Advancing Social Justice Training through a Difficult Dialogue Initiative: Reflections From Facilitators and Participants

The integration of service learning and difficult dialogues pedagogy is one avenue for enhancing counseling psychology social justice training. We provide an illustration of this integrative model including advocacy and systems perspectives, and propose that the model can be applied to other service learning foci within counseling psychology training. The article presents an ongoing project that provides counseling graduate students the opportunity to implement skills in career and employment counseling with homeless and near homeless individuals, as well as to develop greater cultural sensitivity and humility. The model provides a structural framework for understanding poverty, homelessness, and bureaucratic systems of care as essential to knowledge, awareness, and skill development for social justice advocacy regarding social class and economic inequalities. Difficult dialogues are incorporated during pre-service, engagement, and debriefing stages of the training experience as a means of promoting best practices for social justice training in counseling psychology.

Hate crimes damage social cohesion and undermine the security of societies. Persistent high levels of hate crime demand new and effective pathways for change. The aim of this article is to consider the value of ‘community conversations’ for preventing hate crime at the level of local communities, based on the perceptions and experiences of facilitators. Drawing on the evaluation of the ‘Citizens at the Heart’ project, this article discusses community conversations and their core components and effectiveness, and highlights the promise of this approach for tackling hate crime at its root: prejudice. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with the facilitators of community conversations, the findings show that community conversations can be a valuable instrument for challenging prejudiced views and behaviour, through bringing local people together and the protective impact of creating counter-narratives. Intergroup Contact Theory posits that through meaningful, collaborative interactions between members from different social identity groups, prejudice can be reduced. It will be concluded that by using community-based approaches, we can deal with bias and prejudice more proactively, before it escalates to more serious forms of hate. However, a longitudinal evaluation, which also draws on community conversations attendees’ perceptions, would be necessary to capture the long-term effectiveness of this approach.

The results of a feminist research endeavour that explored multicultural (MC) counselling and social justice (SJ) training experiences from the standpoint of eight culturally non-dominant doctoral students are presented. Participants represented students within the five counselling psychology programs accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association. Specifically, the research aimed to address the following research question: How do counselling psychology doctoral students who self-identify with non-dominant cultural identities perceive their experiences of MC and SJ training? This research adopted a feminist standpoint theory epistemology to guide an interpretative phenomenological analysis to reflect the culturally rich, complex, and situated experiences of participants, while concurrently emphasizing the role that systems of privilege and oppression play in influencing these experiences. Results point to seven superordinate themes, including: (a) MC and SJ are personal and rooted in identity; (b) Instructors—their role and impact; (c) Classmates—a mixed bag; (d) Perceptions of MC and SJ courses; (e) Perceptions of clinical supervision; (f) Systemic engagement with MC and SJ principles; and (g) The emotional and psychological burden of MC and SJ training. Findings are discussed considering sociocultural practices in North America, and MC and SJ training implications are explored.

The processes of socially shared regulation in small groups of students who perform collaborative tasks through forums involving asynchronous communication are explored in this article. The specific aim of the study is to identify profiles of shared regulation in groups of students who have different performance levels on the task, depending on the regulatory activities exercised by the groups and their distribution over time. For that purpose, a case study was developed; six small groups of university students collaboratively performed a complex task (for 29 days) in a virtual environment based on asynchronous discussion forums. The results revealed three different profiles: (i) a profile with stable and high regulation; (ii) a profile with partially stable and medium regulation; and (iii) a profile with unstable and low regulation. The first two profiles were observed in the groups with high performance levels on the task, while the third profile was observed in the low-performing groups. Therefore, some recommendations are suggested to support processes of shared regulation in asynchronous collaborative learning situations.

This article presents the findings of a descriptive content analysis of 54 multicultural and diversity-related course syllabi drawn from counseling and counseling psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association and the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs. Results suggest that most courses adhere to the knowledge, awareness, and skills paradigm of multicultural competence. However, actual course content varies considerably. Whereas the findings identify social justice content as a growing presence in multicultural courses, there is a need to more clearly outline the fundamental points of distinction and overlap between multicultural competence and social justice advocacy in counselor and counseling psychology training.

