Journal of Creativity in Mental Health

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Using Popular Film to Teach Multicultural

Counseling: A Constructivist Approach

Jay M. Nittoli & Douglas A. Guiffrida

To cite this article: Jay M. Nittoli & Douglas A. Guiffrida (2018) Using Popular Film to Teach
Multicultural Counseling: A Constructivist Approach, Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 13:3,
344-357, DOI: 10.1080/15401383.2017.1340216

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2017.1340216

Published online: 29 Aug 2017.

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JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH
2018, VOL. 13, NO. 3, 344–357
https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2017.1340216

CREATING SPACE FOR CONNECTION: CREATIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM

This column is designed to underscore relationally-based creative teaching practices used

by counselor educators in the classroom. Our intention is to provide examples of novel,
innovative ways for counselor educators and students to deepen their learning while
collaborating toward a spirit of connection and cooperation. If you have implemented a
creative teaching method, or if you have adapted an existing method that you would like
to share with readers, please follow submission guidelines in the author information
packet available at http://www.creativecounselor.org/Journal.html.

Using Popular Film to Teach Multicultural Counseling: A

Constructivist Approach
Jay M. Nittoli and Douglas A. Guiffrida
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The use of popular film as an experiential teaching tool in multi- Constructivist; counselor
cultural counselor education has been well documented. However, education; creativity in
existing research has been limited. The purpose of this study is to counseling; cultural
implement a unique pedagogic intervention using popular films and competence; diversity;
experiential multicultural
to study how counseling students experience the activity as part of counselor education
their multicultural counseling training. The researchers utilized the activities; multicultural
popular films Crash and Precious to stimulate student dialogue and counseling; pedagogy;
reflection on topics pertaining to race, culture, privilege, and social popular film; privilege;
justice. The findings indicate that popular films, when implemented qualitative research
in conjunction with reflective learning activities, are effective in pro-
moting students’ multicultural and social justice counseling compe-
tencies. Participants reported that the pedagogic activity was
effective in bringing to life the multicultural course concepts and
stimulating difficult but necessary conversations about race, ethni-
city, privilege, and power. Finally, implications of this study could
further inform the field of multicultural counselor education.

Teaching students to become multiculturally competent counselors is a central aspect of

all counselor education programs (Kim & Lyons, 2003). In addition to providing students
with knowledge and skills regarding multicultural counseling research and theory, effec-
tive multicultural training should also include experiential-based affect-inducing course
content designed to address or challenge students’ cultural values and biases (Arredondo
et al., 1996; Kim & Lyons, 2003). Counselor educators currently use several forms of
experiential learning to improve the multicultural competence of their students, including
autobiographical and reflective writing, interactive journaling, cultural immersion

CONTACT Jay M. Nittoli [email protected] University of Rochester, Warner School of Education, Department of
Counseling and Human Development, Lechase Hall, PO Box 270425, Rochester, NY 14627-0425, USA
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 345

