Integrating Helms’s White Racial Identity Development Model with Cognitive- Experiential Self-Theory: Implications for Multicultural Education

With the increased focus on multicultural education in colleges and universities, there is a need for educators to have a profound knowledge of White racial identity development to better understand White students’ resistance to multicultural topics and to facilitate their racial identity development. An integration of Helms’s White racial identity development model with Epstein’s cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) is presented in this article. It is proposed that the integration of Helms’ White racial identity development model with CEST enhances the potential for Helms’s model to more deeply explain White racial identity development among White students. Implications for multicultural education are provided.