SUE C. JACOBS, Associate Professor, Training Director, and Ledbetter Lemon Endowed Diversity Professor in Counseling Psychology at Oklahoma State University earned her PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1989. Her interests include issues in ethics, education and training, difficult dialogues, the teaching of psychology, older adults, health, diversity, social justice, disaster response, mindfulness and anger. STEVEN K. HUPRICH earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina–Greensboro in 1999. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Eastern Michigan University, having research interests in personality disorders and personality assessment. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality Disorders. CATHERINE L. GRUS is the Deputy Executive Director, Education at the American Psychological Association (APA). Dr. Grus received her PhD in clinical psychology from Nova University. At APA, Dr Grus works to advance policies and practices that promote quality education and training in psychology. EVELYN A. CAGE is a Doctoral Candidate in Counseling Psychology at Auburn University. After graduating with a BA in Psychology from Emory University in 2006, Evelyn pursued graduate training and has plans to receive her degree in 2013. Her research interests include training and development, multicultural counseling, and disordered eating in AfricanAmerican women. NANCY S. ELMAN received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh where she also served for nearly 20 years as training coordinator for the doctoral program in Counseling Psychology. She has served as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Colleague Assistance (Board of Professional Affairs) and the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. Her research focuses on psychologists and trainees with professional competence problems. LINDA FORREST, Professor and Associate Director for Faculty Outreach at the University of Oregon Center on Diversity and Community, received her PhD from the University of Washington in Educational Psychology. Her research interests focus on problems of professional competence, and other professional education and training issues (competency, ethics, international). REBECCA SCHWARTZ-METTE (MA Clinical Psychology) is a doctoral candidate in Clinical and Developmental psychology at the University of Missouri. Her research interests focus on the interpersonal context of adolescent internalizing symptoms and on ethical and training issues in psychology. DAVID S. SHEN-MILLER is an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Tennessee State University. He received his PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Oregon in 2008. His research interests include professional competence issues in training, the psychology of men and masculinity, ecological approaches to supervision and training, and qualitative research methods. KRISTI S. VAN SICKLE received her PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Florida Institute of Technology in 2006, and is currently an Assistant Professor in Florida Institute of Technology’s School of Psychology. Her primary research interests include professional competence, community health, and integrated primary care.; NADINE J. KASLOW, Professor, Vice Chair, and Chief Psychologist (Grady) at Emory School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Houston. Her research is on suicide and mood disorders; family violence; couples and family psychology; and competency-based psychology education, training, and credentialing. AS AUTHORS OF THIS ARTICLE, we are all members of the Trainees With Competence Problems Workgroup under the auspices of the American Psychological Association’s Education Directorate. Except for first, second, third, and last author, authorship order is alphabetical. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should be addressed to Sue C. Jacobs, PhD, Oklahoma State University, School of Applied Health and Educational Psychology, 425 Willard, Stillwater, OK 74078-4024. E-mail: sue.c.jacobs@okstate.edu Training and Education in Professional Psychology © 2011 American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 5, No. 3, 175–184 1931-3918/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0024656

Training programs in counseling psychology have endeavored to integrate social justice into their curricula and prepare their graduates to be agents of change in their communities (Goodman et al., 2004). However, there is too often a disconnect between social justice theory and training and how these principles are actualized in the community (Beer, Spanierman, Greene, and Todd, 2012). Using a case study of a counseling psychologist’s role in developing and administering Safety Net, a police-mental health collaborative to reduce youth contact with the juvenile justice system, this paper provides an example of a counseling psychologist engaged in a community collaboration and systems advocacy (Lewis, Arnold, House and Toporek, 2002) as integrated parts of his roles as therapist, consultant, and advocate. The authors present the case as an iterative, step-by-step process which can serve as a practical example for professionals and trainees working to translate theory into practice.

