well-Turkish School Counsellors’ Views of the Importance of Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills

This study aims to determine the Turkish school counselors ’ views of the importance of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. In this context, participants were selected using the purposive sampling method. The participants consisted of 15 males and 27 females. All participants were selected from school counselors with experience in counseling with refugees. The Q methodology was used in the present study to identify the views of school counselors on multicultural counseling competencies. Three dimensions of multicultural counseling were used in developing the Q statements within the scope of this study. The data collection instrument of the study consisted of a total of 18 Q items regarding the multicultural counseling needs of school counselors. Basic component analysis and varimax rotation analysis showed that 42 participants could be grouped under three factors. Twenty four out of 42 participants (57.14%) were grouped under a dimension, which might indicate that the participants had a general characteristic. According to study findings, the vast majority of the participants considered themselves adequate in the dimension of self-awareness, while they considered themselves inadequate in terms of skills and knowledge.


Introduction
The purpose of the counselling process, which is defined as a professional relationship (American Counseling Association, 2010) that helps individuals, families, or groups maintain their educational and career goals in maintaining their mental health and well-being, is to reduce the emotional tensions of the client, solve problems in their life, and increase their functionality or compliance by using various intervention techniques or strategies (Weiner & Bornstein, 2009).In this process, the desire to know what positive effects a client has on their functionality and well-Turkish School Counsellors' Views of the Importance of Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills being has been an important topic of study in recent years (Ackerman & Hilsenroth, 2003;Conte et al., 1991;Hill & Lambert, 2004).According to Lambert et al. (2004), research in this field is process and outcome-oriented, and it provides evidence to the psychological counselling field.It has been stated in a meta-analysis study that the most important variable that positively contributes to the well-being and functionality of the clients is the characteristics of the client (Lambert, 1992).In another meta-analysis research conducted by Wampold (2001), the results of Lambert's study were supported significantly.Corey (2001) stated that many counselling theories focused on understanding the client's phenomenological world, and culture was an important factor in understanding the client's subjective world.According to Doğan (2005), it is necessary to understand the clients within their cultural context to achieve positive and effective counselling outcomes.In the context of these explanations, it can be concluded that it is important to know the cultural codes and characteristics of the clients.In addition, the postmodernist approach arguing that reality has been structured with social and cultural influences in recent years has shaped the approaches in the field of counselling with the concepts of multiculturalism, cultural differences, and cultural sensitivity.It is also possible to say that every effort to understand the subjective world of the client in a cultural context is important.
According to Parekh (2002), culture is a structure that consists of material and spiritual elements that both support and conflict with each other, and this structure presents the concept of "multiculturalism".This concept emphasizes differences.The coexistence of different cultures forms the basis of the phenomenon of multiculturalism.Although taking culture into account in the field of psychology has already been emphasized, the emergence of a multicultural movement in the field of counselling dates back to the 1950s (Patterson, 1996).The first literature was based on studies focusing mostly on counselling and intercultural counselling with minority groups (Christensen, 1975;Sue & Sue, 1977;Pedersen, 1978;Vontress, 1976).In later studies, the concept of culture has been handled in a broader dimension, and sexual orientation, religious belief, and disability issues have been the subject of multicultural counselling research (Davis, 2014;Lewis, 2006;Mpofu & Harley, 2006;Swanson, 1993;Whitman & Bidell, 2014).
Multicultural counselling practices include cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills in counselling interaction (Arredondo et al., 1996).Sue and Torino (2005) defined multicultural counselling as setting goals and values in clients, displaying aid roles suitable for these experiences, knowing the individual, group, and universal dimensions of the client's personality, using universal and culture-specific strategies in the assessment, diagnosis, and therapy of clients.Multicultural counselling is a topic that has gained more and more attention since 1990, and studies in this area have increased.In their study, Arredondo, Rosen, Rice, Perez and Tovar-Gamero (2005) reviewed the publications between 1990 and 2001 and analyzed 102 studies on multicultural counselling.Pedersen (1991) defined multicultural counselling as the fourth force and orientation of counselling along with the psychoanalytic approach, humanistic approach, and cognitive approach.Corey (2008) stated that counsellors brought their own cultural heritage to the counselling process and that they should, therefore, be aware of their cultural heritage and the impact of this situation on the counselling process.According to Sue, Arredondo and Mcdavis (1992), individuals join the counselling process with a worldview that is influenced by historical and current experiences of racism, oppression, and discrimination.Consciously or unconsciously, these experiences affect our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves or others (Arredondo, 1999).
