Course Details

Course Code(s):
BM6061
Available:
Part-Time
Intake:
Autumn/Fall
Course Start Date:
25th January 2025
Duration:
6 Weeks
Award:
University Certificate of Study
Faculty: Education and Health Sciences
Course Type: Professional/Flexible
Fees: For Information on Fees, see section below.
Application Deadline:

Contact(s):

Name: Susann Huschke
Email: susann.huschke@ul.ie
Express Interest

Register your interest here for more information or to be notified when applications are open.

Brief Description

This micro-credential aims to support the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes for those involved in cross-cultural and multi-lingual consultations in health and social care, such as interpreters, healthcare professionals, healthcare managers and staff of non-profit/non-government organisations.

Please ensure you enter the Module Code above when applying for this module. Applications without this cannot be processed. You may apply for more than one module under the same application.

The course focuses on encouraging self-reflexivity, intercultural awareness, interpersonal communication, and critical reflections on power inequalities and privilege. Informed by critical migration research, this course presents intercultural awareness and cultural responsiveness as dynamic, reflective, inter-relational processes, rather than a suite of cultural facts to be learned about migrant communities.

Theme 1: Culture, ethnicity, race and identity

  • Introduction to key concepts
  • Differentiating culture, ethnicity, race and identity
  • Self-reflection: what is your cultural, ethnic and racial background?
  • How culture informs perceptions of health, illness, health-seeking behaviour, healthcare treatment and expectations of health and social care service.

Theme 2: From cultural competence to culturally responsive care

  • Definitions of key concepts: cultural competence, cultural humility, cultural safety, culturally
  • responsive care
  • Reflect on own cultural beliefs and values, exploring similarities whilst acknowledging and
  • respecting cultural difference
  • Role play and discussion

Theme 3: Implicit bias

  • Definition and examples
  • White privilege, racist micro-aggressions and ethno-centric attitudes
  • Opportunities to ‘stop and think’ how stereotypes can inform attitudes and behaviours during cross-cultural encounters
  • Tools and practices against implicit bias

Theme 4: Conflict in cross-cultural communication

  • Differences, expectations, conflict
  • Diversity in communication styles, linguistics and culturally informed beliefs underpinning perceptions and expectations of communication
  • Real life scenarios – examples from students’ experience

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

  • Describe their own positionality and recognise their own implicit bias vis-à-vis ethnic, cultural and racial categories that shape intercultural interactions in health and social care settings
  • Critically examine ‘culturally responsive care’, ‘cultural humility’ and ‘cultural safety’ anddistinguish these concepts from ‘cultural competence’
  • Critically evaluate health and social care encounters in terms of culturally responsive care
  • Describe and identify best practices for culturally responsive care in their own work settings
  • Demonstrate an appreciation of tools to foster critical self-reflexivity in relation to their own work and positionality
  • Acknowledge the importance of engaging actively in collaboration and cooperation within an intercultural learning environment

ASSESSMENT will consist of: (1) attendance; (2) weekly contributions to reflective exercise and
group discussions on Brightspace; (3) a group presentation on a selected case study; (4) a written
case reflection drawing on key resources from the course. This is a pass/fail course.

€600 EU / €1,200 Non EU

Please click here for information on funding and scholarships.