projects, role-plays, games, documentary films, and popular films. Of these various forms
of experiential learning, popular film appears to be one of the more compelling yet
understudied pedagogical tools in counselor education (Gladstein & Feldstein, 1983;
Greene, Barden, Richardson, & Hall, 2014; Shen, 2015; Villalba & Redmond, 2008).
Counselor education literature suggests that popular films can provide students with
opportunities to recognize and confront their worldviews regarding a wide range of
cultures in a convenient and cost effective manner (Arredondo et al., 1996). Counselor
educators have suggested, for example, that using film in the multicultural classroom
presents students with the opportunity to identify and express their emotions (Tyler &
Guth, 1999) and culturally contextualize the thoughts and behaviors of particular char-
acters (Schwitzer, Boyce, Cody, Holman, & Stein, 2005). In addition, popular films can
increase student’s multicultural awareness and promote empathy towards people whose
culture and economic status differs from their own (Pinterits & Atkinson, 1998).
Additionally, proponents of a constructivist-developmental approach to counselor
education have asserted that effective multicultural education must teach students to
tolerate ambiguity and be culturally relativistic (McAuliffe, 2011). Deeper still, constructi-
vists such as McAuliffe (2008) assert that culturally alert counselors must begin a process
of de-centering, which necessitates students’ learning to view their own culture as one
perspective among many possibilities. Thus, introducing contrasting worldviews and
facilitating a cultural de-centering process, from a constructivist perspective, and exposing
students to popular films in multicultural counseling courses provides the potential to
activate a cognitive dissonance in students (Williamson, 2004).
While popular films have been used for decades in psychotherapy training, little
research has been conducted on the use of film in counselor education, especially when
used in multicultural counseling courses. A review of the literature revealed four studies in
which authors examined the use of film as a pedagogical tool to facilitate multicultural
competence in counselor trainees. In the first study, Villalba and Redmond (2008) showed
the film Crash (Cheadle & Haggis, 2004) and facilitated a classroom discussion on
controversial issues related to the film. While their results support the use of the film,
the data consisted only of students’ responses from three items on the standard course
evaluation, thus limiting the context of the findings.
In a second study, that also utilized the film Crash, Greene et al. (2014) conducted a
quantitative study with 34 counseling students to examine the effect of the film on students’
multicultural counseling self-efficacy and competence. After viewing the film, students partici-
pated in a debriefing session and were asked to write about diversity issues from the film that
emotionally resonated with them. As the course progressed, the instructor integrated additional
films covering other areas of diversity and required students to make their own film, which
consisted of interviewing a person from a culture different than their own. Students were then
asked to present their film to the class. The authors reported statistically significant increases in
student multicultural counseling self-efficacy and awareness, which supported the use of
popular films like Crash as a multicultural counseling teaching tool. However, the study failed
to afford counselor educators with the unique insights into the participants’ thoughts, feelings,
and the processes by which their multicultural competencies’ developed in relation to their film
experiences.
In a third study, Lindsey (2005) examined how master’s students experienced the pedago-
gic use of clips from 15 popular films in seven different counselor education courses. In the
346 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

social and cultural foundations course, Lindsey used brief clips from the popular films Ray
(Baldwin & Hackford, 2004), I am Sam (Herskovitz & Nelson, 2001), and The Waterdance
(Cantin & Jimenez, 1992) to depict concepts pertaining to physical disabilities (blindness and
paralysis) and developmental/intellectual disability. All the participants stated that the film
clips were powerful catalysts to stimulate their emotions and promote a better understanding
of their cultural biases. However, the film clips used by Lindsey (2005) in the social and
cultural foundations course pertained only to disability issues and did not include other issues
of diversity, including race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Finally, a recent study by Shen (2015) utilized popular films in a multicultural counsel-
ing course and developed a “movie project” (p. 235) that was designed to enhance the
counseling students’ multicultural counseling competencies. Shen conducted a qualitative
phenomenological study to assess how the movie project impacted students’ learning with
17 students, 90% of whom were Hispanic. The project allowed students to choose from 46
different films that featured themes and content specific to a broad range of diversity
issues. The students were required to view one popular film outside of class time, and
assess a character from the film as a client. Then Shen analyzed the students’ reflection
papers and their reactions to the movie project. The analysis revealed that students
enjoyed the activity, that it helped expose them to different cultures, and allowed them
to apply their multicultural course content in a practical manner. While the results are
encouraging regarding the use of popular film as a multicultural counseling teaching tool,
the researcher only utilized one data source and did not examine how the students’
multicultural counseling competencies were affected. Additionally, the findings did not
indicate which films resonated the most with students.
A review of counselor education research suggests that while a small amount of
research has been conducted that supports the use of popular films in multicultural
counseling courses, more research is needed to understand the potential of this pedago-
gical technique. For example, while research suggests that popular films can facilitate
multicultural self-efficacy and awareness in counseling students, less is known about the
conditions under which these gains occur, including how students experience the film and
activities associated with it and how they perceive these experiences as influencing their
multicultural development. Hence, our research was conducted to understand the multi-
cultural counseling training experiences of students who participated in a constructivist
pedagogic intervention that combined a full-length feature film with experiential reflective
activities. Specifically, we sought to understand the lived experiences of master’s level
students in a multicultural counseling course following their exposure to the popular films
Crash (Cheadle & Haggis, 2004) or Precious (Daniels, 2009); two films that are often used
in multicultural training because of the ways in which they vividly illustrate issues
pertaining to culture, race, ethnicity, class, privilege, and power. This research provides
a deeper understanding of how viewing a popular film, in conjunction with constructivist-
based reflective learning activities, affects the multicultural counseling awareness, knowl-
edge, and skills of multicultural counseling students. The primary research question in this
study is: How do students in a multicultural counseling class make meaning of their film
experiences when combined with reflective writing assignments, online asynchronous
discussion, and focus group?
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 347