According to the multicultural counselling approach, counsellors should have some competencies in the context of cultural sensitivity.These competencies, which are the basis of awareness and sensitivity regarding different cultures, are named as multicultural psychological counselling competencies (Arredondo et al., 1996;Sue et al., 1982).The first scientific discussions on multicultural counselling and competencies were based on the Vail conference held in 1973.At this conference, clients from different cultural backgrounds were given a message that a more ethical assistance service should be offered.Therefore, appropriate multicultural education should be placed in counsellor education programs (Korman, 1974, as cited in Kassan, 2009).After this conference, Sue et al. (1982) touched on multicultural counselling competencies in their work titled "Intercultural Counselling Competencies".Later, Sue et al. (1992) redefined these competencies.These competencies were determined by the Association for Multicultural Counselling and Development (AMCD) as multicultural counselling competence standards.In this process, the latest study was carried out by Arredondo et al. (1996), and the multicultural counselling competencies accepted by AMCD were determined.Besides, at least one course on multiculturalism has been required by Council for Accreditation of Counselling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and the American Psychological Association (APA) in psychological counselling programs (Chae, Foley & Chae, 2006).
Turkey has been facing mass migration and other types of migration from many countries for years and accommodating foreign citizens due to its geographical location.Due to its stable economy and the constant instability in the neighboring region, Turkey has evolved into a destination country instead of being a transit country for refugees. 1In particular, at least five hundred thousand people lost their lives due to the civil war that began in Syria on 15 March 2011, while 4.9 million people sought refuge in neighboring countries to avoid danger.For the victims of the Syrian crisis, in addition to the victims from other countries, Turkey has implemented an "Open Door Policy" without discrimination of religion, language, or race.For this reason, Turkey, which accommodates the world's most asylum seekers, has been engaging in various activities with numerous institutions for the adjustment of foreign people and their children to a new life.2Although Turkey hosts a number of foreign people from various countries, such as Chechnya, Somalia, Armenia, China (Xinjiang region), etc., people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan constitute the largest number of foreign nationals, according to the recent official data. 3The number of Syrian asylum seekers currently in Turkey has exceeded 4 million, and about half of these people are children in the 0-18 age group.There is no doubt that schools are the most important institutions that play an active role in the social, psychological, and cultural adjustment of foreign children to a new environment.Within the scope of the projects developed, 80,742 children started school in the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) shelter centers, and a total of 508,846 children started preschool, primary school, secondary school, and high school as a result of the cooperation with the Ministry of National Education ().This number was approximately 650 thousand in 2019 (UNICEF, 2019).
The traumatic events experienced by children when they become refugees damage their emotional, cognitive, physical, and social development (Fazel & Stein, 2002: 367;UNHCR, 1994: 38).Children experience a sense of loss and isolation as separation from their families or the loss of their families means the loss of traditional role models (UNHCR, 1994: 46).In their study, Ehntholt et al. (2005) concluded that refugee children experienced a high degree of psychological and behavioral difficulties due to severe losses and exposure to war-related trauma and had high levels of depression and anxiety.
Due to the reasons cited above, a significant number of refugees and migrants, who have been forced to leave their countries as a result of difficulties, is living in Turkey.Among these refugees and migrants, especially children and adolescents experience a major problem adapting to this new situation.In the process of adaptation of children and adolescents to the country, schools, and school counselling services are considered to have an important function.School counsellors are required to have multicultural counselling qualifications for providing functional and effective psychosocial support for refugee children and adolescents in relation to adaptation to school/social life.To determine the basic needs for these qualifications, it is necessary to understand the phenomenological world of professionals, who will provide counselling.In this regard, this study aimed to reveal the multicultural counselling needs of school counsellors who work with refugees.

