Cultural Humility among School Counselors: Contrasting Self-Reports and Student Voices
Abstract
Cultural humility is central to culturally responsive school counselling, yet its assessment often relies on counselors’ self-reports and rarely incorporates students’ perspectives. This cross-sectional study examined cultural humility among junior-high-school guidance and counselling (BK) teachers in Palu City, Indonesia, by integrating counselor self-reports (N = 57) and student evaluations (N = 240). Internal consistency was acceptable for the Multidimensional Cultural Humility Scale (MCHS; α = 0.816) and the Cultural Humility Scale for Students (CHS-S; α = 0.876 for Positive CH and 0.836 for Negative CH). Descriptive analyses showed that counselors rated their cultural humility in the high range, whereas students evaluated it in the moderate range. Spearman correlations showed that all counselor-rated MCHS dimensions were significantly associated with the total score, as was Positive CH, with self-awareness showing the strongest association among the counselor-rated dimensions; Negative CH was not significantly associated with the total score, indicating a distinct pattern within the student-reported measure. After both sets of scores were linearly rescaled to a common 0–100 metric, the Mann–Whitney U test showed a significant counselor–student difference with a large effect (U = 536.000, Z = −10.842, p < .001, r = .63). This discrepancy underscores the relational and feedback-sensitive nature of cultural humility. The comparatively weaker position of self-reflection and critique highlights the need for critical reflexivity, reflective supervision, and systematic student feedback in professional development. Limitations include the cross-sectional design, use of different instruments across informant groups, and absence of matched counselor–student dyads. Overall, the findings indicate that integrating student voice with counselor self-report provides a more balanced basis for assessing and strengthening culturally responsive school counselling.
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References
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