Multicultural counseling course design and film activity

The proposed film activities occurred within a larger set of structured course experiences,
designed from a constructivist perspective to allow students to become familiar and
comfortable with the instructor and each other so that they could begin the demanding
process of exploring their own and each other’s cultural strengths and biases (see for
information about constructivist counselor education practice Guiffrida, 2015; McAuliffe,
2011). Therefore, before describing the film activity, we provide a brief overview of the
multicultural counseling course in which the research took place.
The multicultural counseling course was designed and taught by the second author, a
White male and Ph.D.-level associate professor of counseling who has been studying
issues of diversity for nearly 20 years. Students were encouraged to share extensively in
class and in writing about their family backgrounds and their experiences with various
forms of diversity (including painful experiences), and to explore their biases and potential
areas for growth. A number of experiential activities, which included family background
presentations and a “Walk of Privilege” activity, were implemented and encouraged
students to both support and challenge each other as they engaged in emotionally and
cognitively challenging interactions. For many, the most emotionally demanding project
was the cultural narratives where students read aloud self-authored papers in which they
described painful experiences with aspects of diversity. These activities helped create an
environment where students were able to consider and share deeper aspects of their
respective cultures and set the stage for our film pedagogy intervention. The film activity
was derived from the culmination of our mutual experiences with integrating film into our
courses. Students in the multicultural counseling course were given a choice to view either
the film Precious (Daniels, 2009) or Crash (Cheadle & Haggis, 2004) outside of the
regularly scheduled class time.
After self-selecting and individually viewing the entire film outside of class time, the
students were required to complete two reflective writing assignments. First, the students
wrote a short reflection paper in response to a set of questions designed to assess their
reactions to the film. Next, students electronically posted their reflection papers on an
internet classroom discussion board. Each student was required to read and post a one-
page response to the reflection papers of three or four of their classmates, thus creating an
online asynchronous discussion (OAD) group. Then, the students participated in a one-
hour focus group, which allowed them to further examine their responses to the film as
well as their reflective writing and OAD experiences. The focus group took place in class,
two days after students viewed the film and completed the reflective writing assignment. A
doctoral student, trained in small group facilitation and qualitative research, facilitated the
focus group.

Methods
Action-research methods were utilized for this study because of our intent to system-
atically study and improve upon our own real world practices (Guiffrida, Douthit, Lynch,
& Mackie, 2011). Qualitative methods were selected to gain understanding of the inner
experiences of students as well as their interactions and relationships; this deep level of
inquiry is generally not sought or attained by quantitative researchers (Hill, 2012). We
348 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

selected Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory because it allowed us to use the

traditional inductive methods of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) in a flexible
and rigorous manner. Hence, by using a constructivist grounded theory methodology we
were able to obtain an understanding of the values, belief systems, and emotions of
students specific to their film experience and multicultural counseling training.

Participants
Eighteen students enrolled in a master’s level multicultural counseling course at a
Northeastern CACREP accredited university participated in the study, one male and 17
females.
Fourteen of the participants were mental health and school-counseling students, three
were enrolled in the higher education and administration program, and one participant
was enrolled in the teaching and curriculum program. The self-reported racial and ethnic
distribution of the participants was as follows: (a) one Asian international student, (b) one
South Asian American, (c) one Middle-Eastern American, (d) two African Americans, (e)
one African born naturalized U.S. citizen, (f) two foreign born Latinas, and (g) 10
Caucasians.
Students were required to participate in all of the pedagogic activities as part of the
course; however, they were not required to participate in our research and steps were
taken to allow students the option of having their reactions excluded from the data.
Specifically, the students were informed that the instructor would not be informed
about their participation status and that he would only review data that had been sanitized
from containing any identifying information. In addition, all data analysis was postponed
until the grades for the course had been entered. These steps were implemented to reduce
the participants’ perceptions of feeling coerced or required to have their written reflec-
tions, group reactions, and survey responses included in this research. No participants
elected to opt out of having their reflective writings or focus group reactions become part
of the data for this study.

