The Literature Landscape: Organizational Leadership Reading Research

206 journal of Multicultural counseling and developMent • July 2015 • Vol. 43

© 2015 American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.

Received 12/31/13 Revised 10/14/14

Accepted 01/01/15 DOI: 10.1002/jmcd.12015

Assessing the Impact of a Race-Based Course on Counseling Students:

A Quantitative Study Tina R. Paone, Krista M. Malott, and Jason J. Barr

This study sought to determine changes in 121 White counseling students following their participation in an experiential, race-based course taught in a group format. Pre- and postoutcomes were reported based on instruments that measured White racial identity development, White privilege, color blindness, and the costs of racism. Findings indicated significant changes according to the majority of measures, although with certain distinctions. Findings are discussed in light of the current literature.

Keywords: multicultural counselor training, racism, Whiteness, counselor education, group counseling

Este estudio trató de determinar los cambios en 121 estudiantes blancos de consejería después de su participación en un curso experiencial basado en la raza que se enseñó en formato de grupo. Se comunicaron los resultados previos y posteriores basándose en instrumentos que midieron el desarrollo de la identidad racial blanca, el privilegio blanco, la falta de percepción de color y los costos del racismo. Los hallazgos indicaron cambios significativos según la mayoría de mediciones, aunque con ciertas distinciones. Se discuten los hallazgos a la luz de las investigaciones actuales.

Palabras clave: formación multicultural de consejeros, racismo, identidad blanca, educación de consejeros, consejería en grupo

Racism persists in contemporary society, albeit often in more subtle and complex forms, and there is copious evidence of its negative effects on the health and mental health of people of color (Nadal, Griffin, Wong,

Hamit, & Rasmus, 2014; Pieterse, Carter, & Ray, 2013). Across the field of mental health, studies have documented the surfacing of racism in cross-racial counseling dyads, often unconsciously enacted by White clinicians (Neville & Carter, 2005; Ridley, 2005). For example, White counselors’ negation of the salience of race and the effects of racism on people of color, a phenomenon often referred to as color blindness (Neville, Spanierman, & Doan, 2006), has been shown to result in distorted assessments of clients of color (Gushue, 2004) and has been correlated with lower multicultural counselor competency (Spanierman, Poteat, Wang, & Oh, 2008) and a reduction in a counselor’s ability to demonstrate empathy (Burkard & Knox, 2004). Additionally, studies have found that clients of color who perceived racial bias in White counselors

Tina R. Paone, Department of Speech Pathology, Educational Counseling, and Leadership, and Jason J. Barr, School of Education, Monmouth University; Krista M. Malott, Department of Education and Coun- seling, Villanova University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tina R. Paone, Department of Speech Pathology, Educational Counseling, and Leadership, Monmouth University, 400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, NJ 07755 (e-mail: [email protected]).

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were less likely to indicate positive alliances or satisfaction with therapy (Owen et al., 2011) and were more likely to give lower ratings of their counselor’s cultural competence (Chang & Berk, 2009). In an effort to reduce the presence and harmful effects of racial bias across mental health practices, scholars have asserted the need to provide race- based education to White counselors-in-training (Helms, Guerda, & Green, 2012; Ridley, 2005). Such trainings, however, can evoke powerful and nega- tive reactions in White students (Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, 2009). Intense emotions, such as empathy, guilt, and fear, have been dubbed as a kind of psychosocial cost of racism that affects Whites’ behaviors toward people of color as they come to realize or, conversely, work to deny the presence and impact of racism in self and society (Spanierman & Poteat, 2005). Although in no way commensurate to the costs experienced by people of color, there is a growing recognition that racism is a phenomenon that also negatively affects Whites in multiple ways (Todd, Spanierman, & Poteat, 2011). Counselor educators have sought to promote White counseling students’ ra- cial identity growth through multicultural instruction. The fostering of White racial identity growth is assumed to correlate with prejudice reduction, and there is some research to support the idea that racial identity can be linked with racial bias (Carter, 1990; Gushue & Constantine, 2007). In turn, general multicultural training has been shown to develop students’ racial identities and levels of interracial comfort (Parker, Moore, & Neimeyer, 1998), and, overall, more multicultural training has been correlated with improved racial identity attitudes (Evans & Foster, 2000). There are few actual studies in counseling that describe the content, peda- gogical format, and outcomes of race-related trainings. For those that do exist, the findings are promising in that they have shown that multicultural training can positively affect racial growth (Castillo, Brossart, Reyes, Conoley, & Phoum- marath, 2007; Heppner & O’Brien, 1994; Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Browne, 2000; Parker et al., 1998; Rothman, Malott, & Paone, 2012). Scholars in those studies applied a similar mixture of pedagogical practices (e.g., didactic and experiential) to multicultural trainings that were largely general in nature (e.g., addressing various topics, such as gender, culture, and race). All of these studies reported the tenets of their race-based courses to allow tentative conclusions regarding effective instructional practices in race-based multicultural counselor training. Those conclusions included the following: (a) Addressing counselor knowledge, awareness, and skills related to race can potentially positively affect White students’ learning, such as increased knowledge and skills in work across race, increased awareness of personal bias, and, in some cases, a reduction in racial bias; (b) a combined use of didactic and experiential activities were rec- ognized by students as helpful in learning in race-based trainings, particularly in relation to exposure to the perspectives and experiences of people of color (Heppner & O’Brien, 1994; Neville et al., 2000); and (c) course topics gener- ally followed recommendations for race-based trainings and therefore seemed effective in student learning. Recommendations included addressing students’

