culturally traditional families questioning their desire to acquire a higher level of education and a profession. Graduate students from CLD backgrounds who were not educated in American educational systems also experience difficulties in understanding how to succeed in an university system that is new to them, and in figuring out how to function in fieldwork settings (e.g., clinics, schools) that reflect majority values and use unfamiliar instructional or classroom practices.

Trainers also face the often difficult task of identifying practicing school psychologists who are multiculturally competent and/or bilingually proficient to provide supervision to trainees during field-based training. Potential supervisors may not have had adequate training in multicultural and/or bilingual issues during their own formal preparation, may vary in their utilization of best practices in service delivery to bilingual and racial/ethnic diverse students, or may be ill-equipped to address the structural and interpersonal inequities that CLD group members face. Studies have shown that both practicing psychologists and psychologists-in-training frequently report being unprepared for delivering services to Blacks/African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and gays/lesbians/bisexuals (Allison, Crawford, Echemendia, Robinson, & Knepp, 1994; Mintz, Bartels, & Rideout, 1995; Phillips & Fischer, 1998). Furthermore, Allison et al. (1994) found that even though the clinical and counseling psychologists in their sample did not feel competent to deliver services to some CLD group members, they continued to provide services. Ochoa, Rivera, and Ford (1997) found that about 80% of the practicing school psychologists they sampled had not been trained to perform bilingual psychoeducational assessments although more than half (57%) had conducted such assessments. The practice of providing highly specialized services to clients in the absence of demonstrated competency raises serious ethical concerns about the practitioner’s compliance with both the APA (2002a) and NASP (2000b) ethical codes and the degree that the services provided meet the highest standards for service delivery.

Specific challenges also exist in locating bilingual school psychologists to supervise practica and internship students. Some bilingual school psychologists have the experience that, by virtue of being the only bilingual school psychologist in a specific district, they are assigned to restricted roles such as only conducting assessments because of a backlog of bilingual assessment cases. Practicing supervisors in such situations would provide limited experiences for practica and internship students because they do not deliver consultation, counseling, and intervention/prevention services. Districts with serious shortages of bilingual school psychologists and other bilingual personnel assessment personnel often respond to their immediate needs by contracting with outside agencies to complete bilingual assessment cases instead of planning long-term by hiring a CLD cadre of school psychologists who can meet their communities’ ongoing needs.

Other systemic issues also impact training experience. Bilingual school psychologists may be hired to work in urban districts where most community members use a language different than the bilingual school psychologist’s second language (e.g., Greek speaking school psychologist is hired to work in a Polish speaking community instead of in a district with a Greek speaking community) because the school system and the union dictate school placements not by need (i.e., what the community needs) but by seniority (i.e., school psychologist X has more seniority and gets to choose what school to work in within the district).

Given the challenges in identifying competencies, meeting training needs, recruiting and retaining CLD students and faculty, and confronting systemic issues, it seems imperative to identify actions to meet those challenges. The next section discusses approaches to meet the identified challenges.

Approaches to Investigating and Validating Cross-cultural Competencies

Our first goal must be to continue to conduct research to systematically identify cross-cultural competencies for all school psychologists. Although the work has begun in that area (Lopez & Rogers, 2001; Rogers & Lopez, 2002) more work is needed to validate the competencies in practice. The work must also be extended to identify and validate specific competencies for bilingual school psychologists. Another goal is to develop valid and reliable tools to identify school psychology students’ and practitioners’ competencies. Such tools will be instrumental in helping university programs to establish training goals and conduct program evaluations (e.g., Are students obtaining cross-cultural competencies in courses and field experiences?). Those tools will also help practitioners as well as school psychology students to self-assess their cross-cultural knowledge and skills.

