Assessing the Multicultural and Social Justice Competencies of Career Development Practitioners

The current focus on social justice in career practice necessitates identification and prioritization of specific competencies for multicultural counseling and social justice action (Blustein, 2006; Watson, 2010). The Multicultural Cultural and Social Justice Competencies (MCSJC) scale was used to examine (a) the importance of various competency domains and their composite factors to the profession of career development and (b) the self-assessment of competence by career practitioners on these core domains and factors. The study confirms the importance of multicultural counselling and social justice competencies to career practice and suggests that educational programs are doing a better job of facilitating awareness, which focuses on attitudes and knowledge, than the skill development required to translate this awareness into culture-infused and social justice focused working alliances with clients. In particular, training in interventions at the organizational, community, and broader systems level is needed. Suggestions for curriculum development draw on the Culture-Infused Counseling model that undergirded the MCSJC scale.