Building Multicultural Competence by Fostering Collaborative Skills

Abstract

Introduction: Developing greater multicultural competence is predicated on developing continual awareness and education about issues relevant to marginalized identities. One way to promote this competence is by engaging in productive intergroup dialogue with individuals representing a diversity of perspectives. Statement of the Problem: Intergroup dialogues can be difficult and require training and skill to keep them collaborative and not adversarial. The challenge for instructors is how to build in the kinds of activities necessary to help students become effective collaborators. Literature Review: We review the definition of multicultural competence and note the under-emphasis on developing culturally relevant skills. With that in mind, we discuss the importance of difficult dialogue in advancing multicultural competence and briefly discuss what effective collaboration entails. Teaching Implications: Finally, we discuss a model for building this type of skills training into psychology courses using an online, chat platform designed to help develop collaborative skills called CREATE. Conclusion: We provide recommendations for inclusion of the CREATE system in psychology courses as a strategy for facilitating multicultural awareness and skills.