The paradox of emotionality & competence in multicultural competency training: A grounded theory.

摘要

The American Psychological Association mandates multicultural competency training as a requirement of accredited doctoral programs. The tripartite model of knowledge, skills, and awareness has been the most consistently cited framework in the last two decades. Although multiple pedagogical methods have been researched, there has yet to be a unified theory developed to link educational techniques to the tripartite domain competencies. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research exploring the various learning factors involved in multicultural competency training. Emotionality is an important factor in obtaining multicultural competency. No unified theory of multicultural education can be developed without incorporating the element of emotional triggering. This grounded theory study found that the emotional construct, termed Agent Shame, served as a barrier to multicultural competency. Further, a curriculum construct coined Oppression Mechanics, offers powerful implications for future multicultural competency training.