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http://vocaroo.com/i/s1wZiISXc2xn

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There is not much literature pertaining to competencies for professional academic advisors.  The existing instruments that assess this construct are limited and need to be further developed to increase validity.  Also, literature has focused mostly on race and should be inclusive of more identities.

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Assessing
Multicultural Competencies for Professional Undergraduate Academic Advisors 

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Assessing
Multicultural Competencies for Professional Undergraduate Academic Advisors 

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John Rans
Drexel University
jrr36@drexel.edu

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The field of academic advising is being seen now more than ever as a critical means to engaging and retaining college students (Allen & Smith, 2008; Vander Schee, 2007). College campuses and student demographics are quickly becoming more diverse, which demonstrates the need for new competencies.

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Prietro’s (2012) Multicultural Teaching Competencies Inventory is an instrument to gauge higher education faculty member’s ability to deal with students from various backgrounds on an account of changing campus climates.  This instrument can be adapted to the field of academic advising. The model is based on Sue, Arrendondo, and McDavis' (1994) tri-parte model of cultural competency, which examines multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skill (seen above).

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Literature within academic advising, student affairs, and diversity have all pointed to a gap in empirical research on the skill set of professional academic advisors on account of the diversification of student demographics. One important area an advisor needs to be skilled in is multicultural competencies, or having the ability to handle students from various cultures and backgrounds.

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Cultural Competence - grounding professional practice within the cultural reality of one’s advisees.  According to Prietro (2012) this includes developing the knowledge and skills to assist student from varying backgrounds as well as developing one’s own identities.

Academic advisor - a professional staff members of a university whose primary focus is to assist undergraduate students in achieving academic success.

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Crookston’s (2009) theory of developmental advising uses student development theory as a foundation to recommend an advisor-advisee relationship of collaboration and shared responsibility. Within this construct, advising functions are seen as a form of teaching.

Deutsch, Doberstein, and White (2008) expand the notion of multiculturalism within campus climates to go beyond structural diversity to include cross-cultural interactions, which requires continuous professional development.

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To illuminate a gap in literature pertaining to professional academic advising

To better inform professional development and training

To give attention to the importance of multicultural competencies in professional practice

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An instrument that assesses multicultural competencies of academic advisors needs to be created and developed.  Literature in other fields, such as counseling, has already worked on this concept, but it needs to be adapted to the advising profession. This would lead to more sound training and professional developmental opportunities framed by research.

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1. How are the multicultural competencies of academic advisors being assessed?

2. What methods or instruments are being used to measure multicultural competencies?

3. How are institutions supporting the development of multicultural competencies for professional academic advisors?

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Academic advising as a profession has grown tremendously.  NACADA data indicates that members identifying as academic advisors increased from 2,236 in February 2001 to 5,207 in February 2007 (Habley, 2004).  As a result, skills and competencies related to the profession of academic advising need to be more clearly identified and developed.

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Literature within academic advising, student affairs, and diversity has all pointed to a gap in empirical research on the skill set of professional academic advisors.  Other fields, such
as counseling, have stressed the development of multicultural competence, but higher education is only starting to address this for faculty and staff.  Using Prietro’s (2012) conceptual framework of cultural competence for faculty, developing and assessing multicultural competencies for professional academic
advisors is presented.  This study is aimed to provoke further research on competencies for professional academic advisor since there is a current gap in the literature. <br>