Consider the broader definition of culture introduced in this module and the challenges of stereotyping, discrimination, and racism that persist in today's systems and structures. How can some of the theories and models introduced within this course support a more culturally informed, responsive, and humble approach in career counselling?

References:

The framework of culture-infused competencies by Collins and Arthur (2007) describes three domains of core competencies:

• Domain I: Demonstrate Cultural Awareness of Self - Counsellors are encouraged to recognize they are cultural beings and consequently their own cultural identity shapes their worldview and approaches to "counselling." Consequently, counsellors strive to increase awareness of their own personal cultural identities and views on work, life, and learning.
• Domain II: Demonstrate Cultural Awareness of Other - Organizational, social, economic, and political contexts impact a client's understanding of career concepts, challenges, and success. Counsellors are encouraged to help clients cope and adapt to contextual factors impacting their barriers.
• Domain III: Establish A Culturally Sensitive Therapeutic Relationship - This is characterized by a culturally sensitive working alliance where the goals and tasks of the career counselling process are agreed upon and established in a collaborative, trusting, and respectful manner. Counsellors are encouraged to be mindful of counsellor-client mismatches and culturally inappropriate interventions that can impede a client's motivation.

The core construct is cultural identity. In their Culture-Infused Career Counselling (CICC) model, Arthur and Collins (2011) identified six guiding assumptions:

• Culture is relevant in career interventions with all clients, not just those in designated groups
• Culture is also relevant for all counsellors and career practitioners
• Views of career and career issues are socially and culturally defined
• Career theories and models contain cultural assumptions
• Career goals and interventions need to be collaboratively defined with clients to ensure they are a cultural fit
• Counsellors and career practitioners may need to go beyond traditional roles to change systems and policies

Pope (2019) developed the Career Counseling with Underserved Populations (CCUSP) model, offering tips for working effectively with individuals from nondominant cultures:

• Take responsibility for your own biases/prejudices
• Know/use process of cultural identity development
• Know special issues of specific cultures
• Directly address issues of discrimination
• Recognize that group career counselling has strong appeal to many minority clients
• Pay particular attention to the role of the family
• Pay attention to special issues of dual-career couples
• Be aware of special issues using career assessment tools with individuals from diverse cultural groups
• Help clients overcome internalized negative stereotypes or internalized oppression
• Attend to coming-out issues with clients for whom cultural membership is not obvious
• Overcome societal stereotyping as a limitation on occupational choice through occupational role models/networking interventions
• Maintain a supportive atmosphere in your office
• Provide positive advocacy for culturally diverse clients

Leong (2011) also described the Cultural Accommodation Model (CAM) which defined several domains which are equally important to understanding a human's experience:

• Universal (U) - traditional "Western" models of career development tend to focus on the knowledge base of mainstream psychology and universal laws of human behaviour which have been supported by long-standing, large-scale bodies of research.
• Group (G) - all persons share an association/bond with some "group" whether that be based on cultural identities, social class, occupation, religion, or gender. It is this domain where the cross-culturally applicability/suitability of the U domain is critically analyzed and critiqued.
• Individual (I) - the personal differences and unique human experience. This helps us to challenge stereotypes or overgeneralizations of the G domain.

To apply the CAM in practice, counsellors must strive to:

• Identify cultural gaps/blind spots in existing theory
• Select current culturally specific concepts/models to fill gaps and accommodate the theory
• Test the culturally accommodated theory

The notion of acculturation, that is the modification of or changes in a person's culture as a result of contact with another culture, has been expanded to help counsellors further understand the cultural location of their clients (Nuttgens & Campbell, 2010).

• Traditional: Clients speak only their language of origin, hold traditional beliefs, and practice traditional customs
• Marginal: Clients may or may not speak English or French as well as a language of origin, and do not see value in either mainstream or traditional cultures
• Bi-cultural: Client accepts practices and beliefs of both mainstream and traditional cultures
• Assimilated: Clients have rejected their culture of origin in favour of mainstream culture
• Pan traditional: Clients are integrated into mainstream culture, but make an effort to continue traditional ways and to recover lost practices and customs

Clearly, cultural values, language factors, and unique experiences must be considered when determining the counselling strategies to be implemented when working with clients from a different culture. However, counsellors will have some essential human experiences in common with their clients. Knowledge, empathy, and experience working with essential human processes can be a beginning to building a strong culturally sensitive therapeutic alliance.

References & Additional Resources:

Arthur, N. (2019). Culture-Infused Career Counselling: Connecting culture and social justice in career practices.

Links to an external site.

In N. Arthur, R. Neault, & M. McMahon. (Eds.), Career theories and models at work: Ideas for practice (pp. 21-30). CERIC.

Arthur, N., & Collins, S. (2011). Infusing culture in career counseling

Links to an external site.

. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 147-149. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01098.x

Links to an external site.

Collins, S., & Arthur, N. (2007). A framework for enhancing multicultural counselling competence.

Links to an external site.

Canadian Journal of Counselling, 41(1), 31-49.

Leong, F. T. L. (2011). Cultural accommodation model of counseling

Links to an external site.

. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 150-152. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01099.x

Nuttgens, S. A., & Campbell, A.J. (2010). Multicultural considerations for counselling First Nations clients

Links to an external site.

. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 44(2), 115-129.

Pope., M. (2011). The career counseling with underserved populations model

Links to an external site.

. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4). 153-155. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01100.x

Pope, M. (2019). The career counselling with underserved populations model in practice

Links to an external site.

. In N. Arthur, R. Neault, & M. McMahon (Eds.), Career theories and models at work: Ideas for practice (pp. 337-346). CERIC.

