Help Needed

Wk 4 - Cultural Plunge

Assignment Content

Top of Form

Resource: Grading Criteria - Cultural Plunge Presentation

Choose a significant identifying characteristic about yourself that you are willing to change for 1 to 2 days.

Use your findings from the Ethnic Genogram assignment, due in Week Two, to help you select a characteristic. Try to change a characteristic that could help you become a better cultural counselor, but remember to stay safe while doing so. Inform family and employers of the nature of the assignment.

The following are cultural plunge examples:

· A student who describes herself as a visual learner uses a blindfold to experience loss of vision.

· A student who enjoys listening to music puts earplugs in his ears to experience hearing loss.

· A student who is nondisabled spends 2 days in a wheelchair at home and at work.

· A student who describes himself as reserved dresses and behaves in a way that is unreserved.

· A student who enjoys decision making chooses to defer all questions to others and allows them to make the decisions.

Prepare an 8- to 10-minute presentation (approximately 12-15 slides) of your experience. Include pictures and other artifacts, if appropriate.

Use the Cultural Plunge Handout to provide additional information about your cultural plunge experience to your classmates.

Complete the handout prior to your presentation and provide the completed handout to your classmates.

Complete the following steps:

· Before you begin the cultural plunge experience, write out what you expect to happen.

· During the experience, pay attention to your reactions and the reactions of others. Make note of these reactions at the end of each day.

· After completing the experience, address the following in your presentation:

· How does your choice of a characteristic relate to being a better cultural counselor?

· What were your expectations of the experience?

· Did you discover any biases? If so, how do you plan to overcome them?

· What strategies may be used to provide the best counseling services to the examined population?

· How did multicultural development and cross-cultural interaction come into play? How would these aspects influence a therapeutic counseling session?

· Summarize your reaction and the reaction of others. What was your overall opinion of the experience?

Bottom of Form