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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Sandra J. Brennan, PhD, APRN, BC, Division of Nursing, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117, 860 768 4290, looncole@snet.net and Mary Schulze, MSN, Division of Nursing, University of Hartford (retired), 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117.
Consistent with the mission of higher education, educators strive to instill in students an appreciation for and sensitivity to cultural diversity. This intent may prove to be difficult given the students’ own cultural identities and biases. A class studying community/public health nursing is a prime arena in which to initiate a change in these ethnocentric perspectives, and teaching strategies utilized to accomplish this are individual and learning group analysis of an ethnograph and class sharing. Imbued with the authors’ lived experiences, students are immersed within the culture of the population described. As a component of the class design, students select one of five ethnographies to read, write an analysis, then discuss the analysis with other class members who have read the same ethnography. This learning group activity allows the sharing of individual perspectives and results in an agreed upon summary to be presented to the class as a whole. This activity affords everyone a multicultural experience via the sharing of different ethnographies. The outcomes are an awakening of one’s own ethnocentricities and pave the way to insightful changes in thinking toward diverse cultures and an appreciation for differing perspectives. Additionally, utilizing Systems Theory as a foundation, students are able to recognize how people can be forced to behave in a particular manner in order to survive in their own environments. This endeavor serves as a foundation for thinking critically about the cultural differences from one’s own environment and belief systems to other diverse populations or aggregates.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Education, Cultural Competency
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.