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One out of four foodservice employees speaks a foreign language at home. Furthermore, 37 percent of those employees speak limited English. Given this, hospitality managers must find ways to effectively communicate with their employees. This paper seeks to address these issues.

The methodology employed a perspective‐taking manipulation. Participants were placed in the role of an individual that does not speak the native language that is used in the workplace. Groups were measured on performance, quality, and accuracy. Groups were video‐taped to measure frequency of non‐verbal behaviors. Participants were surveyed to measure their levels of positivity.

The results of this study identified effective non‐verbal communication strategies for managers (combination of gestures, demonstrating, and pointing). When the leader used these strategies, the groups were able to complete the recipes faster. Managers who spoke another language expressed a more positive behavior towards the group. The group also expressed more positive behaviors towards each other when they had a second language leader.

A limitation is that data were collected from students and the methodology simulated an environment of limited language proficiency. Although this method has been shown to be effective, the true experiences of what non‐English speaking workers might face include more complex processes.

This research suggests that non‐verbal tools are effective when communication barriers exist. Managers who are multiculturally competent are more efficient in leading employees. Positive feedback must be given even if it is non‐verbal.

This research offers valuable strategies for hospitality managers to communicate with those employees who speak limited English.

This study seeks to evaluate the application of a social‐virtual curriculum delivered through in‐classroom and web‐based activities, aiming to develop youth's social‐cultural skills, cultural competency and multicultural awareness. Specifically, the study evaluates the overall impact of the curriculum to the participating youth's Universality‐Diversity Orientation, diversity of contact, relativistic appreciation (RA) and comfort with differences. It examines the influence of gender, ethnicity and religion to the aforementioned variables. Finally, it aims to identify the role of the curriculum and the Web 2.0 in promoting multiculturalism and multicultural education and in changing youth's perceptions, and attitudes towards others.

A quantitative approach was applied, using the Miville‐Guzman Universality‐Diversity Scale that measures an individual's Universal‐Diverse Orientation. Descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations and Cronbach's alpha) and inferential (the independent t‐test, the paired‐sample t‐test and the one‐way analysis of variances) statistics were conducted. Questionnaires were given to 303 students. The pre‐measurement took place in April 2008 (70 per cent response rate) and the post‐measurement took place in June‐July 2009 (45 per cent response rate).

The study discusses the impact of the social‐virtual curriculum, the influence of gender, ethnicity and religion, the role of the social‐virtual curriculum and the Web 2.0 tools in promoting multiculturalism and multicultural education and in changing youth's beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards others and the new learning, collaboration and communication culture established.

The study constitutes the foundation for further research to be conducted regarding the educational use of Web 2.0 tools, the in‐depth examination of the application of the educational networking within the school curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the levels of cultural intelligence (CQ) of principals and teachers influence Latino students’ achievement. The study first tested the applicability of Ang and Van Dyne’s (2008) Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire (CQS) for the measurement of principals and teachers’ CQ levels by construct validating this instrument. Later, it investigated whether the CQ levels of principals and teachers explain the achievement levels of Latino students in mathematics and language arts.

A naturalistic relational research design was used to study the relationships between the study variables. Participants included a cluster random sample of 86 principals and 311 teachers in a southern state. The convergent validation was used to establish the construct validity of the CQS by correlating CQS subscale scores with several measures of principal and teacher multicultural exposure. A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between the principal and teacher CQS subscale scores and the Latino student achievement scores on state standardized tests.

The four-factor structure of the CQS scale was found to be valid in the educational settings. Principals’ level of CQ significantly predicted Latino students’ achievement scores of eight grade math and eight grade language arts. On the contrary to the expectations, there was no evidence to suggest that teacher-level CQ as measured by the CQS is predictive of Latino student achievement. Further analyses showed that multicultural exposures of teachers, such as being multilingual and visiting other countries, significantly predicted Latino students’ language arts performance.

This study has policy and research implications toward understanding and eliminating achievement gaps of Latino student populations. It sheds empirical light on whether this gap can be explained with the multicultural intelligence levels of principals and teachers, the two most influential actors in schools. By construct validating CQS, the study methodologically contributed to the pertinent educational research, which lacks instruments for the measurement of CQ levels of educational workforce.