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racial identities, personal biases, traits or experiences of people of color, the presence and effects of racism and privilege, and skills in cross-racial counseling. Although such studies lend direction and support for race-based counselor trainings, several weaknesses were present, which reduced the generalizabil- ity of findings. These included small sample sizes, generalized multicultural curriculum in two of the five studies (e.g., making duplication of the study and pedagogical practices impossible, while reducing the ability to determine whether the race-based or non-raced-based aspect of the curriculum influenced outcomes), and limited use of race-based outcome assessments. Only two of the five studies directly assessed outcomes related to positive changes in bias (Castillo et al., 2007; Heppner & O’Brien, 1994). Consequently, most studies lacked specific measures of prejudice reduction, which is a primary objective of race-based counselor trainings (Locke & Kiselica, 1999). Hence, there is a continued need for the development and verification of race-based counselor training, with a call for more in-depth, race-specific training details as well as increased participant numbers and race-based outcome assessments (Sanchez- Hucles & Jones, 2005). To extend the scholarly and critical examination of this phenomenon, we examined outcomes from a race-focused, advanced-level multicultural counseling course. We sought to respond to Spanierman and Poteat’s (2005) call to assess “multiple interacting factors” (p. 515) inherently present when studying Whites in relation to race, and to honor the complex- ity of racism and its effects on Whites. Hence, we incorporated several inter- related measures to determine the nature of the effect of the training. The training uniquely focused on race-based topics rather than including myriad other general multicultural topics. It was provided to master’s-level counseling students in an effort to develop their racial awareness and antiracist skills and as a response to the call for increased social justice advocacy of mental health practitioners in eradicating racism that affects clientele (Spanierman & Poteat, 2005). Specifically, our research sought to examine the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Participants will demonstrate an increased awareness of the costs of racism from pretest to posttest.

Hypothesis 2: Participants will demonstrate an increased awareness of White privilege from pretest to posttest.

Hypothesis 3: Participants will demonstrate reduced levels of color blind- ness, resulting in greater awareness of the presence of racial privilege and discrimination from pretest to posttest.

Hypothesis 4: Participants will demonstrate positive growth in their White racial identity from pretest to posttest.

method participants

Participants totaled 121 White master’s-level counseling students at a private university in the northeastern United States who were enrolled in an advanced-

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level multicultural counseling course. There were approximately 10 students in each course section. Of the participants, 107 were women (88%) and 14 were men (12%), with a mean age of 26.5 years (SD = 5.4), ranging from 20 to 53 years old. At the inception of the study, participants had completed a mean of nine courses (SD = 3.6) in their graduate program. Nineteen participants (16%) had completed four to six courses and/or workshops in multiculturalism, whereas 89 (74%) had completed one to three courses and/or workshops in multiculturalism. Thirteen (11%) had never completed a multicultural course before the intervention; the percentages do not total 100 because of rounding.

procedure

Data were collected from 17 different course sections over a span of 5 years. Study procedures were approved by the university’s institutional review board. The course required students to participate as group members in an expe- riential group course. Students were read an invitation script on the 1st day of class by an instructor who did not teach the course, to indicate that study participation was optional. Participants were assured that they could continue in the course regardless of participation in the study and that they could ter- minate study participation at any point. In the 1st week of class, participants took pretest assessments. At the final group session, they all completed those same assessments.

