Description
Create a 3-5 page paper that communicates your ideas and describes your
vision of yourself as a multicultural practitioner-scholar. Create your
assessment in a provided template that will guide you as you respond to
the assessment requirements.
The program is called M.S. General Psychology.
Instructions
Explain your passion and interest in psychology and how these relate to your previous personal and professional experiences.
Provide contextual information someone else would need to know to fully understand your vision.
This could include your previous personal and professional experiences related to your vision, any major influences that led you to psychology and your specialization, why your passions and interests in psychology are important to you, and any other relevant information to provide context for your vision.
Assessing the Value of Resources
In this section, discuss how you assessed the value of the resources you read and used when writing up this paper. Make sure to address the following:
Discuss why it is important to consider diversity, equity, and inclusion when conducting psychological studies.
When diverse populations are used in research groups, how does that make the results more credible?
What role do critical thinking and ethics play when assessing the value of research used in your papers?
Role As a Multicultural Practitioner-Scholar
In this section, reflect on the information you read regarding the practitioner-scholar and scholar-practitioner models to answer the following:
Discuss critical thinking in relation to your role as a practitioner-scholar.
Explain what it will mean to you to be a multicultural practitioner-scholar and how the practitioner-scholar model can help guide you in developing the knowledge, skills, and competencies you will need to reach your professional vision and goals.
Vision
In this section, develop an inspiring description of your future career vision as a multicultural psychology practitioner-scholar. Be sure to include a description of your role and the individuals you wish to impact and the setting in which you would like to work.
Conclusion
Use this section to explain the benefits of achieving your future career vision and becoming a multicultural practitioner-scholar in the field of psychology and the importance and relevance of your vision and goals to your personal and professional aspirations. Also, describe how confident you are and committed to achieving your multicultural psychology practitioner-scholar vision. Think of this paragraph as a summary of important and relevant elements to motivate yourself to achieve your vision. Reference any supporting documents that helped you clarify or describe these elements.
Your completed assessment should include the following:
Title page.
Abstract: A concise summary of every main point in the paper.
Introduction: A concise overview of the paper’s content.
Body of paper:
Introduction.
Assessing the Value of Research.
Role As a Multicultural Practitioner-Scholar.
Vision.
Conclusion: A concise summary of important points of the paper, explaining the benefits of achieving your future career vision and becoming an effective multicultural practitioner-scholar in the field of psychology.
References.
Thank you.
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Your Vision As a Multicultural Practitioner-Scholar
Learner’s Name
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Capella University
PSY-FPX5002: Foundations of Theory and Practice for Master’s Psychology Learners
Instructor
September 1, 2023
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Abstract
High school students face several challenges and mental health issues because of cultural and
linguistic differences. Most schools do not have professionals who can support these students,
and most teachers lack the skills needed to deal with culturally sensitive issues. My vision is to
be a school psychologist and work with both teachers and students facing such challenges. To
guide my efforts, I intend to use McClintock’s scholar-practitioner model. Through extensive
research, both theoretical and empirical, I will be able to achieve my goal. Being of Indian
origin, I also have personal experience with several challenges. My personal experience coupled
with the knowledge and skills I develop by following this model will help me achieve my vision.
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My Role and Vision As a Multicultural Practitioner-Scholar
High school students today face a lot more challenges than they did a decade ago.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, mental health issues among children and
adolescents in the past decade increased by almost 40% (Abrams, 2023). Studies show that
students with cultural challenges tend to repeat their grade, if not drop out of school. This, in
turn, influences their future employment (Higgen & Mösko, 2020). The parents of such students
rely on teachers to investigate and help in such situations. However, the fact is that most teachers
in high schools are not competent to support these children and do not possess the professional
skills to deal with mental health issues (Higgen & Mösko, 2020). This has led to a growing need
for school psychologists.
When I first moved to a new school, I struggled to fit in. I could not speak English very
well and found it extremely difficult to make friends. This left me feeling isolated and made me
lose focus of my studies. That is when my school psychologist stepped in. She was the only
person who understood what I was going through even though she barely knew me. There are
many students out there facing similar challenges without access to competent professionals. It is
not by chance that I chose this goal; rather, it is because I was inspired by my school
psychologist to be there for other students in the same way she was there for me.
Role as a Multicultural Practitioner-Scholar
A scholar-practitioner, as McClintock states, is one whose professional career is
grounded in theory and research. Scholar-practitioners have a deep understanding of their
subject, are driven by their values and ethics, and connect the line between theory and practical
application (DeStefano et al., 2004). This model can guide my professional development in three
areas: critical thinking, ethical research, and multicultural competencies.
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As a practitioner-scholar, the first thing I will focus on is the development of my critical
thinking skills. Practitioner-scholars are creative at problem solving and through a thorough
analysis of the research can make effective and efficient decisions. This is a skill that is
especially needed when dealing with adolescents in culturally sensitive situations. Bennett et al.
