Journey of Developing Multicultural Competence

Changing demographics in higher education since the Civil Rights Movement has expanded the need for multicultural education, diversity awareness, and tending to social justice for students. This phenomenological study examines the life experiences that led to the development of multicultural competence in student affairs professionals using a qualitative research methodology. Seven student affairs professionals were selected to participate. This book contains their stories and draws themes from the interviews which are first clustered into 14 themes and then categorized into three realms of experience: personal, professional, and structural/institutional. The stories speak for themselves however, the method in which they are analyzed, Transcendental Phenomenology, supports greater accessibility for a broad base of readers. This study adds a qualitative perspective to the field of multicultural competence, illuminates the role of student affairs in this field, suggests ways to support graduate training programs develop these skills in developing professionals, and demonstrates the significance of personal background as the foundation of multicultural competence.