Measures

A demographic questionnaire asked participants to provide their ethnicity, gender, age, master’s academic degree program, and information on their multicultural training experiences. To assess for changes in participants’ awareness of the costs of racism, we used the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW; Spanierman & Heppner, 2004). The PCRW is a 16-item self-report assessment of the psychosocial costs of racism for White individuals and is scored on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree), with higher scores indicative of greater experiences of the costs of racism. The PCRW has three subscales: the White Empathy sub- scale, which measures reactions of sadness, helplessness, and anger to racism (pretest α = .45, posttest α = .55); the White Guilt subscale, which measures remorse regarding unearned advantages (pretest α = .76, posttest α = .72); and the White Fear subscale, which measures irrational fear and distrust of people of color (pretest α = .63, posttest α = .58). To assess participant changes in awareness of White privilege, we used the White Privilege Attitudes Scale (WPAS; Pinterits, Poteat, & Spanierman, 2009). The WPAS is a 28-item scale that assesses the multidimensional nature of White privilege attitudes, including affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions, and is scored on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree), with higher scores indicating higher White privilege attitudes.

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The WPAS has four subscales: the Willingness to Confront White Privilege subscale, which measures an individual’s willingness to confront instances of racial privilege (pretest α = .91, posttest α = .87); the Anticipated Costs of Addressing White Privilege subscale, which measures individual affect associ- ated with addressing one’s own privilege (pretest α = .78, posttest α = .78); the White Privilege Awareness subscale, which measures recognition of White privilege (pretest α = .77, posttest α = .68); and the White Privilege Remorse subscale, which measures affective responses to benefiting from White privi- lege (pretest α = .88, posttest α = .90). We used the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS; Neville et al., 2000) to assess for changes in participants’ levels of color blindness. The CoBRAS is a 20-item self-report assessment of the cognitive dimensions of color-blind racial attitudes and is scored on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater levels of blindness or unawareness. It has three subscales: the Racial Privilege subscale, which measures blindness to the existence of White privilege (pretest α = .77, posttest α = .65); the Institutional Discrimination subscale, which measures limited awareness of the implications of institutional discrimination and exclu- sion (pretest α = .71, posttest α = .64); and the Blatant Racial Issues subscale, which measures unawareness of general and pervasive racial discrimination (pretest α = .61, posttest α = .51). We used the White Racial Consciousness Development Scale–Revised (WRCDS- R; Claney & Parker, 1989; Lee et al., 2007) to determine changes in participants’ racial identity growth. The WRCDS-R is a 40-item scale that measures White racial identity statuses on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The WRCDS-R has four subscales: Contact, which reflects naive thoughts and ignorance about racial differences (pretest α = .90, posttest α = .81); Reintegration, which represents feelings of anger and resentment to- ward persons of color (pretest α = .84, posttest α = .78); Pseudo-Independence, which reflects an increasing awareness of the effect of White dominance and privilege on racist attitudes and behaviors (pretest α = .74, posttest α = .75); and Autonomy, which represents a nonracist White identity with appreciation of racial differences and similarities (pretest α = .81, posttest α = .76).

INTERVENTION: WhITENESS COuRSE

In addition to a general multicultural course, students in the counseling program were required to take an advanced, 15-week multicultural counsel- ing course premised on Whiteness. The course (described in Table 1) was graded as pass/fail and was facilitated in a group format that lasted 3 hours per week. The activities were creative and experiential in nature, such as the use of movement, expressive arts, game-like activities, videos, and role play- ing. Homework was limited to weekly journals, in which students were asked to reflect on any affective reactions, and the creation of a family genogram related to personal ethnicities.

