Exploring the Relationship Between Pedagogy and Counselor Trainees’ Multicultural and Social Justice Competence

The authors evaluated the acquisition of 6 constructs related to multicultural and social justice competence for 60 counselors-in-training (CITs) in 3 multicultural counseling courses. Each course was assigned a unique pedagogical approach: didactic, experiential, or community service learning. Statistical analyses indicated that pedagogical approach had the greatest impact on CITs’ growth in multicultural relationship, multicultural skills, and social justice advocacy constructs. Analyses also indicated growth across all 3 pedagogies for multicultural knowledge and multicultural awareness constructs. The authors explore patterns of pedagogical impact, discuss practical implications, and make suggestions for further research.