The purpose of this study is to identify intercultural competencies in community instructors who serve in CONAFE in Chiapas, México.

The study applied a mixed methods method, based on an ethnographic design with a naturalistic approach. The quantitative instrument was applied to 119 community instructors; from these participants, four interviews were conducted with a sample of case-type participants, and four cases are presented.

The results show differences between community instructors who demonstrate intercultural skills and those who require developing them. It is concluded that teachers should receive training that strengthens their intercultural competences to enable indigenous children to take advantage of the knowledge they acquire in their community and the pedagogical advantage offered by the use of their mother tongue in the teaching–learning process.

This educational research about intercultural competences in the field of indigenous education, community education and intercultural education provides significant learning that advances the understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.

The paper addresses diversity, multi‐culturalism and mental health. It reports qualitative data from a larger project on multi‐cultural counselling competencies in Portugal which sought to meet the needs identified by specific minority groups by developing integrative, responsive and culturally sensitive treatments. A qualitative study is presented, with the aim of exploring the representations of mental health and illness held by ethnic minority groups in Portugal, as well as their specific needs and obstacles encountered in their interactions with health professionals. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted, and the results indicate that the meanings of health and mental health varied. Meanings of psychological health were related to general well‐being. Help‐seeking behaviours were associated with providing and receiving family and social support, mainly among participants of African descent. Although the great majority of participants had had no experience of counselling or psychotherapy, they expected psychologists to be multiculturally sensitive, as well as knowledgeable about diversity and multi‐culturalism. Implications for development of mental health services for minority clients are discussed.

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how collective conceptual reflections facilitated by online blogs can promote pre‐service teachers' growth in multicultural education classes.

Analysis of one blog is used to demonstrate how information gained through that triggered the instructor's informed reflection and guided subsequent in‐class teaching/learning.

Through the analysis of the demonstrative blog, it becomes apparent that while pre‐service teachers were appropriating vocabulary used in the field of multicultural education, their narratives were superficial and oversimplified. Subsequent in‐class activities designed to attend to the conceptual gaps were used to problematize the simplistic views.

The data presented cannot be generalized to all pre‐service teachers. Since the purpose of this paper is to attend to the process and not the content, the demonstrative blog serves only as one possible example, which can be easily adapted with different concepts/goals.

It is proposed that the identification of students' collective zones of proximal development (Vygotsky) in key elements of the multicultural learning chain can provide important information to the instructor for the re‐design of future teaching.

Continual assessment of the effectiveness of multicultural education classes is needed, if such classes are to have a long‐term impact on pre‐service teachers' future practice. The micro‐level method proposed in this paper offers one possible way to manage the oftentimes overwhelming amount of information that they are built upon while continually monitoring students' learning.

This study aims to build on Gee’s (2003) earlier question exploring specifically the learning processes associated with broadening cultural empathy and exploring personal bias through gameplay in the role-playing game, Oblivion.

Methodology for this case study (Stake, 1995) was informed by narrative (Reissman, 2001) methods that focused on collecting descriptions of the unique experiences of participants while being engaged in gameplay and their personal reflections synthesizing game-based engagement and course content. “Narrative research offers the possibility of exploring nuances and interrelationships among aspects of experience that the reader might better understand other related situations” (Josselson, p. 239). Our study focused on using narrative research methods to examine embodiment within the fictional world of the game as an experiential participatory-learning experience.

All participants indicated that the most salient learning experiences of the course was playing the game. The process participants underwent the experience of an event in the game and linked this gaming experience to their personal real-life reaction combined with emotions and thoughts. They then self-reflected on those reactions, which cumulatively contributed to self-reported increased self-awareness in the areas of personal bias, stereotypes, attitudes, values, beliefs and privilege. Three themes were identified from the data, namely, increase or variance in levels of self-awareness, navigating unfamiliar cultural systems and increased understanding and cognitive empathy for others. In addition, a fourth additional theme of embodiment and the value of embodiment were identified.

Lacking in the findings were reports by participants regarding application of skills to different cultural populations. Future research will focus on how integration of application of skills can be facilitated using similar pedagogical practices. Because this study included a small number of participants who were counseling students in a master’s program, the applicability of the findings to other student populations is limited. Further research would need to determine whether or not the findings could be replicated with other types of students.

