Overcoming Barriers to Social Justice Learning in Multicultural Counselor Education

The empirical and theoretical literature denotes the importance of counselor social justice and multicultural competence, yet there is also literature that suggests the difficulty for learners in remaining fully open to such curricular content. Learner reactions of reluctance, attitudinal rigidity, or entrenchment of prejudiced beliefs can lead to frustration in the classroom and incompetence or harm in clinical settings. The authors consider such responses in the context of the disorienting dilemma stage of Mezirow’s transformational learning theory (1991), along with suggested facilitator strategies for creating brave and transformative learning spaces. Potential reasons for these student responses are discussed including attitude, threat, apathy, and affect. Mitigating pedagogical strategies are offered to enhance multicultural counselor education, and ultimately counselor competence and client outcomes.