Optimising Student Learning on International Placements in Low Income Settings: The Contribution of Cultural Brokerage

Helen Louise Ackers,Anya Ahmed,James Ackers-Johnson,Natalie Tate

doi:10.4236/jss.2019.73026

Abstract

This paper challenges the assumption that student visits to low resource settings inevitably promote the acquisition of cultural competence. Much of the literature advocating the expansion of such “exposures” lists numerous positive outcomes with an emphasis on “cultural learning”. With important exceptions, the concept of cultural learning remains uncontested, nestling in the fluffy haze of an inherently benevolent multi-culturalism. The emphasis in current research is on “learning” or “competency” at the expense of definitional clarity around the concept of culture itself. This results in a tendency to overemphasise (and essentialise) difference rather than commonality and conflates cultural learning with narrow (stereotypical) concepts of race, ethnicity and religion. The paper discusses the experiences of students undertaking placements in Uganda through Knowledge for Change, a UK charity hosting the Ethical Educational Placements project.

Highlights

There is a growing interest in the role that international placements, especially those in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC’s) can play in student and professional learning
Echoing the language of behaviour change theories, this approach suggests that when knowledge is combined with a willingness to learn, encounters can play a critical role in building cultural competence
When we review papers on placement learning in LMICs the emphasis is immediately on the more familiar association between culture and ethnicity/religion

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing interest in the role that international placements, especially those in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC’s) can play in student and professional learning. These findings are echoed in many other studies [3] [4] [5] [6]. Rather than dwell on the distinctions between competence, knowledge and awareness, this paper focuses on the common denominator; the “elusive concept” of culture itself [9] in the context of our on-going action-research on placement learning

Methods

Results

Conclusion