Data collection
Multiple sources of data were collected including students’ reflection papers about the
activity, student’s online asynchronous discussion (OAD) replies, audio recordings of the
focus group discussions about the films, and a brief anonymous open-ended questionnaire
regarding the students’ film experience in the multicultural counseling course. The focus
group transcripts, reflection papers, and OAD replies were analyzed and coded following a
progression of constructivist grounded theory data analysis procedures developed by
Charmaz (2014). Specifically, we engaged in a constant comparative method of data
collection and analysis, whereby each level of coding contributed to a deeper under-
standing of the context and conditions of phenomenon under inquiry (Charmaz, 2014;
Strauss & Corbin, 1990). We began by engaging in the iterative processes of open coding,
followed by focused coding and theoretical coding (Charmaz, 2014). Another data source
was obtained through the first author’s prolonged participation and observation in the
research setting. The first author attended all class meetings and participated in the
experiential activities, including those that required him to share his own painful
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 349

experiences related to diversity. This active participation allowed him to not only observe
many of the participants’ experiences pertaining to their multicultural counseling training,
but to also become a member of the group. Most of the data that he collected as a
participant observer was in the form of a research journal. The researcher’s journal was
analyzed for emerging themes that informed the constructivist grounded theory in this
study.
By obtaining thick descriptions of the participants’ experiences with popular film in the
classroom, themes pertaining to students’ cognitive and affective reactions to the films
emerged. Through prolonged data analysis, the researchers were able to obtain valuable
insights into the process and phenomena that impacted students’ experiences.
Trustworthiness was also established through the use of memoing and an active search
for negative case data, or instances that ran counter to our anticipated findings and
emerging working hypotheses (Charmaz, 2014). Additionally, the investigators partici-
pated in a peer debriefing group that consisted of doctoral students trained in qualitative
research to assist us in monitoring for the influence of biases in our analysis (Creswell,
2007).

Findings
In this section we present the main findings related to how participants perceived the
popular film activity in conjunction with the reflective writing assignments, online asyn-
chronous discussion, and focus group. Three main themes emerged that related to how
the film pedagogy activity helped the participants recognize their own cultural biases,
better understand culturally different worldviews, and to consider culturally appropriate
counseling interventions. Illustrations of each of these themes are presented below.

Finding 1: Recognizing and expressing cultural values and biases

The first finding pertains to how the participants perceived the popular film Crash in
conjunction with their reflective writing, OAD replies, and focus group as promoting
awareness of their own cultural values and biases. Through viewing the film’s graphic
depictions of racism, violence, and abuse of power, the participants’ thoughts and emo-
tions were triggered. These thoughts and feelings were expressed in their written reflec-
tions and focus group. In doing so, the participants provided accounts of their cultural
biases. For example, the following statements made in a focus group by Gwen, a female
African American counseling student, illustrated how a non-White student reflected on
her biases with her mostly White peers, and spontaneously disclosed her own biases or
micro-aggressions toward other ethnic minorities:
When I was watching the movie I’m kind of ashamed to admit it. . . I was socialized to think
that African Americans are like the most discriminated against. I realized that. . . I’ve said
some racist things about Asians and like I’ve had some stereotypical thoughts about Hispanics
and even my own people, and. . .. I have a lot more growing up to do. So the movie challenged
those thoughts in my assumptions.

