Abstract:
The challenges of providing appropriate Masters training in therapeutic
psychology, to ultimately serve the needs of South Africa s diverse population, have
been the focus of much attention in psychological practice and training within the postapartheid
climate. Attention has been given to areas such as practical attainment of
skills and exposure to diverse curriculum content and experience. The central focus of
the study involved an analysis of 27 individual interviews from a cohort of Masters
trainers and trainees who were part of therapeutic training at a Historically White
University (HWU). In particular, the study focussed on a discursive analysis of
constructions of multiculturalism in the therapeutic training that the participants were
involved in, and attempted to explicitly uncover and analyse dominant discourses
reflected in these constructions. The study aimed to describe the larger social
discourses informing these constructions and to highlight the effects these discourses
have on the discursive context of a HWU. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the study is
seen in that it aimed to explicitly uncover elements of power and positioning and the
manner in which power is not only reflected in the social context of the interview
situation, but also how power and positioning function within the current ideological
context. The study makes use of poststructuralism and social constructionism as
theoretical points of departure. The data collected via individual interviews was analyzed
using discursive psychology, Foucauldian discourse analysis as well as by applying
deconstruction and externalization. Deconstruction and externalisation as research
practices were applied within this discursive context to trouble the dominant discourses
and subject positions made available. The findings revealed discourses of exclusion, the
bigger picture of a country in transition discourse, discourses of multiculturalism, and
discourses of race and identity.
