ABSTRACT
The dispositions, knowledge, and skills of the teacher/consultee toward students from different cultural backgrounds can play a critical role in the classroom climate, the interpersonal interactions between the teacher/consultee and the student(s), and the impartation of egalitarian values to the students. Variables that influence an individual’s culture include race, ethnicity, language, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, family, educational attainment, and level of acculturation (Ingraham, 2000). Given the increasing diversity in the school populations in the United States, the use of culturally competent practices in consultation is absolutely essential in improving outcomes of the consultation process (Klotz & Canter, 2006). In this chapter we hope to help the reader to understand the roots and models of multicultural consultation, an approach to consultation that explicitly considers the cultural values of those involved in the consultation process (Tarver Behring & Ingraham, 1998). The linkage between the EBC model and multicultural consultation models will be explored, and strategies and skills that promote competence in multicultural EBC will be discussed.
