|
Teaching
Tools, Strategies, and Resources, continued
 Case 1:
Faculty Dynamics Associated with Advancing Cultural and Linguistic Competence
You
are faculty of an interdisciplinary training program in maternal
and child health. Your program was successful in a grant application
to
MCHB that requires
the integration of content on cultural competence into leadership curricula.
Only two program
faculty were involved in conceptualizing and writing the grant, and
there were no internal review processes for other faculty and staff
to
provide input.
Since the grant award was announced there has been tension
among program
faculty about the mandates, and a considerable degree of dissension among
program faculty. Detractors state that:
- The grant represents
another federal mandate based on scant evidence about the efficacy
of cultural competence
- The
curriculum is already full and there is no place for additional
content without taking something
else away
- Cultural competence
is only applicable to clinical care and lacks relevance for population-based
studies
- There is
a lack
of awareness,
knowledge and skills in this content area among faculty.
Proponents
feel that the grant provides the impetus and much needed resources
to finally begin to
address cultural competence in a meaningful manner across the entire
program and it is simply the right thing to do.
As a faculty member proponent of this
program, what strategies would you use to address this dilemma?
Area
of Guidance for Faculty
| "Students, research
workers, and professionals in the behavioral sciences—like
members of the clergy and educators—are no more immune
by virtue of their values and training to the diseases and superstitions
of American racism than the average man” K.
Clark, from E. Mazel, 1998. |
 From the NCCC’s
experiences, issues of culture and language typically evoke powerful
emotions and responses
which sometimes underlie rational arguments against integrating cultural
and linguistic competence.
As a faculty member
proponent, you must anticipate resistance
and be prepared to respond to it in a variety of ways.
The NCCC has
found the following strategies to be helpful in addressing these challenges
(see next page).
|