Approaches to Meet Training Needs for Practitioners

The goal of preparing practicing school psychologists to work with CLD populations entails training programs and school systems working together to develop training experiences for practitioners and students in a variety of forums (e.g., university training program, workshops within the district, internet courses). Training can be provided in specific areas of functioning (e.g., assessment, counseling, consultation), specific topics (e.g., second language acquisition, acculturation), and about specific groups (e.g., working with a variety of Latino/Hispanic populations such as Ecudorians, Hondurians, Puerto Rican). Research suggests that specific courses (Keim, Warring, & Rau, 2001; Neville et al., 1996), workshops (Byington, Fischer & Walker, 1997) and a variety of learning activities such as structured feedback, surveys, and games are effective means to improve cross-cultural awareness, knowledge and skills (Dana, Aguilar-Kitibutr, Diaz-Vivar, & Vetter, 2002; Kim & Lyons, 2003; Roysircar, Webster, & Germer, 2003). Training experiences can include self-exploration, structured activities designed to increase awareness of diverse groups (e.g., trips to ethnically diverse communities led by members of the community or peers from those communities), reading of the literature, and supervised work experiences (LaFromboise & Foster, 1992). Developing communities of peer support via local (e.g., peer supervision provided within a district or across districts) or national mentoring programs (e.g., use of technology and the internet for distance supervision support and distance learning) should also be explored. The training research supports the use of follow-up mentoring, supervision, and coaching to help practitioners apply the knowledge and skills learned in workshops and courses (Showers & Joyce, 1996). In addition, the field needs more training programs for bilingual school psychologists.

One way to meet the many training needs is through the creation of national and regional training centers. Regional centers may be established through APA and NASP or through funding from federal and state sources to address diversity issues such as training, recruitment and retention issues for practitioners, graduate students and faculty. Such centers can provide training opportunities and disseminate information. For example, the Queens College and Brooklyn College, City University of New York campuses obtained a three-year grant (1998–2001) to create the Bilingual Psychological and Educational Assessment Support Center. The Center was supported through New York State Education funding and was created to provide training support to school psychologists and other school professionals working with CLD children and youth. The Center (a) created and received feedback from an Advisory Council composed of trainers, practitioners, and researchers; (b) provided support to various New York State Education programs and offices about training issues; (c) implemented workshops on a variety of topics and in a variety of locations (e.g., national, at the two campuses, at local school districts), (c) provided consultation services (e.g., to local school psychology programs about training issues, to school districts about locating bilingual assessment personnel, to practitioners seeking information about assessment practices); and (d) created a website where a variety of information was disseminated (e.g., syllabi, training materials, newsletter summarizing research as well as practice based information [http://forbin.qc.edu/ECP/bilingualcenter/]).

Greater collaboration is needed between university training programs, state education departments, school districts, unions, and community leaders to draft common goals to increase the number of school psychologists with multicultural competencies and the numbers of CLD school psychologists, including bilingual psychologists, who can respond to the individual needs of each community. For example, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) consulted with school psychology trainers to create a bilingual specialization for school psychologists. Bilingual school psychologists are now credentialed by the NYSED and must take a series of courses on bilingual and multicultural issues. In addition, they must complete a bilingual fieldwork experience and must demonstrate bilingual language skills via a language proficiency exam given by the NYSED. This decision has led to the credentialing of many bilingual school psychologists throughout the State and has provided an incentive for school psychologists with bilingual expertise to seek appropriate training. Incentives must also be provided to encourage school psychologists to acquire multicultural expertise, perhaps through a national certification or specialization in multicultural issues, local incentives (e.g., salary increments), and special recognitions (e.g., credentials awarded through state education departments).

Practitioners, trainers, and professional organizations also need to work together to expand the roles of bilingual school psychologists beyond the roles of assessors to focus on prevention and intervention roles and provide a full compliment of psychological services. Collaboration amongst those sources can also lead to mutually beneficially ventures such as identifying specialized field placements that provide future school psychologists with opportunities to work with CLD groups.

