Multicultural Counseling Competences and Considerations in Sweden

1. Country Case: Sweden Workshop 1. Multicultural counseling competences acquired through guidance counselor training Fredrik Hertzberg & Åsa Sundelin, Department of education, Stockholm university Thessaloniki, Greece, September 29th, 2011

2. The purpose of the presentation The purpose of this presentation is to give an overview of reserach in Sweden which focus on the professional considerations of career counselors in multiethnic, and deals with the ethical and political considerations that may have implications for prevailing guidance practices. Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

3. Disposition • A presentation of the ongoing project ”Counseling between recognition, justice and difference. A qualitative study of career counseling of youth with immigrant background”, sponsored by the Swedish Research Council. • Fredrik Hertzberg, Petra Roll Bennett & Åsa Sundelin Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

4. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference • In this project, our aim is to study the approaches of career counselers in Swedish primary and secondary education to youth of immigrant descent, with a focus on how they manage issues which are specific to them adn related to the transition from school to work (or further education). • We also interested the scope given to the different orientations towards work, education and the future, which is expressed by those young persons. Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

5. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (2) • The keywords in title relates to three different perspectives and theoretical orientations. It covers three different aspects of multicultural counseling, which always needs to be addressed. • Recognition: concerning the disposition or will recognize the different approaches to work, even if they deviate from the norm, i.e. the most common and acknowledged approaches. (Theories on justice and recognition in multiculturalism; Kymlycka, Walzer, etc.) Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

6. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (3) • Justice: concerning the strategies to create equal opportunities for all, on the threshold to the labour market and life as an adult citizen (conceptions of justice, but also and the regulative use of “fairness”; Callinicos; Durkheim, Dewey, Foucault) • Difference: concerning the tendency to produce or reproduce ethnic or racial stereotypes or prejudices, and the propensity to over-emphasize the importance of cultural traits related to ethnicity and religion. (Theories of ethnicity and post-colonialism; Eriksen, Jenkins, Gilroy, etc.) Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

7. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (4) • In sum, the aim could be reformulated in the following phrasing: we aim to study the ways in which the objectives of justice and recognition are balances to each other, during the process of educational and vocational choosing, and in which ways ethnic identity and migrantship is supposed to have significance for this process. Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

8. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (5) • Three studies • The institutional, economical and discursive frameworks of counseling for migrant youth (Hertzberg) • The interaction between the counselor and the counselee (Sundelin) • The relation between the parents and the counseling activities at school (and the parents’ apprehension of future career possibilities for their children in Sweden; Roll Bennett) Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

9. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (6) Three studies: • Interviews with counselors, teachers headmasters, senior officers at the municipality, local politicians; documents • Recordings from counseling sessions, interviews with counselors • Interviews with parents and children Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

10. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (7) The first study: the institutional, economical and discursive frameworks of counseling for migrant youth • Which professional considerations governs the counseling activities? Which experiences guides attention and practice? Which norms and values are influent? Which notions are central as interpretative tools? • Target: professional considerations at governing level and practice level Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

11. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (7) • The second study: The counseling process - Interaction in the counseling dialogue • Develop knowledge and understanding about multicultural counseling • Explore intercultural counseling dialogues through exposing, illustrating and explaining dialogue processes in relation to the context of the dialogue Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

12. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (8) • Counselor and student with foreign background (upper secondary school and secondary school) • What takes place in the dialogue: What are the actions and reactions – counselor and student • Learning perspective on ”how” and ”what” in the dialogue: • The role of understanding • ”Broadening perspectives” • Content Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

13. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (9) • The third study - interviews with parents focus on following issues: • Parents own experiences of education/career, both in their native country of origin and in Sweden. • Parents ideas about children’s possibilities/limitations in future life. • Parents views of their own influence on children’s education/future career. • Parents views about their possibilities/limitations to take part in/influence school and career counselling. Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

14. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (10) We know, from earlier research (Hertzberg 2003, 2008; Sawyer 2006), that there is a tendency to focus on ethnic belonging and culturally derived values and norms, and downplaying the significance of individual deliberation, when describing the agency of youth of migrant descent (as the ”oversocialized individuals” described by C Wright Mills and the ethnomethodologists – respectively - in their critique of Parsonian sociology) Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

15. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (11) Still, those earlier studies have a tendency to overemphasize tropes employed in discursive expressions during interviews, and the ongoing language-play (for instance the contrasting of social categories), not fully regarding other conditions for the articulation of discourse, such as professional considerations (”counseling competence”) and institutional frameworks – i.e. the social world to which discourses refers. Thus, a more exhaustive contextualization of empirical material from interviews is needed. Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

16. Counseling between recognition, justice and difference (12) Thus, we want to gain further knowledge of … • Opinions on the relevance of ethnicity and migration to counseling • the frames of interpretations employed when considering the future possibilities (at school, work and elsewhere) of migrant youth • Ways to balance the objectives of recognition and justice in a professional context • In short: the process of professional sense-making • The negotiation between parents and school about the content and the direction in strategies for the future • The possibility of recognition of perspectives to work and education which differs from taken-for-granted norms or ideals Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/

17. Interested in cooperation? Sharing ideas and knowledge? Pleasecontactus! Fredrik Hertzberg (fredrik.hertzberg@edu.su.se) Petra Roll Bennett (petra@edu.su.se). Åsa Sundelin (asa.sundelin@edu.su.se) Hertzberg & Sundelin Thessaloniki Sept 2011/