4.2: Realities of Stereotyping, Discrimination, and Racism

According to Swanson and Fouad (2010), "all clients operate within a cultural context. Clients are shaped in part by such factors as their gender, racial identity and background, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status (SES), or disability, which help to form their environments and their responses to the environment. A central tenet of all approaches to cross-cultural career counselling is that the most effective career counselling explicitly incorporates these contextual factors" (p. 77).

Although some literature focuses primarily on culture as traditionally conceptualized as membership in a particular ethnic group, in this course you are encouraged to think of culture more broadly. For example, within the city of Vancouver the culture of the west side of Vancouver differs markedly from that of the downtown eastside. There are rural-urban differences in culture, too. Can you think of ways that career might be thought of differently if you grew up in Hope as opposed to downtown Vancouver? Age is a cultural factor as well; you could argue that adolescents across ethnic groups have as much in common with each other as with members of their own ethnic group.

Here are some of the main points to keep in mind:

• Career counsellors need knowledge of specific cultures, but they also need to be cautious about cultural stereotyping. Many factors affect clients (e.g., age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, socio-economic status, acculturation), and it is important not to assume that ethnicity is the client's most salient characteristic.
• Discrimination and poverty disproportionately affect minority racial/ethnic groups. Restriction of opportunity is a very real barrier for many people, and the traditional approach of matching individual characteristics to occupations to determine one's "dream career" may be inappropriate and unrealistic. Remember, though, that it is possible that it may be a client'sperceptionof lack of opportunity that is the real issue.
• Some of the historical tenets of career counselling may work against ethical practice with ethnic minority clients, including: (1) assumptions regarding individualism and autonomy; (2) the assumption that clients can afford to spend time on self-reflection, career exploration, and/or training; (3) the assumption that opportunities are available to all people if they work "hard enough"; (4) the assumption that work is central in people's lives; and (5) the assumption that linear, rational, and objective thinking guide career decision-making (Anderson, Peila-Shuster, & Aragon, 2012).

A few key considerations for counselling clients from minority cultures:

• It is important to explore a client's level of acculturation as it affects both the kinds of occupations a client might consider and the style of counselling the client prefers. For example, level of acculturation may affect whether a client prefers an individual approach that assumes independent decision-making, or an approach in which their family plays a role in decision-making.
• Explicitly attend to racism and oppression and the roles they may have played in suppressing options or creating barriers. Help clients develop strategies to resist and counter racism and discrimination.
• Ask clients whom they will consult about career decision-making. This will help you understand whether the client views career decisions as personal decisions, or whether (and to what extent) they expect family or other members of their culture (e.g., elders) to be involved.
• Assess clients' support system and coping skills.
• Assess whether they are more future-oriented or more focused on the present.
• Cultural values may be more important than personal interests for minority clients, so ask clients about their most important values.
• Ask about potential barriers and about potential supports.
• Take a strengths-based approach (Fouad & Kantamneni, 2012).

According to Zunker (2012), members of the dominant culture may expect cultural groups to gravitate toward a narrow band of occupations due to stereotypic thinking (e.g., "the Indo-Canadian farm worker," "the Chinese grocer," "the Japanese gardener"). These erroneous generalizations account to some extent for the lack of occupational mobility among cultural minorities.

Oreopoulous (2009) conducted a large field study and found that some employers in Canada engaged in name discrimination - they would interview applicants only if their names seemed "Canadian." As a result, some career counselling agents may be suggesting to clients that they need to change their names to sound more Canadian in order to be granted a job interview. This practice may cause much distress, dismay, anger, or confusion for clients (Erlebach, 2011). Although name and other forms of discrimination are likely a reality, a more sensitive, thoughtful, and supportive career counsellor can work with clients to explore the problem and find a way to deal with it that works for each individual.

According to Nuttgens and Campbell (2010), it is a widely held belief that lighter-skinned Canadians enjoy elevated social privilege and status than darker-skinned Canadians. Research has shown that this is true, perhaps even more so for Indigenous Canadians compared to other minorities. Unintentional racism (versus intentional) can have even more of an impact on those affected by it. It can insinuate itself into a person's individual and collective identities, leading to feelings of worthlessness and even self hatred. The potential for racism enacted unintentionally is always present when engaged in a cross-cultural counselling relationship. For Indigenous Canadians, experiences of racism can lead to mental health vulnerabilities such as depression, PTSD, substance abuse issues, and anxiety (Williams et al., 2022).

References & Additional Readings:

Anderson, S. K., Peila-Shuster, J. J., & Aragon, A. (2012). Cross cultural career counseling: Ethical issues to consider.

Links to an external site.

Career Planning & Adult Development Journal, 28(1), 127-139.

Erlebach, A. C. (2011). Doing well in Canada: A critical incident study of immigrants' experiences

Links to an external site.

. [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia]. University of British Columbia Open Commons.https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0072249

Links to an external site.

Fouad, N., & Kantamneni, N. (2012). The role of race and ethnicity in career choice, development, and adjustment.

Links to an external site.

In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.). Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 215-243). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Nuttgens, S. A., & Campbell, A. J. (2010). Multicultural considerations for counselling First Nations clients.

Links to an external site.

Canadian Journal of Counselling, 44(2), 115-129.

Oreopoulos, P. (2009). Why do skilled immigrants struggle in the labor market?: A field experiment with six thousand resumes.

Links to an external site.

Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Diversity. Working Paper Number 03. Metropolis British Columbia.

Swanson, J. L., & Fouad, N. A. (2010). Career theory and practice: Learning through case studies (2nd ed.).

Links to an external site.

Sage.

Williams, M. T., Khanna Roy, A., MacIntyre, M. P., & Faber, S. (2022). The traumatizing impact of racism in Canadians of colour.

Links to an external site.

Current Trauma Reports,8(2), 17-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40719-022-00225-

Links to an external site.