The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience - PDF document

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 The Multicultural Competence Among Faculty and Administrators in a Predominantly White Institution Outline The Problem “Diversifjcation of the United States” (Sue & Sue, 2003) Statement of the Problem Despite the growing complexity of multicultural dynamics at many predominantly White institutions, there is a need for higher education professionals to be prepared to address multicultural issues and acquire certain skills necessary to work efgectively with culturally diverse populations Research Design Mixed Methods Can answer questions that other methodologies cannot Provides stronger inferences Provides the opportunity to present a greater diversity of divergent views T ashakkori & T eddlie (2003) Data Collection Observations, Focus Group Discussions, MCSA-P2 Date Analysis Descriptive Statistics, Mean Scores, T-test, Regression, Reliability Implications Relationship between training, racial identity and Multicultural competence Recommendations Intentional and on-going training Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 Literature Review Global trends indicate that the world’s largest growth populations will be students of color (Banks, 1991; Seeberg, Swadener, Vanden-Wyngaard & Rickel, 1998). These demographic implications strongly suggest that many American universities will undergo a transformation. Despite the growing interest in multicultural issues, and the increasing need for higher education professionals to have certain skills to efgectively address these issues, few studies have specifjcally identifjed and addressed multicultural competencies for efgective and ethical practice in higher education (Barr & Associates, 1993; Pope & Reynolds, 1997). Within the fjeld of higher education, the need for concrete and specifjc multicultural skills has been acknowledged (Ebbers & Henry, 1990; McEwen & Roper, 1994); however, little has been done to specify core multicultural competencies for higher education. For higher education professionals to become more multiculturally competent, training programs need to be developed to further explore multicultural issues in higher education. The disciplines highlighted in this section are attempting to meet the needs of a changing population. Achieving multicultural competence is Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 a challenge for many professions. Primary and secondary education researchers have done signifjcant work in examining multicultural issues (Giroux, 1981; Banks, 1994; Giroux & McLaren, 1994). According to Sowers-Hoag & Sandau-Beckler (1996), generalist social work practitioners must be educationally prepared to efgectively serve multicultural populations. Sowers-Hoag and Sandau-Beckler (1996) developed a curriculum model for the incorporation of knowledge and skill content for the development of culturally competent generalist practitioners. The counseling psychology literature provides useful information for addressing issues of multicultural competence, education, and training (D’Andrea, Daniels, & Heck, 1991; Lafromboise, Coleman, & Hernandez, 1991; Sodowsky, T afge, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994; Pope-Davis & Dings, 1995; Ponterotto, Rieger, Barret, Harris, Sparks, Sanchez, & Magids, 1996). Higher education professionals appear to be unsure about the defjnition of the term multicultural, as well as about, how they can systematically and efgectively participate in creating a diversity-positive climate and a multicultural campus environment (Pope, 1993; Stage & Hamrick, 1994). The disciplines and highlighted are not the only ones developing multicultural programs for the helping Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 professions, but they do provide examples of current approaches from which higher education institutions can begin to frame their own programs. Research Findings/Study A mixed methods design was utilized for this research study . Qualitative approaches get close to people and situations to personally understand the realities. The qualitative methods employed were focus group discussions and observations. Focus group discussions allow for interactions to stimulate participants to state feelings, perceptions, and beliefs (Fontana & Frey, 2000). Observations provide knowledge of the context of specifjc behaviors that can be used as reference points (Merriam, 1998). The quantitative method employed for this research was the Multicultural Competence of Student Afgairs- Preliminary 2 Scale (MCSA-P2). Quantitative methods require the use of standardized measures so that the very perspectives & experiences of people can be fjt into a limited number of predetermined response categories, to which numbers are assigned (Patton, 1990). Sample The participants for the study were First Year Experience instructors. These are instructors which teach a first year course called the Student Success Seminar. The demographic make up of the participants were: mean age of the 43.8, White – 62.1%, Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 African American – 27.6%, Asian/Pacific Islander – 3.4%, Other – 6.9%. The degree attainment of the participants included: Masters – 62.1%, Doctorate – 37.9% Procedures A request for participation letter was mailed to all faculty and administrators that teach or had taught the FYE course. A follow-up email was sent for confjrmation. The survey (MCSA-P2) was administered followed by the focus group discussion. The discussions was facilitated by a researcher from Counseling Psychology whose research includes operationalizing multicultural competencies in that fjeld. The discussions and observations were Recorded and scribed by the researcher. Data Analysis The observations yielded an interesting pattern silence, immediate responses, or head nods. From the discussions, a theme was developed through classifjcations of questions with responses related to the research questions and classifjcations of responses related to knowledge, awareness, and skills. The quantitative analysis of the MCSA-P2 scale included descriptive statistics, which included high mean scores and low standard deviations which indicated a high level of agreement for some questions; the T-test revealed that items Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 of signifjcance at the p<.05 level involved social & systemic multicultural issues rather than personal multicultural issues. When the stepwise regression method was performed, it revealed that conference attendance and courses taken were signifjcant and not by chance, to the level of multicultural competence of the faculty and administrators in this study . The reliability analysis yielded a high alpha of .9205, which demonstrated that the MCSA-P2 scale was a reliable instrument for the measurement of the construct of multicultural competence. Implications and Recommendations The results of this study seem to suggest that racial/ethnic minorities defjne multicultural competence in a difgerent way than their Euro-American counterparts. The results of this study have implications for the training and development of multicultural competence. Higher education professionals, at all levels of experiences and responsibility, can benefjt from multicultural training. It is recommended that training for the FYE faculty and administrators should be provided. T raining should be ongoing and a systematic process to serve as a guide for the transformation to Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu

The Seventeenth International Conference on The First-Year Experience June 2004 multiculturally competent First Year Experience higher education professionals. Higher education professionals can draw on the experience of other helping professions to benchmark the efgectiveness of such training programs. The results of the statistical analyses suggest that additional training will increase multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills. Dr. Brenda L. H. Marina The University of Akron marinab@uakron.edu