May 26, 2017 - In 2015, the theme of the Sydney Teaching Colloquium was 'cultural competence is everyone's business'. The university community met on 4th ...
SYDNEY TEACHING COLLOQUIUM 2015 Cultural competence is everyone’s business
“More than Tick-A-Box” Lilon Bandler Abstract This workshop will be conducted by Dr Bandler, and will provide an opportunity for attendees to share, reflect on and begin to solve some of the problems of delivering cultural training to a large cohort of students and staff. At this teaching colloquium, the debate is not whether this is appropriate content; it is about process and two questions: 1. How can we embed cultural training, to start students and staff on a journey? 2. How should we deliver cultural training, in an area ill-defined, as to content, ownership, teaching faculty, teaching method, and assessment, when clarity is precisely what students and staff seek, as they engage with the cultural competence industry? Attendees will be asked to contribute to the list of challenges faced, and be prepared to consider and comment on others’ work and approach, as they look at their own context. The Sydney Medical Program has 1200 students (300 per year in a 4 year graduate entry program). We are required by our accreditation standards to ensure that our medical graduates 3.4 Understand and describe the factors that contribute to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and/or Māori, including history, spirituality and relationship to land, diversity of cultures and communities, epidemiology, social and political determinants of health and health experiences. Demonstrate effective and culturally competent communication and care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and/or Māori 1 And we seek to address the aim, outlined in the Wingara Mura Bunga Barrabugu strategy document that The University will … ensure that existing staff undertake an approved cross-cultural training program …2 However, we are mindful that the cultural awareness model risks essentialism and “the false perception that there is a unified entity called ‘Indigenous culture’…”3. To move beyond uninformed chitchat and ignorance, we need to start our learners’ on their journey, not tick off “competency”. In this session, it will be asserted that: 1. 2. 3. 4.
That cultural competence is an impossible goal. Our students and staff need to undertake a never-ending journey. Cultural knowledge is fluid, and disputed. Assessment is impossibly difficult and must recognise the first three assertions.
Our medical students and our faculty staff are driven, thoughtful, and diverse. They are flexible and can adjust to mixed resources and unusual assessment, but superficial box-ticking programs that fail to engage, risk building resentment and disinterest. The medical model that has been introduced to students at the beginning of 2014, and will be rolled out to staff in 2016 will be described, as one possible approach that allows diverse cohorts to choose from a range of internally and externally provided resources (online, F2F) and placements (clinical and cultural). Participants’ submissions – commenting on, questioning, and critiquing their experiences - will demonstrate the breadth and depth of student thought. And it will be argued that 1. Participation is a surrogate measure of engagement. 2. Where assessment (based on medical CPD programs) involves choice, engagement begins with choosing activities. 1 2 3
Australian Medical Council Ltd, “Assessment and Accreditation of Medical Schools.” University of Sydney, “Wingara Mura – Bunga BarraBugu.” Downing and Kowal, “A Postcolonial Analysis of Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training for Health Workers.”
4 November 2015
sydney.edu.au/itl/stc2015