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Course content was grounded conceptually in the empirical and theoreti- cal literature on Whiteness, as drawn from the fields of education, sociology, counselor education, and counseling psychology (e.g., Carter, 1990; Helms, 1990; Katz, 2003; Miller & Fellows, 2007; Roediger, 2006; Spanierman et al., 2008). Course tenets were addressed in the following order: (a) the historical construction of race and ethnicity and its relation to racism in the United States, (b) current individual and systemic racial inequities and their effects on people of color and Whites, (c) individual student racial bias, (d) White

Table 1

Curriculum of advanced-level, Race-based Course

Session and Topic

Session 1 Course introduction

Sessions 2–3 Ethnic and racial identity

Sessions 4–5 Racism

Sessions 6–9 Privilege

Sessions 10–14 Antiracist action

Session 15 Sustaining future antiracist action

activity

aEach session allows multiple opportunities for student processing of reactions to content.

Sample (instructor) genogram Discussion: What does it mean to be White? Identifying intersectionality of all identities Course processinga

Exploring personal race stories/learned messages Video: Race history and genetics Student-constructed genograms Identifying personal valuesa

Identifying assumptions/values of White culture Identifying types of racism Racial microaggressions Identifying personal racism and underlying causes Examining the costs of racism to Whitesa

Racial privilege walk Examining the meaning of Whiteness Deconstructing Whiteness in the media Examining intersectional identities and related privileges

and oppressions (e.g., race, gender) Assuming different racial perspectivesa

Assessing one’s own antiracist behaviors Cases: Practicing systemic antiracist action Identifying solutions for creating equity Writing antiracist letters Video: Examples of ways to confront racism Role plays: Directly confronting racism Indirectly confronting racism Cases: Responding to situational racism Role plays: Student-identified personal experiencesa

Identifying difficulties in sustaining antiracist action Inspirational quotes Bead activity: Identifying ways to diversify our world Identifying antiracist White role models (and their coping

strategies for antiracist work) Promise posters (creating a plan for future racial growth

and antiracist activity)a

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cultural norms and related power and privilege, and (e) skill building in an- tiracist advocacy. Across the span of the course, students examined affective responses as they emerged (e.g., White guilt, fear, and empathy) through journaling, experiential exercises, and discussions (Locke & Kiselica, 1999; Paone & Malott, 2014).

data analyses

Before testing the intervention effects, we explored the demographic differ- ences in the pretest data on all four scales and their subscales. We explored gender differences in the pretest data using independent-samples t tests. We explored previous multicultural experience differences with a series of one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with least significant difference post hoc analyses. We calculated intervention effects through a series of repeated measures ANOVAs comparing the pretest and posttest results on all four scales and their subscales, with gender and previous multicultural experiences entered as between-subjects variables.

results For the CoBRAS pretest, men scored significantly higher than women on Bla- tant Racial Issues, t(119) = 2.18, p < .05, d = 0.40. Participants with four to six previous multicultural experiences scored significantly lower on Racial Privilege than those students with one to three previous multicultural experiences, but those with four to six and one to three previous multicultural experiences did not score significantly lower on Racial Privilege than those with zero previous multicultural experiences, F(2, 119) = 4.35, p < .05, η2 = .07. When comparing the pretest and posttest for the CoBRAS, we found that participants overall scored significantly lower on the posttest in Racial Privilege, F(1, 115) = 45.6, p < .01, η2

= .28; Institutional Discrimination, F(1, 115) = 81.13, p < .01, η2 = .41; and Blatant Racial Issues, F(1, 115) = 17.95, p < .01, η2 = .14. For Institutional Discrimination, there was a significant interaction with gender, F(1, 115) = 5.99, p < .05, η2 = .05; whereas men and women had similar scores at the pretest and both significantly lowered their scores, men scored significantly higher than women at the posttest. For the PCRW pretest, women scored significantly higher than men on White Empathy, t(119) = 2.68, p < .01, d = 0.48. Participants with four to six previous multicultural experiences scored significantly lower on White Fear than those with one to three previous multicultural experiences, and those with one to three previous multicultural experiences scored significantly lower on White Fear than those with zero previous multicultural experi- ences, F(2, 119) = 6.24, p < .01, η2 = .10. When comparing the pretest with the posttest for the PCRW, we found that participants overall scored sig- nificantly higher on the posttest in White Guilt, F(1, 115) = 42.02, p < .01, η2 = .27. Participants’ scores did not change significantly on White Fear or White Empathy from pretest to posttest.