Counseling psychology is well positioned to address issues of social justice to meet the needs of marginalized groups such as older adults. Given the rapid growth of the senior population and an insufficient number of competent professionals to serve them, it is imperative that counseling psychologists act immediately to develop effective pedagogies to prepare for the future. This article describes four nontraditional pedagogies that help prepare students to work with older adults: (a) service-learning (SL) involving undergraduates who provide community service to seniors; (b) an active learning strategy utilizing a narrative therapy technique, in a multicultural training setting with master’s students; (c) a brief, case-based, interprofessional training experience for doctoral students; and (d) a hierarchical supervision model with doctoral and master’s students in a community outreach wellness program. The relevance to social justice training within the counseling psychology profession is also highlighted.

Microteaching as a specific method in foreign language teacher education in which theoretical knowledge is put into practice, offers prospective teachers systematic, small-step and practice-oriented training of teaching behaviour and teaching skills in the form of classical microteaching (practical exercises in small groups of students), or peer teaching (training in small groups of fellow students). Due to the pandemic-related switch to digital teaching formats in university foreign language teacher training, microteaching also had to be moved from the traditional classroom to the digital space and had to face completely new challenges. The paper aims to explore the method of microteaching from a theoretical and empirical perspective and to demonstrate its possibilities and limitations in the digital format, using the example of a microteaching course with students at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Results of a survey among future teachers of German as a foreign language on the effectiveness of microteaching in the digital format in the times of the coronavirus pandemic will be presented.

Being able to construct simple sentences is necessary for effective written expression. The present study investigated effects of a sentence construction intervention on small groups of middle school students with disabilities and writing difficulties. The intervention entailed sentence instruction and frequency building to a performance criterion, a type of timed practice emphasizing fluency. A single case design, multiple-baseline across small groups, was used. Three middle school teachers delivered intervention to three small groups of students (a total of 15 students). As a result of intervention, the average number of correct minus incorrect word sequences per small group gradually increased. Results are discussed in the context of the sentence construction literature and within a framework of direct instruction and precision teaching.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present an econometric analysis of hate crime against older people based on data for England and Wales for 2010-2011 disaggregated by Crown Prosecution Service area – a geographical unit which is co-terminus with local authorities.Design/methodology/approach– The authors ran different specifications of structural regression models including one latent variable and accounting for a number of interactions between the covariates.Findings– The paper suggests that the higher the level of other types of hate crime is in an area, the higher the level of hate crime against older people. Demographics are also significant: a higher concentration of older and young people partially explains hate crime levels against the former. Employment, income and educational deprivation are also associated with biased-crime against older people. Conviction rates seem to reduce hate crime against older people, and one indicator of intergenerational contact is not significant.Research limitations/implications– Due to data availability and quality, the paper only studies one years worth of data. Consequently, the research results may lack generalisability. Furthermore, the proxy variable for intergenerational contact may not be the most suitable indicator; however, there will not be any other indicators available until Census data come out.Practical implications– The paper suggests that factors underlying hate crime would also influence hate crime against older people. Besides, the results would not support the “generational clash” view. Tackling income, educational and employment deprivation would help significantly reduce the number of episodes of biased criminal activity against older people. Improving conviction rates of all types of hate crime would also contribute to the reduction of hate crime against older people.Originality/value– This paper presents the first econometric analysis of hate crime against older people.

