EXAMINING SCHOOL COUNSELORS’ MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING COMPETENCIES AND MULTICULTURAL PERSONALITY TRAITS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate school counselors' multicultural counseling competencies and multicultural personality traits. The survey’s data was derived from 460 school counselors working at primary, secondary, and high schools that belong to the Ministry of Education. The sample of the study consists of 151 men and 309 women. Multicultural Counseling Competencies Scale was used to determine school counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling and the Multicultural Personality Scale was used to determine school counselors’ perceived multicultural personality traits. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine whether counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies differ significantly in terms of some variables that included, level of degree, gender, frequency of working with culturally diverse clients, multicultural courses are taken, and the number of known languages. The stepwise regression analysis was used to examine whether the school counselors’ multicultural personality traits predict the counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies.

The results of MANOVA analyses indicate that there is no significant difference between counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies according to, gender and multicultural courses are taken. On the other hand, there is a significant difference between counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies according to the number of known languages, frequency of working with culturally diverse clients, and level of degree.

Results of regression analyses indicate that the school counselors’ multicultural personality traits predict significantly school counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies. Openness, cultural empathy, social assertiveness, and emotional stability which are subscales of the Multicultural Personality Scale predict the school counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies but the flexibility subscale of the Multicultural Personality Scale doesn’t predict the school counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competencies.