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When comparing the pretest with the posttest for the WPAS, we found that participants overall scored significantly higher on the posttest in Willingness to Confront White Privilege, F(1, 115) = 28.59, p < .01, η2 = .20; Anticipated Costs of Addressing White Privilege, F(1, 115) = 14.41, p < .01, η2 = .11; White Privilege Awareness, F(1, 115) = 20.83, p < .01, η2 = .15; and White Privilege Remorse, F(1, 115) = 26.18, p < .01, η2 = .19. For Willingness to Confront White Privilege, there was a significant interaction with gender, F(1, 115) = 4.39, p < .05, η2 = .04; women scored significantly higher than men at the pretest, and that difference was even more pro- nounced at the posttest. For White Privilege Awareness, there was also a significant interaction with gender, F(1, 115) = 12.52, p < .01, η2 = .10; whereas men and women had similar scores at the pretest, women scored significantly higher than men at the posttest. For the WRCDS-R pretest, women scored significantly lower than men on Reintegration, t(119) = 2.11, p < .05, d = 0.39. Participants with four to six previous multicultural experiences and those with one to three previ- ous multicultural experiences scored significantly lower on Contact than those with zero previous multicultural experiences, F(2, 119) = 4.43, p < .05, η2 = .07. Participants with four to six previous multicultural experi- ences scored significantly lower on Reintegration than those with one to three previous multicultural experiences, but participants with four to six previous multicultural experiences and one to three previous multicultural experiences did not score significantly lower on Reintegration than those with zero previous multicultural experiences, F(2, 119) = 4.62, p < .05, η2

= .07. When comparing the pretest with the posttest for the WRCDS-R, we found that participants overall scored significantly lower on the posttest in Reintegration, F(1, 115) = 59.73, p < .01, η2 = .34; significantly higher on the posttest in Pseudo-Independence, F(1, 115) = 19.22, p < .01, η2

= .14; and significantly higher on the posttest in Autonomy, F(1, 115) = 6.37, p < .05, η2 = .05. Participants’ scores did not change significantly on Contact between pretest and posttest. For Pseudo-Independence, there was a significant interaction with gender, F(1, 115) = 9.61, p < .01, η2 = .08; whereas men and women had similar scores at the pretest and the men’s scores significantly increased from pretest to posttest, women scored significantly higher than men at the posttest. To better understand the changes in the WRCDS-R subscales, we calculated changes in scores in Reintegration, Pseudo-Independence, and Autonomy by subtracting the posttest scores from the pretest scores for each subscale. Then, we conducted a series of partial correlations among the change scores of the four subscales of the WRCDS-R, controlling for gender and previous multicultural experiences. Reintegration was negatively related with Pseudo-Independence and Autonomy, and scores in Reintegration significantly decreased from pretest to posttest. Scores in both Pseudo- Independence and Autonomy significantly increased.

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discussion This study sought to determine the effects of an experiential, race-based multicultural counseling course on master’s-level students. Unique from other race-based trainings studied, this training offered an experiential and group-based model that solely had a race-specific curriculum. Findings are particularly meaningful in that, unlike many other studies of race-based trainings, this study included several interrelated measures to determine the nature of the effects of the training (Spanierman & Poteat, 2005), as well as a larger participant number. The four hypotheses of this study predicted positive growth in the following areas: increased awareness of the costs of racism, increased awareness regard- ing White privilege, a reduction in participants’ levels of color blindness (and a resulting increase in awareness of racial privilege and discrimination), and positive racial identity growth. Findings indicated positive changes for partici- pants in most measures, from the beginning to the end of the course. There were, however, some differences according to groups or certain measures. Hypothesis 1 predicted increases in participants’ awareness of the costs of racism, with the use of the PCRW scale to measure outcomes. Results from the scale demonstrated partial changes in participants from the pretest to the posttest, with increased levels of guilt across participants but no changes in fear and empathy. This finding is consistent with other studies demonstrating increased guilt for Whites who participated in multicultural trainings (Todd et al., 2011). Moderate levels of guilt in other studies have been correlated with positive actions or perspectives of Whites, with examples including in- creases in prominority attitudes (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004; Spanierman et al., 2008), support for affirmative action (Harvey & Oswald, 2000), greater multicultural competence, and likeliness of incorporating cultural and racial factors into their case conceptualizations (Spanierman et al., 2008). However, according to the PCRW subscales, findings indicated no overall changes in participants’ levels of fear and empathy. In trying to understand the nuances of those scores, we assessed differences according to gender and to the number of previous multicultural courses. It was found that women scored significantly higher than men according to empathic reactions, both pretest and posttest. However, it is unclear why neither the male nor the female participants changed in their levels of empathy. It is possible that in- creased levels of guilt inhibited participants’ abilities to feel empathy, because some experts have suggested that guilt potentially hinders Whites’ abilities to experience empathy for people of color (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004). Also consistent with previous studies (Todd et al., 2011), pretest assess- ments found that those with more multicultural training experiences scored significantly lower on White fear of people of color than those with fewer experiences, suggesting the positive effect of multicultural training on Whites’ irrational fear of people of color. However, it is unclear as to why this par-

