...contrasts approach with conventional other humanistic multicultural teaching methods.

**********

Experts have suggested many approaches to teaching multicultural counseling, especially in the past 5 years (Abreu & Atkinson, 2000; Aoki, 2001; Arredondo & Arcinega, 2001; Constantine, 2001a; Diaz-Lazaro & Cohen, 2001; Evans & Foster, 2000; Manese, Wu, & Nepomuceno, 2001; McCreary & Walker, 2001; Ponterotto, 1998; Sevig & Etzkorn, 2001; Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000; Torres-Rivera, Phan, Maddux, Wilbur, & Garrett, 2001; Tyler & Guth, 1999). Perhaps the most influential contributions concern the presentation (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992), operationalization (Arredondo et al., 1996), and, to a lesser extent, the researching of multicultural competencies (Weinrach & Thomas, 2002). Despite the fact that the multicultural competencies have clearly moved issues of multicultural counseling therapy (MCT) to the forefront of mainstream counseling (Abreu & Atkinson, 2000), there have been convincing arguments for further investigation, enhancement, or rebuttal of the ideas in the competencies rather than their complete acceptance (Glausser & Bozarth, 2001; Hanna, Bemak, & Chung, 1999; Patterson, 1996; Torres-Rivera et al., 2001; Weinrach & Thomas, 2002). In addition, some experts are critical of the emphasis that mainstream multicultural teaching methods place on appropriateness over honesty, wisdom, awareness, empathy, and compassion (Glausser & Bozarth, 2001; Hanna et al., 1999; Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000; Torres-Rivera et al., 2001) and the focus of these methods on racial groups over other cultural differences (Cornelius-White, 2003; Weinrach & Thomas, 2002). Although appropriateness and racism clearly are major themes of multiculturalism, a broader focus that foremost acknowledges, understands, and accepts human differences may enhance multicultural training.

Conventional methods of teaching MCT have appeared to affect knowledge more than skills, and skills more than awareness (Hoffman, 2001; Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000; Torres-Rivera et al., 2001), despite the finding that changes in awareness may be the most predictive of multicultural and general competence (Ottavi, Pope-Davis, & Dings, 1994; Torres-Rivera et al., 2001; Vinson & Neimeyer, 2000). Similarly, one follow-up study after students had taken multicultural counseling course work showed that "specifically, students felt the need for additional training experiences within a supportive climate that developed professional and personal cultural self-awareness and self-knowledge" (Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000, p. 221). Suggestions to improve multicultural teaching have included "more emphasis on experiential (affective) training (McRae & Johnson, 1991; Merta, Stringham, & Ponteretto, 1998; Pope-Davis & Coleman, 1997; Ridley, Mendoza, & Kanitz, 1994; Sue & Sue, 1990)" (Tyler & Guth, 1999, p. 153), moral reasoning (Evans & Foster, 2000), discussion (Evans & Foster, 2000; Sevig & Etzkorn, 2001), use of media (Tyler & Guth, 1999), (cultural) empathy (Chung & Bemak, 2002; Constantine, 2001a, 2001b; Constantine & Gainor, 2001; Glausser & Bozarth, 2001; Hanna et al., 1999), methods to reduce student "resistance" (Abreu & Atkinson, 2000), cross-cultural exposure (Diaz-Lazaro & Cohen, 2001), and more "information detailing the training philosophy" used (Tomlinson-Clarke, 2000, p. 222).

Although the person-centered approach (PCA) is often misunderstood and criticized without emic appraisal (Bozarth, 1999, 2002; Merry & Brodley, 2002), particularly concerning MCT (Cornelius-White, 2002, 2003; Cornelius-White & Godfrey, 2004), it can provide fundamental contributions to multicultural training. PCA is an orientation to counseling, education, and other helping endeavors that emphasizes empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness in the helper. One contribution to multicultural training is that it is an effective means of facilitating learning across age, race, ethnicity, and geographic location (Aspy, 1986; Cornelius-White, 2004, 2005a, 2005b, in press; Cornelius-White & Brown, in press; Cornelius-White, Hoey, Cornelius-White, Motschnig-Pirtrik, & Figl, 2004). Preliminary analysis of 24 studies with 10,000 students in an ongoing meta-analysis showed an average uncorrected, unweighted effect size of 1.17. This meets or exceeds all identified elements of school and instructional effectiveness reviewed in Fraser's (1989) classic synthesis of hundreds of meta-analyses that included thousands of studies with tens of thousands of findings and millions of people. The unweighted effect size of 1.17 exceeded the criterion of 0.80 commonly used to determine that an effect size is large. In other words, person-centered attitudes of empathy, warmth, and realness appear to have as much or more beneficial effect than any innovation in educational research.

Another contribution of PCA is the relational empowerment of the learner (whether client, student, trainee, etc.), which conventional pedagogical, cognitive-behavioral, and psychodynamic approaches less effectively promote (Cornelius-White & Brown, in press; Cornelius-White & Cornelius-White, 2005; Cornelius-White & Godfrey, 2004; Proctor, 2002; Raskin, 1947/2005). The PCA helps persons to identify and pursue their most subjectively useful path toward multicultural maturity. As is seen in the following description of using a PCA to teaching MCT, these idiosyncratic paths may include many of the suggested missing elements (supportive climate, more experiential learning, more discussion, etc.) that mainstream multicultural teaching methods have unsatisfactorily incorporated. Likewise, a focus on the relationships between learner and facilitator and the identification of extrapedagogical variables (e.g., family support, monetary resources) through the learner's frame of reference and intentional use of that frame of reference (Glausser & Bozarth, 2001) are a theoretical extension from the meta-analyses of therapy outcome research. Relational (e.g., alliance) and extratherapeutic (e.g., family support, attractiveness, age) variables accounted for 70% of the success variance, whereas techniques accounted for only 15% of the variance in therapy outcome research (the same contribution as placebo; Duncan & Moynihan, 1994; Hubble, Duncan, & Miller, 1999). Finally, teachers of multiculturalism have advocated for the PCA to be used more frequently to take advantage of these and other pedagogical strengths. For example, Wang (2002) discussed the importance of introducing person-centered teaching in Taiwan to help a struggling hierarchical educational system empower and motivate learners, increase creative thought, and build more democratic communities.

An often unrecognized but seminal contribution of the PCA to MCT is its focus on compassionate multicultural exchanges in counseling and cross-cultural conflict resolution (Bozarth, 1999; Cornelius-White, 2002; Kirschenbaum & Henderson, 1989). For example, the PCA has been found to involve a postmodern paradigm shift (Bozarth, 1999) similar to the relativistic and social constructivist assertions of MCT. Also, Rogers (1951), who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, asserted more than 50 years ago that "the only way to understand a culture is to assume the frame of reference of that culture" (p. 494). The mainstream MCT literature (Sue & Sue, 1999) usually dismisses the PCA as inappropriate for MCT; however, the PCA provides valuable contributions to multiculturalism and can be effective and ethical for teaching MCT.

At a university located on the Texas-Mexico border, a PCA to teaching multicultural counseling was hypothesized to provide a...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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