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To address the deficit in knowledge and understanding of Australian Indigenous histories, societies, and cultures by all Faculty of Health Science and Faculty of Education students, a cross-disciplinary project involving representatives from health disciplines, education, and Aboriginal Studies was undertaken to develop a program of cultural awareness and training for student practitioners. The program, called Footprints, is based on a graduated model to move students from cultural awareness to competence over the duration of their degree. It builds cultural competence through: (1) knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal culture including historical and contemporary experiences, (2) reflection on personal values and attitudes and those of the profession, and (3) development of culturally appropriate skills and strategies. It is anticipated that the issues considered in relation to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the Indigenous peoples of Australians, will also increase awareness for dealing with cultural issues among other cultural groups.
Keywords: cultural competence, graduate attribute, Indigenous Australians, understanding Aboriginal culture, University of Tasmania
Introduction
Australia has two distinct Indigenous groups, Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have lived in Australia for thousands of years. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations across Australia with differing languages, cultural practices, and ways of being, knowing, thinking, and doing. There are strong, rich, and diverse communities with deep knowledge traditions and holistic world views.
However, as a result of colonisation by the British there have been ongoing impacts over the past two centuries. This impact is evident in the current poor health, education, employment, and socio-economic status of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Education attainment levels for Indigenous students constantly fall below the standard for the population of Australia as a whole. This is reflected in the statistics where 23% of Indigenous students complete year 12 compared with 49% of non-Indigenous students (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2008, p. 7). While the number of Indigenous students going on to university continues to be low, in both 2001 and 2006 there were only 7,100 Indigenous students, representing only 4% of their population(AIHW, 2008, p. 7).
Indigenous students usually come from a lower socio-economic background as Indigenous people are four times more likely to live in a low resource home (AIHW, 2008, p. 12) and suffer the disadvantages associated with living below the poverty line such as poor health (Devitt, Hall, & Tsey, 2001, p. 36). Mental health is also an issue with one in four at risk of developing a problem and that rate is increased if born to parents of the stolen generation (Banks, 2005, p. 363). It is not uncommon for students to be suffering from depression and for a majority of students to be dealing with a multiplicity of problems including personal and family medical problems, homelessness, and criminal justice issues.
However, the biggest gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians is the knowledge gap. Australia cannot close this gap until non-Indigenous Australians increase their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and develop the skills to become culturally competent at a personal and professional level.
In this paper, the author will discuss why Indigenous cultural competence is a desirable graduate attribute, how it can be achieved, how it can be incorporated within courses, and how a cultural competency framework was implemented at the UTAS (University of Tasmania) to facilitate the graduation of culturally competent students.
Why Does It?
Firstly, let us consider why we are interested in graduating culturally competent students. According to Pascarella and Terenzini (2005), diversity experiences have a positive impact on cognitive development in relation to the critical thinking, analytical competencies as well as complex thinking and that the most salient diversity experiences are provided through interactions with culturally diverse peers, in formal programs such as coursework focusing on social-cultural diversity and intergroup relations.
Mohan Muzumdar, Holiday-Goodman, Black, and Powers (2010) in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education stated that the cultural competency curriculum they developed “increased Pharmacy students’ awareness of and confidence in addressing culturally diverse issues that affected pharmaceutical care delivery” (p. 1).
Another important driver at UTAS is the newly approved Internationalisation Plan 2011-2013, which indicates “UTAS will utilise an internationalised curriculum that is global in perspective and facilitates inter-cultural competence” (see Appendix 1).
Also part of the purpose for Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies at UTAS is preparing university graduates to develop the attributes necessary for them to: (1) interact and communicate effectively with Indigenous Australians and (2) respect and value cultural differences and diversity.
The process at UTAS involved Indigenising the Curriculum through taking a cultural competency approach, to build on the attributes of awareness, knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, interaction, proficiency, and skill. Cultural competence has been defined many ways, and it is difficult to differentiate its difference from cultural safety. Cross, Bazron, Dennis, and Isaacs (1989) has defined it as a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. According to Davis(1997), it is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services, thereby producing better outcomes. Campinha-Bacote (1994) defined cultural competence as a“process, not an endpoint, in which the nurse continuously strives to achieve the ability to work within the cultural context of an individual, family, or community from a diverse cultural/ethnic background” (pp. 1-2), and Diller and Moule (2005) stated it is the ability to effectively work, i.e., teach, provide service, cross-culturally.
The UTAS Project Working Party agreed to define cultural safety and cultural competence as a practical process where attitudinal and behavioural change occurs as a result of information, education, and experience as distinct from cultural awareness which is largely about information dissemination (UTAS, 2004).
