Complicating Diversity Outcomes: Differentiating Multicultural Competence, Intercultural Effectiveness, and Critical Consciousness
- Rosemary Perez (Iowa State University)
- L. Wesley Harris (Iowa State University)
- Jessica Adams (Iowa State University)
- Romina Holder (Iowa State University)
Abstract
While there is broad consensus that higher education should prepare students to engage in a diverse democracy (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2007; Bowen, 1999; Hurtado, 2007), there is less agreement about the diversity related outcomes post-secondary education should foster. This session is designed to explore and to disentangle several diversity related outcomes: multicultural competence (King & Howard-Hamilton, 2003; Pope & Reynolds, 1997), intercultural maturity (King & Baxter Magolda, 2005; Perez, Shim, King, & Baxter Magolda, 2015), and critical consciousness (Freire, 1970). In this session, participants will learn about the distinctions between the aforementioned outcomes and will explore how an educational experience can be designed to foster multicultural competence, intercultural maturity, and/or critical consciousness. Participants will also explore the extent to which existing programs and curricula are designed to illuminate and dismantle racism and in turn interlocking systems of oppression.