Cross-Cultural Consultation

Cross-cultural consultation is of a type of problemsolving consultation that attends to the diverse values, perspectives, styles of communication, and cultural contexts prevalent in today's multicultural schools. It helps consultants bridge across the different cultures and perspectives among members of the consultation system (consultant, consultee, and client). Culture is complex and may be influenced by a wide range of factors such as familial values, ethnicity, race, religion, geographic location, education, level of acculturation, status within larger society, and identity within a minority group. School psychologists skilled in cross-cultural consultation help develop shared understandings of the problems and ways to resolve them.

Cross-cultural consultation is an approach that brings cultural issues to the forefront and adjusts the consultation services to address the needs and culture of the consultee and/or client (Ingraham, 2000; Tarver Behring & Ingraham, 1998). The psychologist guides the consultation process with a consultee (often a teacher or parent) who is concerned about one or more students or clients. Thus, consultation is a triadic relationship involving at least three different people in a consultation system.

Within the fields of counseling and psychology, there is growing awareness of the Eurocentric sociopolitical values embedded in the theories and research. Similarly, a Eurocentric view influences many consultation theories, representing the mainstream and neglecting the diversity of cultures and languages represented in today's communities (Ingraham, 2000; Ingraham & Meyers, 2000; Tarver Behring & Ingraham, 1998). Traditional consultation theories emphasize egalitarian and collaborative relationships, orientation to the problem behavior, and values consistent with the dominant culture, sometimes conflicting with the norms of diverse or minority groups within schools.

Psychologists can take several steps to broaden their perspective and enhance effectiveness with students, parents, and staff in our increasing pluralistic schools. The fields of psychology (American Psychological Association, 1993), multicultural counseling (Arredondo & colleagues, 1996), and multicultural school psychology (Rogers & colleagues, 1999) created national guidelines for specific knowledge and skills for culturally competent practice. Shari Tarver Behring and Colette Ingraham (1998), among others, critiqued the consultation literature for its Eurocentric perspective; called for culture to become a central component of consultation theories, research, and practice; and proposed multicultural consultation approaches and competencies. Consultants need to know their own culture and its relations with other cultures, respect and understand the cultures of others, and use specific communication and interpersonal skills to build bridges between members of differing cultural backgrounds. The first step is to understand that all people do not share the same worldview and ways of understanding and resolving problems. One's cultural context can influence the patterns of thinking, behaving, and relating to others. The effective crosscultural consultant is respectful of cultural differences and develops ways to educate and connect members who are of differing perspectives and cultures.

Rogerio Pinto proposed a model of cross-cultural consultation to guide people working in organizations and institutional development across cultures. Consultants need to be aware of and sensitive to the variations of their own values compared with those of others. Pinto's model laid the foundation for concepts that were expanded by later scholars, many of whom are authors, in a special journal issue on multicultural and cross-cultural consultation (Ingraham & Meyers, 2000).

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