Providing Effective Feedback in Social and Cultural Diversity Courses

Cultural competence development, values imposition, respect for diversity, discrimination and multiple related issues have been increasingly pressed to the forefront of discourse in the counseling field and society at large. As social, legislative and academic agendas related to diversity, value-conflicts, religious freedom, discrimination, and protection of rights continue to develop, counselor educators must assume the task of guiding counselors-in-training in making sense of and engaging the discourse as part of their cultural competence development. This article discusses the development of intentional plans for providing feedback in social and cultural diversity courses as an effective pedagogical approach for increasing cultural competence development for counselors-in- training. Through personal anecdotes and experiences in the classroom and professional field, the case for using a multi-dimensional model for guiding the definition of cultural competence will be discussed. Two primary discussions focus on the role of feedback as a pedagogical tool in diversity courses, and strategies for effectively utilizing feedback in the inherently highly-charged learning environments where diversity discussions occur.