Method
The Q methodology was used in the present study to identify the views of school counsellors on multicultural counselling competencies.It is a method in which mixed research processes are used together to subjectively and systematically determine the interests and attitudes of individuals towards a subject (Brown, 1993).According to a similar description, Q methodology attempts to reveal similarities and differences of perspectives and meanings in a holistic way by analyzing the meaning of any subject in the subjective world of individuals (Brown, 1993(Brown, , 1996;;Watts & Stenner, 2005, 2012).Determining whether a study sample is grouped under a theme is one of the most powerful aspects of the Q methodology (Yıldırım, 2017).In the Q methodology, participants are presented with some statements containing interests and attitudes about the subject to be investigated.They are then asked to rank these statements according to whether they agree or disagree on them (Van Exel & De Graaf, 2005).The data obtained are analyzed by a method similar to the principal component analysis in exploratory factor analysis to reveal the structure.According to Yıldırım (2017), the principal component analysis in the Q methodology is similar to the exploratory factor analysis in terms of the systematics of processes but contains fundamentally significant differences.During a scale development process, items are administered to people, and the dimensions of the items are determined by the principal component analysis in the exploratory factor analysis.In the Q methodology, the individuals are also grouped by applying the principal component analysis (Yıldırım, 2017).According to Karasu and Peker (2019), the difference between the Q methodology and the explanatory factor analysis is that the former seeks correlations between individuals, not the items.In this study, which consisted of school counsellors, the multicultural competence of counsellors was grouped and correlated using the Q methodology method through interviews.

Participants
All participants were selected from school counsellors with experience in counselling with refugees.In this context, participants were selected using the purposive sampling method.The participants consisted of 15 males and 27 females.One of the participants had a PhD degree, 3 participants had a master's degree, and 38 participants had a Bachelor's degree.Of the participants, 16 were working in high schools, 15 in secondary schools, 7 in elementary schools, 3 in guidance research centers, and 1 in a preschool.Of the participants, 6 spent most of their lives in metropolitan cities, 25 in provincial centers, 8 in districts, and 2 in villages.Participants had a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 29 years of experience (X=8.39,SD=5.71).Of the participants, 12 were working in the Black Sea region, 15 in the Eastern Anatolia region, and 15 in the Central Anatolia region.Only 5 participants had received training on multicultural counselling, while other participants had not received any training in this regard.Only 2 participants, who stated that they had received training on multicultural counselling, considered themselves competent in multicultural counselling.

Q statements
Three dimensions of multicultural counselling were used in developing the Q statements within the scope of this study.It is stated that multicultural counselling competencies are an important factor in counsellor education.Multicultural counselling competencies include situations, such as the knowledge of the counsellor about the client's culture, the reflection of the cultural elements of the client on the counselling process, and updating the counselling competencies.In this context, multicultural counselling competencies were examined under three headings in the following paragraphs.
Awareness: It means that the counsellors are aware of both their own and the client's culture.In this context, the counsellors should be aware of the prejudices that stem from their own culture and the judgments and prejudices arising from the client's culture.Counsellors should also know the limits of their own multicultural counselling competencies.To sum up there are three parts of awareness: awareness of your culture, awareness of the client's culture, and the awareness of your multicultural counselling competencies.
Knowledge: It includes knowing the problems which arise from the client's culture.In this context, the counsellor should take factors, such as discrimination, racism, cultural pressure that may have been experienced due to the client's culture, into consideration and use these in the counselling process.In addition, the counsellor should know what kind of communication to use in accordance with the client's culture.
Skills: It covers the recovery of counselling from being culturally prisoned (D'Andrea, Daniels & Heck, 1991).In this context, the psychological counsellor should prevent the negative effects of the client's ethnic origin, religion, and culture on the reporting process.To put it differently, the counsellor should not establish a relationship with the client with respect to culture, race, gender, or with different paradigms.In this research, multicultural counselling competencies will be discussed under these three headings.
Statements 1.I need knowledge about the beliefs, values, and traditions of refugees.2. I would like to know how to use cultural elements to strengthen the therapeutic relationship when working with refugees.3. I need to know the impact of refugee cultural dynamics on personality development.4. I would like to learn about the misunderstandings that may arise from the cultural differences of refugees.5.The client's cultural structure does not cause resistance when I am working with refugees.(Reverse) 6.My cultural background does not limit me when working with refugees.(Reverse) 7. My cultural prejudices do not affect the counselling process when I am working with refugees.(Reverse) 8.I do not need information on the cultural background of refugees in the counselling process.(Reverse) 9.I know how refugees' backgrounds affect their personalities.(Reverse) 10.Cultural differences of refugees do not affect the communication process when I am working with them.(Reverse) 11.I have no difficulty in establishing a therapeutic relationship when working with refugees.(Reverse) 12.I think I can use psychological counselling skills appropriately when working with refugees.(Reverse) 13.I have enough knowledge of the values, traditions, and beliefs of refugees.(Reverse) 14.I need support in overcoming my own cultural prejudices when working with refugees.15.I think I need to know about the cultural background of refugees to carry out a more efficient counselling process.16.I want to be aware of my cultural limitations when working with refugees.17.I need training on how to use counselling skills when working with refugees.18.I would like to learn how to deal with cultural resistance when working with refugees.

