ABSTRACT
T he United States is growing rapidly into a more diverse nation, increasing the demand for a diverse workforce of educators. However, the lack of diversity and availability of educators is reaching crisis proportion (Orfield & Yun, 1999). This lack of diversity is especially evident among school counselors. While the K-12 student population in today's public schools has a large representation of minority racial and ethnic groups, the majority of school counselors are White (D'Andrea & Arredondo, 1999; Lee, 1995). This underrepresentation of minorities is also reflected in counselor education faculty, department chairpersons, and students in graduate programs (Brotherton, 1996; Young, Chamley, & Withers, 1990). Eighty-three percent of students in nationally accredited counseling graduate programs identify themselves as “White” (Dinsmore & England, 1996). “This sort of institutional arrangement reflects a type of racial … domination that, at the very least, unwittingly perpetuates cultural encapsulation within the profession” (Brotherton, 1996, p. 5).