Many of the participants’ accounts were emotional, as they expressed fear, sadness, anger,
or confusion regarding the characters or content portrayed in the films. While some
350 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

participants were cognizant of their biases, others were not as aware until their peers
pointed out their biases to them. Some OAD responses contained messages that were
written to assist their peers in recognizing their biases, noting how these biases could
impede their counseling practice.
One powerful example came from, Christine, a White, first semester counseling stu-
dent, who posted a reflection paper on the film Crash and placed herself in the role of a
counselor with the character Anthony as the client. Anthony is African American and is
portrayed as a person who engages in law violating behavior, while also being quite vocal
about the racism he experiences. In her reflection paper, Christine explained how she
believed that Anthony would not want to engage with her because she is a White
counselor. Furthermore, she asserted that an African American counselor would better
serve Anthony, and wrote that if she were assigned as his counselor she would attempt to
refer Anthony to an African American counselor. Subsequently, Christine received three
written OAD replies, all of which challenged her to explore her biases on a deeper level.
Globally, the replies were supportive, yet they were also asking Christine to think about
her biases from the client’s (Anthony’s) perspective. All of the group members noted the
potential harm inherent in Christine’s assertion that Anthony needed an African
American counselor. Two peers addressed the possible healing value of Christine’s
counseling relationship with Anthony. Specifically, they noted that as a White counselor,
Christine could be the first positive or meaningful connection with a White person that
the character Anthony has experienced.
The focus group was conducted in the class meeting subsequent to viewing the films. All of
the participants appreciated having the focus group as it gave them an opportunity to clarify
any responses they made in their OADs. In the focus group, most of the participants were able
to acknowledge that they had some degree of cultural bias. Some participants attempted to
understand where those biases came from. Other participants realized that they needed to own
and work on their biases in a manner that would assist them in becoming culturally competent
counselors. Some of the focus group discussions resembled a peer supervision process, as
illustrated in the following example from Christine’s group.
The conversation regarding Christine’s statements about the character Anthony con-
tinued in their focus group. During the focus group two members stated that they had an
emotional reaction to Christine’s statement about not being able to work with Anthony
because he is African American and she is White. While they were supportive of Christine,
they also explained to her that counselors must explore various perspectives when working
with culturally dissimilar clients. The group members, all of whom were further along in
the counseling program than Christine, recognized that this was Christine’s first counsel-
ing course and she had no prior counseling or supervision experience. Interestingly,
Christine was extremely open to the careful and constructive feedback provided by her
three peers in the focus group and she was actually able to articulate that the feedback
resonated with her in regard to how her racial bias could impact the client counselor
relationship.

Finding 2: Recognizing culturally different worldviews

The second finding pertains to how participants’ experiences with the popular film Crash
allowed them to recognize culturally different worldviews, and in some cases, expanded
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 351

their own worldviews. Several participants reported that the film Crash exposed them to
different cultures and social justice issues (i.e. poverty, racism, abuse of power) that they
had not experienced first-hand. This, in turn, led to participants thinking about their own
privilege as they were vicariously exposed to cultures other than their own. Victoria, a
female Caucasian counseling student, provided an example of how she became cognizant
of her own White privilege through the film assignment. In her essay, she attempted to
deconstruct the stereotype of Daniel Ruiz, a working class Latino male character from
Crash. Victoria then described a scene from the film that affectively impacted her. She
wrote about the scene where Daniel takes off his imaginary impenetrable cloak and ties it
around his young daughter Lara, in order for her to feel safe in a potentially unsafe
neighborhood, informing her that the cloak is bulletproof and it has kept him safe
throughout his childhood. Victoria expressed empathy for the Ruiz family, and explained
how her experiences in response to the scene from Crash impacted her emotionally and
triggered a cognitive dissonance as she attempted to understand the worldview of the Ruiz
family:

I thought about this scene for days, and it resonated within me as distressful for two related
reasons: it was impossible not to feel empathy toward the Ruiz family, knowing the violence
that has become part of their everyday lives, but it was also too easy to detach my own
childhood experiences from those of Lara. I grew up in an extraordinarily safe neighborhood.
We never locked the doors to our house, strangers were people to welcome, not fear, and. . .. I
never once saw a handgun. . ..when I was a child.

