Cultural Immersion in Counselor Education in the United States: A Quasi Experimental Study

Researchers (e.g., Arthur & Achenbach, 2002; DeRicco & Sciarra, 2005; Kim & Lyons, 2003; Rundstrom, 2005) examining the development of multicultural counseling competence have argued that contact and exposure with people from diverse backgrounds through cultural immersion develops higher degrees of cultural empathy, increased awareness, self-efficacy and competence when compared to primarily didactic instruction. The purpose of this study was to employ a quasi-experimental design to investigate the differences between counselor education students who participated in a cultural immersion experience (n = 19) and counselor education students who did not immerse (n = 18). Results and implications for future research are discussed.