Diversity Issues in Career Counseling
In this unit you explored five different cultural groups and the need for cultural competence. As was discussed by Zunker, we must understand our own assumptions, values, and biases, as well as the world view of others; and then develop appropriate strategies and interventions. The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of cultural competence, your limitations as they relate to career counseling, and your plan to develop the needed skills.
For this assignment, choose a cultural group of which you are not a member and create a persona for a fictitious member of that group. Address the following elements in your assignment:
- Describe a fictitious persona from your chosen cultural group, that you will use as your client or student. For example, if you are an African-American male you may choose to write about a person who identifies as female, Navajo American Indian, married with five children, living on a reservation, forty years old with a high school education.
- Analyze how societal norms such as gender, age, culture, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics may have influenced your client’s career development. You need to select a minimum of three characteristics or diversity issues. How might these factors impact the person’s relationships with others and life roles? What strategies would you use?
- Assess how biases and assumptions can impact the career counseling process both from your perspective as the counselor and from the perspective of the client or student.
- Self-assess your own biases and describe how you will work to decrease these biases when working with diverse populations.
Your assignment should be 4–5 pages in length, include at least three references, and follow APA style and format. Review the Diversity Issues in Career Counseling Scoring Guide to understand the grading criteria for this assignment.
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