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ticular intervention did not further reduce participants’ scores according to the fear category. Research and theory demonstrate that to reduce fear and increase empathy toward people who are racially different, people need to experience cross-racial contact, albeit under the right conditions (Allport, 1954; Gurin, Nagda, & Zuniga, 2013; Todd et al., 2011). Those conditions include sustained ongoing exchanges between groups with equal status and engagement in a collaborative effort, allowing the development of meaning- ful relationships (Spanierman, Beard, & Todd, 2012). The first and second authors, who created the course, were unable to provide such conditions in this particular course, given that the majority of students in the program, as with so many counseling programs across the nation (Council for Accredita- tion of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, 2013), were White. To assess for changes according to Hypothesis 2, predicting increased aware- ness of White privilege following course partition, we used the WPAS. Scores from the WPAS indicated overall increases for various measures, including the awareness of White privilege, willingness to confront that privilege, White privilege remorse, and affect associated with the cost of addressing one’s own privilege, from pretest to posttest. Regarding costs, participants indicated increased anxiousness regarding the work they would have to do to eliminate personal racial privilege, as well anxiousness regarding the negative effects on relationships if they were to confront White privilege in others. Gender differences were also present in these findings, with women scoring significantly higher than men on willing- ness to confront White privilege. Findings were largely positive according to this measure, suggesting that participants’ increased awareness of privileges will increase their understanding of the challenges clients of color may face. In addition, increased levels of remorse have been shown to predict greater White support for compensatory and support programs for Blacks (Harvey & Oswald, 2000). Conversely, increased levels of remorse or anxiousness may interfere with student learning. In clinical settings, remorse in particular may overwhelm White counselors, which, in turn, could inhibit a sense of empathy for clients of color (Chick et al., 2009; Spanierman & Heppner, 2004). Hypothesis 3 predicted that participants would reduce their levels of color blindness, as measured by the CoBRAS. Outcomes indicated increased par- ticipant awareness of racial privileges and the presence of institutional and pervasive racial discrimination. One can infer that through the intervention, participants expanded their abilities to recognize and validate clients’ expe- riences of discrimination, with a greater understanding of the institutional nature of that discrimination and the effects of that racism on clientele. Ideally, this will allow for the study participants’ greater accuracy and com- plexity in responses and interventions when working with clientele who have experienced racism. Because higher levels of color blindness have been correlated with greater racial prejudice (Neville et al., 2000), one can also infer that participants,

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following this instructional intervention, reduced their propensity to view race in distorted or inaccurate manners, and that they are less likely to un- consciously promote racism (Neville et al., 2000). Finally, there were some differences according to gender. For institutional discrimination, whereas men and women significantly lowered their scores through course participa- tion, men’s scores were significantly higher than women’s, indicating less awareness of the implications of institutional discrimination and exclusion. Hypothesis 4 stated that participants would demonstrate positive racial identity growth from the beginning to the end of the course, as measured with the WRCDS-R. As predicted by the hypothesis, many of the participants demonstrated a strengthening of the pseudo-independence and autonomy statuses, which are dubbed the more “advanced” or “sophisticated” identities (Helms, 1990). A reduction of the reintegration status is also positive, because a higher reintegration status has been correlated with higher levels of racism (Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1992). Hence, our findings suggest greater antiracist attitudes in students and improved abilities to recognize the effects of race on clients of color and to form working alliances across race (Gushue & Con- stantine, 2007). The differences in gender were consistent with other studies that showed women as having more sophisticated statuses than men (Carter, 1990; Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1992; Spanierman et al., 2012). Regarding why there was no movement for participants in their contact statuses, it is possible that persons within our sample were already so low in their contact statuses that they had no room to move somewhere else. Future research needs to look at absolute values to determine how much movement from one status to the next is considered meaningful beyond just what is statistically significant.