Hate crimes, which stem from prejudiced attitudes, have a distributionally detrimental impact on societal stability. Although inter-group contacts are potentially an effective means for reducing prejudice and subsequently decreasing the number of hate crimes, scholars have recently recognized the possibility of negative contacts that might actually amplify prejudice. As a result, the question of whether intergroup contacts truly possess the ability to effectively decrease hate crime numbers remains inconclusive. In addition, prior contact research primarily relies on laboratory experiments because the establishment of intergroup contacts in a field setting is challenging. Examination of the effectiveness of intergroup contacts hence merits further investigation in a real-world setting. In this article, we propose that ride-hailing services, which naturally connect individuals from different backgrounds, offer an avenue to facilitate intergroup contacts in practice, which could potentially reduce prejudice and the volume of hate crimes. Leveraging the staggered introduction of this technology into counties in the United States, we conducted a series of analyses to empirically evaluate the contact effects in the open field. Our analysis reveals a notable decrease in the number of hate crimes (particularly a 5.75% reduction in racial hate crimes) after the introduction of ride-hailing services. These findings remained consistent across various robustness tests. Additional moderation analysis suggests that the increased interaction between different groups, facilitated by ride-hailing services, is the most likely explanation for the observed decrease in hate crimes. We further conducted an extensive survey involving real ride-hailing drivers and passengers. The results from our survey provide direct evidence that ride-hailing services create natural and constructive environments where positive interactions and mutual understanding can develop among diverse groups of people. This, in turn, helps mitigate prejudice and hate crimes within society, as observed in our analysis. This study not only extends the existing body of literature on contact theory but also sheds light on how modern technologies can play a pivotal role in curtailing hate crime, yielding both theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to examine the effect of cultural intelligence and intergroup contact on ethnic prejudice in adolescents, with ethnocentrism as a mediating variable. The study was conducted on 308 adolescents using a quantitative approach and analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) through the JASP program. The results showed that the resulting model had adequate fit (SRMR = 0.070; RMSEA = 0.092; CFI = 0.902; GFI = 0.983). Directly, cultural intelligence had a significant positive effect on ethnic prejudice, while intergroup contact had a significant negative effect on ethnic prejudice. Ethnocentrism also showed a strong positive effect on ethnic prejudice. The analysis of the mediation effect revealed that mediating ethnocentrism significantly affected cultural intelligence and intergroup contact on ethnic prejudice. These findings suggests that an increase in cultural intelligence or frequency of contact does not necessarily decrease ethnic prejudice without decrease in the level of ethnocentrism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the context of developing interventions to reduce ethnic prejudice among adolescents.

BackgroundMedical curricula are increasingly internationalized, with international students being mixed with domestic students in small group learning. Small group learning is known to foster competency learning in undergraduate medical education, specifically Communication, Collaboration, Leadership, and Professionalism. However, it is unclear what happens with the learning of competencies when international students are introduced in small groups. This study explores if students in international small groups master the competencies Collaboration, Leadership and Professionalism at the same level as students in domestic groups in an undergraduate medical curriculum.MethodIn total, 1215 Students of three academic year cohorts participated in the study. They were divided into four learning communities (LCs), per year cohort, in which tutor groups were the main instructional format. The tutorials of two learning communities were taught in English, with a mix of international and Dutch students. The tutorials of the other two learning communities were taught in Dutch with almost all domestic students. Trained tutors assessed three competencies (Collaboration, Leadership, Professionalism) twice per semester, as ‘Not-on-track’, ‘On-track’, or ‘Fast-on-track’. By using Chi-square tests, we compared students’ competencies performance twice per semester between the four LCs in the first two undergraduate years.ResultsThe passing rate (‘On-track’ plus ‘Fast-on-track’) for the minimum level of competencies did not differ between the mixed and domestic groups. However, students in the mixed groups received more excellent performance evaluations (‘Fast-on-track’) than the students in the homogenous groups of Dutch students. This higher performance was true for both international and Dutch students of the mixed groups. Prior knowledge, age, gender, and nationality did not explain this phenomenon. The effect could also not be explained by a bias of the tutors.ConclusionWhen students are educated in mixed groups of international and Dutch students, they can obtain the same basic competency levels, no matter what mix of students is made. However, students in the mixed international groups outperformed the students in the homogenous Dutch groups in achieving excellent performance scores. Future research should explore if these findings can be explained from differences in motivation, perceived grading or social network interactions.

Although “community conversations” are a promising approach to address employment outcomes for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs), little research has addressed how these events are tailored to address the unique needs, assets, and resources of communities. Through in-depth interviews, organizers from seven diverse communities addressed their motivations for involvement, their pathways of personalization, and the factors contributing to the success of the events. Collectively, attendees generated more than 2,000 strategies to expand integrated employment locally, falling across six primary areas. Attendees considered these events to be a good investment of their time; however, they reported that additional action, education, and partnerships were needed in their communities. Following the events, attendees reported taking a variety of follow-up actions including sharing information, developing new relationships, talking with neighbors, and educating employers. We offer implications for policy, practice, and research aimed at expanding integrated employment for young people with disabilities.