Counterstories of Multiculturalism and Social Justice: Lived Experience of Asian and Black Faculty Teaching Multicultural Classes

The espoused values of multiculturalism and social justice often depict counseling and psychology programs as exceptions in the systematically racist context of academia, where faculty of color often experience marginalization, alienation, isolation, and othering. As part of a larger study, the purpose of this article was to highlight the lived experiences of faculty of color teaching multicultural classes in graduate counseling and psychology programs in a deliberate attempt to challenge dominant scholarship that has minimized their voices. Emerging from the critical-ideological paradigm and guided by critical race theory (CRT), we conducted 40-120 min semistructured interviews with 19 Asian and Black American faculty with various gender, sexuality, rank, and career developmental stage backgrounds and used a thematic analysis design and approach. Our results from thematic analysis told a counterstory of host programs' overstated commitment to justice and equity in two overarching themes: (1) problematic structure and implementation of the multicultural class, and (2) racialized experiences of teaching multicultural classes. In our discussions, we problematize the harm that faculty of color endured, which reflected the personal cost of sacrificing their emotional well-being, safety, and career development in order to advance the multicultural and social justice movements in their home programs.