For students at UTAS, the journey towards cultural competence is comprised of a guided passage through the following: (1) cultural awareness, a general understanding of Indigenous culture, society, and history; (2) cultural safety, which focuses on cultural sensitivity and equitable power balance; (3) cultural security, and cognition of the legitimacy of cultural rights, values, and expectations of Indigenous Australians (by acknowledging and incorporating cultural differences through education, engagement and communication); and (4) cultural respect, through recognition and respect of the inherent rights and traditions of Indigenous Australians, incorporating a holistic approach involving partnerships, capacity building, and accountability.
Some examples of cultural competency include: (1) respecting and acknowledging the cultural values of Indigenous people; (2) knowing when to suspend one’s own cultural paradigms; and (3) understanding diversity and how this applies to Indigenous communities throughout Australia.
We have discovered that developing cultural competence involves the following key components: attitudes; knowledge and understanding; skills, such that the model journey should develop cultural proficiency through integration of cultural competency into practise and research; cultural competence through the routine application of culturally appropriate practice; and cultural sensitivity through integration of cultural knowledge and awareness into individual and institutional behaviour.
When considering how to set up the UTAS program the structure of courses at other Australian universities were explored, including Psychology at the University of South Australia, which had a compulsory course in 1st year to provide foundational knowledge, integrated content across three years and an elective 3rd year course for specific skill building. By the end of the degree, graduates are expected to be competent and will move into the profession where they will continue to gain proficiency. This was the only university which had adopted cultural competence as university policy with the aim of producing aware graduates who would be agents of change.
At UTAS, we have commenced development of the attributes of cultural competency for students by adopting the following framework for course content: (1) nature and significance of culture; (2) general understanding of Indigenous issues; (3) explore individual and dominant society values and attitudes; (4) critical examination of the relevant professional culture; (5) professional or vocational specific content; and (6) skills for working with Indigenous people.
The first task was Indigenising the Curriculum to develop a Cultural Competency Approach. This has involved moving students from awareness to competence through the development of skills to work effectively based on knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, cultures, and issues. To do this, we incorporated the following key components within courses: (1) knowledge of pre-history, historical, and contemporary experience of Indigenous Australians, to develop understanding of Indigenous cultures and histories along with relevant state, national and international legislation, and guidelines; (2) cultural reflection on personal values and attitudes and those of respective professions, to explore and understand own values, power, and privilege and examine the respective profession in Indigenous contexts; and (3) development of culturally appropriate skills and strategies, to build on the first two components through knowledge of culture, values, and skills for the profession.
Keywords: cultural competence, graduate attribute, Indigenous Australians, understanding Aboriginal culture, University of Tasmania
Introduction
Australia has two distinct Indigenous groups, Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have lived in Australia for thousands of years. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations across Australia with differing languages, cultural practices, and ways of being, knowing, thinking, and doing. There are strong, rich, and diverse communities with deep knowledge traditions and holistic world views.
However, as a result of colonisation by the British there have been ongoing impacts over the past two centuries. This impact is evident in the current poor health, education, employment, and socio-economic status of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Education attainment levels for Indigenous students constantly fall below the standard for the population of Australia as a whole. This is reflected in the statistics where 23% of Indigenous students complete year 12 compared with 49% of non-Indigenous students (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2008, p. 7). While the number of Indigenous students going on to university continues to be low, in both 2001 and 2006 there were only 7,100 Indigenous students, representing only 4% of their population(AIHW, 2008, p. 7).
Indigenous students usually come from a lower socio-economic background as Indigenous people are four times more likely to live in a low resource home (AIHW, 2008, p. 12) and suffer the disadvantages associated with living below the poverty line such as poor health (Devitt, Hall, & Tsey, 2001, p. 36). Mental health is also an issue with one in four at risk of developing a problem and that rate is increased if born to parents of the stolen generation (Banks, 2005, p. 363). It is not uncommon for students to be suffering from depression and for a majority of students to be dealing with a multiplicity of problems including personal and family medical problems, homelessness, and criminal justice issues.
However, the biggest gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians is the knowledge gap. Australia cannot close this gap until non-Indigenous Australians increase their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and develop the skills to become culturally competent at a personal and professional level.
In this paper, the author will discuss why Indigenous cultural competence is a desirable graduate attribute, how it can be achieved, how it can be incorporated within courses, and how a cultural competency framework was implemented at the UTAS (University of Tasmania) to facilitate the graduation of culturally competent students.
