Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Multicultural Counseling in Communication Sciences and Disorders

The United States is becoming a more culturally and linguistically diverse country. However, despite this increase in the cultural diversity of the US only 7.9% of speech-language pathologists identify as racial minorities compared to 28.6% of the US population that identifies as such. A national survey of practitioners indicated that the majority of speech pathologists did not feel fully qualified in the area of cultural competence. As the needs of the US population diversify, the need for strong abilities in Multicultural Counseling (MC) in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders are necessary. This study assesses the exposure of students in the Masters of Speech-Language Pathology program at Andrews University to observe their perceptions of MC in the field, exposure to MC in their curriculum, and their comfort of engaging in MC in the clinical setting. It is important to see the perceptions of MC in graduate students before they enter the field to see if the next generation of speech pathologists are receiving the proper training they need in MC in graduate school.

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors-undergraduate-poster-symposium/2021/symposium/34