In addition, Victoria’s cognitive dissonance was the catalyst for using the symbolism from
the film’s depiction of the impenetrable cloak as a metaphor for her own White Privilege.
She expanded this metaphor stating that some of us have an invisible cloak sewn on to our
skin at birth. However, some people don’t realize they have one, not because it is invisible,
but because they don’t really need one since everything appears to be attainable to those
who are privileged. Here, Victoria contrasted those who take their privilege for granted
and the reality for those born without an invisible cloak:

We grow up with this sense of invulnerability that precludes us from worrying about
dangerous neighborhoods and prejudice and institutionalized racism. Most of the time, this
cloak even serves to hide our own privilege from ourselves. But for those of us who are not so
lucky, a cloak does not appear as our birthright but has to be manufactured for us.

Victoria’s metaphor of the invisible cloak as privilege resonated strongly with all of the
participants in her group with regard to seeing the worldviews of those who are not
privileged. Each participant in this group expressed empathy for the character Daniel
Ruiz, a working class Mexican American who was repeatedly stereotyped as a gang
member and almost lost his life in a shooting. Furthermore, Victoria’s invisible cloak
metaphor served as a stimulus for the participants in her group to examine their own
privilege. For example, two of her group members examined their own worldviews as
racial and ethnic minorities. In their responses to Victoria’s reflection paper, which used
the metaphor of an invisible cloak to symbolize White privilege, they both acknowledged
that as non-Whites they were not born with cloaks to protect them from discrimination or
social injustices. However, they both came to the realization that they too were privileged,
and noted how their mothers provided cloaks to shield them throughout their childhoods.
352 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

Through having a deeper appreciation for culturally different worldviews, some

participants were then able to think about how they would apply counseling interventions
in order to meet the distinct needs of clients whose culture differed from theirs. In the
next section, we present an example from a participant who viewed the film Precious and
her reflections on how she would work with the main character as if she were a client.

Finding 3: Identifying culturally alert counseling strategies

Our third finding stemmed from the theme as a culturally alert counselor I would need to.
Specifically, participants questioned themselves and each other, asking what do we do
differently to adapt our work to meet the distinctive cultural needs of our clients? Some
participants admitted their fear of being ineffective with clients from culturally diverse
backgrounds. Other participants struggled with the ambivalence associated with working
with a client who was being abused and maltreated, especially with regard to working with
a perpetrator of child abuse. Furthermore, themes of social justice were raised as this
category emerged. Specifically, many participants recognized that, in addition to the micro
counseling interventions required, counselors also have a duty to address macro systemic
issues as advocates for social justice. For example, Fiona, a female, middle-class, Black,
African born, mental health counseling student described her thoughts and feelings
regarding how she would work with the lead character from the film Precious. Fiona
began by stating that the character Precious Jones is from a cultural background that is
diametrically opposed to her own. She described how Precious came from a background
of abuse and maltreatment, extreme poverty, and low educational attainment, as well as
having very few supports from her family or the community. She expressed her thoughts
and emotions about being a counselor for Precious:
If Precious came to me for counseling and shared her story with me I’d feel extremely
saddened, overwhelmed and a bit useless to her. She’s been through so much that I wouldn’t
know where to begin with being an effective counselor.

By discussing how she could work with Precious, Fiona continued her reflective writing
and synthesized the course literature to help her formulate a plan as a counselor. She
began noting that since she and Precious share the same skin color, it is possible that
Precious may believe that she could identify with Fiona as her counselor. She goes on to
identify how she would begin to work with Precious in a culturally humble manner:
As a culturally alert counselor, I would ensure that I pay attention to all aspects of Precious,
especially to her deep culture that has shaped the way she thinks and acts. By doing this, my
goal would be to see the world through Precious’ eyes. [By] [r]ecognizing and acknowledging
that Precious comes from a completely different world from me, yet reassuring her that I still
respect and unconditionally admire her would be. . .[my] first steps [in order] to validate her
and allow her to gain comfort in me, knowing that I don’t know what she’s been through, but
I’m there to help in any way she deems necessary.