Why Does It?
Firstly, let us consider why we are interested in graduating culturally competent students. According to Pascarella and Terenzini (2005), diversity experiences have a positive impact on cognitive development in relation to the critical thinking, analytical competencies as well as complex thinking and that the most salient diversity experiences are provided through interactions with culturally diverse peers, in formal programs such as coursework focusing on social-cultural diversity and intergroup relations.
Mohan Muzumdar, Holiday-Goodman, Black, and Powers (2010) in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education stated that the cultural competency curriculum they developed “increased Pharmacy students’ awareness of and confidence in addressing culturally diverse issues that affected pharmaceutical care delivery” (p. 1).
Another important driver at UTAS is the newly approved Internationalisation Plan 2011-2013, which indicates “UTAS will utilise an internationalised curriculum that is global in perspective and facilitates inter-cultural competence” (see Appendix 1).
Also part of the purpose for Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies at UTAS is preparing university graduates to develop the attributes necessary for them to: (1) interact and communicate effectively with Indigenous Australians and (2) respect and value cultural differences and diversity.
The process at UTAS involved Indigenising the Curriculum through taking a cultural competency approach, to build on the attributes of awareness, knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, interaction, proficiency, and skill. Cultural competence has been defined many ways, and it is difficult to differentiate its difference from cultural safety. Cross, Bazron, Dennis, and Isaacs (1989) has defined it as a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. According to Davis(1997), it is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services, thereby producing better outcomes. Campinha-Bacote (1994) defined cultural competence as a“process, not an endpoint, in which the nurse continuously strives to achieve the ability to work within the cultural context of an individual, family, or community from a diverse cultural/ethnic background” (pp. 1-2), and Diller and Moule (2005) stated it is the ability to effectively work, i.e., teach, provide service, cross-culturally.
The UTAS Project Working Party agreed to define cultural safety and cultural competence as a practical process where attitudinal and behavioural change occurs as a result of information, education, and experience as distinct from cultural awareness which is largely about information dissemination (UTAS, 2004).
For students at UTAS, the journey towards cultural competence is comprised of a guided passage through the following: (1) cultural awareness, a general understanding of Indigenous culture, society, and history; (2) cultural safety, which focuses on cultural sensitivity and equitable power balance; (3) cultural security, and cognition of the legitimacy of cultural rights, values, and expectations of Indigenous Australians (by acknowledging and incorporating cultural differences through education, engagement and communication); and (4) cultural respect, through recognition and respect of the inherent rights and traditions of Indigenous Australians, incorporating a holistic approach involving partnerships, capacity building, and accountability.
Some examples of cultural competency include: (1) respecting and acknowledging the cultural values of Indigenous people; (2) knowing when to suspend one’s own cultural paradigms; and (3) understanding diversity and how this applies to Indigenous communities throughout Australia.
We have discovered that developing cultural competence involves the following key components: attitudes; knowledge and understanding; skills, such that the model journey should develop cultural proficiency through integration of cultural competency into practise and research; cultural competence through the routine application of culturally appropriate practice; and cultural sensitivity through integration of cultural knowledge and awareness into individual and institutional behaviour.
When considering how to set up the UTAS program the structure of courses at other Australian universities were explored, including Psychology at the University of South Australia, which had a compulsory course in 1st year to provide foundational knowledge, integrated content across three years and an elective 3rd year course for specific skill building. By the end of the degree, graduates are expected to be competent and will move into the profession where they will continue to gain proficiency. This was the only university which had adopted cultural competence as university policy with the aim of producing aware graduates who would be agents of change.
At UTAS, we have commenced development of the attributes of cultural competency for students by adopting the following framework for course content: (1) nature and significance of culture; (2) general understanding of Indigenous issues; (3) explore individual and dominant society values and attitudes; (4) critical examination of the relevant professional culture; (5) professional or vocational specific content; and (6) skills for working with Indigenous people.
The first task was Indigenising the Curriculum to develop a Cultural Competency Approach. This has involved moving students from awareness to competence through the development of skills to work effectively based on knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, cultures, and issues. To do this, we incorporated the following key components within courses: (1) knowledge of pre-history, historical, and contemporary experience of Indigenous Australians, to develop understanding of Indigenous cultures and histories along with relevant state, national and international legislation, and guidelines; (2) cultural reflection on personal values and attitudes and those of respective professions, to explore and understand own values, power, and privilege and examine the respective profession in Indigenous contexts; and (3) development of culturally appropriate skills and strategies, to build on the first two components through knowledge of culture, values, and skills for the profession.