Findings
While determining the multicultural counselling needs of Turkish school counsellors, we first examined whether there was common ground between Turkish counsellors.For this purpose, basic component analysis and varimax rotations were conducted through "PQMethod 2.35" software.A three-factor structure that explained 66.47% of the total variance was obtained.The distribution of the scores is shown in Table 1.The participants are numbered as F1 (female 1), M1 (Male 1) in the Table 1.Factor loads of 42 participants are as shown in the table above.Basic component analysis and varimax rotation analysis showed that 42 participants could be grouped under three factors.The letter "X" was used to clearly show the classification of participants into factors and the values were written in bold.There were 24 participants in the first factor, 10 participants in the second one, and 4 participants in the third factor.Twenty-four out of 42 participants (57.14%) were grouped under a dimension, which might indicate that the participants had a general characteristic.3. I need to know the impact of refugee cultural dynamics on personality development.1 1 0 4. I would like to learn about the misunderstandings that may arise from the cultural differences of refugees.1 -2 3 18.I would like to learn how to deal with cultural resistance when working with refugees.

Factor 1 (n=24)
A first step in factor interpretation is conventionally taken by examining those statements that characterize a factor -i.e., that receive the highest positive (characteristic) and highest negative (uncharacteristic) factor scores along the +3 to -3 Q-sort scale, thereby providing the clearest initial indication of how these Turkish school counsellors regard themselves, both positively and negatively.In keeping up with this guideline, the following statements stand out.Hence, the school counsellors who identified themselves in Factor 1 needed knowledge about refuges culture (statement 1, 2, 15) and dealt with cultural residence (18) and it was on the basis of these self-attributions that the term cultural knowledge was suggested as a preliminary way to refer to Factor 1.Much the same regards emerged when the uncharacteristic statements of Factor 1 ("disagree") were examined (Table 4).As seen in Table 3 and Table 4, 24 participants needed more information about the culture of refugees and they did not think that they were competent in this regard.Participants needed to improve their multicultural communication skills besides knowledge about the culture of refugees.According to their statements, these individuals needed knowledge that made up multicultural counselling competence.They did not know the refugees' culture, and they did not know how they should act in the counselling process for establishing a therapeutic relationship.As seen in Table 4, Factor 1 has a factor distinguishing statement.This statement is "I have no difficulty in establishing a therapeutic relationship when working with refugees" and participants of Factor 1 have -2 points for this statement.That means they had difficulty in establishing a therapeutic relationship when working with refugees.7. Factor 2 (n=10) The school counsellors who identified themselves in Factor 2 needed to establish therapeutic relationships (statement 18, 2), needed knowledge about refugees' culture (statement 15), and dealt with cultural residence (18).However, they saw themselves competent about awareness (6).Much the same regards emerged when the uncharacteristic statements of Factor 1 ("disagree") were examined (Table 6).As seen in Table 6, the participants of Factor 2 saw themselves competent about awareness, but they needed more information about the culture of refuges.As a result, Factor 1 Open Journal for Educational Research, 2022, 6(1), 19-32.______________________________________________________________________________________________ 27 and Factor 2 were similar in terms of knowledge competencies, but differed in awareness competencies.
8. Factor 3 (n=4) The school counsellors who identified themselves in Factor 3 needed to establish therapeutic relationships (statement 18, 2) and needed to develop their multicultural counselling skills (statement 17).However, they saw themselves competent about awareness (6).Much the same regards emerged when the uncharacteristic statements of Factor 3 ("disagree") were examined (Table 8).As seen in Table 8, the participants of Factor 3 needed to establish therapeutic relationships (statements 10, 2) and needed knowledge about refugees' culture (statement 8).Additionally, they had an awareness of their culture.
As a result, all factors showed that Turkish school counsellors needed more information about the culture of refugees and needed to develop their skills about how they should establish therapeutic relationship with refugees.However, the results of Factor 2 and Factor 3 showed that Turkish school counsellors had cultural awareness about their own culture and that their own culture did not affect the counselling process.

Consensus
The results reveal only a limited degree of agreement across all three groups, the strongest and most positive being in terms of the following (Table 9).