iMplications for Multicultural counselor training

This study’s findings underscore the need for curricular attention in various ways. For example, increased affective responses (e.g., guilt, cost of addressing one’s own privilege, and remorse regarding one’s privileges) indicate a need for counseling instructors to spend time within a race-based course processing student affect that may impede effective counseling processes. Although this course did require some dialogue and journaling regarding students’ affect, perhaps a more direct and open addressing of concerns specific to guilt, the costs of addressing one’s racism, or remorse is warrented. Scholars have posited the need for a supportive environment that encourages students to express negative affect and explore concerns to ensure continued student learning (Spanierman & Poteat, 2005). In considering the lack of movement in measures of empathy, experts have suggested that although guilt can motivate Whites to engage in some forms of support for people of color, it also may hinder some Whites’ abilities to experience empathy for people of color (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004). Hence, guilt can render both positive and negative responses. Indeed, scholars have cited guilt as counterproductive to antiracist efforts (Miller & Fellows, 2007), with Taylor and Nanney (2011) going so far as to suggest that “guilt serves as an indicator

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that we are incomplete and have not constructed our life to its fullest potential” (p. 17). There is a need, therefore, to address such reactions during race-based trainings to alleviate the negative aspects of White guilt. Examples of ways to do this include regular processing and normalizing of such reactions, presenting role models who are experiencing similarly complex reactions (Malott, Paone, Schaefle, Cates, & Haizlip, in press), pairing up those who are struggling with such reactions with a peer or mentor, and helping students channel guilt feel- ings into positive antiracist actions (Todd et al., 2011). With regard to the finding that participants’ levels of empathy failed to in- crease through this intervention, additional suggestions for addressing empathy include the exposure of Whites to people of color in a manner supported by research and theory. The sustained, ongoing exchange between equals, whereby relationships can develop through dialogue (Allport, 1954; Gurin et al., 2013; Todd et al., 2011), is important in effective cross-racial contact. Whites’ brief exposures or service work with racially different people, whereby Whites are providing services to those in need, should be undertaken with caution, because they can serve to merely solidify stereotypes and reify the racial status quo. Another meaningful finding was the gender differences across participants. Scholars have suggested tailoring multicultural education to specific groups, such as men, who may have greater multiple privileged identities (Spanierman et al., 2012). Generally, White men in society may have been raised owning cultures of privilege or entitlement and therefore may feel more threatened than women at the idea of losing racial privileges (Scott & Robinson, 2001). Hence, educators could address this perceived threat by taking more time with male students to process emotional responses and examine perceived outcomes of losing such privileges. Educators can also address varying other intersecting identities for men, and the levels of privilege and power associ- ated with each, to aid men in identifying one identity associated with a loss of privilege (e.g., being homosexual, possessing a disability, or growing up underprivileged), which may increase their understanding and empathy for persons of color (Croteau, Talbot, Lance, & Evans, 2002).

liMitations

Although the current study contributes to the expanding body of research regarding the effects of race-based trainings, there are important limita- tions to note. First is the absence of a control group and the randomization of participants, rendering it difficult to determine if participant changes were due to course participation or to external variables, such as additional counseling courses. Considering the small number of men in the study, the generalizability to men is limited, although findings are consistent with some of the previous literature regarding the differences between men and women on race-based assessments (Carter, 1990; Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1992; Spanierman et al., 2012). Additionally, although changes were noted in participants according to the varied measures, there was no verification of the effect of such changes on

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actual clinical work with clients of color. The face validity of various measures, such as the CoBRAS (Neville et al., 2000), may have prompted socially desirable answers from participants (Gushue & Constantine, 2007). Finally, we recognize that the use of multiple comparisons increases the chance for Type I error.

conclusion Our findings demonstrate that a race-based course can effect positive growth for the majority of students and that an experiential training solely focused on race-based content can be meaningfully impactful for counseling stu- dents. Such educational endeavors merit consideration for those who omit race-based topics entirely from their curriculum, as well as for those who currently are only briefly touching upon race-based topics. We believe there is a need to increase students’ exposure to such curricula, either through the infusion of topics across courses or by offering a stand-alone course. Race-focused instruction is not without controversy or backlash, and, for this reason, educators should find supportive colleagues and engage in ongoing personal work on their own racial identities.

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