These data instances illustrate just a few of the numerous examples of how the partici-
pants’ experiences with the film pedagogy activity were effective in promoting their
understanding of the multitude of social, and economic conditions that can potentially
impact culturally marginalized clients or systems. At least two other White counseling
students expressed their discomfort and biases as they discussed being in the role of
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 353

counselor with a non-white client (character) from the films Crash and Precious. In
addition, at least three minority students discussed how the depictions of abuse of police
power in the film Crash resonated with them, as they each had family members who
experienced racial profiling by the police. Globally, the participants described how this
activity helped them to raise their cultural self-awareness, express empathy towards
culturally different populations, and trigger their thoughts and emotions pertaining to
becoming a culturally alert counselor. Essentially, by participating in the film pedagogy
assignment, they identified and disclosed who they are, how they view individuals who are
culturally dissimilar to themselves, and what they think they would need to do as
counselors in order to work with clients from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Discussion
Our findings indicate that films Crash and Precious were successful in bringing the
concepts and theories of the multicultural course to life. One of the most consistent
findings of this study is that all of the participants perceived themselves as benefiting from
this constructivist learning activity. Constructivist counselor educators assert that cultural
relativism, or the ability to understand that ones’ culture coexists amidst numerous other
cultures, is essential to becoming a culturally competent counselor (McAuliffe, 2008, 2011;
Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). In an effort to promote cultural relativism, our film
pedagogy promoted a culturally de-centering process which challenged the cultural values
or biases of our participants (Arredondo et al., 1996; Kim & Lyons, 2003; McAuliffe,
Grothaus, Jensen, & Michel, 2012; Tyler & Guth, 1999). For example, as indicated in their
online asynchronous discussion replies to Victoria two non-White counseling students
appear to have experienced an epistemological shift from conventional knowing to self-
authorized knowing (McAuliffe, 2011). Specifically, both of their replies indicated their
realization that they were protected from experiencing many of the social injustices
portrayed in the film Crash. In realizing the protective factors that their middle class
suburban environments provided, they became more aware of the wider social justice
issues facing different cultural groups. From a constructivist perspective, counselors who
are capable of self-authorized thinking are able to make counseling decisions based on a
complex understanding of client contextual and cultural factors (McAuliffe, 2011).
While the constructivist multicultural counseling course in which this film activity
occurred was designed to meet the field’s multicultural counseling standards, the activity
itself was not specifically designed around these standards nor were the initial data
collection and analysis strategies designed to directly assess student learning regarding
these standards. However, the results strongly support the ability of the film activity to
facilitate student development regarding the newly revised cultural competencies (Ratts,
Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015); a finding that is even more
meaningful given the inductive nature of the research that was not intended to assess
these specific learning outcomes. The new revisions to MSJCCs now take into considera-
tion the dynamics of the counseling relationship with regard to both the client’s status of
marginalization or privilege, as well as the counselor’s identity of being privileged or
marginalized. This new dimension is salient to our study as several of our findings reveal
the participants’ perceptions of privilege or power. Specifically, our first finding, acknowl-
edging our biases, illustrate how the participants were able to identify and express their
354 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

thoughts and feelings about the portrayals of culturally privileged or marginalized char-
acters from the films Crash or Precious.
Our second finding parallel the second MSJCC domain (Arredondo et al., 1996; Ratts
et al., 2015; Sue et al., 1992), which states that privileged and marginalized counselors
must be cognizant of culturally different worldviews. Many of the participants were able to
understand different worldviews through being vicariously exposed to different cultures or
conditions from the films Crash or Precious. The participants’ growth in this competency
was evident as they documented or discussed their emotions and thoughts in response to
the different cultures or social conditions portrayed in the films. In doing so, the
participants expressed empathy for marginalized characters from the films regarding racial
or ethnic stereotyping, as well as abuses of power and institutionalized racism.
Our third finding describes how the participants’ experiences with the film and
reflective writing assignments led them to explore culturally appropriate interventions as
counselors. This finding corresponds well to the third and fourth MSJCC domains (Ratts
et al., 2015), which pertain to how both the client and counselor status of privilege or
marginalization influence the counseling relationship; as well as, the consideration of
counseling intervention strategies and /or social justice advocacy. The inclusion of a
fourth MSJCC domain allows for deeper consideration of the multicultural counseling
relationship prior to addressing the domain of counseling advocacy and interventions.
This appears to be a more organic way to conceptualize micro and macro interventions to
culturally diverse clients. Specifically, the counseling relationship is now foundational to
the selection of culturally appropriate counseling or social justice advocacy strategies. In
our study we detected a process unfolding for our participants as they attributed meaning
to their film pedagogy experiences. That is, first the participants recognized their biases
and then recognized alternative worldviews, thus showing empathy. This empathic under-
standing, in turn, helped them begin to think as counselors when trying to address how
they would work with a marginalized or privileged client.