Discussion
According to study findings, the vast majority of the participants considered themselves adequate in the dimension of self-awareness, while they considered themselves inadequate in terms of skills and knowledge.All the participants had counselling experience with refugees.In addition, they had an average of 8.39 years of experience.However, only five of the participants had received training in multicultural counselling.Looking at all these data together, it is understandable that participants consider themselves inadequate in the field of knowledge and skills, while they consider themselves adequate in the dimension of awareness.Indeed, one of the most important factors in the development of the awareness dimension is exposure to clients from different cultures (Close & Demir, 2016;Sue & Torino, 2005).This may be explained by the periods of experience of the participants and their experience in working with refugee clients.However, participants' lack of knowledge and skills can be explained by the lack of training in multicultural counselling.
Recommendations have been made on the need to include a multicultural counselling course in counselling and guidance training programs in Turkey (Bektas, 2006;Kagnıcı, 2014;Karaırmak, 2008).In 2004, a decision was made to include a multicultural counselling course in the counselling and guidance departments for the first time in Turkey (Departments of Counselling and Guidance Meeting III, Final Declaration, 2004).However, this was left to the initiative of departments, and many universities have not included this course in their programs since then.Yet, this process has increased the interest of academicians in Turkey in this issue, leading to an increase in the number of studies related to this field.In 2018, the Council of Higher Education designated the cultural anthropology course as compulsory and multicultural counselling course as an elective course; however, in 2020, these courses were left to the initiative of the departments.Sixty percent of Turkish academics educated in the United States have stated that the issue of multiculturalism is difficult to implement in Turkey and that this issue has not received enough attention in our country (Özer & İlhan, 2015;Ulus & Ricard, 2007).The Turkish Psychological Counselling and Guidance Association (2011) has listed cultural sensitivity as a factor in the main ethical principles that counsellors should adopt.A study by Ikiz and Asici (2017), however, demonstrated that only 9.63% of Turkish school counsellors considered cultural sensitivity as an ethical principle.Yet, it is known that ethnic minorities and sects in Turkey consider themselves more competent in the context of multicultural counselling (Close and Demirel, 2016;Hays et al., 2004).This can be evidence that counsellors with a dominant and privileged culture cannot internalize multicultural counselling skills.The reason for this can be explained by the lack of a standard in relation to this subject and the lack of training in the subject due to the preferences of the departments.However, Aydin (2014) concluded in his study that the multicultural counselling training vastly improved multicultural counselling skills (Aydin, 2014) and general counselling skills (Korban, 2018).Furthermore, there is no accreditation for counselling and guidance courses in Turkey.As can be seen, Turkish school counsellors cannot take courses related to multicultural counselling.Yet, this authority given to departments to create their own programs is an opportunity to designate a multicultural counselling course as a compulsory course.At this point, an accreditation study to be carried out by the Turkish Psychological Counselling and Guidance Association would be useful for encouraging departments in this regard.

Limitations of the research
Variables, such as gender, educational level, counselling competencies, counselling experiences, therapeutic alliance skills, were not included in the present study considering the context of the objectives of the study.However, to better understand and evaluate the study Open Journal for Educational Research, 2022, 6(1), 19-32.______________________________________________________________________________________________ 29 findings, it is believed that further studies that include the specified variables in the analysis are needed.
client's cultural structure does not cause resistance when I am working with refugees.cultural background does not limit me when working with refugees.cultural prejudices do not affect the counselling process when I am working with refugees.do not need information on the cultural background of refugees in the counselling process.know how refugees' backgrounds affect their personalities.differences of refugees do not affect the communication process when I am working with them.(Reverse) have no difficulty in establishing a therapeutic relationship when working with refugees.think I can use psychological counselling skills appropriately when working with refugees.have enough knowledge of the values, traditions, and beliefs of refugees.need support in overcoming my own cultural prejudices when working with refugees.think I need to know about the cultural background of refugees to carry out a more efficient counselling process.need training on how to use counselling skills when working with refugees.

Table 2 .
18-Item Q Sample Factor Arrays with factor scores

Table 3 .
Statements most accepted by Factor 1

Table 4 .
Statements least accepted by Factor 1

Table 5 .
Statements most accepted by Factor 2

Table 6 .
Statements least accepted by Factor 2

Table 7 .
Statements most accepted by Factor 3

Table 8 .
Statements least accepted by Factor 3