In its 17th year, the Winter Roundtable on Cross-Cultural Psychology and Education once again brought researchers, students, and practitioners together to discuss the impact of racial, ethnic and cultural differences.

The Winter Roundtable, sponsored by the Counseling Psychology Program and the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation, took place on February 25-26, and is the longest running continuing professional education program in the United States devoted solely to cross-cultural issues.

In The Counseling Psychologist, Conference Director Robert T. Carter, Professor of Pyschology and Education said, "The Cross-Cultural Winter Roundtable stands out as one of the most notable achievements and contributions to counseling psychology made by the program of counseling psychology at Teachers College."

He said that there are three primary goals of the Conference: to bring students, faculty and researchers together to improve cultural competence; to provide new skills and knowledge to maintain this competence; and to help build a foundation and venue for cultural issues in scientific practice.

Experts in psychology, education, social work, and other social sciences shared results of their current research on the first day of the Conference. Topics ranged from spiritual diversity in multicultural counseling to teacher unconscious racist behavior.

Assistant Professor Michelle G. Knight explored the issue of "Disrupting Paradigms of Exclusion: Interrogating the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender in Urban Contexts."

The keynote address by Professor Derald Wing Sue covered "Multicultural Competence: Individual, Professional, and Organizational Development." Sue is a Professor of Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology-Almeda and California State University at Hayward. Recipients of Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship in Pyschology and Education receive a plaque, a citation of achievement and $1000, which acknowledges the importance and difficulty of writing and conducting research on racial and cultural topics.

This year's 10th Annual Helms Award recipient was Margaret Beale Spencer, who lectured on "Identity, Context, and Achievement: Adolescent Responses to Cultural Vulnerability." Spencer, an endowed professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Center for Achievement, Neighborhood, Growth and Ethnic Studies, is an established scholar in the area of social cognition and identity development among urban youth. Her work as a scholar and a mentor demonstrates her desire to bridge research with policy implications for youth. During "The Urban Education Forum," a recent addition to the Roundtable, a group of four educators discussed the role of personal background in the process of teaching and learning.

 In addition to speakers, the Roundtable also featured the résumé and information exchange, an on-site networking opportunity for employers and job seekers to come together. Also, "Pathways to Publication" provided a forum where journal editors can discuss the publication process of their journals. Some of the participating journals included: The Counseling Psychologist, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Teachers College Record. Visit the Winter Roundtable's Web site at www.tc.columbia.edu/roundtable.

Published Saturday, Apr. 13, 2002