(2017) describe adolescents as reluctant to share their lives and advocate a certain degree of
creativity when working with them. Thus, a fair amount of research, knowledge, and techniques
are required to build trust, communicate with, and help adolescents make the right decisions.
While the existing literature may be extensive, it is important to consider research
focused on diversity and inclusion. Studies conducted using more diverse populations provide
richer data (Soto et al., 2023), which allows for accurate and nuanced understanding rather than
generalization. Nonrepresentation could lead to unwanted outcomes from misguided
interpretations of research that lack diversity and inclusion. As pointed out by DiStefano et al.
(2004), this skill of understanding individual needs using only the most reliable information is
essential to being an ethically responsible practitioner.
From an ethical standpoint, I will need to be free from my own biases and avoid studies
that are biased. Rather than relying on assumptions, I will need to base my findings on evidence
from research. As a practitioner-scholar with critical thinking skills, I will be able to spot gaps or
flaws in research papers and base my practice only on the most reliable and relevant information.
Finally, by using critical thinking and relying on research that includes diversity, I can develop
the multicultural competencies I need for my future practice. According to Soto et al. (2023), the
tripartite model of multicultural competence is the most widely recognized model. The three
areas of this model are an awareness of one’s own values and beliefs, knowledge of others’
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values and beliefs, and the skills needed to engage with individuals of other cultures. To develop
each of these competencies, I will need to conduct a fair amount of research.
Developing each of these competencies is crucial to my role as a high school
psychologist. For example, the second competency, knowledge, requires a great deal of
understanding of the values and beliefs of the students I will work with. If I do not possess the
required knowledge, I could risk offending or hurting a student because of stereotypes and
biases. This could make things worse rather than help the situation and could destroy any trust I
have built with that student. By using the practitioner-scholar model, I can avoid such a situation
by not only being prepared through my research but also developing an attitude that helps me
empathize with students.
My Vision
My inspiration to become a high school psychologist is based on my own personal
experience. I want to be able to help students in the same way my school psychologist was able
to help me. At the same time, I also want to support other teachers and faculty members. While
there is a burden on students facing challenges because of their culture, there is also a burden on
teachers to constantly adapt their teaching styles and accommodate individual needs. According
to some studies, teachers tend to focus more on multicultural approaches to teaching when they
have a larger number of ethnic minorities in their classrooms (D’hondt et al., 2021). This directly
implies that classrooms with fewer ethnic minorities may force students to assimilate.
In my case, I was the only student from a different culture in my class. My school
psychologist, however, helped me celebrate my cultural differences instead of being ashamed of
them. This is also how I intend to practice my role as a school psychologist. I want every student
to feel they need not hide but instead embrace their cultural differences. As pointed out by
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Abrams (2023), there is a shortage of personnel who are competent in providing mental health
care, and teachers need to be trained to equip them with the multicultural competencies needed to
engage with students effectively.
My role would be to not only provide mental health care to students but also share my
knowledge with teachers to create a safe and healthy school environment. In turn, teachers would
benefit from this training by becoming more confident in dealing with mental health problems
and engaging positively with students, especially in cross-cultural interactions (Higgen &
Mösko, 2020). This would also improve the level of trust and respect among students and
teachers.
Conclusion
My vision is based on my desire to build a safe and healthy environment for high school
students. I do not stand alone in this endeavor. I believe that teachers everywhere also want to
help their students in any way they can but are unable to do so because of their lack of skills. By
providing teachers with the training, they need and also supporting them and their students at
every instance, I believe I can build a system that positively affects the lives of students and
builds their trust and confidence. With my personal experience, the practitioner-scholar model,
and support from my colleagues, I believe I can achieve my vision.
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References
Abrams, Z. (2023). Kids’ mental health is in crisis. Here’s what psychologists are doing to help.
Monitor on Psychology, 54(1), 63. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trendsimproving-youth-mental-health
Bennett, E. D., Le, K., Lindahl, K., Wharton, S., & Mak, T. W. (2017). Five out of the box
techniques for encouraging teenagers. Vistas Online, Article 3.
https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/encouragingteenagers.pdf?sfvrsn=729e4a2c_6
D’hondt, F., Maene, C., Vervaet, R., Van Houtte, M., & Stevens, P. A. J. (2021). Ethnic
discrimination in secondary education: Does the solution lie in multicultural education
and the ethnic school composition? Social Psychology of Education, 24(5), 1231–1258.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09651-w
DiStefano, A., Rudestam, K. E., & Silverman, R. J. (Eds.). (2004). Encyclopedia of distributed
learning. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950596
Higgen, S., & Mösko, M. (2020) Mental health and cultural and linguistic diversity as challenges
in school? An interview study on the implications for students and teachers. PLoS One,
15(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236160
Soto, J. A., Mena, J. A., Borge, M., Stoyer, M. R., Witherspoon, D. P., & Dawson-Andoh, N. A.
(2023). Multicultural competence building blocks: Multicultural psychology courses
promote multicultural knowledge and ethnic identity. Teaching of Psychology, 50(4),
307–321. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1177/00986283211031854
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