Embedding the intervention within the structure of a course appeared to provide a supportive and safe space for experiencing embodied selves, it also provided a mode for performing their future selves for and with colleagues experiencing similar situations. In this way, they were able to venture with and among their colleagues toward a fuller understanding of self, and particularly in conjunction to diverse populations. These features of the intervention appeared to work in concert together holistically affording a space where they could be vulnerable enough, open enough, to begin questioning their central thoughts and beliefs and increase their empathy for others who are different.

Using the game of Oblivion allowed our students to have an embodied experience in a virtual space where they got to experience being in a completely different culture and experience culture shock. They had to make decisions that forced them to review their belief systems, go against their belief systems, or explore options that were against their belief systems in a safe way with no real-life repercussions. This embodied experience allowed our participants to engage in behaviors that none would dare to do in their real world and provided a comfort zone to explore taboo subjects.

Embedding the game within the curriculum encouraged participants to experience feelings of embodied empathy (Gee, 2010). Oblivion assisted in this process by providing participants the opportunity to gain entry into a unique designed world, a realistic but pseudo-cultural world replete with social and institutional structures both familiar and foreign to their real life. This appeared to provide a realistic manifestation of self, positioning participants toward experiencing embodied empathy for the designed scenarios in the game.

This study aimed to qualitatively examine the perceived cultural competence of counselor education doctoral programs through narratives of 19 racially or ethnically underrepresented students using Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework.

The authors used a qualitative study of 19 racially or ethnically underrepresented students.

Six major themes were identified: playing the game; individual characteristics and attributes; intersectionality; support; voice; and talk the talk, walk the walk.

The limitations of the study included the identity of the primary researcher being a White female in a PhD program during the collection of data. While this was disclosed to the participants, it meant that they made decisions about what or how much to share about their experiences regarding race or doctoral study. The findings are only transferable to the reader’s experiences and interpretation and not generalizable to all counselor education programs.

Practical and social implications for counselor education programs are discussed in the paper, including measures to enhance program climate and proactive behaviors that may contribute to student success.

The study represents one of few that explore the cultural climate of counselor education programs for underrepresented students.

The paper shows an example of an internship-classroom model that increases student motivation and self-efficacy across cultural frameworks by providing opportunities for application projects.

The author uses qualitative data collected through teacher research and focuses on the rhetorical context to show how disciplinary writing courses can be redesigned by incorporating theoretical frameworks from business management and psychology.

Client projects used in disciplinary writing courses, in conjunction with national narratives on higher education as a gateway to higher pay and better skills, improve student self-efficacy if faculty redefine their roles as mediators, and if students are treated as interns and knowledge workers.

The integration of non-academic approaches from business management with academic expectations of research, revision, and rehearsal for a specific client shows how purposeful client-based projects can influence student motivation, self-efficacy, and sense of self-worth that are crucial for diverse student populations. Expanding the theoretical frameworks for successful teaching is an effective model for increasing students' competence as disciplinary writers.

An interdisciplinary approach that draws from academic fields as well as from the business world provides new ways of working successfully with students and preparing them for writing inside and outside the classroom. Incorporating an internship approach into a classroom setting encourages teachers to reimagine student, client, and faculty roles.

The recognition of the importance of addressing cultural issues in psychotherapy and counseling has been increasing. The present paper seeks to contribute to the specification of multicultural competencies in the fields of counseling and clinical psychology, based on clients’ perspectives. In particular, its objectives were to explore the experiences of individuals of ethnic minority groups regarding their access to the Portuguese healthcare system and to identify the multicultural competencies of the clinicians (as perceived by the clients) which would be required to improve culturally sensitive treatments.

The sample included 40 adults from different ethnic minority groups in Portugal – a total of 30 women and ten men – with a mean age of 34. Participants took part in one of eight focus groups, which were conducted using a semi‐structured interview plan.

Content analysis revealed that, generally, participants had experienced discrimination in the healthcare system, and that mental healthcare was perceived as mixed (both positive and negative). Furthermore, participants identified specific aspects of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills required of clinicians to provide culturally sensitive treatments, providing support for the tridimensional model of multicultural competencies.

Implications are discussed for ethical guidelines and clinical training of counselors, clinical psychologists, and other social and health professionals in Europe.