Culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs of students majoring in speech-language pathology

Purpose

Academic education in speech-language pathology should prepare students to provide professional services that mirror current knowledge, skills, and scope of practice in a pluralistic society. This study seeks to examine the impact of speech-language pathology (SLP) students prior multicultural experiences and previous formal education on attitudes and beliefs toward language diversity.

Methods

A survey to investigate SLP students attitudes toward language diversity was applied. After the research study and instructions to complete the consent form questionnaire was presented by a research assistant, an announcement was given by a graduate student who speaks English as a second language with an accent. The participants then completed a questionnaire containing questions related to attitudes about the presentation of the announcement in particular and toward language diversity in general.

Results

Responses suggested a relationship between self-reported cultural bias and ability to concentrate on speech with an accent, and the extent of interaction with individuals from a cultural and linguistic diverse (CLD) background. Additional outcomes revealed that cultural bias may be predicted by factors related to amount of CLD exposure.

Conclusion

Results of this study indicated critical areas that need to be considered when developing curricula in speech-language pathology programs. The results will be useful in determining procedures applicable in larger investigations, and encourage future research on attitudes and beliefs toward aspects of cultural diversity.

Pluralistic Education in Speech-Language Pathology: Above and Beyond Didactic Trails

Pluralistic instruction is about social change through education and requires thoughtful resourcefulness and commitment. It has long been emphasized that the development of cultural competence is an ongoing, lifelong process. Given this, it seems intuitive that multiple approaches and techniques must be utilized to support this development. This ever-evolving process involves acquisition of factual knowledge and skills that equip clinicians to assess and treat disorders as opposed to differences, while not overlooking disorders as differences either. This acquisition of knowledge and skills requires two primary pathways for linguistic knowledge attainment (a) dedicated coursework as a foundation for cultural and linguistic knowledge attainment, and (b) infusion techniques, in which culturally enriching concepts and issues are embedded across the curriculum. These essential complementary approaches comprise opportunities for diverse experiences in clinical practicum and interactions with minority groups. In this article, the authors describe pedagogical activities and approaches they implemented while teaching dedicated courses on multiculturalism at their institutions. The authors highlight the different cultural constructs addressed within the didactic methods, and provide suggestions for instructors considering multicultural instruction.

Approaches to culture and diversity: A critical synthesis of occupational therapy literature

BACKGROUND

The 2007 position statement on diversity for the Canadian occupational therapy profession argued discussion was needed to determine the implications of approaches to working with cultural differences and other forms of diversity. In 2014, a new position statement on diversity was published, emphasizing the importance of social power relations and power relations between client and therapist, and supporting two particular approaches: cultural safety and cultural humility with critical reflexivity

PURPOSE

This paper reviews and critically synthesizes the literature concerning culture and diversity published in occupational therapy between 2007 and 2014, tracing the major discourses and mapping the implications of four differing approaches: cultural competence, cultural relevance, cultural safety, and cultural humility.

KEY ISSUES

Approaches differ in where they situate the "problem," how they envision change, the end goal, and the application to a range of types of diversity.

IMPLICATIONS

The latter two are preferred approaches for their attention to power relations and potential to encompass a range of types of social and cultural diversity.

Integrating Practice Guidelines Into Professional Training

The authors present the findings of a special task group (STG) organized to explore effective training strategies for the practice guidelines focused on diverse populations. They provide a brief literature review and summarize survey data from academic training directors regarding current use of practice guidelines. The authors then describe the Integrative Training Model (ITM), developed by the STG, as a framework for students and professionals to incorporate the complex array of information contained in each set of guidelines. Unique challenges associated with incorporating the ITM are described, as well as pedagogical considerations for both students and current professionals. The authors believe the ITM may help students and professionals increase their diversity competence by developing a more holistic understanding of the various dimensions and social group experiences that affect their clients and themselves.

Measures of cultural competence: examining hidden assumptions

PURPOSE

The authors critically examined the quantitative measures of cultural competence most commonly used in medicine and in the health professions, to identify underlying assumptions about what constitutes competent practice across social and cultural diversity.

METHOD

A systematic review of approximately 20 years of literature listed in PubMed, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Social Services Abstracts, and the Educational Resources Information Center identified the most frequently used cultural competence measures, which were then thematically analyzed following a structured analytic guide.

RESULTS

Fifty-four instruments were identified; the 10 most widely used were analyzed closely, identifying six prominent assumptions embedded in the measures. In general, these instruments equate culture with ethnicity and race and conceptualize culture as an attribute possessed by the ethnic or racialized Other. Cultural incompetence is presumed to arise from a lack of exposure to and knowledge of the Other, and also from individual biases, prejudices, and acts of discrimination. Many instruments assume that practitioners are white and Western and that greater confidence and comfort among practitioners signify increased cultural competence.

CONCLUSIONS

Existing measures embed highly problematic assumptions about what constitutes cultural competence. They ignore the power relations of social inequality and assume that individual knowledge and self-confidence are sufficient for change. Developing measures that assess cultural humility and/or assess actual practice are needed if educators in the health professions and health professionals are to move forward in efforts to understand, teach, practice, and evaluate cultural competence.