Conclusions, limitations, and recommendations

In summation, the findings of our study indicate that the film pedagogy activity helped to
facilitate epistemological shifts in participants, which in turn appeared to promote growth
in their multicultural competencies. These findings support research by Shen (2015) and
Greene et al. (2014), both of which supported the use of popular film in facilitating
students’ multicultural competency. While the current study supports and expands upon
the findings of previous research on the use of film as a pedagogical tool for counselor
educators, it has several limitations that should be noted. One limitation pertains to the
fact that the focus group took place in less than 24 hours after the racially motivated mass
shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left nine African American
parishioners dead. During a focus group, one participant indicated that she was extremely
distressed about the massacre and contemplated not attending class that evening.
Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that participant’s perspectives may have
been impacted by this tragedy.
A second limitation related to the nature of action-research is that both investigators
have used film numerous times in their courses and are generally supportive of its use.
Being cognizant of the “socially constructed nature of reality” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p.
 JOURNAL OF CREATIVITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 355

8) that is inherent to all qualitative research, the authors took steps to minimize biases by
employing prolonged engagement, memoing, and peer debriefing. Therefore, the research-
ers cannot make claims to generalize their results beyond this study. Future research is
needed to better understand the use of popular film in multicultural and other counseling
courses.
In reflecting on the implications for improving our own pedagogy as multicultural counselor
educators, future instructors should consider using only one film for the purposes of consistency.
While this study specifically utilized the films Crash and Precious, the counselor education
literature cites many different films that could be used in a multicultural counseling course
(Arredondo et al., 1996). In addition, the participants indicated that they would have benefitted
from a large group debriefing session in order to gain the perspectives of all their peers from
other groups, and to put final closure on this powerful activity. Also, while our research activity
did not focus on the development of the multicultural counseling skills (and actions) of our
participants, we believe that it would be vital to integrate these aspirational competencies into
future classroom activities using popular film. This is based on the research participants’
indicating that they recognized that as counselors, they are also social justice advocates.
However, they claimed that they would not know how to proceed in the role of a social justice
advocate. In the future, counselor educators could ask students to select social issues from film
that they deemed to be salient. The identified social issue could be part of an assignment to
interview and assess the needs of clients from a local social service agency. In addition, students
could be asked to interview a community activist or elected official regarding issues pertaining to
the systemic social justice issues that they identified in the film. In doing so, students could learn
how counselors can be social justice advocates and understand how to use this role to give voice
to the client populations that they will eventually serve.
Another important implication is the need to carefully scaffold the film experience into
the multicultural counseling course. Our findings suggest the film activity is most power-
ful when it follows other experiential activities designed to promote students’ reflection
and self-disclosure. In addition, counselor educators can harness the power of popular
film by integrating the students’ film viewing experience with reflective writing, online
asynchronous forums, and small group discussions. These combined activities allow
students to attribute meaning to their film viewing experiences and engage in the difficult,
yet essential conversations about race, culture, privilege, and power. It is these difficult
conversations that facilitate the co-construction of knowledge, epistemological shifts, and
expanded worldview of counseling students. Moreover, understanding how counseling
students experience popular films in their multicultural counseling training may have
implications for counselor educators in promoting the development of cultural relativism
in counseling students. This in turn could impact students’ career trajectories as future
counselors and ultimately the communities, organizations, and clients that they will serve.

Notes on contributors
Jay M. Nittoli is with the Warner School of Education in the Department of Counseling and
Human Development at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

Douglas A. Guiffrida is an Associate Professor of counseling and human development with the
Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.
356 J. M. NITTOLI AND D. A. GUIFFRIDA

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