Authors : Kamarul Md Shah, Jasmi Abu Talib and Farah Mukhtar
Abstract: Multicultural counseling competencies are one of the important aspects to the practice of counseling teachers in order to provide effective counseling services. However, studies of multicultural counseling competencies among counseling teachers in Malaysia are still not sufficient to serve as a referral source. This study aims to identify the level of multicultural counseling competencies as a whole and by domain competence as practiced by counseling teachers in Malaysia. The study also aims to identify the difference levels of multicultural counseling efficiency of the respondents based on gender, race, level of education and professional experience in the counseling area. This study consisted of 275 counseling teachers who had been randomly selected in one of the states in Malaysia. The instrument used in this study was developed by the researchers based on the theory, interviews, expert panel and also reviews of literature. The findings showed that the overall mean score of the respondent’s multicultural counseling competency level is at a high level. While in terms of the mean levels of competence in accordance with the awareness, knowledge and cultural skills domains are at a high level compared to the domain of consciousness which was at a moderate level. The study also found that there were significant differences in the level of multicultural counseling competencies among the respondents based on the level of education. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the efficiency of the respondents based on gender, race and professional experience. This study suggested implications for counseling training in improving the efficiency of multicultural counseling.
Kamarul Md Shah, Jasmi Abu Talib and Farah Mukhtar, 2017. Efficiency of Secondary School Teachers in Conducting Various Cultural Counseling Services. The Social Sciences, 12: 1577-1584.