Approaches to Meet Training Needs in School Psychology Graduate Programs

Recruitment and retention strategies are also needed targeting school psychology graduate students committed to working with CLD populations. Recruitment strategies found to be effective at increasing enrollments for CLD students include financial support, personal contacts from CLD faculty and students, soliciting recruits from other higher education institutions (particularly historical institutions of color), employing CLD faculty, offering peer support groups, mentorship programs, involvement in special projects and research with mentoring from faculty and/or field supervisors (Maton & Hrabowski, 2004; Rogers, 2006; Rogers & Molina, 2005; Salzman, 2000). Bidell, Turner, and Casas (2002) found that information included in application materials had an impact on enrollment rates for diverse students. Specifically, high enrollments of a diverse student body were found at programs that included financial aid information, an antidiscrimination policy, and a statement communicating a commitment to diversity in training and student recruitment in their application materials. Among other strategies that can be used are developing a strong national campaign through local, state, and national contacts; developing recruitment materials targeting CLD graduate students; working with community leaders to refer promising students; advertising in local newspapers that target particular communities and groups; and conducting presentations with community agencies (Garman & Mortense, 1997; Muñoz-Dunbar & Stanton, 1999; Puente, Blanch, & Candland, 1993).

Outreach activities designed to target young children as well as high school and undergraduate students are other sources of recruitment that can be adopted and evaluated. For example, members of the Education and Science directorate within the APA participated in a program where children of all ages were exposed to activities (e.g., puzzles, hands-on activities) and demonstrations designed to introduce them to psychological concepts (“Encouraging Children to Discover Psychology,” 2005). The APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools and the APA Psychology Teachers at Community Colleges organized activities designed to provide information to high school students about careers in psychology (“Ethnic Minority Recruitment Project,” 2005). The creation of a school psychology recruitment day or week with dissemination of specially designed materials developed through the school psychology division of the APA (Division 16) and the NASP can encourage practitioners and trainers across the country to plan and implement recruitment activities for students of all ages with emphases on recruiting a culturally diverse cadre of future school psychologists. School psychology courses on roles and functions can also incorporate recruitment assignments whereby CLD school psychology graduate students can participate in presentations and demonstrations based within schools. Within the APA, the Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology have published a number of helpful guides, pamphlets and brochures describing how graduate programs can improve their minority recruitment and retention efforts (see the Resources section at the end of this chapter).

Bilingual and bicultural training experiences can also be provided within training programs and in collaboration with other training programs. For example, reading and writing workshops for bilingual school psychologists who lack literacy skills in languages other than English, and national as well as international exchange programs should be explored (e.g., taking series of courses in another university in the country or outside of the country).

Providing direct contact with CLD clients through local, national as well as international field placements may also provide school psychology students with exposure to a variety of practical experiences with different populations and contexts (e.g., rural, urban). Field experiences should be comprehensive in providing graduate students with the opportunity to engage in assessment, counseling, consultation, research and other activities with CLD children and families. Investigations in counseling psychology have demonstrated that counseling students acquire multicultural knowledge and skills through workshops, coursework, structured experiences with CLD clients (e.g., the percentage of caseloads are of culturally and linguistically diverse clients), contact with CLD staff, training seminars, assignments of supervisors from ethnically diverse backgrounds and with cross-cultural expertise, assessment of the interns’ acquisition of cross-cultural knowledge and skills, annual client feedback surveys, case presentations, self assessments of cross-cultural competencies, and participation in multicultural research (Manese, Wu, & Nepomuceno, 2001; Pope-Davis, Reynolds, Dings & Ottavi, 1994).

We need to identify useful strategies and techniques to develop the cross-cultural competence of existing faculty, and recruit and retain CLD faculty. Faculty would benefit from course releases to learn about multicultural curriculum transformation and to incorporate their new competencies into their teaching. Mentorship relationships whereby faculty with cross-cultural expertise provide feedback and support as peers develop syllabi, plan courses, choose readings and activities may also be fruitful. One of the challenges of teaching multicultural issues is that faculty often encounter situations where learners respond to diversity issues with a range of emotions that include anger (e.g., “I have no right to speak up because I am not from a culturally diverse background!”), withdrawal (e.g., “I am afraid to talk about my cultural group because others may not understand”), defensiveness (e.g., “I am not a racist!”), guilt (e.g., “As a member of the majority group I feel responsible for acts of racism”), and confusion (e.g., “How do I integrate this new knowledge given my current perceptions and experiences?”) (Jackson, 1999). Support in the form of a workshops, supervision or mentorship is helpful as faculty confront the challenges associated with teaching diversity issues that are often charged by conflicting points of view and emotions.